Pepper & the Cicada
These 105+ degree days all tend to melt into each other. One night in the last five, I was watering the garden (where tomatoes and melons are having the time of their lives and everything else is dead or comatose) while Bill was working on his latest project of digging up giant rocks from all over our property in preparation for building a stone wall across the front of our new house.
Pepper, who after lounging all day in the air conditioning is ready by about 8pm to do some slow meandering up and down the path from bunkhouse to garden, spotted a cicada. Picture the biggest cicada you can imagine. About an inch and a half long, 3/4 of an inch in diameter and loud. Pepper nosed the cicada around, rather dismayed by the noise of the click-buzz-clicking. All of a sudden she went for it, grabbing the bug into her mouth. Now it was Pepper who was click-buzz-clicking-click-buzz-clicking-click-buzz-clicking. Weird.
She hesitated. The moment to ingest was lost. The bug was just too damned loud to be tasty. Out of the mouth it popped. And the pup stopped buzzing.
The heat broke in the early hours of this morning. It was a breezy seventy-something degrees when Pepper and I went out at about 6:15. Pepper took the opportunity (they're predicting temps back up in the 100s next week) to raise hell all over town. First she chase a new puppy off the Randy Talkingtons' porch and sampled some of its food. Then she ran after a calf up near the Rogler's house - somewhat deterred by the mother cow but not much. Finally, the rampage was halted by of all creatures a cat at Barbara Rogers' house who, after months, literally months, of running scared, dared to stand up to her troublesome canine neighbor. So raised her back and stood her ground, stopping Pepper in her tracks and sending her back to the road and along home for breakfast.
As we passed the Bryan's house she chased a couple of bunnies, just to prove that she still had it in her.
Pepper, who after lounging all day in the air conditioning is ready by about 8pm to do some slow meandering up and down the path from bunkhouse to garden, spotted a cicada. Picture the biggest cicada you can imagine. About an inch and a half long, 3/4 of an inch in diameter and loud. Pepper nosed the cicada around, rather dismayed by the noise of the click-buzz-clicking. All of a sudden she went for it, grabbing the bug into her mouth. Now it was Pepper who was click-buzz-clicking-click-buzz-clicking-click-buzz-clicking. Weird.
She hesitated. The moment to ingest was lost. The bug was just too damned loud to be tasty. Out of the mouth it popped. And the pup stopped buzzing.
The heat broke in the early hours of this morning. It was a breezy seventy-something degrees when Pepper and I went out at about 6:15. Pepper took the opportunity (they're predicting temps back up in the 100s next week) to raise hell all over town. First she chase a new puppy off the Randy Talkingtons' porch and sampled some of its food. Then she ran after a calf up near the Rogler's house - somewhat deterred by the mother cow but not much. Finally, the rampage was halted by of all creatures a cat at Barbara Rogers' house who, after months, literally months, of running scared, dared to stand up to her troublesome canine neighbor. So raised her back and stood her ground, stopping Pepper in her tracks and sending her back to the road and along home for breakfast.
As we passed the Bryan's house she chased a couple of bunnies, just to prove that she still had it in her.
posted by Julia at
2:29 PM
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