Gibby had company

Gibby had a normal day, sleeping in his dog house when I drove into the farm. He didn't hear the car until I had already driven all the way in, turned around, parked, and rolled down the windows. At that point, he woke up, came to the viewing spot in the pen fence, and gave a couple of barks. My mother was determined that those hello barks were intended for her - and she might have been right. Even though she never gets out of the car and he is normally on a cable that keeps him about thirty feet away from the car, they seem to have some kind of connection. Mother tunes into animals in an amazing way - she knew George was sick before I did and I spend hours a day with him. Whenever she has been concerned about an animal, she has been right. Anyway, Gibby and I played stick and kong toss, and then Patches and Gibby had a bark contest while I fed the chickens and filled one of the water troughs. I fed Gibby and put him back in the dog pen and then we left.

On the way back to my mother's house, I got a call from the friends who were coming out for dinner. They wanted to meet Gibby. So, I turned around and went back to the farm - very hard to explain to Mother who couldn't figure out where the friends were and how I knew and how long we would have to wait - being deaf and unable to read lips sometimes makes the world a very worrisome place.

I think it's not making a big stretch to call my friend Cathy a "dog whisperer". All of my dogs treat Cathy like a very special being - especially George, he just melts when she comes near. Gibby was no exception. He liked Cathy right away. He was a bit much for Carol, who has only been out of a leg cast for 24 hours, but she did say that he's beautiful. Cathy and I played stick with Gibby for a while and he was a real gentleman and a perfect catch. Cathy thinks he's part pit bull - accounting for his wide head, wide chest, and great power - she could be right. There has always been something about Gibby that reminds me of poor Rusty - and I always suspected Rusty was part pit bull. Maybe other people are more astute than I am and that's why no one wanted to adopt Gibby. There's a lot of negativity about pit bulls and other "fighting" dogs around here, particularly since two people, a woman on her way home and an older gentleman out for a walk, were mauled and killed by four dogs belonging to a woman in Livingston County - and Livingston County is where Gibby came from.