Gibby is a Sneak

I discovered today that Gibby is really sneaky. When I was in the farmhouse kitchen two days ago, I put my favorite leather workgloves on the counter, then bustled around mixing up dog food and filling water bottles (I save old large laundry detergent bottles for watering the farm animals - they're much easier to carry than buckets and they don't spill all over your pant legs.) While I was busy elsewhere, Gibby must have sneaked up to the counter and grabbed my gloves. I didn't see them on the counter so I didn't think about the gloves when I left that night. Yesterday, I knew they were gone when I needed them to hay the horses. When you pass out dry grass hay without gloves, you never know what's going to stick to your hand. Sometimes it's a little sliver of the hard stem of a grass, sometimes a burr or part of a thistle, sometimes your hand just gets scratched. Since I didn't have my gloves Saturday and couldn't find them anywhere in the car, the house, or the barn, I didn't feed the grass hay. I have a small supply of very expensive, very rich alfalfa that's really soft on my hands, so I opened up one of those bales. Tonight I had to do the same thing. I was kind of hoping to save the alfalfa for emergencies, but I guess protecting my hands from scratches and itches qualified. But, while I was thinking about the hay and wondering if I might have to go buy another load at the auction to finish out the winter, I remembered the last time I saw my workgloves. I realized Gibby must have taken them - so then I had to play the "what would Gibby do" game - I went right over to the dog kennel and looked through the fence. Right there, in the middle of the pen, next to the little bunny holding a soccer ball, a couple feet away from the big soft tiger laying upside down in the snow, I saw a bit of a doeskin color peeking through the snow. We've had at least four inches of snow since I last saw the gloves, but I bet they were right there. I unchained the gate and went in - which really bothered Gibby, I think he knew what I was after so he kept trying to get in through the gate, but I beat him to the glove. I found the first glove right away, but the second one was more of a guess - I looked for some kind of unusual mound in the snow, and found the second glove. Gibby grabbed a stick and tried to get me to throw it for him, I think he was trying to get me to forget about the gloves. What a character he is!