If you find the story entertaining, click on one of the book covers over to the right and take one of my novels home. The same stories can be found on amazon.com/books (D.M. McGowan) or on Google books, or Barnes & Noble. They are also available in a variety of digital formats.
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Dave
What We Need is a Good
Cattle Dog!
By D.M. McGowan
I can't tell you how Alvin
There was about ten of us who
volunteered to help out. Neighbors rode over on horseback, and some hauled
their horses in from as far as fifty miles away. I don't have a truck or
trailer, so I rode with Alvin
Most of us got there the night
before, a Friday it was, so that we'd be ready t' get started early Saturday.
'Course, the early start was a bit rough on most of us since, once we got a
place for our bedrolls, most of us spent the night over a few drinks, playing'
cards and swapping yarns. But despite how tough a few felt that next morning we
were all out there gathering' cattle in pretty early.
Along about two in the afternoon, we
had quite a bunch of critters up by the loading pens. After turning about a
dozen head into the herd, Alvin and I headed south into a low spot we hadn't
checked out. Sure enough, there's twenty head or so, down in the brush.
Well, we pull up near the edge of
that brush, and Alvin Alvin
While he was taking his spurs off I rode back
up-slope a ways and had a look at that bush. It probably covered ten acres, and
was as close as hair on a dog’s back.
"You're not gonna chase any
cows outta that," I said. "Work like that, you need a good cattle
dog."
"Well, we don't have a cattle
dog," Alvin
"We could also just leave the
herd up where they are," I advised. "By tomorrow this bunch in the
bush’ll be lonely, and come out of there on their own."
"Work don't get done by lettin'
it lay," Alvin
I tried once more to discourage him
from his course and said, “Some o’ those critters are gonna be several hundred
pounds an’ likely t’ stop a fella into the sod.”
When he showed no sign that such a
prospect bothered him I swung one leg around the saddlehorn, and proceeded to
roll a smoke. "You get ‘em out here, I'll be sure to hold ‘em for
you," I said, though I figured there wasn't much chance of me having to do
anything.
Well, Alvin
He got four steers and a cow moving
that first time out. Of course, when he got right up to the edge of the brush,
the cow went left, and the steers right. Alvin
He went back into the trees, picked
up his hat, and carried it out and hung it on his saddlehorn. He also took off
his chaps and laid them over the saddle. Then he glared at me, and headed back
into the brush.
I pulled my hat down over my eyes
and got comfortable.
During the next half hour, he kept
trying to chase them cows out, and they'd just turn around and go back in the
bush, as cows tend to do. Pretty soon his face began to look like a piece of
raw meat, and everything he wore was soaked with sweat. I was beginning to
worry that he was gonna have a heart attack, and I'd have to haul him out of
there.
He was on the edge of the brush,
legs spread, and hands on his knees, and just heaving. I was pretty sure there
wasn't a bull on that place with a harder head than his.
I started to roll another smoke as I
let my horse shuffle over toward him. "You know, Alvin
You know, I had to find somebody else to haul my
horse home!
