What the Dogs Drag In…

On May 22, 2010 a tornado destroyed a large part of Joplin, Missouri.  There were many people who were killed, and many more who were left without homes, but thanks to the Good Lord, and many good hearted people things are looking better.  There were also many pets left homeless.

I have written of Archer previously, and our other dog which adopted us by swimming out of the Creek, onto the bank, and then following us home.  Archer came from Joplin, after the tornado.  We were dogless, until then.  Our son James and his wife Amber lost their home in that tornado, and they had just taken Archer into their home, off the streets of Joplin; and along with their two dogs Pillar and Skillet survived the storm.  They came and lived with us until they found another home.  We took Archer as ours, and he has been here ever since that time.

It is amazing what dogs can drag into the yard.  We have had bones large, medium, and small bones.  I am constantly throwing them out of the yard – they work havoc on a lawn mower; at least make a lot of noise.  They have dragged in an ‘Possum, a baby armadillo, not too long ago, a large mouse (and I do not mean a rat) that was almost as large as a rat, and the last thing they dragged in was a mystery at first, because it was headless with its entrails hanging out when they dragged it in, and left it in between our two cars; I finally figured out it was a young ground hog.

I do not know what will be next.  I told my wife the other day;  “I think our dogs are trying to show us that they are keeping themselves busy.”

We also have a pup.  She is the offspring of the little Corgi mix mother which crawled up out of the Creek last July.  She had seven pups.  Five pups died, one by being run over while chasing a pickup driving by; the rest just mysteriously found dead.  The other one we named Rascal, a male, and we gave him to our daughter and her family for Christmas.   We call the mother “Little Girl” or Molly; we call her pup Little Bit, because she was the runt of the litter.  Little Bit likes to stay in the yard most of the time and not wander off, like the other two do; and she is so timid.

If anyone would like to have a young dog, part Corgi, we would let you have the mother and the pup.

Life as it is along the banks of Flat Creek.

-Tim

edit – the date of the Joplin tornado was May 22, 2011.

Butch is Gone

It was August 25 when Little Girl came straggling back to our home after being gone for awhile with a cute smaller dog than herself.  He was a pup still growing, and had grown to be a larger dog than his own mother.  You see he was Little Girls pup, from her last litter I suppose.  There were things that went on between Little Girl and this little dog that just made me think she was his mama.

Things like, when he got to annoying her, she would gently, but very firmly grab him by the nose and put him on his side, never harming him.  He treated her with the respect of her dominance.  Even when he got bigger than her she was still dominant.

She had returned to wherever they had been previously, and brought him to our house and has never left here again.  I guess she adopted us quite well, and the pup did too.  We too, Madge and I, have become quite attached to the two of them, along with Archer, our tornado dog for Joplin, MO.

We decided to name the pup “Butch”, and that is what stuck.  He began responding to that name.  He mad me laugh.  All three of them have made me laugh more than I have laughed in a long time.  I laughed as Butch would come up to Archer and begin biting Archer on the legs, around his mouth, and Archer just tolerated it, with little friendly whines, growls, whimpers; what ever they were; then, Archer would just play holding Butch down; while Butch would wrestle himself free, and go back for more.

When I would call Butch to come he would come with a wagging tail, and you could tell he was happy, and wanted that attention.  He was always energetic, ready to go, until this past Sunday afternoon, when he was accidently run over and left crippled in his hind legs.  I gave him a couple of days to see if it could just be a bad bruise or something.  He would not eat or drink, and I could not stand to see him suffer any longer I put him down.

When I buried him I thanked the Lord for the privilege of His using Butch to make me laugh.  The last thing Butch did, even after his last breath, was wag his tail.

And I buried him near Flat Creek.

-Tim

Little Girl [Mama]

I have written of the Little Girl and  how she came to our home.  Well, now she has six babies and she is a good mama.

She gave birth to these six puppies, originally seven, but one died, in the pen we have for the dogs.  She had moved them due to lack of shelter from the rain, and they were under our shed where we keep the riding lawn mower, some tools and dog food.

We received a lot of rain in the past two days and I guess it was starting to get a bit wet under the shed, so she had started moving them.  I was in my office, and heard this frantic barking, whining, howling from a dog.  I went outside, and headed in the direction and Little Girl came running toward me, then immediately turned back toward the shed.  When she got on the North end of it she got down looking underneath, and she tried to get underneath, but could not.  That was not where the puppies had been previously.

