C: Gang Violence in the Country

The other night MIL and I were watching some tube together when I realized I had forgotten to bring her the mail I had gathered as I came home. I drove back down the driveway (dogs chasing along as they always do), and the dogs and I ran into the house to grab the mail.

As we came back out, Chili spotted something off the porch--in the pitch blackness. Off he went. As you can see from this photo taken from my front porch in the morning daylight, I am surrounded by woods. There is a small meadow between me and the forest edge. At night the light from my porch does nothing to penetrate the dark even five feet outward.



I could not see what Chili was doing; but before long I heard...the unmistakable sounds of a dog fight. There is little that raises my blood pressure more. I had no flashlight and I had no way of knowing who was getting the best of whom. After a few seconds (seemed much longer), here came Chili running back at top speed.

As he cleared the steps to come on the porch beside me, the woods came absolutely alive with howling. There were coyotes out there!! From the sound, there were a lot of them, although I understand that a few can sound like many.

We are accustomed to coyotes out here, and they don't bother us. From time to time we will catch sight of one, but about the most damage they do is that I suspect them of offing my kitties. I think Chili must have sensed one too close to the house and took off after him--bitting off more than he could chew when the whole gang arrived to the rescue of their mate. Here's Chili near the scene of the crime in the daylight.

Chili, Scout and I went back to MIL's, and we brought the dogs in. Chili had a bleeding nick on his hindquarters--nothing to worry about. But he had blood all over the ruff of his neck. We speculate that this means the coyote might have gotten the worst of it.

Chili was keyed up something awful! He paced and looked out the window, and I could tell his adrenalin was pumping by the way he shook every so often. When I told the story later, my brother said he was trying to say, "You just don't know what's out there!!" Probably so.

All this evoked images of Old Yeller, the burning of the rabid cow in the night, and the appearance of the rabid wolf, which was intercepted by the brave Yeller, to his eventual death. What a story! As the title song says: "His coat was yeller, but his heart was true blue." Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a little Miley Cyrus song to spur your own memories of this heroic dog story.

I learned from you that I do not crumble
I learned that strength is something you choose
All of the reasons to keep on believin'
There's no question, that's a lesson, that I learned from you

And one more picture of my own heroic dog, Chili

And, if you haven't both seen the movie and read the book, "Ol' Yeller," well, I don't know if you can call yourself literate!

This post and the clip makes my eyes a little misty at the thought of my dogs' loyalty! I loooooooove them! C

P.S.We are seriously thinking of getting a female Belgian Malinois as a wife to Chili--raising our own counterterrorism group!