A little story...

I was just talking the other day to someone about this, and I don't think I ever shared this story with you.  Once again, it involves my dogs, so if you don't love dogs you're going to be bored!

This story dates back to right after my surgery last year.  It was the 2nd day of healing and it was relatively warm out.  Marc had to run in to get me some supplies and asked if I would be okay on my own if he biked in and back instead of driving.  I assured him I would.

So I hobbled out onto our back deck and got seated in the Adirondack chair.  

This type of chair was perfect post-surgery, because you bend at the wasit while sitting in it and that accomodated my hunched over position from the skin being sewed tight.  

You can see how when you sit in these chairs, you are bent at the waist.

I got settled in and Marc made sure I was okay, providing me with a blanket, my cell, something to drink and my tablet to entertain myself.  The dogs were out with me so they could play and hang out while I sat there.  Then Marc took off after I assured him that I would be fine.

So here I was in this chair, 2 days out of major surgery.  I dozed off, and the next thing I heard was some noise from right along the barbed wire fence line that separates our land from the land that our Amish neighbors own.  It was one of the young Amish boys leading a team of horses and spreading manure.  Since the smell of manure doesn't bother me, I was not upset about that, just that the noise had woken me up.

But suddenly I noticed that he had his dog running along with the team and the dog - who had not proved to be very friendly in the past - had slipped under the fence and had come halfway into our yard and was sniffing around the chicken coop.

From where I was sitting I looked over and the dog was right next to the door that the chickens use to get in and out.

Now, you should know that our house is built into a hill.  So our back deck is up a full story - here, let me show you...

This shows how the deck is elevated.

So when I looked over I thought "OH SHIT!" because both Chakotay and Archer were next to me and were staring at the dog, and Chakotay was emitting a low growl. The Amish kid was totally oblivious to his dog having come onto our property.  

Now my dogs are not aggressive.  But they are extremely protective of our property, and Chakotay especially does not back down from a fight.  And with that dog historically being not so friendly and being right next to where the chickens go in and out?  All I could think of is that there was NO CHANCE that if they went after that dog that I could even get up out of the seat, let alone get down the stairs and break up a dog fight!!

Both dogs ran to the edge of the deck and stopped at the top of the stairs.  I yelled at them to stay put.  They both halted where they were, still keeping a watchful eye on the intruder.

Both dogs stopped at the top of the stairs and remained there.

Finally, blissfully, the kid noticed that his dog was in our yard and yelled for the dog to come back to him and he did - crawling under the barbed wire and resuming his run alongside the horses.

As soon as the dog was back over the fence, my boys left the top of the stairs where they were sitting and came back over and laid down next to me.  I praised them profusely and sighed in relief.

When Marc got home I told him the story, marveling at the fact they didn't go flying down the stairs to chase the dog away.  As I was telling Marc the story, I realized something - THEY WERE BLOCKING THE TOP OF THE STAIRS.  

I am totally and completely convinced of this.  It wasn't just that they listen well - they knew I was hurt and they were making sure that they were preventing any chance of that dog getting up there and getting to me.

 Dogs are incredibly amazing and intuitive animals, and while they normally would have raced down in order to protect their property, their priority that day was protecting me!!