Stories From The Pack

Stories From The Pack

Adventures Of A Spring Run

It was a beautiful Spring day after a long, cold winter. It had been a while since the dogs had a good back road run. As soon as I grabbed their collars they knew they were going on an adventure and began getting excited. They couldn't wait to jump in the car. I loaded the dogs in the car and headed to a place where we rarely see other vehicles. It’s a field access road to a few fields north of town. The dogs can run free and I don’t have to worry about them, or so I thought.

As I’m slowly following behind the dogs, watching them having fun, being free, and being able to just be dogs, when, all of a sudden, Cola and Macoli take off through a field in one direction and Sawshaws takes off through another field in the opposite direction. Now the fun begins!

As I mentioned, it is Spring and the fields are too wet to drive in so I can’t chase after them, not even on foot. I kept my attention on Cola and Macoli because I thought Sawshaw only chased birds. I would soon learn that birds are not the only things Sawshaw loves to chase.

As I’m watching Cola and Macoli, I could see them from the road, I saw Cola toss something black and white into the air. From my vantage point it looked like a stuffed animal flying through the air. As the object was falling back down toward the ground, Macoli launched herself into the air with as much force as she could muster. She caught the butt of object in her mouth mid-air.

It reminded me of a stuffed animal. Then it hit me, it was black and white. "Oh, no! Did they get a skunk?" I moaned to myself. After Macoli’s amazing mid-air catch they both began to trot back to the car as proud as Peacocks. I noticed Macoli rubbing her face intermittently along the ground as she was coming back to the car. As they got closer to me I began to smell the unmistakable aroma of a skunk. Macoli caught the skunk rump first and, therefore, had skunk oil all over her face. At this point, I’m thinking, “You guys are not getting into my car smelling like that.”

Now for sweet Sawshaw. I honked the horn three times and waited a couple of minutes. Soon I saw her top a hill heading toward us. “What a good girl!” I hollered to her. She happily loped toward us. As she got closer, I could see that she has gotten into something. Then came that all too familiar scent… she had found a skunk too. I shook my head and said, “Well, I guess you’re walking home with the other two.”

It was approximately a 10km walk back to town. It was a long, slow journey home for the skunk hunters. As other vehicles came toward us, I could see them wondering what I was doing making those poor dogs walk beside the car. But, as they got closer to us, they would quickly roll up their windows and grin as they passed by. Some were brave enough to stop and chat quickly. Everyone wanted to know the story.

We finally made it home. The dogs were exhausted, thirsty, and stunk to high heaven. They stunk so bad my husband said, "I could smell the skunk scent five minutes before you pulled up." Needless to say I phoned my neighbors and apologised for the ungodly smell eminating from my back yard.

This wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last time my dogs would sniff out skunks, But skunks are not the worst things a dog can come across on a back road run.