Emma is a Miniature Pinscher. She obsessively hunts small animals in the yard, fights with all the other dogs, and refuses to be housebroken. However, she is devoted to my mother and shows her love in odd little ways.
At one time, my mother raised handfed birds. This meant that several helpless little parrots without all their feathers were usually sitting in small aquariums on a counter. One day, one of the aquariums fell off the counter while we were out shopping. When we walked in the door, several of the dogs greeted us excitedly, but Emma wasn’t there. When we saw the aquarium missing, we feared the worst.
I looked on the floor, knowing what I would see. Yes, the empty aquarium was there, on its side. However, there were no feathers. All four baby birds were missing completely. One of the dogs started to walk into the other room and was stopped by a warning growl. I stepped through the doorway and Emma growled softly at me.
“Mom, come look,” I shouted.
When my mother stepped into the room, Emma whined anxiously and gently nudged one of the baby birds tucked safely between her front legs with her nose. She was trembling, perhaps from being exhausted after defending the baby birds from the other dogs, or maybe from fighting her own instinct to attack small animals. Somehow, this little dog had managed to move all four of the baby birds to a safe place without harming a feather on their tiny heads. Even more amazing, she fended off three other dogs at the same time.
Although I don’t know how Emma managed this feat, I do know that she would never have done it for anyone but my mother, the only person she loves.

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