I was lying on the floor on at the gym doing crunches, bored and trying to ignore the mutiny in my tummy muscles, when distraction and entertainment arrived in the form of three elderly people.
As they stretched and limbered up for their workout (I'm always impressed when folks in their eighties are gym rats), they began to chat about the good 'ol days back on their farms and dogs they used to have.
The talk turned to chicken-stealin' dogs:
Harold: "Yeah, an' then while I was up there, visitin' and having tea and cake with the lady of the house, that darn dawg of mine was around back getting after the chickens. Fifteen chickens he killed! And imagine my embarrassment at that!"
Betty: "Especially after you were eating her cake and all! What did you do?"
Harold: "Well, I, uh, paid for the chickens. And then she told me that the only way to cure a dog of stealin' chickens is to tie two dead chickens around the dog's neck and keep them there until the chickens are all rotting and stinky and there's nothing left of 'em. That's how it's done, they say. So that's what I tried."
Roy: "So, did it do the trick?"
Harold: "Nope. That dawg just kept eatin' chickens no matter what. But I hear it worked for some."
Betty: "Say, Roy, I just now had a fantastic idea! I think we should try hangin' a couple bottles of stale beer around your neck. Maybe that would cure you.'"
Roy: *snorts* " Yeah, well, I dunno about that...."
Heh, those three sure kept me entertained. As for the chicken trick, apparently people really do try that, but you'd think it would just make you not want to hang out with your dog.
8 comments:
Hi Spider
Being raised on a farm we had chickens and a german shapherd that would tear into them given the opportunity. I remember a few nights being woken up in the night to have to go out in the rain at 4 in the morning to catch the dog and recapture the chickens. We never tried to hang a dead chicken around his neck to try and stop him, though we had heard of such a thing...
Dogs love to roll in stinky stuff, you would think a dog would just say "Wow, this is great! Thanks for the super-smelling accessories!" Or something like that.
Yes, well, it worked on Bluegirl, and she was a roll-in-stinky-fish sort of girl. Maybe it was the heavy weight. Maybe it was that no one would pet her when she wore the chicken, and she always was a sucker for attention. She made it -very- clear that she was -totally- uninterested in live chickens after that month.
LJ
Sasha would think she'd died and gone to heaven if you tied two dead chickens around her neck...I remember the police bringing her home when she was a puppy because she was molesting some chickens up the road. For a while there she was in to killing deer (and once she tried to take down a goat0. So what do you do in the instance of large ungulates??
I love these overheard slice of life moments...I could have used these folks in my Pilates class last night.
What a fun post! I can't help but listen in when others are talking...you never know what type of entertainment you might find. Or maybe I'm just nosy!?
I think I love Harold, Roy and Betty. They certainly made for a good eavesdrop! :)
Fascinating story! And overhearing other people's conversations in situations such as you mentioned can be so fun sometimes. :)
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