Brownie

You'd think after closing in on three decades of marriage you would have heard all of someone's stories. Especially if you are married to someone who likes to regale you with them, often more than once.

However, today as we were chatting with the new trucker, who came in to pick up the cow for the sale...and no, not 171-the boss decided he wanted to keep her...I heard an entirely new one.

And it was pretty good. 

Seems a long, long time ago, when the boss was just a little tyke, not even in school yet, the neighbor's dog had pups under the barn. His mama let him feed them, so each day he carted out food for the mother dog, who then let him play with the pups.

What kid doesn't love a pup? Thus when the neighbors called and wanted their old dog back and all the pups too...they were moving away, and had given the mother dog to some folks up in Fort Plain....he was heartbroken.

He took his favorite pup down to an old rabbit coop and hid it there. 

The actual owners came and when the pups were counted said, "I thought you said there were X pups (he doesn't remember any more how many there were)."

His dad said, "There are."

So the neighbors sent their own boy under the barn to hunt for the missing pooch. Grandpa was nobody's fool though and he asked his little son, "What did you do with that pup?"

That was not a question that was meant to be ignored.

And so it was removed from the rabbit coop and hauled away with its family, never to be seen again.

That was one sad little boy...you could hear it in his voice even today, how much he loved those dogs and hated to lose them.

However, along about a month later, there in the back of the house, was the mama dog, thin, and scraggly, and worn down from her travels. She had somehow found her way back from wherever the people took her.

His mama fed her a little until she got her feet under her, and then nursed her back to health.

He thinks he had her until he was 14 or so. It took a while, but Brownie knew where home was and when she got there she stayed.