Emma's bush Every morning, Emma RUNS to her favorite blind, an over grown bush in the yard. There she sits and watches for tennis balls and bumpers or maybe a favorite toy to fall from the sky. She will wait as long as it takes, and when she marks the fall, she's off like a bullet and returns "whatever" happily to hand. Then she's off to her bush to wait patiently again....

Laser lock When Emma wants you to throw something for her, she will drop it at your feet and then laser lock on it. Her eyes go from the ball to you and back again. Sometimes just her eyebrows move. If your foolish enough to try and ignore her, she will back up a few steps as if to say "perhaps you can't see that...do you see it now?" This goes on ALL day.

Cat tracker Since Emma is well known in our community for her ability to track, I was not too surprised when a local humane organization called requesting her services to help locate some missing kittens. Up until that day Emma had only tracked people and I wasn't sure she was up to the task. But we would try.

Momma cat and her kits were last seen in a busy loading dock, but now were no where to be found. I showed Emma where the cat had been....asked her to track and off she went ...through the loading dock, down the stairs, across the asphalt parking lot, through a drainage ditch and into the woods...she pulled me through the brambles and up and over fallen trees, she finally stopped at an open field and searched and searched until finally she layed down...beside a nest of kittens.

Hamster Cheeks One of Emma's favorite tricks is to steal your cookies, if your foolish enough to leave them unattended. While you run to get a refill on your milk, Emma will stuff them in her cheeks like a hamster and then quietly walk away. She may even pass you on your way back from the kitchen. She will usually scoot upstairs to unload her stash and then enjoy them one by one.

Guardian Angel As a federal wildlife rehabilitator, there are often "wild creatures" in our home in various states of rehabilitation. Emma has always been keenly astute to their needs and on many occassion either physically brought them to me or made such a fuss with her "Timmy's in the well" bark, that I knew something was wrong. Many a baby cottontail has been saved because of a Flat Coated guardian angel.