On a lighter note, ey?
Tyke. His vision is pretty much gone these days. But he still gets around good and really enjoys a long race with the FourWheeler in the open hay meadow. I can always win because he usually has to stop and spring a he dog leak.
Tyke is a rescue FoxTerrier/Poodle cross. With is macho Terrier attitude and his one family loyal affectionate demeanor he quickly became a real family pal around here.
One of the days last winter when I was off for Knee Replacement Rehab he got me in a bit of a jam.
He, Tucker and I were out that morning on the Rubicon checking cage traps. We found the door down on a big ole yellow boar coon on the West End. This was before I became convinced by members in the know here, that a head shot is just not the best way to dispatch a coon. I left Tyke on the Rubicon and, I thought dispatched the Big Bandit. I dumped him out for Tucker and turned to walk back to the Rubicon to put the .22lr back in the rack. Well that coon came back to life and Tucker went into full circle and hold mode in a loud excited way. This big boy was a real handful for being dead. Well Tyke baled off the ATV charged in blindly, literally blindly. All took me by surprise. When I finally got back in the game Tyke had ahold of the coon and the coon had ahold of him. Kinda like Gunner only each had the other's hind leg and smaller of course. Tucker quickly interrupted the coon's program, I waded in and tossed Tyke out of the mix.
When the smoke settled, Tyke was covered in blood, head to toe. White dogs covered in blood are very striking. Fortunately the blood was mostly from the Bandit. I knew I had a problem as I was under strict orders to leave Tyke at the house when hunting. But he still really enjoyed our ranch trips so much, besides we didn't have any serious action on the agenda anyway.
Well I loaded them up and got Tyke in the mud room utility sink and used some show horse "Bright White" to change his color from crimson back to snow white. He was fine the rest of the day. When Karen got home she and Tyke took their regularly scheduled evening stroll over the creek to the barn.
When they returned it was all "hands on hips" and "WHAT HAPPENED TO TYKE TODAY?" I started with one of those, "that's my story and I'm sticking to it" deals, but it didn't float. She explained that on the way back from the barn he was packing that right hind leg.
He never limped before or after that trip to the barn. Don't know if he was bragging or complaining or perhaps just rating me out.