Last Saturday we took our dog Kobe to the Burlington Marina for his routine morning walk. And while there he was pulling us to the lakeshore to look into the water and the rocks bordering the shore.
We did not at first understand what he was looking for and then we finally realized that he was looking for the minks. This marina did not have the minks but some of the others that we used to take him out to, did. And he did have an excellent memory to look for them.
Lake Ontario where Toronto is based in has a variety of wildlife. In the water, we see ducks, swans, and tons of geese. Some of these Canadian geese stay all year round without making the migration to the warmer climates that most of them do. Then, we see the foxes and the coyotes that we see often. And of course hedgehogs, beavers, and the minks.
The Minks are predators and their small diminutive size does not give credit to the level of the damages they do. They kill for fun more than for the food that they require as well as being able to bite and bring down large birds like swans, even though they don’t eat them.
For now, Kobe is very happy when he spots the minks and tries to chase them around (while on leash) pulling us along. I don’t know what he likes in them, the smells, or their size (they are squirrel-sized), but his love for minks drives most of our walks by the lakeshore.
And thanks to him, we get out of the house sufficiently enough times each week for these walks in our current reduced social contact pandemic-driven world.