It was just before 8:00 on Wednesday night. Still light, but overcast. Pepper started baying on the front porch. It was a WARNING sound. Not his usual bark. His true hound was coming out, whatever that half may be. Jack is more of a yipper. He joined in, but Pepper's was more of an AROOOOO! There was the sound of frantic scrambling feet. Eight of them!
We were near the end of Big Brother, but Farmer H got up to go look. That's how urgent this doggy response was. Farmer H opened up the front door, and stepped onto the porch.
"Pepper! HERE, Pepper! PEPPER! Come on, Jack!"
The baying and yipping continued. Sounded like it was going farther out into the front yard/field. Farmer H stepped back inside to grab my childhood BB gun. It's old! Because I'm a really old child. Not the pump kind of BB gun. Just a lever to cock, and it shoots a single BB. We keep it there to discourage unwanted critter who try to make the Mansion their home.
I heard a couple shots go PFOOT! The baying and yipping lessened. The dogs gallumped up on the porch. Farmer H returned.
"It's some boxer dog. Brown and white. I've seen it out here before, but I don't know who it belongs to."
"Does it have a collar?"
"Yeah, it has a collar."
"So it belongs to somebody. If it got dumped, they would have taken off the collar."
"Probably. He wasn't aggressive or nothin'. Not trying to fight. Just in the yard, and ours didn't want him there. I shot a couple times, but didn't hit him."
"I'm glad they're warning us. They'll just have to get used to him. I don't see a problem if he's not trying to come up here and fight them. They're just protecting their territory."
"Yeah. They just need to leave him alone."
"At least now I know what they're probably barking at during the night. Just a dog. Not some criminal trying to break into your truck or shacks."
I guess our dogs will eventually get used to this one. The first neighbors on the blacktop road, at the top of the hill from Mailbox Row, used to have boxers. That's my best guess. They've had several over the years. It's only a mile or less from there to here. I don't know if they keep their dogs in, or let them run. I haven't seen any for a while, but that's a good thing, because it means they stay off the blacktop road.
6 comments:
Goodness! I am glad Hick has aim good enough to miss! I know some folks prefer their pets outside and inside, but these are the downsides - if someone assumes it's a predator and just shoots :'(
jj,
A "real" BB gun, the pump kind, might be powerful enough to sting, especially on a boxer with sleek fur. My old BB gun would be like a horsefly zooming into him. It shoots so slow you can see the arc of the BB as it goes through the air. You have to aim high for it to land on your target. It's mainly an attention-getter to make the varmint think twice about coming back. I don't object to anybody shooting my dogs with such a BB gun if they are roaming where they don't belong.
Back when the neighbor's dogs killed all of our 37 chickens, a couple at a time, Farmer H was going to use the kids' paintball gun to discourage them if he could catch them in the act. That would have hurt, and left a bruise. Besides marking the dogs to show that yes, they were the ones over here killing our chickens. Even that would not have been deadly or maiming. It's a chance you take when you allow your dogs to be dogs, and live a dog's life, not a human life. Many dogs are happy living a human life, but those who are put in crates all day while their humans work are getting a worse life than having an occasional BB shot at them. IMO
I agree with you, better to be out and about safely than crated up all day. And it's in their nature to roam, so you accept the risks!
jj,
Yes, we took in our former dog Scarlett, the red Australian Shepherd, because her owner was a police officer who lived in an apartment, and had to crate her all day. We had Scarlett a year, but then she got to roaming and being a pest. Hick gave her to a guy he knows from the storage lockers. His brother helps him take care of his young son, getting him off to school and meeting him later. They keep Scarlett inside, but she sleeps under the porch (on a heated mat in winter) while on a lead. She's happy to have people around, because she's very social.
So glad it wasn't someone trying to break in. We never crated any of our dogs, but they were confined to our back yard when we weren't home, they had plenty of space to run around and toys to amuse themselves with.
River,
I'm always suspicious when the dogs give that bark. You never know when a ne'er-do-well might be roaming around with evil intentions. Even if they stole something, I'd be relieved that nobody and no animals were hurt.
The thing about our contiguous 20 acres is that it's kind of one big yard, even though it's not fenced. Our dogs mostly stay home, now that Scarlett is rehomed. I don't mind other dogs roaming, as long as they're not mean. I think they should be allowed to be free out here. Everybody has 10 acres or more, and there's not much traffic on the gravel road. It's a dog haven. In town, of course they'd need a fenced yard. I really don't like to see a dog tied up. That's a sad life.
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