Thursday, July 05, 2007, 06:44
What *Is* That?
I always knew Shetland Sheepdogs were highly observant. And my little Sheltie, Pixie, proved it again the other morning.
I had gone outside with her, and then, while she wandered around to the front of the house, I checked the thermometer to see how warm it was already. The air felt close and sticky, even though it was early. After I looked at the thermometer, I went to the back of the house to wait for Pixie.
All at once, I heard woof! It wasn't a loud bark or a sharp bark, but more of a quiet, contemplative bark.
Sometimes, if two of the barn cats are staring daggers at each other, Pixie will bark.
A few seconds later, I heard it again. Woof!
By the time I heard the fourth Woof! I wondered if the neighbors cows were out. I looked toward the hayfield. I couldn't see any cows.
Then I happened to think about the horses.
Maybe there was something wrong with the horses. I was in back of the house and couldn't see them. I rushed around to the west side of the house. Pixie was in the middle of the lower driveway, staring toward the barn.
Woof! said Pixie.
I looked toward the barn. Nothing out of the ordinary there. The bale of hay in front of the barn door to keep the door from blowing outward and off the track if it gets windy. The wheelbarrow. The barn itself. I couldn't see any cats.
Woof! said Pixie.
"What are you looking at?" I said.
I turned toward the barn again.
And then it dawned on me.
The wheelbarrow was upside-down!
Randy had turned the wheelbarrow over the night before to keep it from getting filled with water if it should happen to rain. I have nothing against a full wheelbarrow of rain water, but I don't want the wheelbarrow to rust.
"It's just the wheelbarrow, Pixie," I said.
Pixie apparently didn't believe me.
Woof! said Pixie.
"Come on," I said. "It's all right."
Reluctantly, Pixie started up the sidehill, never taking her eyes off the wheelbarrow.
When she reached the lilac bush, she sat down, still staring at the barn.
Woof! said Pixie.
I finally convinced her to come inside, but not before one final Woof!
I always knew that Pixie paid attention to every little thing in her environment.And now, as it turns out, she even pays attention to upside-down wheelbarrows that were not upside-down the night before.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Wednesday, July 04, 2007, 04:48
Rain!
It rained here Tuesday afternoon. We got one whole inch out of thunderstorms that rolled through for most of the afternoon. It's been a long time since we have gotten an inch of rain in one shot.
Tuesday evening we went to town because I needed to get thyroid medicine for my kitty cat, Winifred. I'm going to switch my prescription from Wal-Mart, by the way. The Wal-Mart pharmacy here runs out of the medicine, then when I come in to get the prescription refilled, THEN they decide they ought to reorder it. I wouldn't have gone to town if I had known they didn't have the medicine. I could have just as well waited.
And it's not like this is the only time it has happened. I would say about every other time I go in for a refill, they are out of the thyroid medicine. And this is a human medication that is used for cats. It's not like it's something unheard of only for veterinary applications.
Anyway, while we were in town, it just poured. The skies really opened up.
When we got home, we discovered that we had not gotten one more drop of rain at home. It had only rained south of here.
That's the way it's been going with the drought for the last three years. It will rain in one area but a few miles down the road, not a drop. And more often than not, it has been raining south of here. I don't know what stops the rain from coming farther north. Hills? Some other feature of the landscape?
But, at least we got an inch of rain out of it. One inch! I suspect there are lots of folks in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and wherever else it has been raining 18 inches in 6 hours who would like to *only* get one inch. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph