Taffy the Laffy Samoyed Stories
page 10
28. Taff Makes a Snow Angel
Well it snowed like a bandit here yesterday and was bitter cold, I let Taff in and out all day but felt guilty cause I did not take him rabbit hunting as I usually do every day. This afternoon it had warmed up consideral but there was still about 6 inches of snow on the ground and drifts even deeper. I decided since the sun was out to just take him for a romp before the snow melted all off.
I grabbed his cable and leash and strapped on his harness and out the door we went. I was walking down the edge of the road and Taff was in his glory bounding around in the drifts off the edge of the road. As I got down to the end of the road I noticed the salt was thawing the highway and that is when I got the idea to walk up on our railroad tracks (no more trains today) so Taff would not get salt on his paws. So I turned Taff around and before we started up the bank I decided to thread his 6 foot leash around my waist, now the reason for this is because I have a virtual friend in Toronto who walks two Sammies with a waist belt and I figured that I could use Taff's leash the same way, how hard is this, who needs all the fancy equipment, this way I would have my hands free too-great idea!
Well I unhooked the leash from the 20 foot cable attached to Taff's harness and ran the clip through the handle around my waist, reattached it to the cable, and was breaking my arm patting myself on the back for such a great invention!
Taff and I start back to the house and when we got to the spot on the bank that I thought was not too steep to climb up to our railroad tracks I veered him to the right with the cable, he turned like a trained cow pony! Man this is amazing, maybe some day he will be able to pull a sled or something I am thinking?
Well folks years ago I learned to never brag if you are a parent of young kids, cause just about that time they will spit on somebody, today I learned never brag if you own a Sammie and things are going good!
No sooner had I got half way up the bank (remember Taff is 20 feet ahead of me), when the biggest rabbit I ever saw came up out of the snow from absolutely nowhere right under Taff's nose, in a single bound the rabbit was 5 feet over the rails, well Taff did not even stop to draw a breath, in a single bound of his own he leaped after the rabbit! Taff is WAY taller than a rabbit! A Taff bound is a big bound!
In the blink of an eye the leash around my waist became 12 inches in diameter and I slammed into the snow bank face first, then on Taff's next bound I was eyeball to eyeball with the steel rail, in an absolute state of panic I grab on to the rail and shove my arms against it, as the leash is getting smaller and smaller around my waist, I am screaming at Taff: "Taff Come Taff Come"!!!!!
Taff turns his head around but can't see me, cause I am over the bank, oh well in his mind you don't have to respond to anybody if ANYBODY is NOT in sight! Makes sense to Taff!
Now I am between a rock and hard place here, actually between letting go of the rail and grabbing the cable, (as the leash is under me), or just hanging on and getting cut in two, Taff is meanwhile swiveling his head every which way looking for that rabbit, I can just barely see him over on the other side of the tracks and down the bank on the other side.
Let me tell you, it is almost impossible to reel in a dog in "Hunting Mode" on a cable while laying flat on your face in the snow with your arms braced uphill against a piece of railroad rail, you just try it! Add the fact he is just waiting to spot his quarry so he can bound away again!
At his point, I figure I got two choices, get the dog to come to me.....we're talking Taff here- training school drop out-or get the leash off me or the cable off the leash...i.e. turn Taff loose! TWO of these choices involve letting go of the rail and leverage I have against Taff. It ain't gettin any warmer down here neither!
I opt to lure him to me with commands!....Go ahead laugh it was worth a try...! I am calling his name, I am offering treats, I am screaming and moaning like I am dying, I coughed, I swore, I yelled threats, do you think he even had the decency to walk back to the edge of the hill and look down in the DIRECTION OF THE SOUND.......not on your life! He is on the end of that cable stretched like a violin string, whipping his head left and right for that rabbit! Little heathen!
Well at this point I got just plain crazy, probably from the lack of oxygen to my brain from the leash being so tight around my waist, not that there is ever a lot of oxygen in my brain anyway.
I let go of the rail, grabbed the cable with a death grip in both hands and just rolled myself down the bank letting gravity even the score! Hey Taff you should have paid more attention in school especially SCIENCE! hahaha
Taff felt the cable pull against him and in that SPLIT SECOND did the last thing in the world I expected, he turned, bounded, and leaped down the bank right beside me! Free of my counterbalance I rolled about 25 feet like a snowball ahead of an avalanche!
NOW he comes to me!..... NOW he comes.........WHAT..... A........... HEATHEN.........!
Well I opted to walk back to the house on the road after I removed my "great invention" from my now Dolly Partin waist, salt or no salt, could hardly bend my knees for all the snow packed on my body, Taff was just trotting along like he thought this the best walk we ever had together, I swear I could here him snickering, I swear it! hahaha lol mfb
29. Taff Connects the Dots
So here it is the holiday season and our normal day to day schedule is a shambles. In between planning for the festivities and the freezing ice rain, Taff and I have not even been able to go rabbit hunting for two days. He is about out of his mind with boredom and confused as to the reason for all the fuss.
After spending hours doing all the things you think you need to do, I sat down in the chair in the living room, put my feet up, and and with a fresh cup of coffee prepared to relax while I watched the weather channel until supper was ready in the oven in a few minutes, who needs a timer, by the time I finish this coffee supper will be ready.
Taff comes prancing over with one of his two dozen toys, shaking it left and right in his mouth, now this is his signal to play. Taff's idea of fetch is: I have a toy and you need to chase me, then if you take it off me I will find a way to get it back and run off with it again so you can chase me some more, if you get the toy and toss it, I ignore it. We call this his "run" game as it has nothing to do with any interaction except you running all over the house chasing him.
