I can tell what Nellie is thinking – at least some of the time. This past weekend we took our friend, Duke [see photo right], with us to the farm. Duke is a 3-year-old male German Shorthair who belongs to Ken, Mike’s hunting buddy. Ken is traveling for a couple of weeks, so we agreed to rescue Duke from the boarding facility when we went to the farm. But our spoiled girl didn’t like having to share her domain and her people with another dog. Her body language conveyed her disappointment. “Why did we have to bring Duke anyway?” she moped.
“Nellie has something,” said Mike from the chaise lounge on the porch. Nellie was trotting purposefully toward the barn with a mouthful of something dark. But neither one of moved to chase her down, trusting that the “something” was not something important.
So, when I discovered one of my leather work gloves was missing from the porch step, I naturally thought of Nellie with “something” in her mouth. I knew she had taken it. Her snout was “out of joint” and the glove was available and nicely nasty. The pieces all fit. I hated to lose that glove, too. The pair were made of tanned deer hide and fit my small hands snuggly. I should have been more careful, of course, but who knew Nellie would pick one up? I’m sure she had some vague notion of what she was doing. But when I asked her about it, she just smiled and wagged her tail.
Down to the barn we went. “What did you do with my glove, girl?” I asked. Oh, she pretended to look around all right, sniffing here and there as though she had a clue. I gave up searching the barn and began to check the grounds. I knew we wouldn’t find it by searching, though. We would find it by keeping our eyes open – and hopefully before it dried out and became useless.
Sure enough, this morning as we were preparing to leave the farm, Mike found the glove in the barn – on the south side where we keep the 4-wheeler. He said Nellie had actually dug a hole preparatory to burying the glove, but in the end she thought better of going through with it and just left it by the hole.
“Nellie has something,” said Mike from the chaise lounge on the porch. Nellie was trotting purposefully toward the barn with a mouthful of something dark. But neither one of moved to chase her down, trusting that the “something” was not something important.
So, when I discovered one of my leather work gloves was missing from the porch step, I naturally thought of Nellie with “something” in her mouth. I knew she had taken it. Her snout was “out of joint” and the glove was available and nicely nasty. The pieces all fit. I hated to lose that glove, too. The pair were made of tanned deer hide and fit my small hands snuggly. I should have been more careful, of course, but who knew Nellie would pick one up? I’m sure she had some vague notion of what she was doing. But when I asked her about it, she just smiled and wagged her tail.
Down to the barn we went. “What did you do with my glove, girl?” I asked. Oh, she pretended to look around all right, sniffing here and there as though she had a clue. I gave up searching the barn and began to check the grounds. I knew we wouldn’t find it by searching, though. We would find it by keeping our eyes open – and hopefully before it dried out and became useless.
Sure enough, this morning as we were preparing to leave the farm, Mike found the glove in the barn – on the south side where we keep the 4-wheeler. He said Nellie had actually dug a hole preparatory to burying the glove, but in the end she thought better of going through with it and just left it by the hole.
2 comments:
I am so surprised that she would lash out at you so maliciously! I guess she couldn't find a way to express her feelings at Duke. Maybe she thought his presence was your fault. Do you think she thought better of burying the glove or do you think it was a threat for next time???
I made a story of the incident, of course, but I do believe she associated Duke's presence with her humans. She usually doesn't bother our stuff, but then, something leather will attract her attention. It was odd that she didn't finish her task, but she might have been distracted by a barn swallow.
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