I went and got an old dog food bag, to kneel on and look under the shed; yes it was raining too; when I looked under the shed the dog whining; the puppy whining for mama;  I saw it had crawled to a spot mama could not get to.  I went and looked where the puppies had been, and there were none.  So I assumed she had moved them to another location.

To make a short story shorter I moved the ramp I had in front, on the South side of the shed, and Little Girl crawled underneath, retrieved her puppy, and then took it to a drier location.  I went down to the old barn to see where she had taken them, and I saw one lone puppy; so I knew I was close to the other four.

I had gone inside to get a flashlight to look underneath the shed to make sure she had them all; and while I was gone she took that last one to the barn.  She came back toward me a much happier mama.  Though it seemed she was looking for another one, and I thought of that one in the barn by its lonesome, and I went back to the barn, and found the other five now, and moved the lone one with the five, and all was well.

I never knew  how much adventure a dog could bring into one’s life.  We now have nine sources of adventure.  I hope only for a while longer, then, back to three.

Flat Creek rose yesterday, but it was still in the banks.  I cannot see it yet this morning, due to darkness, but I can step outside and hear it roaring and rolling along.

-Tim

Lydia – My Grand daughter

Just this past Saturday afternoon our son and his wife came down with their kids.  The smallest one [Lydia] wanted to go and see the puppies, so I took her to go see the puppies.  They are no longer in the pen, due to a lack of shelter there; and one evening last week when it started raining Little Girl [Mama] moved them under the shed to keep the dry.  That is where they are still.

We went out there; and of course Little Girl was there seeming curious about what I was doing, yet so gentle, and good natured; not even growling but more like wanting attention, nestling up to me.  I got down on my knees, looked underneath the shed, and saw one of the puppies just out from the rest of them; so I took him out, and let Lydia hold him.  Mama is watching closely, yet gentile like.  After Lydia gets down on her knees to look underneath we put the puppy back, gently and start returning to the house.

On the way back to the house Lydia turns around, and looks upward to the sky in the  East, points and says to me, “What is that?”  I turn around to see, and it is the moon.  Not yet shining, because the sun is still up, yet there it is just hanging like our Creator intended it to.  So I tell her, “That is the moon.”  At that she says “Oh!” and continues toward the house.

Lydia is less than two years of age, but cute as she can be.  She even likes her grandpa.

I have several grand daughters.  Our oldest grandchild is a grand daughter.  The youngest grandchild is a grand daughter, but lives in Booneville, AR. so we do not get to see them too often.  They are all my sweet hearts, and I am very thankful for all of them.

It is raining as I am writing this morning.  It is great to live in the Ozarks of Southwest Missouri; especially on the banks of Flat Creek.

-Tim

November Twenty Eleven

That is right.  It is now November and several days into it as a matter of fact.  The month of Thanksgiving, though, my prayer is that we are thankful every day; not just one day a year.  To whom should we be thankful?  The Pilgrims who came to this country?  The Indians/Native Americans who aided the Pilgrims? or should we be thankful to the Creator who has given us all things to enjoy and blessed us immensely?

That last one, of course.

It is a great thing to get up every morning and know that the Lord GOD who has made all things, has also given me strength to arise from bed with a beating heart, air to breathe, and feet and legs on which to stand.  Thank YOU Lord for all these things and so much more.

November is also the month weather is iffy.  In the Ozarks of Southwest Missouri it is kind of like Forrest Gump’s phrase, “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get”.  The weather around here is like that box of chocolates.  Of course it is like that year round; but especially this time of year.  It can be cold one day, warm up that evening, and be cold again the next day with spitting snow, or ice; or maybe just the reverse.

I am thankful for the seasons around here; though, I do especially like Spring and Summer.  The best part about Winter is that from the first day of the Winter solstice the daylight hours begin to lengthen.  That means to me, that Spring is on the way.

Do not forget to set your clocks back one hour before you go to bed; unless you want to stay up until 2 a.m. and do it.  If you forget it will not be a big loss; you will be early the next morning for wherever you are going; and that hopefully will be to worship the Lord with other brothers and sisters in Christ.

By the way;  the puppies are growing, and they will be two weeks old tomorrow (November 06). From the banks of Flat Creek.

-Tim

Eagles Are Flying

Of course that is not really anything new.  They have been flying, perching, birthing, eating, breathing, and living for millenniums of time.  However,  I did see my first eagle this season flying over our house.

