I stumble the couple of steps to the door, unlock it and open the door enough so that I am not trampled by the now 8 feet trying to get out the door. The cat, Jules, is usually under Max's big feet, trying to be first out. They both push past me out into the cool nights air, sniffing to see what's going on in the moonlit wee morning hours.
Suddenly Max sees something down and out by the rice field edge. If it was not certain death he would have taken the direct route right off the edge of the porch, but instead made the stairs in leaps and bounds. He rushed the fence barking like nothing I had heard in a long time so that worried me a little bit.
I squinted out into the night, seeing in the area near where he was barking a light-colored object, ghost-like in the night just on the other side of the driveway outside the fence. Without my glasses it could have been anything... so I turned and fumbled around the night stand to get them and put them on quickly. Looking back towards the object I could see quite clearly that there was a bunch of balloons which had deflated and come to a stop on some weeds.
I am sure that to Max it looked like a grounded UFO, or something equally threatening. I have heard that dogs are color-blind, and between that and it being night, having that strangely shaped mass of objects, right there where they should not have been, who knows what he was thinking it was. He was charging the fence, feet tearing at the grass similar to a bull about to attack, barking very, very loudly. Living in the country it is not that big of a deal but if he got going, it was going to get all the other dogs in the surrounding mile going too and then I would have some angry people! So, I yelled for Max to stop and that it was ok, he was a good boy but come upstairs, back to bed.
Max was having nothing of that, he was doing his best to protect me and Jules and everyone else from this strange invasion. HE WAS NOT GOING TO LEAVE THE FENCE, AND HE WAS NOT GOING TO STOP BARKING!!! So, I did what I had to do.
I slipped on my shoes and stumbled down the stairs to herd him back upstairs and inside. I got to him and had to physically chase him away from the fence and he kept trying to circle back to it, yipping. I felt like I was herding a flock of one, one who did not want to be herded. I finally got him to reluctantly go up the steps, slowing, letting out an occasional bark, as if to let the balloons know he was still watching. "Don't make any sudden moves, balloons, or I will be back to get you."
This morning when I opened the door to leave for work, Max raced down the steps, back to the fence, to once again bark at the balloons. He was still there as I pulled out of the driveway. Not the "I am going to tear you apart limb-by-limb" bark, but he was not going to let them forget who was in charge. And they better not come into the yard, OR ELSE.
I am just wondering if the balloons will still be in the same place as they were this morning. If so, I wonder how much of the day Max spent with them, or if he finally decided they were no threat.
In His Loving Arms,
Posts
1 comment:
Before I moved to a house with no fence, I had the same problem with Schnauzer. Now, on the leash, she's much more controlled. Poor you!
Post a Comment