Doom Dogs

[Greg]

Still haven't talked about the gas you get from Hooligan dogs who eat carrots.

(As I look out the back window, I see a group of cows in the east pasture near the path where we walk)

[Drunk Monk]

Still sounds better than chasing hooligan dogs and wandering cattle.

And they come with their own bowl.

And spoon!

And carrots don't give them gas.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Still sounds better than chasing hooligan dogs and wandering cattle.

And they come with their own bowl.

And spoon!

And carrots don't give them gas.

Perfect!

[Greg]

Lily is a bad cattle dog.

During the first walk in the morning when I get my exercise, I noticed dark shadows in the grass bowl area in front of the house. The dogs were very intent. I figured the cows had stayed at Lynch Lair overnight. I knew I would be unable to contain Aoife when I went out on the second walk where the dogs get run off leash. Sure enough, despite not seeing any cows when the second walk occurred, as soon as I took off Aoife's leash, she was long gone like Donkey Kong. At this point, I just roll with it.

But when Lily got to the point where Aoife should really be on the leash, Aoife came racing up the hill to me and sat at my feet in preparation to be leashed. And leashed her I did. I complimented her profusely on her good manners.

As we continued our walk, I spotted a couple of calves outside a coral looking at an adult cow inside the coral. I figured I would put the calves inside the coral and off the street. I'm feeling pretty good about my cow herding skilz at this point. I drop the end of Aoife's leash over the fence post to keep her away from the cow action which she desperately wants to be a part of. Lily continues to wander around because she is the quote good dog unquote. I open the coral gate and shoo the adult cow away from the gate. I then walk a wide loop around the three calves to place the calves between me and the gate. I walk towards them with my arms outstretched and encourage them to move towards the big adult cow they called for. The calves move to the gate. I am so good at this.

Lily of course runs up to the calves and starts barking. The calves shy and move further along the fence line away from the gate. I move to cut them off, all the while yelling at Lily to get lost. Aoife pulls frantically at her leash to come help as well. The adult cow, seeing me move away from the gate, uses that opportunity to run out the gate into the road. Perfect. I try to block adult cow but she picks up her pace. Another neighbor drives by. She rolls down her window so I can hear her laugh at me.

The cows leave the Fahey's coral and head up the road. They cross into Kyle's yard through the gate where they meet up with a couple other wayward cows. I grab Aoife's leash and after them resolved to round up all the Brechbuehl cows. Lily heads away from us towards Lynch Lair. Aoife is thrilled to be part of the cattle herding team. Once again I get to the far side of the cows so I can walk them out of Kyle's property through his gate down the road to the Fahey's. The cows move but one proves reluctant actually lunging at Aoife. They finally do move out the gate. At this point, Lily rejoins the cattle drive and barks at the cows. They change direction from down the hill to the Fahey's and go uphill towards the main busy road. I try to cut them off but they pick up the pace and head into another neighbor's yard. I am making things worse. I decide I have done enough cattle driving for one day. And I really can't complete the task with my helpful pups.

There is a coda to this story. As I eat my lunch, I scrolled through FB. I saw all these posts about cows out on the main road, the busy road. They were the cows I tried to round up this morning. I felt guilty so I went after them. The pictures were from Eagle Drive which is the next street down from Misty Ridge, about a half mile away. As I headed out the door, I told the Queen to contact Rich Brechbuehl so he would know what I was about. Rich met me on the road on his ATV. We divyied up the search area. I would continue down Eagle Drive, while he searched Eagle Court. I saw hoof prints and cow flops but no cows on my way to the cattle guard. I turned around at the cattle guard figuring the cows couldn't have made it beyond the guard. That's why you put the guard in the road. I headed back up Eagle and found Rich. He wanted to drive beyond the guard to the main road. I said I would meet him there.

Rich found the cows. They had gone over two cattle guards and were currently resting. Rich was going to head back to his house and get a trailer to take the cows to a closer coral that was owned by his friend. My work was done. All told, I walked almost four miles on this part of the cattle drive. Rich mentioned that his big balled bull had simply walked through the barbed wire fence, breaking the top two strands of the fence in the process.

[Greg]

On Friday, I put in the last reinforced super lattice piece.

Sunday morning, I found Aoife on the back porch.

Sigh. Fortunately, she used her garage egress because I forgot to latch the door.