This is part two of the series titled, The Stray Dog
The Stray dog, part 1 is here… @krazyuncle/the-stray-dog
One thing to keep in mind while reading this story, is I've never had a dog friend to care for myself.
The Stray Dog, part 2
Today, Friday 15th my new friend and I played the eat-the-chicken-game a couple more times. My fuzzy visitor is getting good at eating chicken from my hand, but it is still easily startled, If the dog's foot slips on the floor and makes a noise it jerks and turns away. I have to move slowly to keep the little doggy from bolting.
After our late afternoon feeding session in the garage, I wanted to go out into the yard. I walked out into the sun and my friend followed. So, I walked out into the middle of the yard and my buddy starts sniffing around on the ground, and so I sit down, lay back and watch the sky for a bit. I decided to see how far we could walk together. I walked around to the front of the house and the stray followed. I sat on the front porch and the dog ate grass for a while.
I decided to take a much longer walk, so across the road we went and out into the wheat fields. Where I live my landlord/boss farms the fields surrounding my house. The field across from me is called the “Morrow” named for the original owners long, long ago. And, the field has a dirt road running up the middle of it, being a private road I don’t have to worry about traffic. On our walk I also spotted a lot of coyote tracks left in the dried mud. (Turned out those prints were probably from a neighbor walking his dog over the hill on daily walks.)
A very dirty little dog, with a great big smile...
My buddy loved going for a walk with me, and lord knows I need to go for walks. The stray raced ahead of me and then stopped and came back. Doggy would bound and leap over the fresh green wheat plants that come to it’s shoulders, looking like a porpoise breaking the surface of the sea. The dog hunted and sniffed and ran and even got to playing with me like a puppy will do. It felt really good to be outside with my new friend on walkabout.
One thing I noticed is that I don’t have to feel overly protective with this dog… (ha, ha… that changed over time). Most of the time when I’m in a situation like that, with a soul that I view as somewhat vulnerable, I dial up my protective instincts. But, once I rationalized that this dog had been on walkabout for a couple weeks all by itself, I figured it could take care of itself.
After, our walk I decided I’d feed the dog some more chicken on the front porch. And, as I’m feeding the constantly hungry mouth I see what I think of as a piece of chicken fall out of its mouth. I go to point it out to my friend and the thing I thought was a piece of chicken looks like a grey pebble… huh? and, then it starts to move – I look closer and spot legs – oh, shit! This poor dog has ticks! I’d noticed what I thought were little pebbles falling off of the Stray before, but I thought doggy had kicked them up and they were pebbles or gravel from the garage. But, the front porch has no gravel, so now I realize that this poor animal has a lot of ticks. In fact I found three where we were sitting on the porch.
Dang it, and there is little I can do until I can actually physically touch the very cautious dog. Anybody got some ideas on ticks? (I did figure this out later.) I have been doing some internet searches and using tweezers seems to be the preferred method. It has also been suggested that I shave the Stray, which may not be a bad idea as its hair is pretty matted and the weather can reach to over one hundred degrees sooner, rather than later.
Yes, it's even more disgusting in real life... when I talked to the Veterinarian later, she explained that only the females engorge themselves like this... for an idea of size, it was about as big around as a man's pinkie finger nail... ugh...
So, I’ll keep working with the dog and we’ll be going on frequent walkabouts, as it is good for both of us, and I’m sure that soon we’ll break down that last couple inches of very real barrier between man and dog.
P.S. it became very evident he’s a him today during our walk. Nice to know. Now I have to come up with a name. I generally let pets name themselves. Call me silly or call me psychic, but what I’ve done in the past is ask my pet what their name is and then open and clear my mind, generally a name comes to me, sometimes it takes a day or two as I keep asking. I’ve done this a couple times with my furry friend and I kept getting the impression that the dog wanted to be known as… “Carlena” go figure? But, once I spotted his masculinity, I realized he wanted to have a very male name. So maybe he’s a Carl? Or is it Karl? Trying out that name, I’d see his ears twitch and he’d look at me with his big brown eyes and a smile… Okay, that’s it… Karl… not a traditional dog name, but if that’s what he wants… who am I to judge?
BTW: I didn’t think my friend picked-up the ticks in my yard. Most likely he ran the same trails as the local deer on his long walkabout before we met, and that is where he got them.
Stay tuned for more updates