Yellow dogs go to Heaven
Thanks Jed & Blue for that story.
Mr. Brooks was such a dog.
He was half Golden Lab and half Irish Setter.
The day before he was killed he saved the life of our eight month old baby boy.
It was early September on an island in the coastal rainforest.
My wife and I were forging out a homestead and were clearing a small patch of thick salal and roots for the next years garden. It was hard work and we put our baby in a cardboard box with blankets on the edge of our work area, on the brush-line so as not to fling any debris on him while we cleared.
Mr. Brooks was there, he was always with us, and he posted himself along side the baby.
The night before he had started barking up a storm in that protective way. He was usually quiet at night so I went out to see what the fuss was about. Brooks seemed edgy so I let him in for the night.
So the next day while we were clearing, Mr. Brooks starts up barking aggressively and would run out into the thick bush and back to our baby who now started crying. We comforted our son and tried to continue working, but Mr. Brooks was really riled up so we packed up and went back up to our log cabin.
Late that night Mr. Brooks took off barking very intently, I was just getting out of bed when his barks became yells-screams.
I bolted down the stares grabbing my hunting rifle and a flashlight, not stopping for clothes, and out the back door.
I ran into the bush towards the sounds of a terrible battle, and the pungent odor of Big sweaty Cat mixed with dog crap.
At that point the flashlight in my hand went completely dead.
I was now face to face with a heavily breathing cougar and could hear the last death rattles of my dog, and I could not see a damned thing.
I wrote the short version of this part to Joe earlier today.
Cougar's do and have taken babies. My family has first hand cases of this from the Blue Mountains of Oregon.
My sons best friend was killed by a cougar near the same area 10 years later.
I no longer hunt and I have never feared being in deep woods, and I walk well among the wild creatures and never carry a gun for any reason.
Anyway Blue, Jed, that Yellow Dog of mine went to Dog Heaven for saving my son in the box by the new garden.
That baby is now 25 and Mr. Brooks's little hand-split cedar shake dog-house is still there with moss all over it, and his picture is still hanging on the wall of that old log cabin.
Puna |
