Why was I worried anyway?

[IrishAyes]

Last edited Mon Nov 18, 2013, 12:56 PM - Edit history (1)

Despite my earlier concerns, Molly Maguire and Brigid are doing fine even with the dropping temps outdoors. They do need to spend more time indoors, but even though they quickly shredded the new toys I'd picked up for them locally, they still concentrate on wrestling and play fighting anyway. The new kong tires arrived in the mail today, and they really love them. Should last at least a week or two!

I'm watching for a chance to talk to some of the hunters who congregate next door every year for deer season, because they always dress the deer in the back yard. The chows couldn't jump the fence and neither can Molly, but Brigid's never been exposed to raw venison. She could step over that fence if she wanted to. So if the guys will just call and let me know when they bring a deer in, at least I could go outside with her and try to control potential jumping. I have one of those water soaker pistols that works really well to discourage dogs (or cats!). It should be an interesting learning experience, but I'm sure we can think of some way to outsmart her if we all put our heads together.

When I lived in the boonies, my dogs always did their own hunting and were pretty good at it too. But at least in this section of the country, deer tend to be wormy so I'd really rather be able to cook venison for the dogs. It would be a really good time for Brigid to get poison trained (a little hot sauce works wonders) but I don't know if any of the hunters will help me with it. I can't do it myself because she'll understandably never again trust anyone she associates with the event. The main idea, though, is that it works quite well to discourage the dog from picking up raw meat, which is what real poisoners tend to use for bait. That's a lot worse than a little hot sauce.

[Granny M]

1. Glad they're doing well with the cold.

I hope the hunters will work with you, at least letting you know when they're dressing a deer. Brigid will probably still smell it after the job is done and will try to get over there, but at least if it's pretty well cleaned up she won't do any damage.

Re the hot sauce: When I was a kid, there was a dog of legend belonging to some family friends. The dog would literally eat anything, including all the buds on the lady's prize camellia bushes. So, in the hopes of seeing some flowers again, she decided to put tabasco sauce on the plants. The dog LOVED the tabasco - ate all the buds and the leaves and even branches, and never even went to the water dish.

I hope the hot sauce works better for you. =-)

[IrishAyes]

4. Well, at least I'm forewarned. Wish me luck!

My real hope is that maybe (HA!) Brigid will voluntarily stay in the yard. She's seen plenty of squirrels and cats, even a few possums and other critters over there, and only barked furiously. The one time she actually went over was when I left her in the yard while I walked 2 doors over and she felt compelled to join me. The giant maple tree in the southeast back corner grew just a bit slanted, and I've noticed her run 6-8 feet up the trunk trying to catch squirrels. See my previous reply to the other poster for a related fence story.

[hobbit709]

2. I had a dog that LIKED hot sauce.

He even liked hot peppers. He once got into my pepper garden and ate a Habanero plant and two Thai bird pepper plants. Didn't faze him a bit.

[IrishAyes]

3. Well, if it doesn't work on Brigid, I was doomed from the start anyway.

Fortunately I don't worry about the hunters poisoning Brigid, even if she gobbled up half their take. But I don't want her over there either, and I'm sure neither do they. If they cooperate, the hot sauce will get at least a try. Wish us luck! I even thought about tethering her while I remained close by, to keep her from temptation. But she'd cause more ruckus than it was worth; she's used to at least one extended, supercharged ball game a day and usually more. Mere long walks would never totally compensate.

At least if Brigid does go over the fence, I won't have to worry about her straying and getting lost!

Of course one thing the hunters - at least their host, my neighbor - won't like is my secret plan for something else. Southside Neighbor Bob shoved his deer stand between his shed and my fence. The space is too narrow for that so they wound up pushing my $3K fence in about 2" to accomplish their goal. The fence is beautiful flexible woven wire, not rigid metal, and I don't think it will ever fully recover. Took me 3 years of urgent searching to locate a small company that still makes that kind so popular in the 1910's and 20's, it had to be made special order, and they don't make it anymore.

When I asked Bob to store the deer stand somewhere else after hunting season, true to form he jumped down my throat for it and threatened all kinds of things. His shed's on skids so he could easily move it over a few inches to let that deer stand fit easily in the spot w/o risking further damage to my fence. But he's an arrogant bastard (who also can't seem to realize why I won't socialize with him at all), so I know he won't. My answer to that is to cram my side of the fence behind my south shed with so much junk that he won't ever be able to cram that deer stand back in the same spot again. Even if he apologized and promised to respect my property rights, I wouldn't trust him. While MY pile of junk won't be visible from the main street at all, he'll have to look at it every time he goes in his back yard, and he's not going to like that. Too bad. Only when and if I see him move his shed farther over will I consider moving the protective barrier of my own junk.

Yes, I've wandered a bit off topic, but what happens between Bob and me is bound to affect Brigid, you know that.

[Auntie Bush]

5. That's a tough one Irish. I have no suggestions to offer. Maybe I'll think of something later.

You have yourself a probably...especially with that rude, nasty, bastard of a neighbor.

[IrishAyes]

6. One of the most disgusting aspects of our 'relationship' is that the old coot keeps trying to

pick me up. Every time he sees me around town anywhere, he makes a big point of offering me a ride. Yeah, right, I'd kiss a snake before letting that sociopath get me alone anywhere. It's not just my silly old lady idea, either - other people in town just love to tease me about it. One day when an alderman stopped by to bring me the redbud tree I requested for Arbor Day - we are an official tree 'city' - he couldn't resist urging me to 'go out' with Bob. Make friends with him, bake him a pie or something. I said that if I baked him a pie, it would be a Minnie chocolate pie. That really broke him up along with the rest of the crew, since the movie 'The Help' had been out recently.
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From now forward I'll be checking several times a day to see if they've yet moved that deer stand. The house is already crammed with visiting hunters and rifle deer season opened today. The weather's comparatively mild, so I don't know why the deer stand's still there. Maybe they've got another one. I hope to goodness they don't leave that thing where it is permanently. It's too heavy for me to budge - I know, because I've already tried.