The Dog Blog

And just as I say things have been quiet, I had an interesting day yesterday.  I had been up since 3 AM because Wesley was going to a bull sale with his Dad & had to be up early to get ready & get going so they could make it there in time for the sale.  Normally I don’t have to do anything in the morning but get dressed.  Wesley cooks me breakfast, tends to the dog, makes my lunch, starts my vehicle, and makes sure I’m out the door on time.  Well yesterday morning I had to do all this.  I got up on time & was on schedule all morning.  I got ready, made my lunch, had a quick bite to eat for breakfast, and started my truck so it warmed up before I started my morning drive in.  Normally our dog, Jiggs, goes to work with Wesley & hangs out at the ranch all day.  So this morning I had to take him to the ranch & drop him off before I went to work. 
 
Kathy Lehmann – you should appreciate this (Kathy got all my stories when I worked back at Brenham National).  I know you probably have been missing my “dog telling” stories, so this one’s for you.  I was running about 5 minutes behind yesterday morning, but not too terribly late.  I loaded my things in the truck, then loaded Jiggs in the back seat. – Let me preface this story by saying that Jiggs is a Hanging Tree/McNabb cross dog.  He’s a cattle dog, and he is very strong.  He’s about a year & a half old, and still thinks he’s a puppy.  He can jump really high in the air, and outrun just about anything.  He weighs about 60 pounds. – Ok back to the story…whenever Jiggs is clean he rides in the cab with us.  If he’s dirty he rides in the bed.  Of course he was clean because he had been inside with me all morning so I loaded him in the back seat.  He has done this thing lately where he wants to be right up with us when in the truck…he has tried to get in my lap while I’m driving, and has done the same thing to Wesley when he’s driving (which he gets in trouble for but like a child continues to try & push his luck).  So yesterday I’m all dressed in my nice work clothes, have my coffee in my cup holder, and start out down the ¼ mile stretch of road from our driveway to Moo Moo & David’s driveway to drop the dog off.  He starts it as soon as we pull out of the driveway…trying to get up in the front with me.  So I proceed to keep telling him “NO”, but to no avail.  I don’t have time to argue with the dog, so I just let him sit on the center console in the truck to satisfy him.  So we are driving along and I pull into their driveway and start the drive to the back yard area where I was going to drop him off with the other dogs for the day.  Their driveway is pretty long, so I got going to about 25-30 mph down the driveway.  Well there is a cattle guard to cross to get into the back yard (to keep the livestock & horses out) so I planned to drive him over that.  I forgot that Moo Moo & David put up an electric fence to keep the horses from crossing that cattle guard & getting into the back yard (yes, they are sneaky little things), and you can’t see the electric fence until you are right up on it.  As I was about to cross the cattle guard I got close enough to see the electric fence & immediately hit my brakes to avoid running it over.  Where do you think the dog (who just HAD to be in my lap) went?!  STRAIGHT into the windshield!  Yes…that’s correct…the windshield.  It spidered the windshield, he hit the coffee cup & coffee went everywhere, and THEN he proceeds to jump to the back seat & lay on the floor.  I immediately panicked because I thought I might have hurt Jiggs and that’s the last thing I’d want. So I jumped out of the truck to check on him.  He was fine, probably just scared a little bit.  I was crying because I knew that hurt the dog, and then I knew the windshield was going to have to be repaired.  Now I’m about 10 minutes behind.  So after seeing Jiggs run off I figured he was fine, so I started my journey to work.  I got to the end of the ranch entrance, and turned the truck around.  I was so worried that I might have given him a concussion that I needed to go back & make sure he was ok.  So I drove all the way back to where he was, called his name, and of course he comes running.  At that point I knew he was going to be ok. I turned back around and headed toward town for work…all the way crying because I was so afraid Jiggs would be hurt when I got back home. 
 
Now I was about 15 minutes late, and crying until I could get to the interstate to get cell phone service so I could call Wesley.  He immediately calmed me down, told me everything would be fine, and that the dog will learn that next time when we tell him where to sit in the truck he needs to stay there!  He kept reassuring me that it did not hurt the dog, and that the main thing is that I’m ok, and no one got hurt, so everything is going to be just fine.  That’s why I love him so much…he’s always there to calm my fears & make me feel better again. 
 
And so you have it…the first “dog” story I have from Montana!  Its comical looking back on it now, but yesterday I was not laughing!  What are the chances of a dog going thru your windshield…really?!  Oh well…it got a few good laughs yesterday from Wesley & myself after the fact, and my sister thought it was pretty comical too.