Sunday morning, with Farmer H away at his Storage Unit Store, I had the house to myself. I can turn the TV volume down then. And undistractedly peruse the innernets on HIPPIE.
I was kicked back in the La-Z-Boy, watching an old episode of Hoarders with a guy who had 150 acres full of old cars and trucks and buses. I would have turned the channel, except I heard him say that he had invented the electrical system of the Space Shuttle Challenger inside that old bus over there. Whether this was true or not, I never found out, even though I watched that whole dang episode!
Anyhoo...I was distracted by a noise on the porch at the end of the house by the BARn. It sounded like furniture moving, sliding along the wood. Huh. That was curious. About five bouts of the sound. And THEN I realized that it was Marley, coughing less like a goose, and more like sliding furniture. So an improvement, I'd say.
As I left for town, I noticed that the two leftover squares of grease bread in the bowl for Marley were gone from the kitchen counter. So I assumed Farmer H had given them to Marley with honey. He's not one to randomly give out treats to the dogs.
When I got home from town, Marley ran into the garage. Waited at my door until I got out of T-Hoe. I was wary of another fight to the almost-death, so I didn't close the garage door behind T-Hoe. Then I saw Jack on the porch. I got out, and Marley stood to greet me, not jumping up with his muddy hairy-again paws. He trotted to the people-door, and I let him out. Jack was on the side porch with Juno, so Marley thought better of it. Waited on the door jamb.
I went through, closing the garage door, and shooing Marley with my leg away from the people-door so I could close it without trapping him inside. Jack darted to the top of the steps, growling a warning. I praised Jack for being such a good dog (to not kill Marley), and Marley sidled away past Copper Jack on the brick sidewalk.
At the kitchen door, I managed to give the three main mutts a treat of chicken breast bones and grease bread and stale saltines. Marley was conspicuously absent. But the point IS: at no time during this homecoming did Marley honk! Like maybe the cough is gradually going away.
I need to remind Farmer H to dole out some more honey on the grease bread that I saved.
If this works, perhaps Farmer H could open up his own vet clinic. He could have evening hours, cater to working people. That way, you'd be rid of him in the evenings as well as the day...
ReplyDeleteSioux,
ReplyDeleteThis would have been great for Farmer H, if his Friday auction hadn't stopped selling livestock. I think it was because of the Chinese lady he said bought ducks all the time. She said her family loved them, and it was cheaper than getting them at the grocery store. Anyhoo... somebody complained, and the menagerie went away. Too bad. We got several chickens there. Not for the same reason as the Chinese lady's ducks.
I'm sad that Marley and Jack aren't getting along, I hope they make up and be friends soon. a cough that sounds like moving furniture?
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteI'm so sad about them not getting along (TRYING TO KILL EACH OTHER) that I never gave the details of that whole story. Marley has been in protective custody until recently, with several attempts at being released into the general population, that failed.
It's better than a goose-honk! His cough sounded like the scrape of metal chair legs sliding across wooden porch boards.