What a durn ruckus 18 dogs can make!!! I had five in the house last night. There are usually more, but it was cool last night and the young dogs were enjoying some play time when I went to bed. About 1am, the entire yard exploded!! Everyone was barking. My dogs don't bark very often. They howl, woo, talk and carry on alot, but they don't bark. Barking means something is up and requires immediate investigation!
The something last night was a young black bear! Just wandering in the forest right outside my fence line. The dogs barking insanely at him didn't even faze him! I was half asleep in my jammies and flip-flops. Didn't even fully realize what I was seeing until I said to the dogs "Yup, it's a bear, now shut up!" Then my brain woke up and I went to get Stuart(who can ignore just about any non-fight sounds from the dogs). We watched the bear for a few minutes(too dim to take pictures). Then Stuart shone a spotlight on him and that made him start to move along. The dogs, mine and every other dog along that stretch of forest, continued to bark for an hour or so! I brought as many of mine as possible into the house to minimize the noise.
I saw a side of Heyoka I've never seen before. If I didn't know him, I'd have been afraid of him last night. He was making some very menacing sounds. The rest of the dogs were just excited and barking at the new intruder to their territory(although we are actually the intruders to the bear's territory, the dogs don't get that!). Heyoka was much more serious about it. Stuart wants to use him as a pack dog in the bush so it may be a good thing that he doesn't want to play with the bears!
I need a nap today!
