Sugar & Moos Excellent Adventure
On Friday morning, I headed to the back place to check cattle. Sugar rode along. A gutty pup - with no qualms about jumping in the water or going after cows. I’m the one having anxiety attacks. The cattle were in the irrigated part of the place, below the canal. They were fine. I opened the gate at the plank bridge and calculated the best route to avoid the holes in the boards. Once across, I closed the gate behind us. I’d never seen this much grass here before. I wandered through the brush until I finally picked up the road again. We got in and out a couple of times to take pictures. Sugar has learned to get down to the floor to exit the pickup. She kept getting into this nasty needle grass. It looks like hair or wire and has a sharp point on the end. The dogs picked some of it up a few years ago. We weren’t familiar with it before that. It seems the weather conditions for this grass were perfect this year. It is all over the place.
I carefully climbed the furrowed brow concentration part of the drive - in granny in 4WD. It’s not high, but the road is washed out. You have to avoid the ruts that have become a couple of feet deep. Finally past the toughest stretch, I relaxed a bit. Sugar jumped towards the window behind my back. I took one hand off the wheel to put her where she belonged. Uh oh - bad move - now we’re high centered on a steep hill. Can’t roll back, can’t go forward. I got out and discoved that there wasn’t a shovel on the bed. I had post pounder, bars, fence stretcher, posts, wire, clips, staple and tools - but no shovel. I began trying to free the rear end with the bar. This was not going to work.
Do I have a cell phone? Of course. My husband insisted when I drove back east that we get them. They’re both sitting on one of the bookcases in the dining room. It wouldn’t have helped if I had mine. I could have left a message at the house for The Sugar Beet Baron to find when he came in for the noon meal. I had, once again - committed the first deadly sin - not leaving a note as to where I was going. I was only going to be gone a little bit. I did however have the digital camera with me to document the fun. The first thing that went through my head when I knew I’d be walking had been, “I’m glad it’s not Lucky”. Lucky is heavy, old and stiff. A lot like me. We’re both accustomed to walking, and Lucky has a lot of heart. I’m concerned about her overdoing it. But Lucky was home. More than likely on the sofa or in my (our) recliner, dreaming about rabbits.
“Okay, Sugar - we have a walk to take.” She was thrilled until we hit the first patches of that nasty grass. Ouch! I tried walking on cow trails instead of the road. It didn’t matter. When the grass bit - she’d panic and roll around. Picking up more of the stuff. I’d scoop her up, pull out the needles and calm her down. The cow trails weren’t helping, so we went back to the road. The grass and brush were so thick I decided against any shortcuts. Sugar was carried through the stretches of the nasty grass, cactus and yucca. She’d squirm and cry, “I want to walk!”. For two months old she did great. A few times she needed to take a break, so I took some photos. Or maybe it was the other way around. She tripped over a rock once. She picked herself up and looked at the rock as if to say, “Hey! What did you do that for?”. I checked her pads every time I pulled grass from her coat. She was doing fine.
We made it to the county road. I picked her up again, since I knew where she was headed. Into the ditch. I let her drink and carried her the rest of the way. We made it home just before noon.
I thought that she’d sleep all afternoon. I wasn’t lucky there either.
Click on the photos for them to open in a larger window.
July 23rd, 2005 at 11:55 am
You had quite an adventure with your little buddy! I always take my cell phone, and I keep it in OFF mode to save the battery, when we are out in the woods…I want full battery for an emergency!
I remember getting high centered out on a dirt road in Montana. We had to have a forest ranger haul us out! He was sure nice about it. But, the roast that was in the OVEN at the time was burnt to a crisp!
July 23rd, 2005 at 1:29 pm
Darn good thing you and Sugar got back in time to cook lunch! This could have been serious. Really, though, you got the cell phone..take it along. If something happened that you couldn’t walk home from, you could call help even if it wasn’t the Baron.
The note thing must be universal. I will come in here and laying on the dining room table will be a piece of paper with a word or two, such as “feedlot” “Cassie” which tells me that even though her folks thought she would be here, she went to the feedlot. bonnie
July 23rd, 2005 at 6:03 pm
Good thing it wasn’t winter!
Bonita, that’s a good strategy (cell phone off). I’m going to remember that.
July 23rd, 2005 at 6:33 pm
Wonder if the Sugarbear will look at her next ride as another adventure to be savored or to be faced with trepredation?
