visitor
My window here opens out at ground level, and through the slats I could see an animal's legs on the porch. A cat perhaps? I went back to getting Sarah ready for school and the bus. Snow on the ground this morning. Must remember to get my car out of the garage so Cathy can park there when she comes in from Boston this afternoon. As usual, Sarah was outside first. "Dad! Matty's here."
Matty was the dog next door, friendly enough but still puppy-rambunctions. Sarah encountered her a couple of times a day when coming or going to Zach's house. Our back yards join at the property line under the utility wires, and our front doors are 2/3 of a mile apart by car. Sarah said she scratched her one time, probably from trying to jump up -- sometimes she was too friendly.
This morning, she was polite but skittish. She came when I called her, and she was willing to come with me to the back yard, but making eye contact and then looking at where I wanted her to go (a trick that had worked to perfection once in Virginia when a neighbor dog had escaped their wooden fence) didn't get me anywhere.
I went in to get my phone. "Don't let her go in the house!" Sarah cautioned, but Matty didn't seem inclined to follow me in anyway. Frances was on the stairs, as usual, rubbing her sides on the rails and angling for some pets. I came out with the phone and called over. Their number was the most recent on my list. I'd used it a day or two ago when Sarah had kicked off a boot that proceeded to hit Zach in the face.
"Hello?" Zach's mom sounded sleepy. Perhaps she'd worked late at the ER last night.
"This is Kip. Matty's over here. I tried to get her to go back, but she's just hanging around here."
Deb thought about it. "The battery in the invisible fence thing might be low. She probably doesn't want to cross it. You could take her collar off." I wasn't keen on that, because Matty was acting pretty nervous. "I'll come over there and get her in a couple of minutes." I said I'd stay with her until then.
Sarah petted Matty. "She likes getting pets on her tummy," she told me.
"She should lie on the porch instead of on the cold snow," I said.
"She likes to be a snow dog." Sarah explained. "Where's that dumb bus?" I suggested that the snow might be slowing it down, though it was a pretty light snow. A minute later, it showed up. "Don't let her get on the bus!" she said. She petted Matty one last time and then dashed to me for a kiss before going down the driveway to stand ten feet away from the arriving bus. Sonali ran across our yard to get on with her (Sarah's friend from two houses away tended to make the bus just in time, more or less). I tried to get Matty to follow me to the back again, but she opted to stay by the corner of the house and watch as I whistled. This time I saw something I hadn't noticed before -- a small pile of what seemed like they could be deer droppings. I saw that the sleeve over one of Sarah's tiny apple tree seedlings had fallen partway and straightened it back up. Then I could see Deb coming over, and then she started calling to Matty.
"Matty! Silly dog. What are you doing over here?"
"She might have followed a deer. I just saw a pile of droppings -- it's a miracle nobody stepped in it." Everybody had walked within a foot of the footprint-sized pile. If there were any hoof prints in the snow, we'd wiped them out. Deb removed the electronic collar so it wouldn't keep Matty from entering her yard, and escorted her back to her own side.
"Oh yeah, she's a lot more comfortable now," said Deb as Matty went into full happy mode. "Thanks for calling us!"
I thought about poor Matty as I went in. A deer, perhaps, lured her across the invisible fence, but nothing could lure her back across the electronic barrier, so she picked our front porch as a sort of haven. It was lucky for her (maybe she smelled us here) that she'd found friends. A fence works both ways.
The online
version of
the New Pals
Club Magazine.
As good as it
gets without ads!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Blog Archive
- Dec 2024 (1)
- Oct 2024 (2)
- Mar 2024 (1)
- Feb 2024 (1)
- Dec 2023 (1)
- Nov 2023 (1)
- Sep 2023 (5)
- Aug 2023 (1)
- Jul 2023 (1)
- Jun 2023 (2)
- May 2023 (3)
- Apr 2023 (1)
- Mar 2023 (3)
- Feb 2023 (1)
- Dec 2022 (4)
- Oct 2022 (1)
- Jul 2022 (4)
- Jun 2022 (2)
- May 2022 (1)
- Apr 2022 (5)
- Mar 2022 (1)
- Feb 2022 (1)
- Jan 2022 (2)
- Nov 2021 (3)
- Oct 2021 (1)
- Sep 2021 (1)
- Aug 2021 (2)
- Jul 2021 (2)
- Jun 2021 (1)
- May 2021 (1)
- Apr 2021 (1)
- Dec 2020 (1)
- Nov 2020 (2)
- Oct 2020 (1)
- Aug 2020 (6)
- Jul 2020 (9)
- Jun 2020 (4)
- May 2020 (8)
- Apr 2020 (15)
- Mar 2020 (1)
- Jan 2020 (3)
- Nov 2019 (1)
- Oct 2019 (2)
- Jul 2019 (1)
- Mar 2019 (1)
- Jan 2019 (1)
- Oct 2018 (1)
- Jul 2018 (1)
- Jun 2018 (2)
- May 2018 (3)
- Apr 2018 (2)
- Mar 2018 (2)
- Feb 2018 (1)
- Jan 2018 (1)
- Dec 2017 (1)
- Nov 2017 (1)
- Jun 2017 (1)
- Feb 2017 (1)
- Jan 2017 (4)
- Dec 2016 (2)
- Aug 2016 (1)
- Feb 2016 (3)
- Jan 2016 (2)
- Dec 2015 (1)
- Oct 2015 (1)
- Aug 2015 (1)
- May 2015 (2)
- Apr 2015 (1)
- Mar 2015 (4)
- Nov 2014 (1)
- Oct 2014 (1)
- Sep 2014 (2)
- Aug 2014 (2)
- May 2014 (2)
- Apr 2014 (2)
- Feb 2014 (1)
- Nov 2013 (1)
- Sep 2013 (1)
- Aug 2013 (1)
- Jun 2013 (2)
- Apr 2013 (1)
- Mar 2013 (1)
- Feb 2013 (2)
- Jan 2013 (1)
- Dec 2012 (1)
- Nov 2012 (1)
- Oct 2012 (1)
- Sep 2012 (3)
- Aug 2012 (1)
- May 2012 (2)
- Feb 2012 (2)
- Jul 2011 (1)
- May 2011 (5)
- Apr 2011 (1)
- Mar 2011 (3)
- Jan 2011 (4)
- Jul 2010 (2)
- Jun 2010 (3)
- Apr 2010 (1)
- Jan 2010 (1)
- Oct 2009 (1)
- Jul 2009 (2)
- Mar 2009 (2)
- Feb 2009 (2)
- Jan 2009 (1)
- Dec 2008 (1)
- Nov 2008 (1)
- Oct 2008 (7)
- Sep 2008 (4)
- Aug 2008 (1)
- Jun 2008 (1)
- Jul 2007 (2)
- Jun 2007 (4)
- Mar 2007 (1)