Cowboy and the Carcass

There are things that go on very close to my house that I would never know about, unless somebody pointed them out. Yesterday, that somebody was Cowboy, the neighbors' dog. While my two dogs, Brownie and Leo, are confined to the fenced yard just behind the house, Cowboy is a free range dog who roams the neighborhood. I was out on my walk, mostly looking at flowers, when yesterday afternoon Cowboy came trotting from across the barbed wire fence and decided to join me. But he was not interested in flowers, and when I ventured into the woods to look at the rue anemones springing up everywhere, Cowboy drew my attention to a carcass lying in plain view, just on the other side of the fence.

It appeared to be what was left over from a dead deer, after someone had gutted its middle, leaving the bare ribs exposed, but with the head and legs still intact. Cowboy kept tugging on one of the legs.

After a little while, Cowboy managed to dislodge the leg and carry it away to wherever it is that he kept his spare bones.

I went about my business in the woods, inspecting the rue anemones.

Then I wandered out onto the lawn, opposite where the neighbor field is greenest, because it recently suffered a grass fire and has re-surged. Cowboy came running back over the green grass and under the barbed wire fence to see me.

"What did you do with that leg?" I asked him. "Did you eat it all?"

He seemed to understand my question and even made a sound as if he were trying to answer it. Then he yawned.

 A country dog's life is never dull, but Cowboy seems to take it all in stride.