The Kingdom of Ozark Tracker

[Delmonico]

Labs build like I like don't catch well either, they don't jump well. Rowdy can't even get in the cab of the pick-up yet by himself.

[Trinity]

Marvin sounds like a dog my Grandmother had.  Tobby was his name (no, not Toby).  He loved to chase sticks, so when we went walking I'd take two sticks.  I'd throw the first one ahead of us.  Tobby would run out and plunk himself down and start chewing on the stick.  As I neared, I would throw the other one.  He'd take off after that one and I would pick up the one he just abandoned and keep walking.  

I think he could have played that ALL day long!  He had sooooo much energy.

Labs build like I like don't catch well either, they don't jump well. Rowdy can't even get in the cab of the pick-up yet by himself.

But he's still small.  Will he always be like that?

[Delmonico]

No, he'll be able to get in the pick-up and on the bed by himself, but he won't be able to jump a fence.  But he'll be able to swim when the waves are whitecaps and it's freezing out.  I've seen them come out of the water and have it freeze to their coat.

[Trinity]

Ugh!  I just had a vision of male dog jumping a chain-link fence.  It always makes me shiver!

I think I've seen pictures of dogs/Labs with frozen water on their coats.  Pretty amazing.

[Delmonico]

Never fear Trinity, he won't have to worry 'bout that after the 20th of Oct.

[Ozark Tracker]

I bet when he grows a little and you get ready to go hunting, he'll find a way,

when I went down and picked Clea up, her moma was working some cows, she could get a good jump and almost land on the back of the cow.

this is her when she was baby,  5 years ago in July. she was 6 weeks old, the other one is our Pomarainan, Bear, he's 10 this year, still goes running down to the barns with us every morning.

[Delmonico]

Read the other day about how life is unfair on the Lab Board.  "kittens always fall on their feet, puppies fall on their face." 

Was lucky last night, I caught rowdy in time, just before he threw a 24 oz framing hammer down the stairs.  He has found out he likes to throw things downstairs.  He ain't 'loowed in the basement and he stands at the top of the stairs and throws tennis balls at the cat.

[Ozark Tracker]

one of Clea's favorite pastimes outside is herding the cats, she will start with 1 or 2 and start gathering them up by herding them toward the others, sometimes she will have 7 or 8 gathered up.  course they don't know they's  gathered up.

[Delmonico]

It was the stairs to the up-stairs he tried throwin' the hammer down, he wasn't throwin' it at the cat.  He's tryin' so hard to make kitty his freind.  He got to kiss her a bit last night before she hissed at him.

[Ozark Tracker]

we have one cat that just doesn't like the dogs,  they have learned to steer clear of her.  she's one of our 7 toed cats. just plain mean

[Delmonico]

Angel loved the other lab, but he was 5 and she was 1 when they met.  She used to go in where he laid and sniffed the floor and yowled after he was gone.  She got out when we were taking him to the vet, she never saw him again, she saw us load him in the neighbors car and never seen him come back.  She would not have anything to do with me for weeks.

[Ozark Tracker]

dogs and cats are funny, sometimes they will hold it against ya for quite a while.

[Delmonico]

Midnite knew which gun was the birdgun, if I went away for the weekend and took it like when I went deer hunting I had to smuggle it to the car, or he wouldn't even stay in the same room as me for a couple of days.  Rifles were no problem.

[Ozark Tracker]

Clea will go outside with me anytime except if I'm carrying a pistol, she just doesn't like them,  she just stays inside.  rifle's not so much.

[Silver Creek Slim]

Last fall when it would freeze at night and warm up during the day, there was a frozen puddle at the edge of the field. Lady, my lab, broke the ice and laid down in it. 

The inside cat has 5 kittens, which are also in the house.  They are about 1.5 months old. They like to sleep on the dawgs bed when she is outside. She will come in and want to lay on her bed but the kittens are there, so she will lay on the floor or door rug. We will sometimes move the kittens so she can lay on her bed, then the kittens will want to lay back on her bed. She doesn't like anything laying next to her when she sleeps; kids, dogs, cats, etc. When a kitten tries to lay next to her, there is growling and snapping like she is tearing it apart, but no, the kitten runs off.

Slim

[Ozark Tracker]

Last fall when it would freeze at night and warm up during the day, there was a frozen puddle at the edge of the field. Lady, my lab, broke the ice and laid down in it. 

Slim

Our border collie has a plastic swimming pool down by the barns, she will take a long dip everytime we go down there in the summer time and in the winter time she will break the ice if it's thin and get her a drink.

[Trinity]

we have one cat that just doesn't like the dogs,  they have learned to steer clear of her.  she's one of our 7 toed cats. just plain mean

Those are commonly called "Hemmingway cats" because Hemmingway was a well known cat lover and had several multi-toed (polydactyl) cats (or mitten cats because their paws look like they're wearing mittens) at his home in Key West.

I had a friend in High School who found a stray mother with her kittens who were all polydactyl.  That was the first time I had ever seen one and haven't seen one in person since.

[litl rooster]

are cats what drove you and Hemmingway to drink?  Coincidence, I think not




Have seen 6 toed but never 7

[Trinity]

I thought they were all six toed too, but did a quick check and found that there do exist seven toed kitties.

[Ozark Tracker]

we usually have 1 or 2 of the multi toed per year,  once we had 7 or 8 of them running around here.  we just started this year getting bob tailed and multi toed cats.  don't know where they came from.