We have a coon dog, Boomer. I’ve written about this wily dog before. He was the dog Will picked out at the animal shelter when he just HAD to have a dog. We love him, most of us anyway, but he is a problem child. Very strong willed and sneaky. He actually smiles, curling up his lips and showing his teeth when he has been caught doing something naughty, like stealing eggs from the hen house, or shredding shoes, or digging in the mulch.
Boomer and our lab, Butch, have learned to dig out of their pen. We have tried, very unsuccessfully, to fix it so that they cannot dig out, but they are so determined that after an hour or so, they end up back on the porch covered in dirt. It’s not a little, confined pen, either. It’s big with nice dog houses and a lot of running room. They have tasted freedom, though, and want no part of it any more.
Butch is not a barker, but heaven help us, Boomer has that coon dog howl that will drive a person mad, especially at night when all the ‘critters’ of the woods come out. In my weak, sleepless moments, I have resorted to stuffing a hot dog with sleep aids and feeding it to him in the middle of the night. A mama’s got to do what a mama’s got to do.
For the past few weeks, we have been able to catch the dogs and put them in the feed room of the barn. It’s nice and comfy and has a door that they cannot possibly squeeze out of. Boomer has caught on to the plan now, though, and will not let anyone catch him when it’s time to go up for the night.
So, last night was a fiasco. The moon was shining brightly and he could see everything in the fields and woods. His howling started at 10:30. I had been asleep about an hour. Well, Victor was snoring in one ear and the dog was barking in the other, so I looked for an alternate sleeping place. I went to the couch in the family room – in the back of the house where I thought I couldn’t hear Boomer. We have a huge barn fan that we turn on at night that should drown out all noises, but nooooo.
Around 2:30, I just couldn’t take it anymore. Boomer was going crazy in the back yard. I called him to the door, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hauled him into Victor’s office and shut him in there.
Victor woke up about that time and I said, “Boomer is in your office. So help me, if you let him out and I hear him bark in the wee hours of the morning, it will be all your fault.” Now, that made no sense, but I was losing it by then.
So, Victor got up about 4ish and found Boomer comfortably snoozing in his prayer chair. Papa was not happy! Boomer does not have a fresh aroma to say the least. He runs far, far away when he sees that we are going to give him a bath. The chair is airing out on the porch. Poor old Boomer was hauled out to the barn so Mama could have a couple hours of rest.
What a night.
Zuzu and Papa 