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Days of Mad-Dog

Far West Texas Trip

Once again, the Davis Mountains called us back. All those critters needed reminding that Mad-Dog takes no prisoners. Including the whole family of wild pigs on the ranch. 5 babies! And my mom was going "Oh, how cute." Get real, Mom, did you not notice the hog traps everywhere? I did, and they smelled very interesting! I offered my services as trap-guard, but no one listened...

There were only 2 young bulls in our pasture this time, but of course I immediately put them in their place. This one hereford had the nerve not to be scared - I think once he might have intended to get pushy, but my mom was there. I dunno about those horns.

And a few bunnies here and there to chase under the fence. And again my mom is doing the "cute" thing about them. Jeez.

In Terlingua, my mom, ever the bleeding heart, puts out a whole loaf of bread practically in strategic places for the local coyote. He showed up at dusk and from the looks of it, he's been doing well at those cabins. I was not allowed to confront the coyote. We probably would have bonded, both being canines etc. And having pointy ears. He might have let me have a piece of bread. I'll never know.

Most of the time was pretty relaxing, took a lot of naps in the sun. We always did animal rides in the mornng and at night. Saw a ton of deer which I expressed interest in and saw a fox or two, which I guess I'm supposed to gravitate to, my being a toy fox terrier and all.

WHY ME?

Just got back from Caprock Canyons! Cool place with tons of critters to monitor - let's see, ya had your buffalo, your deer, your pheasants, your sandhill cranes, your wild hogs, your turkeys, your coyotes, your foxes and even one skunk crossing the road! BUT and this is the sad part, residing there is Queenie, the Barn Cat. This place is a Bed&Barn, 3 bedroom house on one end, stable and corral on the other - you just open the bathroom door, and there are horses and a tack room, hay - all that barn stuff. Also, there is the cat. She acts like she owns the place. Doesn't look scared at all when she sees me. IN FACT she likes to act like she is stalking me - it's downright creepy. You go out on the front porch and she scrambles to the front of the house; you go out the bathroom door, there she is! And she has this little "I'm so cool" look on her dumb cat face (I'll put a pic of her on my page). AND she's always trying to make friends with my mom and dad. You know that icky rubbing against your legs thing they do. So we had a great time - but this is the third time Barn Cat has been there, so I guess it's a cross I have to bear. Couple of my Dogster buds have offered to go out there first and let her know what's what, but I think the owner of the Bed&Barn likes her - she eats mice and stuff. Dawg, hasn't he heard of mouse traps?

Rocky Mountain High

We stayed in Taos, Pagosa Springs, Silverton, Delores, Soccoro, and Roswell, the longest in Taos Ski Valley which was way up 9200 ft. A husky dog greeted us first off and she wasn't even the house dog! And the owner had a BIG cat - 22 lb. Elwood. We looked at each other a lot and I barked at him, when behind the window. Hey, I'm not stupid...We took drives all over and walked around all those places. They got some strange animals up there. One day while on a drive in the mountains, Dad brakes for this animal who is sunbathing in the middle of the highway, actually on the center stripe. He lumbers off into the woods - I find out it's a marmot. Then in Colorado at our cabin, there is an army of chipmunks and ground squirrels (neither resemble the tree rats at my house). I get to bark a lot at them, but of course cannot chase them, "They're so cute." my mom whines. Bite-size squirrels is what they are, specially those chipmunk things. Saw a snow-shoe rabbit - that dude had humongous feet! And deer and antelope and stuff like that. Bunch of elk crossing signs everywhere, but no elk. And mountain sheep - same thing. Guess my reputation had preceded me. Went to White Sands - radical place but it was like 102 outside and I was really appreciating the AC about then. Last night we were at Roswell, where the aliens ended up and it was a big stink. There were little green aliens all over. Even a KFC had a sign "Aliens Welcome." But you know, they won't let DOGS come in, wazzup with that???