Expect the Unexpected

Just a typical night, bringing the dogs up to the pasture around seven so they could clock in for their sheep-protecting night shift. Except . . . no Leda. She didn't come when I called, hadn't appeared by the time the other dogs were in the pasture. Then I remembered that the MiL had mentioned Leda didn't seem to be around when the MiL got home. That's unusual, because Leda is left loose all the time and always greets anyone who drives up to the house.

Now Otty jumps the fence with regularity. Rita has been known to go missing if given the opportunity. But Leda? The staid old maid? Maybe, I thought, she lost her head because it's hunting season and she jumped the fence in search of a deer carcass. And then couldn't get back over the fence. So I trudged around the perimeter of the property with my flashlight, calling her and checking the fenceline. No Leda.

Then I got to the very last corner, over by the compost piles. And there was Leda. INSIDE the compost heap. It appears she jumped in there to snack on some particularly appealing rotting food, and then didn't want to jump back out again. So she just sat there for an hour or so, amid the compost. And of course, our dogs don't bark when they're stuck somewhere. They just stand there quietly waiting for someone to rescue them. Which I did, by sticking my flashlight in my mouth and undoing the wire on one corner of the snow fence around the compost pile. Then I brought her up to the pasture to join the others.

Just another day in the life of a dog steward.