The story you are about to read is true. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent.........LOL!! ("Dragnet" was very popular when I was a kid!)
Some of you are going to read this and go, "Yeah, right. Karleen is really off her nut this time!" But that's OK. There's time for you to become believers............. :0)
Split has always had an amazing aura about him. I can't see it but I can definitely feel it. Once we figured each other out, we connected in a way that continues to amaze and astound me. When my old yellow lab was in the last year of her life, she was almost totally deaf and was losing her sight to cataracts. But she didn't let that stop her from enjoying life! She still loved to go to the barn with me and hang out in the paddock, gnawing on choice pieces of horse poo, wandering down to the pond and wading in the shallow water, or simply sitting in the sun at the top of the hill just beside the paddock. One spring afternoon I was cleaning the paddock (once the snow melts, I refer to my paddock as "Mt. Manure") and had gone into sort of a "zen-like trance" when I felt Split nudge my back gently. Thinking that he wanted to play, I said, "Split. Not now," and continued shoveling. Again he nudged me in the back. "Split. Not now!" He then gave me a fairly good shove and trotted over to the fence line facing the road and just stared. I was puzzled by his behavior and followed his gaze...........only to see poor old Sassy, confused and lost, wandering INTO THE ROAD!! I ran as fast as I could and grabbed her collar just as she reached the middle of the road - thank goodness there is little or no traffic at that time of day! Had Split not alerted me to Sassy's wandering, who knows where she might have ended up!! Naturally, I apologized to Split for not listening to him sooner. He accepted my apology - and a mint, of course!
Another time, Sassy fell on the ice on our pond while I was picking the paddock and again I was oblivious..........Split came trotting over to me, shook his head, and then trotted over to the fence line facing the pond and again just stared. I followed, knowing he was trying to tell me something, and sure enough, there was poor old Sassy flopping around on the ice like a beached whale. She didn't have the strength to pull herself up and her legs and back were so arthritic that they couldn't support her when she even got part-way up. I ran out and helped her up and walked her back into the meadow. How did Split know to come and get me? I don't know.......but he did!
Yesterday was a nice day here but I was feeling "under the weather" due to a cold so wasn't up to snowshoeing. However, it was sunny and fairly warm so I decided to hitch Jelly out at the barn so she could sniff around and soak up some UV's. I have a permanent hitching area for her; she can potter around outside or go inside and burrow in the big pile of straw we left there for her. I can see her from my living room window so I check on her frequently. I looked out at one point and couldn't see Jelly anywhere. Sometimes when she goes in the barn, you can't tell where she is so I stepped to the door and called her name. Nothing. I called and whistled. Nothing. I felt that little tingle of panic.....what if she'd gotten off her hitch? I decided to ask for some help so I hollered, "Split!" He came trotting to the fence, shook his head and nickered. I yelled across my big back yard, "I need you to go in the barn and tell Jelly to come to the door and let me know she's OK." (You're thinking I'm crazy, I know.) Split shook his head, backed up, turned and disappeared into the barn. Two seconds later, Jelly appeared in the barn doorway and stared at me. I yelled, "Just checking!" and Jelly went back into the barn. Split came to the fence and stared at me so I yelled a hearty, "Thank you, buddy!" He shook his head at me again and returned to his hay.
Split is my anam cara...my soul friend. Thank you, buddy!
I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the "lower animals" (so called) and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. ~Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, 1907
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