Ancient Ritual14

9 by 12 100.

Boy, did I have an adventure this morning. A big thunder storm pass thru here last night dumping a ton of water into the creeks. As luck would have it, I took my three labs down to the park which has a lake on one side and many small creeks leading down to the water. It was wet and I knew no one would be there. I let them off the leash to run and play for awhile. Its difficult at times to exercise these dogs especially if I’ve been sick. Well, as we are strolling along the dogs see a Beaver…

All H E double hockey sticks breaks loose…It took me ten minutes to get those dogs away from that poor creature. There I was standing up on a trail looking down into the creek bed. I’m thinking a Raccoon or Possum must be down there. I hear growling and barking, nothing too serious I can tell by their movements. While I can only see something brown and wet trying to get away from the three dogs I stumbling along the slick edge. Then I see them…while they circled him and nipped the poor little guy, I decide its time to intervene. I’ go tromping thru the underbrush and the wet rocks to get down there. The Beaver( he was about 40 lbs) couldn’t get away because he was in a very small creek bed and the beaver is apparently pretty slow on land. There wasn’t enough water for him to swim to get away so they sort of had him cornered. Finally I’m down at lease at their level in the water, I was calf deep in the creek mud, sand and water are rushing by me (good thing I wore my CROCKS) yelling to the various dogs but they are all insanely intent and not listening. Hmm…I think I’ll have to try to get one dog at a time… I knew Sam would listen to me as he is the best dog. I call for him and reluctantly he comes back & I tie him to the bridge nearby. Then my little yellow lab who is mostly afraid of everything including this beaver, He easily comes to me but is still very curious and is dashing about, first to me then back over to check out the action with the beaver then again back to me. Now that I have the two males secure, I know I’m going to have a bit of a struggle with the last dog. While going back for her I notice the Beaver is steadily moving up stream in the creek with Missy right behind her. My female lab is a mix breed and has some Australian sheepdog in her blood. She loves to run, she loves to chase anything that moves. Every time the Beaver would move she would dart over and try to nip it then crouch down and eye ball it for a moment till it moved again. Needless to say I’m wet, the rocks are wet, the Beaver continues to go upstream so I’m having a time even catching up to them. Finally after some yelling to the dog, she stops. I’m really glad no one is around now because I look like that beaver looks all wet and hysterical. I try to figure out what is my best move now…while I watching them, the Beaver is only feet away from me and is between me and the dog. I’m afraid the dog will be bit, the Beaver occasionally turn around and shows the dog its teeth. Just like that, the beaver crawls under a rock, the dog listens to me and comes back with this ashamed “I’m sorry I don’t listen” look and I get her leash back on climb out of the creek and get the three of them out of there.

The whole time we were walking back, the dogs were all full of themselves. Prancing and sniffing, they were on high alert, heads held high like they had just been on a fox hunt… I guess they were still looking for more Beavers. I put them in the car figuring we all had enough exercise for one day.

Now we’re home, the house smells like a wet dog, the back of my Toyota Matrix is all wet and muddy, I smell like a wet dog and we all need a bath.

All this and it isn’t even 8:00 am…Just another summer day in South Carolina.