Day 2 has been nothing but driving through the Midwest. If any of you have ever done it before, you know why we’re just driving. Corn, wheat, corn, wheat. Repeat. For many, many hours.
I’ll back up a little on the last big obstacle that set us back another day. Rosie.
I drove all the way to Chattanooga for this dog. Thinking that a big, LGD (Livestock Guardian
Dog)-type thing would keep predators at bay while our house remains quiet this summer. AND we caught a bear on our deer camera lurking around our goat enclosure. It wasn’t a bad idea in theory. Just maybe not planned out so well. I learned a lot of valuable lessons about making hasty decisions and not taking someone’s word for something… things you’d think I’d have figured out but now but instead I just tell my kids that one day they will have the perfect farm because they can learn from all of the stupid things their parents have done. I think we’re on dumb thing number 1,243. I’m sure we have Edison and his lightbulb beaten by now.
Anyway, I comfort myself with the fact that this dog has obviously suffered some abuse and we have now rescued her from a lousy situation. It unfortunately wasn’t immediately apparent upon first meeting, though obviously very nervous, she seemed to warm up to Micah and I on the long ride home. But she totally freaked out the minute I latched a leash onto her once we got home and then completely shut down on the running line. And then she lost her mind when Micah bounced a basketball and I really began to wonder… crap.
I’ve never dealt with an abused animal before but from all the folks I’ve spoken with, that seems to be the case here. It’s so very sad. There’s not an aggressive bone in her body. She seems to want to be with us, but if we approach her she runs. If we walk away, she follows us. She has allowed us to love on her a little bit but as the weeks progressed it went from a brief pat, to snatching food from my hand, to 5 yards, then 10, then 20, then 50 yards away.
The first day she got out it took me two hours of coaxing up and down the mountain before I corned her in the woods. And I tried to keep her from losing it by keeping my hands off her collar. Hauling a 70 pound dog down the mountainside is no joke. I finally got close enough to the house for Micah to hear me call to bring the harness and then we carried her the rest of the way. Moving her from the backyard about a quarter of a mile to our goat fence was ridiculous. But I didn’t know what else to do! Surely, we thought, she’d mellow out in the large spacious area and she seemed to like the company of the goats.
But our last day home, just as we were wrapping up the sale of our other camper (a HUGE blessing before our trip!) there she was, just standing in the road. She could jump the fence. We tightened it up and she did it again. That’s when we began to panic. I posted her immediately. I didn’t want to saddle our farm helpers with an escape artist. I have dealt with too many of those in goat and pig form to know just how truly horrible they are. They ruin everything, but mostly they ruin well-laid plans and fun and sometimes a garden or two.
Obviously no one is stupid enough to take on a strange dog in 24 hours…unless you’re an idiot like me. Especially when you begin to explain the situation honestly… they get off the phone pretty quickly.
And so we spent departure day attempt #2 securing the borders. We bought 15 more t-posts to barricade the 100 feet of downhill fence. We lined that area with electric mesh to deter her from even getting to the actual fence. And while we worked, she sat about 100 feet off and watched. Randomly she would appear behind one of us, but as soon as our eyes met, she would be gone.
Lord willing, she’ll still be there when we get home. I hope to win her over but I don’t know… it’s a lot to tackle. Training fresh pups is one thing… taking on a sweet but confused one is quite another.
We spent ALL DAY between fencing and last minute prep before we just got in the van and left. I half seriously told my helpers to light a match and walk away if there was a problem. Lol. We were all so ready to just get in the stinking car!
And then it was nearly over before it started. Just outside of Hot Springs we were flagged by a trucker and the kids started screaming that the camper was dragging on the ground! We pulled over and indeed it was. A pin came loose. One simple, little pin. And the thing was nearly over. Thank goodness we were going uphill or it would have taken out the van and it would have been done. Miraculously, no damage sustained. We spent about 45 minutes in the dark jacking and maneuvering until it was finally back on. The Lord’s protection again. But it was beginning to feel a bit too much like our trip FROM Alaska 11 years ago.
Anyway, after a few already full rest stations later, we finally settled on a Walmart parking lot
in Carthage, TN around 1am that night. Parked, popped, and went to bed. Grabbed a bag of Walmart cherries the next morning, Abbey’s delicious muffins and our farm fresh eggs hardboiled back home and we were back on the road. Today has been thankfully uneventful
but largely boring and So. Many. Stops. I largely prefer overnight driving bc no one has to PEE! Gah. That and some silly propane tank keeps trying to fly off the back of the camper. We finally put it in the camper bathroom so if it decides to blow up it’ll take out the camper and not us. We crossed TN, KY, and are now coasting through the farmland of MO. Hoping to get within 7 hours of Denver, CO tonight so we can maybe hit up something fun tomorrow!
Comments