A beloved pet dog has a PB of catching 38 mice in one night, set as she works to control an "unbelievable" influx of rodents.
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Lulu the pint-sized four-year-old has taken on the role of chief mouse-catcher at the home of the Jones family at Geurie.
Each night for the past week the Jack Russell has come out on top of at least 30 of the pests invading the backyard, Hayley Jones reports.
"I think I counted her PB was about 38," Mrs Jones said.
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Lulu's talent has come to the fore as reports of the outbreak of mouse numbers that started in the region in spring last year continue this month.
"They [mice] are just everywhere, they're unbelievable how many there are," Mrs Jones said.
"Everyone's talking about it, how many they see and they're pretty much uncontrollable at the moment, from what I hear.
"And people are saying it's going to get worse, which I don't know if that's true, but I hope not."
Lulu, who belongs to George Jones, was already catching about 10 mice a night before the family recently took a holiday.
Since then her nightly haul has soared, George's mum says.
"...I don't know if she's got better at catching them or it has got worse, because we were only getting about 10, so it's dramatically gone up," Mrs Jones said.
The Geurie resident says there's been a lot of talk in the community about whether or not to bait the rodents.
"Because a lot of people are saying they think animals are getting sick from eating the mice, and I've been trying to be conscious of that with Lulu, I haven't seen her actually eat a lot of mice, but even just killing them, whether she's being exposed to some of that bait," Mrs Jones said.
"And even native animals, a lot of people are saying they're not seeing as many native animals and they've seen some dead and they're wondering if it's due to all the baiting going on, so it's hard, it's hard to know what to do with all of that.
We're just quite lucky because we've got this fantastic little dog that just seems to be catching them all for us.
- Geurie resident Hayley Jones
"We're just quite lucky because we've got this fantastic little dog that just seems to be catching them all for us."
Lulu is a self-taught mouser, and Mrs Jones attributes her skill to her Jack Russell heritage.
George has always adored his pup, and her efforts have won further admiration and praise from him and elder siblings, Millie and Paddy.
"They think it's hilarious, they come out every morning and have a quick look and try and work out if she's got more than the night before and whether she's beaten her PB," Mrs Jones said.
"...But they've noticed also usually she's very playful, and at the moment she's just sleeping all day, she's exhausted."
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I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
