Yesterday--I wasn't here, thank God--America's Silliest Dog came trotting back to the house stinking of carrion. Instead of the dainty all-white domestic Labrador she is in our imagination, she was the rancid carrion-smelling small-wolf scavenger who has picked up some behavioral traits that push human emotional buttons that she really is: the most disgusting-smelling creature west of the Pecos.
Dianna who holds the fort between when the kids get back from school and when we are released from our offices hosed America's Silliest Dog off quite thoroughly and effectively. But she is not going outside without a leash for a while. For somewhere on these five acres of unnatural redwood grove, creekbed, blackberry patch, spring, oak forest, and chaparrel, there is a rotting dead deer.
I can't find it--the grass is knee high, and the blackberry bushes are thorny. But now there are large turkey vultures perched high in oak branches waiting for the sun and the bacteria to do their work and ready the corpse for them.
I suspect that the coyotes will come tonight.
Posted by DeLong at April 7, 2004 10:49 AM | TrackBack | | Other weblogs commenting on this postBuried electric doggie fence, that's the answer.
We just did it with our two Springer Spaniels, after 25 years of them, and the two Labs who preceded them, taking off, occasionally rummaging through the neighbors' garbage and bringing the consequent digestive problems home with them. Not good for anyone.
Now we can let them roam freely around our yard, and they don't even leave when other dogs dare to stray off the street (as long as the strays stay within the 10 foot buffer within which the collars start to buzz).
Posted by: Steady Eddie on April 7, 2004 12:08 PMTurkey vultures are high on my list of why I love the Bay Area. Beautiful goddamn birds.
Posted by: Tom Hilton on April 7, 2004 01:36 PMDamn you Brad. You stole my dog.
Posted by: ccobb on April 7, 2004 02:06 PMA WHITE labrador?, You some kind of racist?
Posted by: big al on April 7, 2004 02:40 PMI had to read this post three times before I realized that you actually have a dog who actually rolled in something nasty smelling, and this wasn't some sort of political allegory.
Gawd, I'm dumb.
Posted by: rod on April 7, 2004 02:43 PMBrad,
If you have some interest in finding the carcass, simply follow the dog.
Posted by: Retrogrouch on April 7, 2004 02:56 PMTom Hilton
"Turkey vultures are high on my list of why I love the Bay Area. Beautiful goddamn birds."
You like 'em as well? One of the several hundred things I liked about living in Texas east of Dallas was watching the local vulture flock go about their business.
Or were you kidding?
Posted by: brian on April 7, 2004 03:03 PMBrian, not kidding at all. I love watching them fly. (Hawks too, but hawks already get plenty of respect, and sadly, turkey vultures don't.)
Jon Carroll appreciates them too. See http://tinyurl.com/238nd and http://tinyurl.com/38zg4.
Posted by: Tom Hilton on April 7, 2004 03:19 PMBe glad she found a dead deer rather than a live skunk. That takes more than a hosing off.
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov on April 7, 2004 03:56 PMThe live skunk was found last month...
Posted by: Brad DeLong on April 7, 2004 05:40 PMIf you really loved your dog you would let him, her, or it pamper himself, herself, or itself with the fragrances he, she, or it loves. Rotting carrion for a nose-creature is like a gourmet dinner for one of us.
Posted by: Zizka on April 7, 2004 07:36 PMI've heard you can get goats to eat the blackberry brambles.
I also have the invisible fence for my dog and it works well.
Posted by: fasteddie on April 8, 2004 08:50 AMA buzzard walks onto an airplane.
He's got a dead raccoon under one wing and a piece of rotting, stinking road kill under the other.
The flight attendant stops him and says, "I'm sorry sir, but we only allow one carrion per passenger."
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