The Cattle Dog

 Jax and I are coming back from town hauling a load of wood. Next two weeks weather looks good. 40s by day and 20s by night. Perfect hiking weather. Our return is delayed getting behind a herd of cattle coming to our side down Hurrah Pass. Jax's tail is wagging. All the cattle dogs come up to the truck and reach front paws on the door and Jax smells each one at a time. Jax has always wanted to be a cattle doge and right now he's looking for a job to get some worth in his life. He needs this job. Eventually as I pass Curtis I ask if Jax can join and he says if the other dogs will accept him. I can tell they have.

We finally get by and back to the lodge and while I'm unloading stuff Jax is anxious. He keeps staring at me like he wants to go hiking but he doesn't. He wants me to take him back to the herd so he can apply for a job. We get in the truck and head out. Curtis says let's find out if he's a cattle dog. I let Jax out of the side by side and he's off to the races. Three cows are drifting off to the right and one cattle dog is starting to head over their to push them back toward the road when Jax goes blowing by and starts nipping at the heels of the cows who almost run over each other trying to get back in with the herd. Then Jax comes running back to me. He's so happy. I tell him to go back and he's gone again. After two or three minutes a pretty happy dog comes back. Remember in Field of Dreams where Burt Lancaster is Archie (Moonlight) Graham and says if he's just had a chance to bat in the majors? That's how Jax looked when he came back. Put me in coach. I just played with the big dogs and held my own. As we're walking back to the side by side there were two women riding horses with Curtis and they all said "Yep, he's a cattle dog."