Street Finds

Thursday, February 10, 2022

^{(Moon phase is Waxing Crescent; February’s “Snow Moon” rises fullest on 16th.)}

Right now, temperatures in the sixties and seventies are creating wonderful warm days. We in the Northwest love this weather but worry about inadequate moisture. Our water bills are rising along with the ever-increasing prices and growing scarcity of agricultural products. I must locate enough grass hay this summer to feed my equines for another year and afford it, hopefully.

Worries aside, this is horseback riding weather. Friends who ride ask me to join them, but my work schedule interferes with a freedom to play, at least, playing outdoors. Otherwise, it’s fun working at the job of caring for and selling baby chickens.

Yesterday, a woman entered the store leading a hound dog. I stared at him, an exact duplicate of my hound, Ranger, even an identical spotted neck and legs. She said that her dog is eleven years old, and so is my Ranger. She said that someone in her family got him in trade as a pup for a six-pack of beer.

Ranger’s story is similar. He showed up on my street as a whimpering months’ old stray. In response to my advertisement of a lost puppy, a woman called. She said he was from a litter her husband had handed out in front of a local supermarket. Maybe, but I’d never return a found animal to such people. No one else called, and so “Ranger” became mine.

I chatted with the customer about our hound dogs. To me, besides looking precisely alike, it appears they’re also very similar in temperament, dependability, and devotion. We concluded that once upon a time, these two likely were littermates. Lucky pups, both.