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| This was Tinker Bell's view as she looked toward the house and safety. I tried to catch more of the cattle on the road and in the way, but couldn't get my phone out fast enough. |
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Beau, the big
Boxer, and Tinker Bell the Chihuahua, are exactly the same color and are great
buddies. Beau goes with me most
everywhere, often riding in the back seat of the pickup when I have to run errands. Of course, in this hot weather he and Tink
stay home in the outside kennel because it's just flat too warm to take him
along. But when I go to the pasture, I
take them both.
One recent
morning I was down in the pasture carefully tending to the irrigation,
especially important during this drought.
I noticed both dogs on the ridge below the ditch, looking around,
exploring, and in general, just being dogs.
Recently Tinker was frightened by the cows checking her out, and coming
toward her, heads down, sniffing. Since
she was with me in the field, I kept an eye on her for she was a long way from
the house.
Finished with
irrigating, I headed for the barn to feed hay.
The cattle began moving toward the gate to the corrals. Since they were all above the ditch, they had
to cross the bridge on the driveway to get to the corral. The result was a line of big cows walking
down my driveway, heading straight toward the dogs, especially one small dog.
When Tinker
discovered this development she decided it was high time to abandon any further
exploration and make tracks for the safety of the house. Of course, if she'd stayed with Beau below
the ditch, the cattle would have lumbered over the bridge, turned to the east
and would soon have been in the corral.
She could have then had the whole road to herself to go to the house.
Not realizing
this, Tinker raced toward the bridge.
Like a running back dodging the entire backfield, she zigged and zagged, dodged through the moving forest of
bovine legs coming down the road.
With hay foremost
on their mind, the cattle ignored the speeding brown flash. Several times Tinker stopped for a instant,
changed directions to go around four more moving hooves and legs. Watching her broken field running, I had to giggle.
When she finally
escaped the sea of legs, she suddenly stopped and looked back at them in
amazement. It seemed as if she said to
herself, "Wow. That was close. I was almost crushed."
Of course, the
cattle weren't in the least bit interested in her as they headed for their
morning ration of hay.
Beau gave me a
great laugh the other day and I'm pretty sure I insulted him. When Sharon and I eat meat with bones, he and
Tinker each get one to chew. I had
already shared one bone with both dogs earlier, and only had one more
good-sized bone so I called Beau. As he
turned the corner into the kitchen, he ducked his head and dropped his first
bone on the floor.
As it rattled to
a stop, I noticed it was much cleaner than it had been a few moments earlier. Anxious to get the proffered new bone, he
ignored the dropped bone but only until he turned back toward the couch.
Suddenly he had a
dilemma. Two bones. One mouth.
His mouth went
from one bone to the other, back and forth, making a sort of snuffling sound as
he chased the bones across the vinyl flooring.
I laughed at his frustration and unsuccessful efforts.
At the edge of
the carpet he finally got them close enough to grasp both in his teeth and
triumphantly carried them to the couch.
Once on the couch
he stared back at me with a disgusted expression, the ends of both bones
protruding from his mouth. When he
turned toward me, his expression accented by the stubby ends of the bones made me bend double in gales of laughter.
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