Posted By Nancy Houser on April 24, 2009

Anybody missed me? ha ha. Just kidding. Anyway, we’ve been kind of busy around here. It’s spring and night-time critters for sure are on the move. The dogs in the outside run have kept me up for the past couple of nights with barking, barking and barking! Not that I don’t mind a little barking myself, but I usually have a specific mission in mind when I am in full-throat pursuit, believe you me!!

About 2 a.m. in the morning we  decided to head outside to check out all the noise–Nancy, Sandy and myself. We just couldn’t stand it any more — we hadn’t been able to sleep all night anyway. So…. out we went. We knew something was going that was a little different than normal as the barking had more of a …. well … a different kind of a sound. Kind of shrill and urgent at the same time. A  “get your ass out here” sound!  So off we all went, with me in the lead in the darkest of nights with only a small yard light on. But that didn’t bother me! I was a dachshund!

LOOKING LIKE MY WORST NIGHTMARE!

As we quickly trotted out toward the kennel yard, I knew I didn’t dare look over my shoulder or I would have burst out laughing! Get this….an ol’ toothless lady right on your tail wearing a faded-out baggy ol’ granny nightgown, and a pair of wolf slippers on her feet with bright red kerchiefs wrapped around their furry necks (she had received them from the grandkids for Christmas awhile back). The wolf slippers wouldn’t have been so bad except the faster she walked the more they howled, as they kinda’ rubbed on the ground a bit and against each other.

We hadn’t gone too far when we saw it — a tiny baby possum stuck in one of the dogs’ kennel runs thinking that it was  safely hid inside a large cinder brick. I don’t  know who was more scared, the big brown female Cocker Spaniel or the little baby possum — one in each corner of the pen kinda’ eye-balling each other while waiting for the bell to ring for the next go-round. With my typical overzealous help, of course, Sandy removed the cocker from the run and placed her in one of the spares ones a safe distance away with me getting ready to get right behind her …

OH, WHAT TO DO!

I’m ashamed to say, the minute I took that first step to helping Sandy it was the first time in my life I didn’t know what to do. A moment I will never be proud of. Back and forth, back and forth…screaming at the top of my lungs “Oh…WHAT  should I do!!?!? WHAT should I do?!?” Stay with the ol’ lady to protect her from that large rat or help Sandy get Starbuck in the spare pen!! Oh me.. oh my!! It seemed like a hundred years but precious minutes were passing me by and I just COULDN’T make up my mind!

By the time Sandy was  on her way back,  I had just about asphyxiated myself to the point of sheer exhaustion. Poor me. Panting loudly, I snuck between Sandy’s legs to get inside the pen and to get to  that ugly large rat….I didn’t care they were calling it a cute tiny baby. I KNEW better and couldn’t they SEE it!

About then, I got stopped dead in my tracks when some weird hissing sounds started coming from inside that funny looking rat. Yeeeaaaagh!  Now…maybe it wasn’t a rat…maybe it was worse! I don’t know what, but for sure worse!! But for a fact it wasn’t no cute little “baaaaaaby” like they were gushing over! Geez. But between those ugly hissing sounds and the ol’ lady’s slippers howling every time she moved, I was pretty close to going crazy with the excitement of it all and could not quit screaming at the top of my lungs!

POSSUM IN A BOX

Sandy was sent to the shed to get an old box to place the critter inside, while the ol’ lady had the shed broom and was making some feeble attempt at maneuvering the thing out of the cinder brick into the cardboard box–that Sandy eventually got around to holding a safe distance away.

What was I doing, you asked? Why, I was thinking they were total nuts with this hair-brained idea to take the critter to a safe spot away from the highway. Anyone could see it was a stupid and dangerous plan! All except those two half-witted ol’ ladies dressed in their nightgowns and undies–out in the middle of the yard–in the middle of the night. Hoping nobody would drive by and see such  goings on from the road, the two ol’ ladies hurried-up to get the critter into the box, loading it up into the old white pick-up–slippers, night gowns and all. And me. Of course.

SITTING SHOT-GUN

Nancy drove and Sandy held the box in her lap, with me sitting shot-gun and keeping my left -eye on the box, hoping the lid would hold. Off we went onto a small dirt road through the middle of a newly-planted corn field. The pick-up was an ol’ stick-shift, and it was pretty hard to drive in the middle of the night–bouncing up and down–with gigantic howling wolf slippers on as we headed off into the dark night. I was barking at the top of my lungs ’cause I didn’t know what else to do!  Finally we came to what we thought was a perfect spot between several corn fields. Some bushes and trees would provide the little critter a safe haven, and once we got it unloaded, we would head back to our place.

The good deed done, it was almost 4 am. The ol’ ladies said they were too old to be trapsing around in the middle of the night in their night-gowns, chasing critters,  and driving up-and-down country roads who led to who-knows-where. NOW they say that!?! What would a police officer say to them if they had gotten picked up?  Oh my! But not me! I am a dachshund. I had tales to tell everyone back at the kennel in MY words, and how I had saved the ol’ ladies from harm!!

And so goes another true tale of the chronacles of Ms. Holly Higgins,  keeping the farm safe–or so she thinks …..

Holly’s Quote of This Day:

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring — it was peace.”
–Milan Kundera

(little possum inside its mama’s pouch)

Related posts:

• Holly’s Neighborhood: “Across the bean field she goes…..!”
• Holly’s Neighborhood: “…a cute little WHAT!”
• Holly’s Neighborhood: “Who is the Puppy Nanny around here anyway?”
• Holly’s Neighborhood: “Nap Time in K-Mart”
• Holly’s Neighborhood: “Bad to the Bone”

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This post is filed in: Holly's Neighborhood | Tags: dachshund, dog, dog blog, dogs, funny dog story
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