The Shepherdsville Times: Sox Keeps Rolling Along
...Sox is about as old in dog years as I am in people years. But she certainly is a lot more agile.
She seems to have designed her own exercise plan. She usually times it to go through her routine while we are eating supper. She has her favorite spot, a space of floor right in front of the living room TV. She lies on her back, and begins rolling from side to side. Legs extended and waving in a patterned way. She moves her head from side to side, too, all time as if someone were calling cadence for her...
Jerry Selby tells of mice, racoons, and a very speical dog. To read more of Jerry's columns please click on The Shepherdsville Times in the menu on this page. They are guaranteed to bring delight.
Have you heard:
• An old cat will not learn how to dance.
• Abundance of money is a trial for a man.
• Among walnuts only the empty one speaks.
Don’t ask me what they mean. I didn’t invent them, I’m just reporting. I found them on the Net. They are probably worth something to someone. Help yourself, they’re free. Just doing my bit to broaden our culture.
Mousetrapping
That live-trapping mouse trap I bought really does the job. In just over a week, I caught and released a mouse 12 times.
Note that I said ‘A Mouse.’ I’m beginning to wonder how good those little rascals are at finding their way home. Somebody told me about a co-worker who began using a live trap to relocate some of an overabundant group of raccoons. Seemed to be no end of them. At last reports he had begun using a spritz of spray paint to mark the ones he caught. So far he hasn’t caught any painted coons. But it occurs to me that coons are very clean animals and very dexterous. I suspect it wouldn’t take long for them to remove a paint spot unless it was in a very inaccessible place, and on a solitary coon, with no friends to help groom.
Mice seem to be pretty absorbed with grooming in their free time. Wonder what distance is needed to relocate them? The package directions didn’t mention that.
Some of my more recent customers seem pretty calm about the process. Maybe they just like to travel.
Twins
“Just saw Princess’ twin out at the Coon Cafe.” That’s a note I made December 12. Our cat, Princess is pretty, but oddly colored. At least three different colors, in a sort of patchwork design. Black, white, and yellow patches. Lately, we have had a strange cat, seems to be a wild one, living in our barn part time and coming regularly to our feeder, which we stock with whatever brand of dry cat food is cheapest.
The wild one has exactly the same patchwork colors. Her pattern is different, but at a distance we can’t tell them apart. She is even the same size, rather small.
Princess was a dumped cat, but she is either 11 or 12 years old. Not litter mates, surely, but maybe cousins.
Rolling
Sox is about as old in dog years as I am in people years. But she certainly is a lot more agile.
She seems to have designed her own exercise plan. She usually times it to go through her routine while we are eating supper. She has her favorite spot, a space of floor right in front of the living room TV. She lies on her back, and begins rolling from side to side. Legs extended and waving in a patterned way. She moves her head from side to side, too, all time as if someone were calling cadence for her.
She goes through her routine once, stops to get her breath, then starts all over again. For an old dog who is either indoors or on leash all the time, the exercise surely must be why she is so supple and well muscled. Wish I could do that, but I’m already too stiff.
