In Tuesday’s post, I shared an adventure Sampson, Delilah and I had on one of our walks.  It was a frustrating experience when someone let their two dogs out into their e-fence.  The resulting chaos was not exactly the way I like to start my day.

Besides the dog incident there were a couple of other interesting things that happened on that very walk.

The first happened before the dog encounter and the second after.

The first one was okay because Sampson and Delilah were too busy sniffing to be looking ahead on the road.  I on the other hand, am always looking, which is how I spotted it.  At first I was unsure.  Is that a small dog?  Did someone put something in the road?  But then it turned and as I watched it run off into the rising sun I realized it was a fox!

The dogs were oblivious until we got to the spot where the fox was standing and then they picked up his scent, but he was long gone by then.

The second incident was not okay.  Mostly because I was already pissed off about having lost the wrestling match and having to man handle my dogs away from the area and it could have turned out very badly.

So we get past the two crazy dogs and I can see there’s something up in the road, just lying there.  I can tell right away it’s a cat.

Yes, sometimes there will be cats on walks.

So from a safe distance of about three houses away I say, “Hey cat, you might want to move.”

The cat who was lying with its back to me, turned its head, looking over its right shoulder and then turned away. I’m getting the cat equivalent of the finger.

I slow the dogs down and try again, “Hey cat, I have two big dogs here, you may want to move.”

Obviously he lives with dogs because he is confident that his 12 pound self can easily take on two 70+ pound dogs.  He again looks over his should and again looks away.

“Hey CAT! Go! GET!”

By now both dogs are interested.  “There’s a cat Mama, I see a cat, let go of the leash, I Must. Chase. The. Cat.”

“Leave it!” I say.

Delilah is now at the end of the leash straining to get away.  I can’t turn around because we are only five minutes from home and turning around will be too much for Sampson who is also now straining to get to the cat.

Then it dawns on me.  This cat is fucking with me.

“Hey Garfield” I say, “I’ve got my hands full here trying to keep these two BIG dogs from making you their breakfast.  You can do me a solid if you just get up and walk away.”

That fucking cat is enjoying this.  He (I’m calling it a ‘he’ because he’s acting like a dick at this point) turns and once again gives me the cat equivalent of the finger and turns away.

I say, “Enough!” and “Leave it” and “Dirty old cat, probably has fleas anyway.”  Okay, I didn’t really say that last bit.

I ask Sampson to sit and he does.  Yay for me!  Delilah though, Delilah is still thinking this cat will be a tasty appetizer to hold her over until breakfast.

I gently grab her by the back of the neck and tell her again, “Leave it.” Nothing.

I’m frustrated now and I do something very dumb.  I lift her face up to mine and tell her, “That’s enough.”  I’m well aware how lucky I am that she didn’t bite my face off.

I finally pull out the big guns, the JNC Lamb Lungs and shove one in front of her face.

That worked.  And so we made our way home, where I promptly made some coffee and laced it with a healthy dose of whiskey.

How do your dogs do with cats on the walk?  How do you handle it?

Word count, I’ve added almost 400 words to my book between Tuesday and yesterday.  My total count is now 45, 149 words.

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