Well normally I will accommodate him but at this point in time I was just too tired, I wrestled the toy out of his mouth and tossed it across the room, game over. For some reason known only to the dog gods, Taff went and got it and came back over, still distracted I wrestled it out of his mouth and tossed it farther, obviously he forgot his own rules.
Once again Taff went and got the toy, this time he came right up to me and I did not have to arm wrestle it out of his mouth, he gave it a token tug and practically dropped it in my lap, now this whole time I was holding a cup of coffee in one hand, I sat the coffee cup down , stood up, walked over to the hallway and tossed the toy clear down the hallway to the kitchen, by the time I turned around Taff was back, walked smack up to me and practically handed me the toy. Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head, not that I am slow or anything.... hahaha.... DA!
Still not quite believing my eyes, I picked the toy up and tossed it up on the couch a few feet from me, Taff leapt up on the couch and in one bound brought it back and dropped it at my feet.....OMG Taff just fetched and there ain't a sole in the house but me and him......!!!! The coffee must be making me hallucinate..., I picked the toy back up, raced all the way down the hallway with Taff at my heels, spun around and flung that toy about 30 feet dancing around and yelling "Taffboyfetchgetthetoybabygetthetoy" kind of an incoherent command, but I had no idea what made him bring the toy back before so was grasping at straws here, hoping to get a repeat performance.
Hearing my voice and getting excited himself, Taff raced to the end of the hallway and raced back with the toy while I am yelling every endearment that came to my head, (that was when I realized I knew more profane words than endearing ones so I just tossed the profane one's in, in a high pitched baby voice "come baby butt head come to mommy, kissy... kissy" hahaha).
Taff starts looking a tad bored after the two dozenth throw, in desperation to keep the game going, I grab a bag of cookies, and start tossing them to him, yelling "get the cookie-get the cookie" like THAT is a mental challenge for Taff.....just to get him to run to them, forget retrieving.....! I am raining down cookies all over the hallway and Taff is dashing all over grabbing them up as they fall...This is way more fun than get the toy......Taff goes into overdrive.....I am yelling encouragement at the top of my lungs like a race horse owner with a $10,000 side bet....Go BABY get the treat...gooo.... get...... goooooo......gooo boooooy!. Whoooooo Hoooooooo!
At this point Charlie comes through the door, steps in crumbs from about 35 cookies and yells !!!! "What the heck is burning" at about the same time the smoke alarm went off, which set Taff off on a howling barking spree. I am so high on our fetch game I am yelling "TAFF CAN FETCH, TAFF FETCHES.....WATCH", and I rain down 16 cookies on the hallway floor. Taff meanwhile has reverted from "fetch the cookie & bark at the alarm" to "Hi Dad, do ya got a treat" barking. Charlie can not figure out for the life of him how throwing cookies all over the hallway is teaching Taff to fetch?
Well it took a while to air out the kitchen with the ceiling and exhaust fans, and when you trimmed the bark off the roast, it actually was pretty tasty even if it did go from 5 lbs to a 1/4 lb burger, the potatoes were the consistency of golf balls with what used to be carrots for golf tee's!
Who cares eat all the holiday goodies, we can live on chocolate!
HEY the important thing here is Taff fetched AND it was HIS OWN idea!
Taff finally connected the dots!
Just as soon as the smoke clears, I empty the shop-vac and Charlie finishes the chocolate covered cherries we're gonna play this game again, as soon as Taff wakes up from his nap.
I have said all along "you got to tame em to train em", the Mary Cookie Retrieval School may have it's first graduate real soon! Stay tuned lol mfb.
30. Taff MPM
Well you know when Taff first came here, I used to take him for little walks down to the switch a few thousand feet and carried him back as he was done in, or what we used to call "walked down". For the last over a year I have been walking him almost every day, in all kinds of weather except pouring rain, although even that a couple times, but not by design.
This afternoon it was 20 degrees with a biting driving wind but sunny, Taff was pacing the house. I decided this was a good time to see if I could still "walk him down", well those days are a memory. I have never in my life seen a dog with such stamina, strength and endurance in such a small package.
Off we went up and down the road, it takes a half mile of jogging just to burn the edge off, from that the second half mile is a speed walk if he is feeling generous, today he was not feeling generous, he had a cold wind in his face and was hearing a song from his soul that I could never even begin to understand, called "run into the wind".
I decided I was going to make another pass, back down the road we went and he was a driving force, when both his feet on one side or the other move in unison, both left feet then both right feet, watch out he is going to burn up the ground!
We got down to the water tower and he sprang into the little meadow, usually good hunting for moles, this time he found a fresh BIG pile of poo and promptly rolled in it. OMG it was so fresh it was slimy, I had no idea what he was doing until he rolled face up, that's it-walk over-we are headed home!
I gave one big yank on his cable, he swung around clear out to the end and tore off up the road. Not to be left behind I broke into a jog. When he started that belly down trot I knew he had a mission in mind but had no idea what it was? Up the road he went till we hit the little roadside swamp, he stopped dead and proceeded to dig a huge hole in the muck, by the time I got up to him he was practically laughing in my face, he would stop and let me catch up and then race off with the biggest grin you ever saw, he knows exactly how far he can go on that cable and exactly how long it takes me to close the gap, it was run stop ,run stop, run and at every stop he threw a poo smeared grin over his shoulder, with his tongue lolling out and that devil twinkle in his eye! BAITING me to try and catch him hahaha.
He is such a little pistol, and he was FILTHY filthy filthy......AHHHHHH!
When we got back here Charlie blocked the door and would not let him in till he took some pictures, Taff was racing around in a circle at the end of his cable and dancing away from me just happy as a lark!
Well I know three things after this walk, if you want a happy Taff you got to go the distance, pick up the speed, and sprout a sense of humor.
A perfect day on the town for Taff is MPM: a "MILES, POO and MUD" powerwalk! click here for pics hahahaha mfb