Trash Talk
Sep 19th 2008Rural WriterFarm Critters
Yesterday morning when I first came to consciousness, the first thing that made an impression was all the barking. Lots of barking. LOUD barking. Continual barking. So my first waking thought was, “What in the world is that crazy dog barking at?”
There was no thunder. He’s a great fan of barking at thunder. It’s his number one reason for barking. He jumps way up and seems to think if he can just jump high enough and bark loud enough, some day he’s going to catch that thunder.
Have I mentioned we have a tendency more for the weird than the wonderful around here?
Anyway, once I got myself moving, I went outside to see what was prompting all the barking. There were no cats. No squirrels. No stray dogs. No stray people. There was nothing I could see out of the ordinary except… trash.
Yes, the neighbors who hardly ever show up – you remember them, they’re the ones with this sign on their door -
- these neighbors had been home and put some trash by the side of the road for pick-up yesterday morning. Now hopefully they’re more skilled at remodeling than they are at spelling. They must have been working on a bathroom as there were several empty boxes from a fan, a bathroom vanity, and other stuff setting by their mailbox, along with a big trash can.
It was something new, something different, something strange. And whatever it was, Toby didn’t think it should be there.
However, he’s prone to trash talk-barking from afar, and not so keen on getting up close and in-your-face personal. When The Farmer took our trash out to the road, Toby and I went along.
He wasn’t too thrilled at the idea of getting up close to that strange stuff. Nope, he didn’t want anything to do with it, but I finally coaxed him up close enough to see it wasn’t moving. He decided to give it a sniff.
He was very cautious checking out these unexpected things by the road. After sniffing over all the boxes, he gave the garbage can a once over too.
He decided perhaps these items weren’t going to attack anyone after all.
Our other “dog”, Spot, remained unconvinced, arching his back and bushing his tail at the menacing pile of trash. He didn’t care for its sudden appearance either.
When all was said and done, Toby gave up his trash talk-barking and expressed his opinion in a different manner. He walked right up to the bushes beside the trash, and…
Please to excuse the blurry photo. By this time I was laughing so hard I couldn’t hold the camera still. I’m thinking the neighbors should be thankful there wasn’t a puddle by and on their trash can. They’ll never know how much commotion their suddenly appearing pile of trash caused.
But if they put some more out by the road next week, I hope Toby remembers it’s safe and doesn’t wake me up with more of that trash talk-barking!
5 Comments »
Amy W.on 19 Sep 2008 at 11:50 am 1What a silly dog! Perhaps he doesn’t like the “trashy” neighbors with the misspelled sign! I’ve had some real wacko neighbors but never one with a sign like that!
ceeceeon 19 Sep 2008 at 4:47 pm 2My dopey dog will do the same thing, even if the offending “thing” shows up in her own backyard. When I was having to hang laundry out to dry, it drove her crazy. Shirts flapping in the wind about did her in. She wanted to eat those invisible people!
Rural Writeron 19 Sep 2008 at 5:18 pm 3Aren’t dogs funny? The get all bent out of shape over the strangest things. If it’s new, they think it’s evil until proven otherwise!
Linda Wagneron 20 Sep 2008 at 7:36 pm 4You captured a good shot, Tish, of Toby’s final sentiments!
Rural Writeron 20 Sep 2008 at 11:31 pm 5Thanks Linda! It made me laugh. Like he was making a rude comment, “here’s what I think of you!”