Doggone Farmer H

In the continuing saga of New Dog Marley...

When we took in HOS's dog after he moved to town, the plan was to keep Marley penned for a couple weeks, so he remembers where he's being fed, and gets used to our dogs barking and sniffing at him. He used to come down here now and then on his own, and get chased off by Juno and Jack. Like Jack, Marley has not had his very special operation, so they don't see eye-to-eye as who is top dog.

Thursday morning, Farmer H revealed that he'd let Marley out of the pen. Juno and Copper Jack left him alone. Jack barked and nipped at him when Marley barked and licked Jack. Then they all took off except for Jack, who laid under Farmer H's truck, watching him fiddle around with his junk. Heh, heh. I didn't really mean for that to have an unsavory connotation.

Noon rolled around, and Marley was nowhere to be found. The other dogs were all back, doing their usual thing, meaning they lolled around, and jumped up to pretend to chase off a squirrel when I got home, then hung around waiting for treats.

By late afternoon, our dogs were all back on the porch or under the carport. No sign of Marley. I hadn’t seen him along the road to town, or down by the mailboxes. Farmer H said he’d turn up, but I remembered when he lost my Sweet, Sweet Juno and he and Genius and The Pony didn’t tell me for 8 hours, and then found her by accident in the woods down by the mailboxes. They had knocked on the door of the only house, asking if they’d seen her. Genius heard whimpering, followed the sound across the road and into the woods, and found a frightened Juno. Scared of the Great Pyrenees who lived there.

I told Farmer H that he needed to get in the Gator and go up to HOS’s, because Marley probably went right back there, since he’d been kidnapped by HOS and brought down here. Farmer H responded by moving some gravel with the tractor, and mowing some grass, and taking a swim in Poolio, and then went up to HOS’s. Where he found Marley just wandering around, since his pen was dismantled, and his dog house turned over. HOS has a deadline for cleaning up his crap, or Farmer H is going to pile it up and burn it.

ANYHOO… Farmer H caught Marley (I would have liked to see that, since Jack and Copper Jack showed up and started chasing Marley) and put a rope on him and put him in the Gator and drove him home. He put Marley in the pen, but when he was getting water, Marley squeezed out the gate, and was running around with Jack. Farmer H caught him again and put him back in the pen. It might be hard to make him understand he lives here. Especially because HOS’s scent is up on the other property from coming out and moving his junk. Heh, heh.

But here’s my point. I’m sure you were wondering if there was one. Of ALL the days to let that little dog out too soon without a rope, Farmer H had to choose THE 4TH of JULY! You might recall how Genius the Cat disappeared on Labor Day weekend so many years ago, when all kinds of visitors were out here, and only returned a month later. And how that first little half-grown cat that liked to sit on top of my head disappeared the day after Farmer H’s work hayride, after a teenage girl had asked, “Can I have this cat?” And there’s also Poor Dumb Ann, who was never seen again the day after those guys put a metal roof on the garage. Any time strangers are out here, we seem to lose a pet. Not to mention that dogs generally don’t like THE 4TH of JULY, because of the fireworks noises. At least Farmer H got Marley back in the pen before he could run off due to that.

Farmer H now agrees that he let Marley out too soon, and that he'll use a rope for a while. I told him that somebody at the Storage Units is probably selling little harnesses and leashes, so he needs to do some shopping on Saturday when he's doing business at his Storage Unit Store.