Carol Reiter: Every dog has its bad days

Ihave decided, after a bad week, that I just flat out have bad dogs.

Well, not all of them. Actually, the only dog that wasn't bad this week was Lenny. I don't know if he's just getting too old to be really bad, or if the other three dogs make him seem better, but whatever it is, I was ready to kill a couple of dogs earlier this week.

It started when I let the dogs out one cold, foggy morning. I always let them go with me to feed the two weanling fillies that are in the barn, Itsy and Gia. The dogs usually take off running down the field, enjoying the crisp morning air and getting the night kinks out.

But this particular morning, everything went wrong.

First, Moss only ran with the other dogs for a couple of minutes, then he came into the barn to check out what I was doing. That's fine with me, except while he was moseying around, looking for disgusting things to eat, one of our big roosters ran by, squawking and screeching, right in front of Moss' nose.

I was cleaning the stall when the rooster came in the barn, and I looked up as he ran past Moss. The freckle-faced puppy jumped back, snapped at the rooster, and bam, the rooster was in Moss' mouth, dead.

It happened so fast, I don't think that Moss even knew what had happened. I yelled at him, not realizing the rooster was already dead, and Moss immediately dropped the rooster, and tried to get out of the barn. I had started out of the stall, and I was mad, mad, mad. I don't think dogs should kill anything, and even though this stupid, noisy rooster had almost asked for it, I was mad at Moss.

And Moss knew it. He took off down the field, his head turned backwards watching me, his tail tucked, watching to see if I was going to come and get him. I got to the rooster, realized he was dead, and watched Moss running away from me.

That made me even madder. If that darned dog was going to be bad, the least he could do was to stick around and get his just punishment.

I picked up the rooster, and yelled at Moss again. He stopped far enough away from me to be out of my reach, and then he put his head down and wagged his tail at me. I realized that Moss really didn't know what he had done, he had never grabbed a chicken in his life, and maybe I shouldn't be so mad.

So I put the rooster down, called Moss, and waited for him to come in. He crept up to me, knowing that I was mad, and I told him it was OK, I knew he really didn't mean to kill the poor rooster.

When Moss heard my nice voice, he ran past me, grabbed that dead chicken, and took off.

Now I was mad all over again. That darn dog did know what he did, he wanted to have some fun with that rooster and he figured he had my permission.

So I yelled again, he dropped the chicken, and I slammed out of the barn, madder than heck at Moss. I called the other dogs, I'd had it with them, and I was ready to put them in their kennels and go to work.

That was fine with Moss, Len and Jan, but Peg had turned her hearing aid off and wasn't about to come in from the back of the pasture. I called and I yelled and I talked nice to Peg, but she totally and completely ignored me. I could see her little black and white body flitting around the back of the pasture, having a great time. I didn't want to walk out there, it was muddy as heck, so I just kept trying to get her to come in.

By that time I was furious. I decided to at least get the other three dogs in, and then I couldn't find Jan. I called her, and then I saw her, sniffing around across the street.

I think by that time my blood pressure was sky high. I got Jan back, put her in her kennel, put poor Lenny, the only one who had actually been a good dog, in his kennel, and then started back out in the pasture to get that darn Peg.

But there was no Peg to be found. I looked and looked, and then I saw her. She was back in the yard, waiting patiently by her kennel.

By the time I left for work that day, I was sick of dogs. As far as I was concerned, they could all stay in the yard forever, I was never letting them out again. I fumed all morning, thinking of the dead chicken and that darn Peg who just plain ignores me, and even Jan, who knows better than to go across the street.

But in a couple of days, I was over it. I decided to try letting the dogs out with me again in the morning, and guess what? They were perfect. Moss ignored the chickens, Peg came as soon as I called her, and Jan tried to convince me that she would never, ever cross that big nasty street.

So the dogs are back on my good side. Maybe they just had to have a bad day, as I guess we all do. I just hope I convinced them that those bad days better be few and far between, because otherwise I'm going to go crazier than I already am.

Reporter Carol Reiter can be reached at (209) 385-2486 or creiter@mercedsun-star.com.