Please tell me you’ve done the same thing I did today:
I was shooing the dog – the helpless little dog – the very expensive dog that the girls pooled their savings to buy and breed – up the hill toward the house, away from the chickens she was harassing. She stopped after about 50 feet and stood there watching me, refusing to go farther. What did I do? I tossed a rock toward her to get her moving again. I said toward her, not at her. Anyway, I throw like a girl, and this rock was very nearly the size of a tennis ball. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
I watched in growing horror as the rock sailed up through the air, then descended straight toward her. And it hit her. In the head. She didn’t even see it coming. I wasn’t trying to hit her, but she might have been safer if I had.
The poor little thing yelped and dropped to her belly, all of 2 inches lower. Overcome with sudden guilt, I watched from 50 feet away as she scooted around in circles and then straight into the nearest yucca plant. I wondered if I had crushed the side of her head. Was she blinded? Dazed? Brain damaged?
I hurried to her and to my great relief she was only scared, trying to hide from the next meteorite. The sky was falling, after all. I soothed her and checked her for signs of injury, but she was fine. And when I gently suggested that she get on up to the house, she didn’t dawdle.
You don’t need to tell me that there are better ways to break a dog of dawdling. Trust me, I know.
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I must be a bad person too……..I’m laughing over this story!
Glad the dog is okay!
That’s why I don’t have dogs. I’ll have another baby instead!!
Once a squirrel was in the road. I swerved out of its way but while I was over it and couldn’t see it, it must have run the opposite direction. I know this because of the horrible thunk. Poor twitching squirrel. I was crying all day because of it. My husband said I should have backed over it and finished it off… to be kinder… but I just couldn’t.
Do you feel better now? It’s a true story. :[
The nice thing about dogs is that they are very forgiving. My dh posted a video a few weeks ago called “Super Cool”. It says everything about how our dogs see us. Here is the link:
http://theunderdogspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/05/super-cool.html
If you’re a bad person, then I’m even worse… I’ve throw things at my husband (in jest, not anger) and hit him… hard. For some reason, he never believes that I actually wasn’t trying to hit him. So glad your pooch is alright!
Thank you for this story- I needed a laugh tonight.
Oh, and I ADORE animals but I can just picture the dread a mama would feel during.
One time I thought the cat decided not to go out but she had changed her mind at the last minute. She ran through the slider right as I closed it and got her nose caught in the closing door. She only had a bloody nose but the guilt about killed me.
Hahaha! Poor dog! I’ve done something similar to another reader. I opened the garage door (the one from the house to the garage, not the big one) to go inside, and when closing it, “caught” the cat, poor thing, she wouldn’t go near me the rest of the day!
Well, you have some great readers. They are all so understanding. On our farm webpage, I simply state that I do not like cats. I even say that I would never hurt one, but I don’t like them. I get hate mail.
I know how you feel! I was playing badminton once and my small dog was being annoying, trying to get the birdie. I swung my racket at her to shoo her away and ended up swatting her upside the head! She went into shock and lay there shaking. I bawled for over an hour, even though she was long over it! I felt so bad.
I’m sorry, but I’m laughing!
I laughed at this post….
SO not a dog person, even though we have a Blue Heeler and a Black Lab.
Hilarious!
I have recently started raising chickens, with 2 cats and a dog already on the property. To help break the dog of her taunting vicious bark toward the chicks, I let her go to the coop bark like mad. I tell her No!, if she continues, I put the leash on her and walk her back to the house.
My dog behaves this way for 2 reasons 1. She wants to play with the new fluffy “toys” and 2. She wants to alert me that something is different in the yard.
After a couple of weeks with the leash treatment, she no longer barks at them. Instead, she stands there and watches, or lays down as if to watch Chicken TV.
I feel your frustration, pain and anxiety with the dog and new chickens. It’s a challenging combination and I wish you the best.
Oh wow. Really, don’t publish posts like this. Between this and your “pets we’ve done wrong by” post (remember?) I seriously worry that a blog-trolling ill-wisher will make a maliciously “concerned” phone call and get a government agency involved in your family’s business.
I have done something worse. I was a child. Okay, around 12 or 13, but still, a child.
We were camping. forty miles from the nearest hospital. In the mountains, where those forty miles had to be driving on hairpin curves at about 20 miles an hour.
I was on the mountainside. My pesky little brother , the next one down from me, just two years and 9 months younger (I love him, really, I do) was down below me, bending over, his bottom sticking up in the air.
I INTENDED to toss a (small) rock and hit him in his well padded and denimed bottom for a joke. That was stupid enough. But I throw like a girl, too.
It still would have sailed harmlessly over him, except he stood up. Into the flying rock.
His head instantly spouted blood, he looked at his hand and shouted, “BOy, are you gonna get it now! ” and raced back to tattle. I followed behind, apologizing breathlessly and anxiously watching his white t-shirt turn red.
He was fine, but he still likes to tease me about it.