The Stray Dog, part 10

krazyuncle (45)in #dog • 6 years ago

A day of fun in the sun, and no stress
At the bottom of the article, are links for the previous installments

my happy buddy.jpg
My smiling buddy (image by Krazy Uncle)
Saturday 22th

I’m trying a new canine computer keyboard backrest, this may or may not work out, but Karl wants some attention and I need to get our readers there daily update. So, here we go!

First things first, Karl and I are getting the hang of sleeping together. After a brief struggle for space Karl slept most of the night by my feet, not too bad. Towards morning he got up and slept in my computer chair for a couple hours. That was good for us too. About 6:00am he woke me up with some light whining by my bed. I got up to use the facilities and looked at him and said, “Dude it’s too early! I need more sleep…” He responded with a lot of tail wagging and wiggling backside, I inwardly groaned not holding out much hope for more sleep time. But, I valiantly trudged back to bed to see how it would go. Karl jumped up on my bed and promptly fell to sleep. We managed to wake up about 7:30am and both of us felt better. (this has been a learning process for both of us, now I just take him out when we wake up, he's much more comfortable and so am I.)

After I dressed, Karl and I toured the yard for a few minutes, he sniffing for any intruders, and I trying to open my bleary eyes. Karl did find one new spot of interest, Poop! He looked at me as if I knew whose poop this was? I told him I’d look into it not really meaning it, but I ended up searching for the culprit when we got back into the house. I checked the security cam and spotted our visitor, at the 3:00am mark – one of the two or so, pack of Airedales from my northeastern neighbor had been on walkabout this morning. My neighbor is just over a mile away and there is no direct road between us, and he has at least two Airedales, but one of my co-workers told me there are probably at least four, five or more. I’ve spotted two of the Airedales at my house before on my cams, they generally spend about an hour or so, just sniffing around. They do get around, and though not necessarily friendly, they aren’t particularly dangerous. Once when I helped our farm “nuisance control” hunter clean an Elk he shot, the Airedales showed up to watch. They never approached more than about fifty feet or so, but they were very interested in the gut pile when we left.

Just so you understand what a nuisance control hunter is, he goes out and keeps the very large herds of Elk from tearing up the fields of new plants. During the winter the Elk are pushed out of the higher elevations by cold and by packs of wolves, and their desire for easier foraging of food. Young wheat plants are a nice change from the plants they have access to farther up. A herd of one hundred plus Elk can cause a lot of damage to a field, not so much by what they eat, but once they feed they bed down and will roll around on the young wheat plants. Green Peas, Dry Peas, and Garbanzo beans are favorites of Elk in the Spring and they can lay waste to acres of plants. The nuisance control hunter generally just uses a shotgun to scare off the Elk. He’ll go out on a four wheeler and travel from field to field chasing off the big Elk herds, shooting towards, but not at the Elk with his shotgun. But, sometimes more drastic measures are called for, and with permission from the Fish and Game Department, who issues nuisance animal tags, the hunter will shoot and clean the animal in the field, leaving the gut pile behind as a warning to the Elk. It does seem to work. I helped the hunter clean and skin Elk a couple times. Not being a hunter myself it was a good experience to see how it is done by a master hunter. He made it look easy I’m sure, but at least I have seen it done which is a good thing. The prepared carcass is acquired by the Fish and Game Department, within a couple hours of the kill, to be sent to different nonprofit kitchens that can handle that much meat in their service to others… Those kitchens will most likely have it turned into hamburger first.

After, I checked the security cams I decided to take Karl to town. His trips in the car are getting easier. I drove all over town with Karl and stopped at multiple establishments. On the way home Karl was still panting quite a bit, but the trembling almost subsided.

On the gravel road home, there is a turn-out into one of the fields that is fairly wide. I notice vehicles park there as people just stay there to enjoy the outdoors, or sometimes when they are homeless they use that as a place to live in their vehicle. I’ve noticed a Toyota SUV parked there several times over the past few months and have a “waving relationship” with the guy that parks there. This time I decide to stop and see if maybe they’d seen the Shar Pei, I mentioned in the last installment. I met the man and his lady friend and their big, beautiful Pit Bull. I asked them if they’d spotted the Shar Pei and “no, they hadn’t.” But, they said they’d keep an eye out for the poor dog. I’d left Karl in the van, as I didn’t know what kind of situation I was stepping into, and when I turned around the big Pit Bull was standing on his hind legs with his paws on the driver’s window trying to introduce himself to Karl. Everything was cool and I wasn’t worried because I only had the window rolled down an inch or so and Karl seemed calm.

The man, explained how they liked being out in the fields and were happier out under the stars than in town. The lady kept up a constant chatter and I listened to her for a while. They both looked like they’d had hard lives, but they were very friendly people. They had a fire going and the man kept tending it as the woman kept bending my ear. I don’t think she took a breath the entire time I was there, the man was probably glad to have someone else being the woman’s sounding board. But, don’t get me wrong it was a totally pleasant experience and I finally took my leave and took Karl home.

Once done with breakfast Karl and I fell asleep in my computer chair/ottoman arrangement. Right now he sleeps between my legs. Then it was time for our daily walk. Our walkabout was about the same as always, but about half way down, what I call Cardio Road into the canyon, I stopped and asked Karl if we had to go all the way to the bottom. Karl looked at me and smirked – I swear he smirked – and he turned down hill and I followed. We got to the bottom of Wilderness Canyon and then we worked our way up the other side into the pea field. Karl only found one poop pile to roll in... yea! just one poop rollin' today! I intended to scoop him up with my foot but it turned into a gentle boot to the side when he moved. His reaction broke my heart as I saw him tuck tail and scurry back. I immediately swept him into my arms and apologized, he kissed me in forgiveness. (Note to self: never use your foot to move Karl.) We drank some water and started back down into the bottom of Wilderness Canyon to climb Cardio Road on our way back home.

cardio hill.jpg
This image shows Cardio Road between me and my home... it's the road climbing the hill across the way (image by Krazy Uncle)

At the bottom of the canyon is a couple of trees and a deep gully. Between the trees is an area that probably serves as a deer bedding area at certain times of the year. Now, it is covered in knee high green grass. Karl wanted to root around in the grass, so okay… have fun… I knew I’d have to check Karl for ticks when we go into these areas. Although, I check him several times when we’re out on walkabout and again when we get home, oh and I check myself too. Karl went to the edge of the gully by one of the trees and started sniffing a particular area, pretty soon he inched his way to the edge and then over he went in a semi-controlled doggy way. There were a lot of Tumble weeds where he was at and I didn’t feel he’d be hurt. I have to keep reminding myself that this little guy survived for I don’t know how long all on his own, he knows what he is doing. Once he went over the cliff, I carefully walked to the edge checking to make sure I wasn’t on an overhang, I didn’t need to have the ground collapse beneath me taking me on a wild ride to the bottom. Karl was about ten feet below me and I wasn’t sure he’d be able to climb back up to where I was. So, I scouted out an area that I thought he’d more easily be able to get to me. Once I got there I turned to find Karl running up behind me – see this guy knows what he’s doing – laughs on Krazy Uncle.

eatin' -- sleepin' -- playin' -- or me pettin' Karl... just some of a dog's favorite things
(image by Krazy Uncle)

We made it home in one piece, I showered and here we are. Karl the computer keyboard rest kinda working out… naw… Karl’s a lot jealous of the keyboard and the time I spend writing, but I keep telling him, “Someday soon that keyboard is going to feed us, be patient my little buddy”

That’s it for today, I hope you enjoyed our adventures and until tomorrow may peace and love find you.

Stay tuned.