A Direct Hit to the Face (4/17/14)

Scarlett got three walks today.  She walked herself on the first one.  Yes, she did.  JR looked out the window and said, “What’s that?  A coyote?”  No, it was just Scarlett, three quarters of the way up the driveway, barely in sight.  With the wind howling, I had to scream to get her attention and get her to come home.  I haven’t seen her wander that far before.  JR said, “Good, we’re paying for the Tagg Tracker service.  It’s getting some use.”  Not exactly what I was thinking!  And Scarlett?  A coyote?  Somebody needs their eyes checked 🙂

Scarlett and I did the other two walks together.  The first one was on the road.  Little Miss I-Can’t-Wait-to-Walk-The-Road-and-Eat-Everything-I-Can-Get-My-Tongue-On, has been wandering into various pastures on our road walks and not coming when called to the extent that I put her on leash for the Scilley Road part of the walk.  The leashed walk was a much quieter walk instead of the usual, constant “Leave it!  Drop it!”  “Come, Come HERE, Get Over Here NOWWWW!”  On the walk up the Scilley hill back towards our house, I smelled a skunk. I’ve been smelling him for a day or two around the same area.  This time, however, I spotted his carcass.  Luckily, I spotted him just before Scarlett, who was then off-leash, spotted him.  I grabbed her by her collar and directed her away from him.  Like a heat seeking missile, she spotted the skunk and did her best to drag me over there.  I managed to hold her back and get a picture.

We’ve seen one of these guys wandering around (alive, obviously), and he looked much bigger when his fur wasn’t, well, dead and flattened (imagine that).  I was surprised how small he was.  Anyway, crisis averted for the time being.

For walk number two, I decided I was sick of walking the road.  Can you imagine?  I mean, doesn’t the walk I just described sound super enjoyable?  Instead we meandered through our back pasture around to the front.  We worked on a few training skills (mainly “come” so one day I can stop yelling, “get your butt over here!”). We finished this walk just before 7pm and the light was so nice.  I made Scarlett sit and stay so I could sit down and get a nice picture of us together.  Uh huh.  Why do I keep trying to do this?  This is only possible right after major surgery on this dog.  Anyway, call me an optimist because I tried again.  Did I get a nice picture?  No, I got a direct hit to the face.

Peroxide! Look at the power behind that tongue! She moved half my face!  It happened so fast!

Wonderful.  Yep.  This is the dog that will snack on any random dead animal or (sorry to be crude, but I gotta tell it like it is) poo.  And….she just licked my face.  The ensuing mischief that followed:

Lick aftermath

Lemme go!

What’d I do?

At least I was rewarded with a pretty close to the evening.  These are as reliable as Scarlett eating…let’s just say they are reliable and leave it at that!

Now, who has an armageddon-style stockpile of antibacterial soap?