Twistin the ground hog... short story

[Jackpine Savage]

Don't know how to keep this short without a lot of background but... here goes

One day while headed across the fields to an old gravel pit which contains a small pond my two brothers and I came across a ground hog that had climbed up into the lower branches of a maple. Being the youngest of the 3, I was elected to climb up and try to shake him out. Oh yeah, forgot to tell you, along with us was our grandfathers farm dog Pal, a shepherd collie mix near as we could tell.

Well anyway I climbed out onto the small limb as far as I dared go but could not shake that hog out of the tree. So instead I started twisting the limb round and round until he lost his grip. Well I'm here to tell ya that critter never made it to the ground. Old Pal caught him in mid air and with a couple shakes there was innards a flyin every which way!

On the way home we took the county road and Pal got a lot of second looks from passersby as he proudly carried his prize back. One of those passerby happened to be the biggest gossip in the township! Sure heard about that!!

That dog would not tolerate squirrels. ground hogs or other bothersome critters around the farm. I have seen him tear boards off the side of the tractor shed to get at some animal or another. Now when it came to cats he was protctive. My uncle from Wisconsin showed up one time with a Malamute and when it took after a cat old Pal was right on his rear trying to protect the poor thing.

Tom

 

[Wayne in BC]

some of us ol' farts have a short attention span anyway
That's a good one! Thanks for contributing.

 

[Ron J]

n/t

 

[Jackpine Savage]

except for when we were out hunting he was always around. We never knew why but Pal did not like the sound of gunshots or firecrackers. If we left the house with a gun he would tag along until he saw you load it, then he was gone!

Tom

 

[Jackpine Savage]

n/t

 

[Royal]

That brought back some memories! I had a buddy, his name was fred. He had a small dog, if I remember right it was beagle. That dog was a nosy sucker and one day we were walking down by the swamp. There was a culvert running under the road we were walking and the dog started sniffing and getting excited. Into the culvert the little sucker went.

All of a sudden we heard a muffled barking and squalling coming out from the culvert. Heck, we didn't know what he had gotten into but it had to be bad. I don't know how long it went on but one of us were on our hands and knees at each end of the culvert trying to see what was going on and calling for the dog.

All of a sudden the noise stopped and soon the dog came squeezing his way out, it was a tight fit for the little guy, with a chawed up muskrat in its jaws. The rat was dead and the dog was all chewed up. His nose was a mess but he was proud.

That was the first muskrat that Fred knew of the dog getting but after that it seemed an obsession for the dog. I bet over the years that sucker killed a hundred of them, probably more. Lucky for them they lived on the edge of the swamp.

Thanks for bringing back that memory

 

[Micheal_R]

A couple of days back, the three of them headed up to the barn loft to prowl around. They got the scent and went crazy. Then for some reason, Badger [they oldest] came down and sat in one of the horse stalls. Not 30 seconds later, the packrat came flying from the loft, right into her mouth.

Who says that dogs cannot communicate.

Fair winds

Mikie

 

[Jackpine Savage]

A buddy of mine had one too. That dog would disappear for a day or so and then come home all worn out and lay around resting for a while. One nice winter day I was over to his house and we got to talking about hunting so I asked him if he had ever gone out rabbit hunting with her. Nope, he said I don't think she hunts. I talked him into taking her out with us to see and as it turned out she hunted downright good for a non-hunter! I think that answered the question of where and what she had been doing when she would come home all tired out.

Tom

 

[Dan-MO]

Reminds me of some of my "Pals" from the past. Thank you!