A New One

I was out hiking in the woods with our dogs one day and they took off again. So far they have always come back but it still makes me uneasy. Our chaparral is a tangled forest of bushes and is hard to get through if you don't have four legs. It's like trying to walk through a Brillo pad. That means that all sorts of creatures can live isolated from humans even close to houses. This time I heard this tremendous yipping and yowling off in the bushes. I was sure Old Dog Angie had hurt herself. Then heard coyotes and they were getting closer and closer. I imagined them closing in for the kill.

"Hang on Angie," I said. "Hang on. The paramedics are coming." First I went around on the path to the left. No luck. Then I went around by the path on the right. Still no luck. So I had to try bulling through the chaparral. Finally, scratched, scraped, and torn I forced myself onto a flat rock. Something moved below. It wasn't Angie. It was about a foot long and six inches wide and blond. I was amazed that a pup that little could make that much noise. I heaved, scrambled, and stumbled back to the car with the pup. It was just in the nick of time. I could hear the coyotes swearing down in shrubbery. The other two dogs were waiting at the car and wondering where I was. They gave the pup a good sniffing and decided they didn't mind one more dog. We all lived happily ever after. It might make a little golden book.

#westernsuspensefundogs