Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Chuck debates pans and fires.



Canvas a day lesson for the day....starting at 10:30 pm just doesn't work with watercolours, unless your thinking floaty blotchy watery drawings.  I wasn't.  It will be posted half finished and poorly executed.  Ho hum.


Chuck the dog.

Source of much humour in my life.

The other day we were in the mountains again, with Nonna again, and we met the shepherd again.  The one with the dogs that fought with Chuck.  Four on one.

We didn't actually meet the shepherd though, we saw one lone nanny goat.  THAT was enough to put a pure and blinding terror streaking through my noble pup's heart.  He took off.  Sheared away and started blasting down the hill.  Then strangely, he stopped as I was continuing on, I imagine.  We were, at that time, walking beside a large and very isolated farm filled with dogs who all bark aggressively at us when we go by, but never come near the road.  Chuck decided that the pan was better than the fire and blasted up the hill into the farm, charging through a thinnish patch of raspberry brambles to do so.

I heartlessly walked on, there really was no other option.

Nonna contented herself with barking endlessly at the goat and flinging herself against the end of her lead.  She is a big very strong, very fast dog.  I had my hands somewhat full.

Chuck disappeared into the farm, me hoping he doesn't bring the hounds of h*ll down upon us all.  At least the shepherd's dogs are perfectly trained.  As I walk by the gate to the farm Chuck appears again, moving fast and somewhat frantic as there is no obvious way out and the raspberry brambles are rather higher and thicker here.  I kept on walking, the farm is quite open around the corner, about 10 yards on and Chuck is a smart dog.  He'd figure it out.  Besides that Nonna was doing her best to tear my arm off so distance would be good.

Chuck poked his head through the gate, decided it was too narrow and removed it, flitted around inside some more, saw me continuing on and decided he would fit after all.

This was all happening quite quickly as these things are wont to do.  Chuck gets his head through, no problem.  The ribs however are quite the struggle.  Really quite epic, he ended up on only his hind legs pushing and wiggling mightily to try and get them wedged through.  There was a pause before he started on his hips and I thought that if he was stuck we had Chuck on a stick.  The dogs from the farm could have the back end and the shepherd's the front and he'd be sitting there like as helpless as Winne the Pooh in a rather more malignant bit of forest.

Fortunately with another shove and a wiggle his narrower hips popped free and he cruised around the corner of the farm going as fast as he could without actually running.  Ears pinned back and tail low.

I was laughing at him.

Then again, I couldn't really blame him either.

4 comments:

The Bodhi Chicklet said...

Oh, poor, poor doggie! Their desires are so pure, so on their sleeves (if they had sleeves). I hope he thought you were laughing with him.

Lynda said...

Awww he loves you so much. That is a sweet story. Makes me want to have a dog. Unfortunately, our first (and last) family dog was a Jack Russell... and I have never quite recovered. I need me a big ol' lazy dog that doesn't bark, doesn't leave hair all over the house, and smells good.

Lynda said...

PS: I booked a weekend flight to Madrid for the end of April.. will be catching up with the girls I studied Arabic with in Cairo. Ole!

oreneta said...

Bodhi, I didn't laugh very hard, and he was pretty far ahead of me. I wasn't laughing at ALL as he was trying to get through the gate...if he had gotten stuck! Goodness, the horror.

Lynda, consider a greyhound...Nonna is one, and she does nothing but sleep all day long. The only problem for me is that I get jealous checking out how ridiculously cut and muscular she is and all she does is sleep! They do shed though....and they aren't all that affectionate....Chuck's about perfect...except for the shedding, and the barking, and the occasional...well, more than occasional humping issue....

Madrid in APRIL!!!! Super sweet!!! That should be amazing....Lucky old you! I loved it.