It flew in a circle over the house as though he was checking us out, and to let me know they were back.  There was no doubt in my mind it was a bald eagle.  The white head and tail feathers glistened in the afternoon sunlight.

I was glad to see our friends had returned to the banks of Flat Creek.  A blessing from our Creator, Jesus the Christ, Son of the Living God.

And, one other little thing.  Do you remember the “Little Girl” (the little corgy dog which adopted us) well, now she is “Little mama”.  On Sunday evening October 23, she was beginning to have puppies when we arrived home from church.  Monday morning when I left to go drive the school bus, she had seven, though one was dead, laying beside its mother.

If anyone wants a puppy in a few months let me know, and we will see what we can do about that.

-Tim

Archer, Butch, and Little Girl

The title is the names of the three dogs we have around here.  Some call Little Girl “Molly” – my wife and grand kids.  The reason I write of them today is because the Little Girl was barking almost non stop all night long, and especially after I got up at 3:45 a.m. so I put her in the pen.  That has pretty much quietened her down.

For some reason it seems that all the dogs of neighbors around are barking too.  It seems that they are a bit nervous about something.  Even Archer when I went to let Butch out of the pen came rushing in, and would not come out; so I left him in; and I have not heard a thing out of him since then.  Usually when he is in the pen he is barking wanting out, but not this morning.

Yeah!  We decided to call the littler dog “Butch”.  That was Madge’s idea, and it looks like that is going to stick with him.  He is getting where he answers to it; at least as good as anything else.

I am going to have to leave here soon and go pick up the kids of my bus route.  So I am closing from the banks of Flat Creek to go and drive a big yellow monster to pick up 60 or so little angels.

-Tim

Another One

The Little Girl was still gone when I left to drive the bus for the evening route.  However, when I returned home she was back, and had a friend with her; a small male, even smaller than her.  Now I like dogs, but I can only take so many.  After all I don’t run, nor do I want to run a kennel.  I do have methods for dealing with strays.  In other words, we now have three dogs hanging around here.  These two Corgi looking ones are probably someone’s or at least have been someone’s house pets.

No pet is allowed in the house here.  We have made few exceptions if they are kept in a cage; not running free in the house.  We don’t even have gold fish in our house; or an aquarium of exotic fish.  We have had, but not now.

Archer now has two friends.  He seems to get along with them well.

I am hoping that yesterday was the last of the 100 degree temps for the Summer.  It did make it to 100 at our house.

It’s great living along the banks of Flat Creek.

-Tim

Gone Again

Just to let all who may be interested know; my Dad came home on Friday; and the family and myself want to thank you all for your prayers.

Now to what’s “Gone Again”.  That is the Little Girl.  The little corgi dog who just came to us is now gone again.  I don’t know what she is doing.  She was here about a week, and then leaves again.

I do miss her not being here.  She has a much different canineality that Archer does.  I know that’s not a word, but maybe it will be soon.  Can you call it personality in a dog?  I can’t.  They aren’t persons.  Now I sure don’t mean to offend any of you dog people or cat people but animals aren’t persons.  Get real and quit acting like they are.

Who knows Little Girl or Molly Moo as my wife and grand kids call her might be back tomorrow.  Who knows?  The last time she was only gone for a little over a day.  This time she has been gone now for a little over a day.

The last time when she got back she was wet like she had been in Flat Creek again.  Maybe she will this time too.

-Tim

She’s Back

She left us for a time; as I wrote of yesterday.  She was gone most of the day Sunday, and all day Monday, at least until late afternoon.  Wouldn’t it be interesting to know where she had been, or to see the world through a dogs eyes; or to hear through a dogs ears.  You know; the fly on the wall thing.

We can be in a conversation with someone; a personal conversation; and if a child or even at times an adult comes up we change topics quickly, or go quiet really quick, but if a dog is near… it doesn’t matter.

Well, anyway the Little Girl came back.  I guess she decided this was home now.  It also proves that my thinking about her finding her owners was wrong.

Madge and I were getting ready to eat supper last evening, I looked out the patio door where Archer had been laying just minutes before, and there lay Little Girl.  Just like that she was here again.  I went to the door and opened it then reached down to pet her; which she enjoyed.  I then went out to give her and Archer some food.  She ate, then came and got a drink of water.  Believe it or not I was glad to see her back.

Little Girl was wet like she had just came up from the Creek; that’s Flat Creek.  For those few who read this; you have probably noticed that I end the post with something about Flat Creek in every article; like the one I just wrote or like this…

From along the banks of Flat Creek.

-Tim