Encanto Encounter

At 07:00 AM 12/21/2004, Susan wrote:
> How’s Bravo doing??

He and Dekker got into a bit of trouble on our walk today. (In spite of the fact that Kaelyn is CCed on this, I will admit that your white dog was primarily responsible.) Here are the details…

We took the dogs out around noon, during what looked like a break in the heavy rains we have been dealing with. We were most of the way back to the car when Bravo went running ahead in pursuit of something we could not see. Dekker, sensing that there was something good to be chased, set aside his displeasure at the drizzle we had been hiking through and ran ahead to help on the prey.

Shortly after Dekker went by me, I heard barking from their general direction. Not being their style to bark at cottontails, I knew I had to catch up to them and deal with something. Once I got close enough, I saw that they were exchanging barks with a matted-haired feral dog that, thankfully for the whippets, was not with a pack.

By the time I caught up to them, though, it was no longer a barking contest. But neither was it exactly a fight. Instead, Bravo and Dekker were set on taking that dog. Bravo was dealing with the pointy end and Dekker the other. I had to make a quick decision on how to handle this while protecting myself and the whippets. If it had been only ONE whippet tangled with the other dog, my only choice might have been to kick that dog hard in the ribs to try to separate them: I certainly would not try to pick him up, as I am sure I would have gotten bitten; and I could not pick up the whippet because we would probably BOTH be in trouble then.

But with two whippets working, I chose to pull away Bravo, who was the closest to me. Having Dekker attached to the haunches of the other dog, I knew that dog would not try to come after me and Bravo. When the dog turned to see what the pain behind him was, I decided I would hold onto Bravo as long as the dog tried to run away from Dekker. If he made any motion to go towards Dekker, then Bravo and I would both get back into the fray.

He decided to run away.

By this time, Kaelyn and Reggie had caught up to us. But QuiXand Dekker did not choose to stick around with us. Instead, he went off coursing that dog. He broke off the chase after thirty or forty yards, probably only because Kaelyn was able to shout a little bit of sense (or fear) into him.

Bravo now has a couple more small holes in his head that I had to clean out (and now keep an eye on for signs of infection). Dekker does not seem to have damaged himself too much in the chase.

And that is how Bravo is doing.