Remember when I said the other day I was going to check and see if someone had left the gate open? Well, in a way they kinda’ had. I’m short to the ground and it comes naturally to keep track of that sort of stuff.

As one of the old ladies was heading out of the yard to hang up her clothes on the clothes line (a cotton line purchased from the dollar store for a buck about a year ago and hung between two old trees) , I quickly snuck out the gate between her legs  the minute I saw that that rickety ol’ gray cat heading across the corn field in front of us. We have a love hate relationship, me and that old cat. I love to chase him and he hates to be chased!

Within seconds that old cat was picking them up and putting them down as fast as a cat can fly — plus a short-legged dachshund—both of us circling the old farm house in a blurry haze. Stories that were told later on quoted the speed at mach 7.  On my second go ’round, I saw out of the corner of my eyes the ol’ lady standing in the middle of the yard with her mouth wide open. She was holding onto that basket of clothes like her life depended on it, with that cat screaming and me howling at the top of my lungs all the way as we passed her.

GETTING CAUGHT GETTING OUT

Flickr by Dimethyl

About the time the old lady dropped the clean clothes basket and headed toward me, the cat had taken a sharp right and headed south across the bean field—with me right behind him. I didn’t dare take my eyes off him, but in my heart I knew if I slowed down I would lose the imaginary battle that had kept me going for five years or so!

The grey cat headed straight ahead toward a culvert in the road, and as I went into it…I knew I had him. Or so I thought. But another visitor had laid claim to the local hide-out…a possum which was as ugly as sin..and believe me, he wasn’t moving! At the last minute, the ol’  cat decided to head south while jumping over the top of the culbert, deciding to stay away from the posumme. He just about knocking me down as I was entering the metal tunnel as he jumped over the top of the road to head-out across another field toward the neighbor’s place. I was so close I could see the whiskers and the glazed look in his eyes! Or was that my reflection in his? Anyway….

HEADING SOUTH TO THE NEIGHBOR’S HOME

To my right I saw that the old lady had jumped into her beat-up brown van and was speeding down the road at the same pace as the cat and me…..not  looking left or right. Just kinda’ hunched over the steering wheel with her foot to the gas…hard. Kind of a funny look in her one eye. The other one I couldn’t see.

It was starting to get dark and I was black and tan, low to the ground—got the picture?  Because she couldn’t see, the old layd pulled into the neighbor’s driveway about the same time that cat changed his mind and turned-around to head north. By now I was getting pretty tired. In fact, I was past tired. I was clear out in the middle of a bean field and a long ways from home.

Dachshunds have small legs, and I had already traveled three miles up and down that stupid field after the cat. But after all of this, I had to get something accomplished or never show my face at home again to the other dogs. I had an image to uphold, you know.

GIVING UP AND GIVING IN

When we didn’t enter the neighbor’s yard, eventually the old van head north back to the homestead. I knew I was on my own for a short time, as the cat was long gone by now…somewhere. I guess the old lady thought I had returned home, and was going to check it out.

Yes, my legs had slowly started home, and it was one-thirty in the morning when I quietly snuck into our yard while peering over my corner to see if any saw me. Exhausted, thirsty, ashamed and realizing how much trouble I was in…oh well, my legs were hurting too badly to care.

I sat beside the front gate next to the basket of still-wet clothes,  and howled and barked to get in. I never thought I would live for the shame of this moment, believe me! But when that old lady came out that front door and picked me up…well, I forgave her for letting me out. I mean after all…she was old…right? And even though I knew I  would be in time-out for a long time, with legs so sore I couldn’t hardly walk!

But the next time I see that cat …. well, that’s another story!

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