MAY 8, 2008 HERBIE THE HUNCHMASTER

MAY 8, 2008

HERBIE THE HUNCHMASTER

Meet Herbie, the newest in my family of "it followed me home and I kept it" critters. Actually he didn't follow me home, but rather I found him and his mom and a brother and two sisters on the side of the road up by Homers Mom and Dads. Yeah, he is a victim of dog dumping. It happens a lot around here on the dirt roads in the mountains.

On a trip to see the folks back in January, we were tooling down the road... Homer, as usual, was driving by radar ( you know.. like a bat.. only his blindness comes from the fact he never watches the road, has two hands on his binoculars, and uses his knee to steer ) and had the binoculars trained on the woods looking for anything that moved...( like he might jump out and wrestle dinner to the ground ) when on my side of the truck I saw this little black thing running up the road.

Trying to get a better look, I rolled down the window and stuck my head out.. big mistake.. limb hit me right in the face.. sigh.. I took the proper steps to ensure the driver was paying attention and looked again. It was this little bitty black puppy and of course.. I just couldn't let it go.. Homer was with me 100 %.. he has grown up doing doggy rescue missions all his life.

So we stopped and I got out and called to it.. and out of the woods came his Mom and three siblings.. I walked up to her and she was sooo glad to see me! I checked her out and I was immediately so damn mad I would have done bodily harm to the evil person who dumped her out with those puppies.. her toenails where white and clean .. not ragged.. she had white hair and it was clean.. she even was flea free! In other words.. a house dog.

It was getting down into the teens in temperature at night, and some subhuman had dumped her and those puppies out to freeze to death! She had no idea how to hunt for them at all!

We were going to a birthday party at Homers folks and I knew better than to try to take those dogs up there with all the dogs they already have.. especially Zip the Wonder Dog and a blue heeler named Rambo ... nope not a good idea.. unless you like watching dog fights.

I took the puppies up into the woods a little way off of the road, and of course she followed me. I put them under a bush, and told her to stay there, and I would be back and get them, in a little while.. not to worry I was going to help her, and her kids get someplace warm , with some good food from a sack, bought at the store.

Yes, I know.. I talk to them just like they were people.. hey! how do we know they don't understand what we say to them.. they may be the ones with universal language brain waves or something like that.

When we went back down that road 2 hours later, and stopped, they were right where I left them.. I patted my leg and they all came over to the truck and she jumped right in.. I put the puppies on the seat beside her and she just laid down and went to sleep with a big ole sigh.. See they do understand what we say.. cause I am not Dr. Doolittle.

Well, Homer says I don't do much, but he doesn't count! heheheeh!

Took them and put them in the ulility room off the carport at the house, I have one of those little electric heaters I use in there to keep the washing machine water hookups from freezing and paper on the floor.. They devoured half a loaf of bread and 4 cans of dog food, and drank so much I knew I was in for a mess to clean up the next day..

More than I had thought I would have to clean up.. momma dog tore the door all to pieces.. it had a vent in the bottom and she got out that way... sigh.. at least she didn't do her doo doo thing in the room, her kids now... how they managed to get it on the walls is beyond me, but they did...!

I went with what she had started and made a doggie door out of plastic sheeting where the vent had been, so she could go in and out when she wanted to.. the kids couldn't jump that high .. right then anyway.. sigh.. .. what a mess!

Days turned into months and we managed to give away three of the puppies and momma dog met with some bad luck and now I have a two doggie graves in the backyard.. but such is life.

Prissy, my other dog , who is a product of a visit to Walmart and this woman with a cardboard box at the door, ( she knew what she was doing.. must of been an experienced dog giver awayer) pulled out a ball of fuzz and shoved it at me.. yeah.. I was a goner.. Prissy my Walmart Parking Lot Pooch.. has been with me for around 8 years now and Herbie thinks she is the most wonderful thing he has ever had the pleasure of torturing in his young life. He started out by being just tall enough to jump and nip at her mouth every time she stopped and he spotted her, now he is tall enough he does these acrobatic moves where he can jump completely over her head in this hopping figure eight kind of thing...

She has figured out that to just keep on walking.. he gets fouled up my her feet sometimes, and goes flying, then jumps back up to do it all over again.. hehehe..

He has this piece of rug that I put into their barrel they sleep in that he plays with.. one day I looked outside and he had torn a hole in it and it was around his neck and back like a cape.. hehehee.. Super Herbie!

Prissy was not impressed.....

Prissy is still chasing Leon the walnut bomber squirrel, and Herbie is going along for the experience I suppose... hehehe.. I don't think he has any kind of hunting skills from gene makeup to work off of to start with. But he is all for the joy of the chase.. he has food from a sack from the store.. who needs it on the hoof!

He has one truly redeeming quality.. he doesn't know that snakes can be mean I guess.. he has saved me twice now from grabbing one while I was pulling weeds out of a flowerbed.. he is a pest usually when I try to work outside.. if I pull up grass and dump it over the fence.. he goes and brings it back to me.. heheh.. and he wants to dig in the dirt too.. it would be nice if he would just not dig in the dirt where there is a flower planted... but he did grab two little grass snakes right beside my hands. After he played with them a while.. he ate the things! ewwwww!

All I know is .. as long as he doesn't bring them to the house for a keepsake or a new friend.. he can eat 'em all day long!

Lately he has turned the corner out of puppyhood into adolescence.. and has been practicing his moves to become a real hounddog some day and get a girlfriend.. you can see him at all times of the day.. practicing on fence posts.. tall rocks... the trash barrel, he tried to get Prissy to be his practice dummy .. but he gets the his directions mixed up and ends up on her head.. she does not think that this is a very fun activity and after talking quite a long time with the young gigilo want to be and a few well places nips.. he has decided that maybe it would be better to find a fence post .. they seem to be more accepting of his study time!

I bought a new camera to replace the storm casulaty one and it is quite a bit more complicated than my old one and I am really having a hard time learning all its bells and whistles.. I took these pictures of them this afternoon and I didn't know I had it set to black and white and I have not gotten the focus down quite yet.. It has a twelve times zoom on it and sigh.. it zooms and zooms an zooms until what I think is a picture of a dogs head.. turns out to be only one of his eyelashes.. but it is a darn good image of the eyelash! lol.. it will take me a while but I will figure it out I hope.. anyway.. here is Prissy and Herbie the Hunchmaster ... the hunt for Leon.. the elusive walnut bomber of the woods at Lockie Land.

hey where did she go.. gotta go!

Herbie---- I'm okay.. I think I know what I am doing wrong.. See really I am fine.. didn't even leave a mark!

Prissy----- sigh...

Herbie---- Are we going squirrel huntin' now? Please ....I promise not to try to practice guy dog stuff on you when you are looking up in the tree anymore!

Prissy -----sigh...

lockerridge