The Hunters

I am jolted awake by dogs barking, growling and yelping and it is coming from the chicken coop in the orchard just below the house. As I fumble around in the dark to find my pants and boots I already know what is going on. Just last week I saw a pack of wild dogs come down the canal road that passes above the house and when they saw me they took off. We have had trouble before with wild dogs. People that live in town sometimes drop off dogs they don’t want anymore and some of these dogs eventually gather in a pack and plunder the countryside trying to survive. They can get pretty mean and dangerous. They mostly raid chicken coups and look for small or weak animals to kill. Because they travel in a pack they are not afraid of our dog. Unfortunately this night our dog is not afraid of them and there is one serious fight going on in the orchard.

As I get to the top of the stairs to head outside, I can see Ronny with is 22 already ahead of me and he is headed to the orchard. By now everyone in the house is up and we run to the porch and peer into the dark . We can see the fire coming out of the barrel of Ronny’s rifle on each shot. Dogs are now going crazy in the dark, barking, yelping, growling and Ronny is firing away and yelling. It sounds like a scene out of a horror movie, and then it is all quiet. Ronny comes up out of the orchard with a horrible tale of how he had to shoot monstrous dogs that were about to attack him but he was able get precise shots off just in time to save himself. I listened to his story and was jealous with envy that I was not part of this heroic battle.
Russ and I get up early the next morning. We cannot wait to see the carnage in the orchard. We get dressed and run down to the battle field. We find one Pekingese dog, not weighing more than 5 Lbs. When we get back up to the house, Ronny just says “ well they looked bigger in the dark.”