Written by: Jane Sobel Klonsky, Project Unconditional
Mariah and Weslie share a moment on a chilly Vermont day, when the squirrels were in hiding.
Photo by Jane Sobel Klonsky
[Editor’s Note: Most weeks, we post about Project Unconditional, focusing on the relationships between people and their senior dogs, by Vermont photographer Jane Sobel Klonsky.]
Manchester, Vermont—Weslie knows Mariah was a bane to the local fauna, making a sport of squirrel-chasing and crow-stalking, sneaking up on the noisy birds with a degree of stealth not usually associated with a Sheepdog, sending them scattering in outraged disarray. However, one day, the hunter became hunted—after being scrambled into the air by the exuberant young dog, the crows organized in air and proceeded to dive-attack her in formation. Mariah wrangled squirrels until the day she passed, but she never bothered the crows again.