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Where We Left Off:
The biographer became the subject of a supernatural investigation. An attack has led to a small block of time being blacked out.
Challenge to be Free:
Typically, when training a cat to be an active adventure cat, it’s best to get the feline used to strange humans and other animals slowly and in a controlled way. Not everyone can call in a behaviorist and volunteer dogs to gradually get a cat used to the rambunctiousness of energetic canines. Our next door neighbors have had three dogs for several years. Gus is still nosy enough to escape my supervision and go over there to investigate which antagonizes the dogs into a barking frenzy. Two of them are small (I think possibly Lhasa Apso or Shih Tzu) and the third is a beautiful, large, black standard poodle. The poodle is the only one we’ve seen go through obedience exercises. Gus was shocked and appalled that the small dogs dared to cross their border and come over to our yard.
Gus and I were in the very back of the yard doing our usual bird watching and critter feeding around the red maple tree. Gus exhibited signs of being content in his space. He was confident and staying by me. I unhooked his leash from his harness and gave him a little freedom. Often, I’ll leave the leash attached which he drags around with him. He can get caught on all kinds of things when the leash is dragging, but he knows it’s there and if I have to chase him, I can step on the leash to stop him from going anywhere he shouldn’t. When he’s unhooked, he loves to run to trees or roll on his back. He used to go into the woods with me, off the trails, and find beautiful places to do some forest bathing. Now that we’re not allowed there, it’s been an emotional challenge for me to hold Gus back from exploring places that were “his” all over the mountain.
This is important back story to understand the location: Bunny Hollow. This is a trail that I believe is ours. Lately, the newest neighbor who bought half the mountain, Lord Theodore, has been concerned about the precise borders where surveyors had left markers. I’m not sure what happened to the old adage, “possession is nine-tenths of the law,” but the private road has been a recent subject of contention. Lord Theodore claims our wall and the one next door, which are necessary to hold the front yards in as they are higher than street level, are on his property. There have been walls for 200 years. In fact, several years ago, our wall was rebuilt and some of the earth taken off because people were crashing into it. So, the “yard” that had been ours in the front had already been reduced. As far as the back border, The Grumpy Old Man has been examining property maps to see if he can determine whether the Bunny Hollow trail, which we’ve used and maintained as ours for forty years, is not in our borders.
If you’re new to our stories, allow me to explain: The previous owners of this half of the mountain were old people with no kids or pets of their own. There are trails which are listed on the tax records as “horse trails” but really aren’t for horses. Nonetheless, certain people were allowed to use the woods and trails if they had permission. We were some of those people. It was a natural playground for neighborhood kids when we moved here in the 80’s. That old couple died and their heirs sold the place without much care because they were not sentimentally attached to it. They also turned on a dime from asking for our help keeping the landscape nice to telling The Grumpy Old Man to back off. Lord Theodore bought it for half a million dollars and has been rapidly renovating the adorable house. (I’d love to see it).
This brings us to the day when Gus and I were by the red maple tree and the big rock. Gus got low to the ground and stalked as he looked through the abundant bushes. I assumed he was looking at a bird, rabbit, or chipmunk. I was surprised that Gus took the small pass-through to Bunny Hollow rather than going into the bushes. He went around them and crawled down the grassy trail.
He stopped abruptly.
In no time at all, I saw a tiny black dog run up to Gus! I know the dog. It looked a lot smaller than normal due to its summer puppy cut. In a second, the second dog came to the end of the trail and watched.
Poor Gus was in panic mode. He arched his back with his hair standing up and his tail huge. He made himself bigger than that black dog from where I was standing. I didn’t want to be mean to the dogs and yell at them. In fact it was the opposite. I’d love for Gus to challenge himself when faced with a stranger (even though he knows who these dogs are).
The black dog was innocently curious about Gus. The white and grey dog was in protector mode. From Guster’s point of view, it looked like two against one not in his favor. Neither of the dogs showed signs of wanting to attack Gus. If he had been in danger, I would have quickly sacrificed my own limbs and body to protect my boy. Gus was not willing to chase the two dogs and I’ve seen him chase a fox! Instead, he made the decision to retreat and the get away from the dogs as quickly as possible. As he ran back towards me, the dogs were not interested in coming close to a strange human. The owner was informed that the dogs were loose and he called them back, but not before one of them had gone into the road and remarkably made it back to the driveway safely. They finally listened and went home.
In that short amount of time from the owner calling them to the dogs deciding whether to go off on an adventure in the woods or return home, Gus had found protection in the thicket of the woods next to me.
This is now an area where I’ve had to stop maintaining the trails and pruning the thick bushes and weeds. Since I had to look for Gus, I said, “Fuck it,” and pruned back branches wherever I needed to go to find him. I called in reinforcements. Whenever Gus does one of his disappearing acts, if we wait long enough, he comes home. I hate it though because of the dangers of this busy road. This episode turned out well. Gus ran like hell home when he was ready. He looked forward to his post-adventure meal and snacks.
Case Findings:
Gus had an unplanned interaction with two small dogs from next door. He stopped them on Bunny Hollow and kept them from going off on their own woodland adventure in territory they don’t know the way Gus does. One of the dogs had run into the road before this encounter and fortunately was unharmed. Because of Gus, the dogs were able to get home quicker and safely.
Case Status: Closed