Dog Days in the Osage -

Doppie - yes that is her name, kinda of like Oppie with a D

Well have you ever had a bad day?  I never would have guessed this one.  On top of everything else when I got home our dog was in pretty bad shape and we may have to put her down.  

This reminds me of my favorite dogs and I wish I could remember their names, I will ask Debbie and Larry.  Anyway the first one I remember was a cocker spaniel which was very hyper.  She ran the cattle and that was a problem and then she would chase the tires on the school bus and that would drive Don Conner and Bob Scott crazy.  Periodically she would disappear for a few days roaming up and down the creek looking for a boy dog if you know what I mean.  Come to think of it that reminds me of some goings on at school, guys and girls roaming up and down the halls.  Well not too long after that we would have puppies but not at school.

The first sign of puppies was you could sit in the house and listen real quietly and hear the pups crying.  Almost every time there were new pups they were born underneath the house.   Most folks today don't even know that when you built a house years ago there was a crawl space under the floor.  That was so you could run the plumbing and wiring under the floor and get under the floor if you needed to repair it and there were no air conditioner vents because there was NO air condition at our house.  Some of the uppity folks had window coolers, do I need to explain uppity.  The dogs liked it because when they were next to the fireplace it was cool in the summer and warm in the winter.  The mother would create a nest area and the pups were comfortable when she was gone hunting for food and water.  Well as soon as possible after we knew they were born I would crawl under the house never considering there were spiders and snakes under there as well and I would hunt for the puppies.  It was great fun as each day I would check on them and finally as I remember in about a week or two their eyes would open and they were about double their size when they were born.  That is when I would typically take them out from under the house and help the mother create a new bed so I could watch them closely.

Now I don't know about you but I never needed sex education to figure this whole thing out about where dogs and cats and cows come from.  And lets clear something up right now.  When we say cows we mean bulls, cows, calves, stears, heifers and not just females which are cows.  Now if I say cows have calves I mean a female, got it?  Anyway, it was obvious from the beginning that moms had em.  And yes, had em is a word with a space in it. 

 Now that we are on the subject of SEX I have a story to tell you about Bill Snyder.  If you remember Bill he was a little slow to talk and a little dry in his humor but when he said something it was funny.  I remember we had a family reunion after my folks moved to Perkins and Bill was there.  You probably remember how at family reunions after a giant meal everyone would start to quiet down a bit and just sit and look at each other.  Obviously Bill got bored a little and of course the TV was on and there was a football game going on but again that sleepy haze was in the room and no one was talking much.  Also about that time it seemed that every commercial on TV was about feminine hygiene and tampons.  So Bill chimes up and says, "Since everyone is so bored with nothing to talk about lets talk about the hot subject these days, Tampons".  My gosh!  Everyone woke up out of their haze and I personally laughed so hard I was in serious side pain.  Have you ever laughed so hard it hurt?

Back to dogs.  We always had a dog and most of the time when they got old somehow they would disappear and never return.  Dad always said it was because they got in fights with coyotes and lost.  I figured it was probably true since on occasion our dog would come back wounded from a fight.  Now that reminds me of school as well.  Hmmmm?  People act like wild dogs.  Boys over girls and girls over boys, at least that  was how it worked in the old days.  It was fun to see girls fight because they would scratch and claw and pull hair and call each other b_____.  Guys would just punch and wrestle then get up and go have a beer together when they decided the girl was not worth the fight or at least the pain.

Well we hope Doppie recovers tonight and we have given her some medicine to ease the pain.  She has been with us about 11 or 12 years.

What did we learn from the Osage?

•  Dogs are many times our best friends and we hate to lose them
• People can act worse than your dog and you probably can trust your dog more than people
• Love your dog and love people and don't give up on them 
• I don't drink but I might start tonight - it was a bad day
• the secret to having a bad day is getting up one more time than you get down

Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com