Farm Dog

I was introduced to Hank the Cowdog by a friend at church ten years ago or so. He loaned us some cassette tapes of Hank stories to listen to on a trip to Glorieta, New Mexico. We were going to stop in Abilene overnight to stay with friends there, but we were so engrossed in listening to the Hank story as we cruised west on I-20 that we missed Abilene entirely and were passing the Sweetwater exit before we knew what had happened.

Hank the Cowdog is the creation of John Ericson, a working Texas cowboy. He tells of the adventures of Hank, Head of Ranch Security, and his not so bright sidekick, Drover. He's written almost sixty of these books for kids. Hank's personality is pretty close to that of Deputy Barney Fife. The stories are narrated by Hank himself, so you are able to get inside the canine mind, if you think you can take it.

Cole has always reminded me somewhat of Hank. This morning I went to the back room where we'd allowed him to sleep last night following his very Hankish experience with a skunk earlier that day. Despite the fact that he passed the sniff test the night before, the back room held an unusual fragrance. After lighting a vanilla candle, I invited Cole to the front porch where I drank coffee and watched the sun come up and he ate breakfast and stretched out on the concrete.

Suddenly he jumped up, "all systems on full alert," as Hank would say, zeroed in on a rabbit that had emerged from the edge of the woods thirty yards away, and bolted at full speed. He couldn't help himself. Had it been a skunk, he'd have done it anyway and we'd have had a repeat of the previous morning's experience.  When he returned to the porch and lay down, he kept his head up, his ears perked, and scanned the edge of the woods. In a few minutes the rabbit emerged again, and Cole was off.

We walked out to the garden to see if there were rabbits there, but there were not. Butterflies were visiting the sunflowers for their breakfast. The rest of Cole's day was pretty uneventful. He was grateful to have been allowed back in the house and did his best to remain unnoticed.

His family went to Tractor Supply and came back with a nifty looking John Deere collar to replace the brand new black one that the skunk had soaked and that would not yield to any odor eradicators. Later, when Taylor and his crew drove to San Antonio for dinner on the river, Cole rode with me into town in the pickup to get an enchilada dinner to go from Angelica's. He likes being at the farm. I think he's ready to take on the role of Head of Farm Security.