The picture of her in the driver’s seat reminds me that every time I take Sheba up to Montana and I stop for petrol, I invariably find her ensconsed in the driver’s seat. As she’s considerably bigger than Sugar (and much older, of course), I have to really give her a serious push to get her back into the back seat. (As a full grown German Shepherd/Akita mix, she fills up a bucket seat, I can assure you.)
Perhaps your situation is the only one where I could see using a cell phone. (I’ve since started counting the number of morons in the local WalMart using cell phones to have their significant others talk them through the store. So if you’re in the Mesa area and you’re on the phone and you hear someone say, “two,” loudly, you’ll know who it is.) It is my personal opinion that when archeologists dig up Phoenix in 500 years, they’ll determine that the decline of Western Civilization began with the invention of the cell phone. (I’ve informed my friends that if they ever see me using one of these infernal devices, they have my permission to shoot me on the spot, and put me out of my misery.)
Kirk
July 23rd, 2005 at 8:20 pm
You sure have fun with that puppy! That was a grand adventure for Sugar, but tedious I think for you. I hope the Baron got the truck out easily. I am seeing what you mean about open windows/doors/gates and border collies. It is more like out-think them because you will never be faster than them. Linn
July 24th, 2005 at 5:52 am
My favorite shot is the one of her sitting on the path in between the two rows of wheat (?)…
Have you set up a free page for her at Dogster yet? You already have the photos!
Let me know when you do, and I’ll link my pup to yours…
Cheers,
Mr. H.K.
Postcards from Hell’s
Kitchen
And I Quote Blog
July 24th, 2005 at 11:47 am
Been there, done that! Way back when my sister and I high centered the ATV in a mound of snow and the more she spun the wheels, the deeper we got. i was on cross country skis so she begged and cried until I agreed to ski back home and WAKE DAD up from his nap! I don’t know which was worse. my sister’s whining and crying or dad whining and bitching. We had a collie at the time who thought it was great fun to bound through the snow and such! We all slept like a rock afterwards.
July 24th, 2005 at 12:17 pm
You can always tell when it is irrigation season…there are never any extra shovels around when you need one!
July 24th, 2005 at 6:13 pm
Ok, the dog is cute but that truck, (sound of catcall) whooey!
July 24th, 2005 at 11:28 pm
Sugar is soo cute and your road looks more like mine than I care to admit, but I don’t have any places where you could get high centered. At the moment, anyway.
July 25th, 2005 at 12:00 pm
That dog looks entirely too vicious!
July 25th, 2005 at 7:24 pm
definitely the cutest puppy ever
July 26th, 2005 at 9:11 am
Bonita - We really should get in the habit of taking them with us. Unfortunately, in the hills here - there are more totally dead spots than signals. I got home in time to heat up some soup I’d made the day before.
Bonnie - The notes are an unspoken rule.
Patia - Yes, 20 below and trudging through snow wouldn’t have been much fun.
Kirk - I thought that she’d never get back in a vehicle with me. Wrong - a few hours later she was up to it again. Dogs love the driver seat. Especially when they’re soaking wet. . .
Linn - I did not want to be behind the wheel of the pickup being towed in reverse on that part of the road. It’s more like “Where the heck is the road?”. So I did the tow.
Mr. HK - I’ve been trying to upload her photos on dogster without luck. I’ll keep trying.
Moosekahl - Well, I guess it could have been worse - it could have been mud. Snow is bad enough.
Pandora - Yes, and with beets - it’s usually irrigation season. Beet is a four letter word.
Tony - 1977 F150, original owner, 143+ thousand miles before the odometer died. It is more dependable than this driver. I pulled it out backwards. I hate towing.
Granny - Not yet, but soon?
Dave - Yes, and fast with sharp teeth!
L - Wickedly so!
December 3rd, 2005 at 1:26 pm
Michael (DailyPuppyGuy) said…
Your story really strikes me about how different people’s lifestyles are. I live in a high-rise apartment in the city and have never even heard the term “high centered”. Thanks for the slice of life.
Also, Sugar is an extremely cute puppy! I’ve featured her on my cute puppy blog, The Daily Puppy. Sugar
Thanks for sharing her picture and story.
December 3rd, 2005 at 9:15 pm
I saw Sugar on the daily puppy! Imagine my happy surprise when I clicked the link to find out how the cute pupy got so tired, and found out that it was YOUR Sugar!!!
An adventure indeed! Glad it all worked out.
November 6th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
What a sweet dog!! I wish you and Sugar many happy and exciting adventures.One of the best things in Life is the companionship & love of a good furry friend.
Cheers,
Dolores