rube.com

When the Ole Geezer was a young’un called Jimmy, his family had several workin’ dogs over the years. The first dog Jimmy can remember was “Rover”. Among other things, Rover helped work the livestock when necessary, helped carry fire wood from the wood pile to the house, but most impressive in Jimmy’s mind was Rover’s way with chickens. When Mama wanted to catch a spring fryer chicken to cook for dinner, she would point out to Rover which chicken she wanted and he would run it down, catch and hold it for her until she took it and ……..well…….finished the rest of the dinner process. Jimmy wasn’t very old when Rover was kicked in the head by a horse and bit the dust.

Rover was replaced with another dog they called Bob. Bob was a long haired dog crossed between a Border Collie, a German Shepard, and one or two other unknown breeds. Bob, about the same age as Jimmy, was a very well mannered, gentle hearted, intelligent dog. He would help work the cattle when necessary, was a pretty good watch dog and was Jimmy’s friend and protector. If Mama or Daddy tried to spank Jimmy, Bob would put his head and one paw between Jimmy’s behind and the spanker’s hand. He never bared his teeth, only uttered a soft growl. I don’t think he ever bit or attempted to bite any person. There were a few times he did get into fights with other dogs or critters…..But those are other stories, for some other time.

When the family moved from Hesper, MT. to the farm near Shiloh country school, Jimmy’s responsibilities increased. Among other things he worked with the thrashing crew, helped stack hay, hoed beans, worked sugar beets, milked cows, feed the livestock and herded the cows. There was very limited pasture on the Shiloh farm, so in the mornings of most late spring,summer and fall days the milk cows (and the bull) were usually turned out into the grassy barrow pits along side the roads near the farm. When Jimmy wasn’t in school he was responsible for taking care of the cattle; making sure they didn’t get into neighbors property or yards, etc. and that they were in areas where there was grass for them to eat. This was a relatively easy and usually a rather boring job. But most of the time it sure beat having to do hoeing and harvesting type work. However there were a few occasions when the cattle herding job created a little excitement for Jimmy.

One day at a point when the grass in the barrow pits close to the house was getting a little overgrazed, Jimmy’s instructions were to take the cattle down a different road…..like about two miles south of the farm. New territory. This was all well and good, but on another farm down that new road there happened to be a bull in a pasture. He was a much bigger bull than the “gentle” smaller bull that ran with the cows Jimmy was herding. When Jimmy, with his horse Barney, and his dog Bob got their cows and small bull close to that pasture, the bigger bull found a weak spot in his pasture fence and broke through it to get to this new herd of cows.

The first thing that big bull did was to try to take out the smaller bull. ‘Bout scared the oppo out’a Jimmy. Jimmy was afraid to go for help ’cause he thought his smaller bull would get killed or injured before he could get back. So he jumped off Barney, picked up a big cotton wood tree club, climbed back on Barney, hollered for Bob to “sic ‘em” and they charged into that bull fight. With Jimmy chargin’ in and out and beatin’ on that big bull with the stick and Bob a’ barkin’ and a’ nippin’ at the big bulls hind feet, they finally broke up the fight. Bob kept the big bull at bay while Jimmy gathered up his smaller bull and cows, skedaddled back toward the direction they’d come from and went up a different road. It took the better part of the day to keep the big bull away. Later, that afternoon the big bull’s owner became aware of the whole situation and came to “rescue” his bull.

When it was all over, Bob came up to Jimmy with his tongue hangin’ out, just a’huffin’ and a’ puffin’ as if to say, “We did good, didn’t we, Boss?” I think Jimmy ruffled the hair on Bob’s head and said, “We sure did do good, Bob. You, Barney and me, we did good.” It was about then that Jimmy realized what the three of them had just done and what could have happened. One of them could have gotten hurt pretty bad, especially if that big bull had gored one or all of them.

Latger, while keeping an eye on the grazing cattle, they sat in the shade of an old cotton wood tree and Jimmy shared with Bob the home-made bread, butter, jelly sandwich and some cold left over breakfast bacon he’d stuck in the upper front pocket of his bib overalls. It was kinda scrunched now, but it sure tasted good. Barney was off to the side chompin’ on green grass.

Several days went by before Jimmy told Daddy and Mama about his “bull fight”. And the only reason he did then was for fear the neighbor would say something to Daddy. Which he did……..the day after Jimmy had told them………………

Daddy advised Jimmy to go for help if it ever happened again…………….Did Jimmy listen to his advice? What do you think?

Just another day on the farm…………

Papa (Jim Diede)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 27th, 2006 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Little Jimmy.