This morning's event showed me once again that there is nothing ordinary about Decibel. She is smart, wicked smart really, and I might as well accept it.
The setup:
About three weeks ago a cat showed up, half-grown, scrawny, and with the one redeeming feature of being extremely friendly. Harold was gone at the time (meetings), so I just hoped the cat would wander off before his return. It almost worked.
However a few days after Harold's return I hear him chatting with someone in the barnyard, and even without looking I know that the cat is back. Sure enough, that cat found a sucker.
The drifter cat disappeared and reappeared a few more times, once even taking the black female cat with him, something that warmed my heart, but prematurely as it turned out. That female is my least favorite cat, since she scratched me when we were treating a bad cut on her, so we avoid each other.
On Monday the drifter cat limped out of the cat carrier by the cat food; he had obviously been beaten up. Nothing major, scratches mostly, a few bites, which are going to abscess, since that's what cats do. Oh well, there are times when you just have to face facts: We had a new cat.
So we brought him to Dr. Ann to be vaccinated, castrated, medicated and integrated into our animal family. Before he left for work, Harold hollered out the car window, "His name is Jasper."
News to both of us, I am sure.
Dr Ann suggested we rename the cat Spew, since he spent the majority of the time at the vet's puking. Now Jasper the Spew (or Vesuvius) is on a twice daily antibiotic.
The deed:
This morning Harold went to the barn to do his cat parent duties while I was still trying to solve the mystery of tying shoe laces. He came out of the barn, Decibel at his side (which surprised me, since she likes to give Jasper 'hissy fits'), no cat. The medicine has to be refrigerated, so Harold returned it to the kitchen.
I went to the barn, Decibel now with me and set up in the barn in the meanwhile: Feed for the cow, bucket, teat wipes, cat food refill, pig feed refill. I commented that she was a good 'helper Briard' for looking for kitty with Dad.
Then Decibel surprised me, she went downstairs to the milking area. Dogs are not allowed there, and they usually wait upstairs for their share of the milk. Since I was refilling the feeders for the pigs (now hogs) I didn't say anything about Decibel's faux pas. She looked through the gate into the sty.
"Do you want to say hi to the piggies?" I asked. It was unusual, sure, but then it was early morning, and my mind wasn't even up to spinning idly.
I shushed Decibel back upstairs, followed, and she was parked in the hall, her head stuck through a gap in the screen that keeps the upstairs stuff from falling into the pig pen.
What was she doing?
Pointing at the missing Jasper kitty, sleeping on the window sill, that's what.
She couldn't have been more obvious. Of course she didn't go down to the milking area to be a bad girl. She tried to get me to notice the kitty.
I got the medicine, treated the cat, praising Decibel to high heaven. I still don't know HOW she knew what we were looking for, after all we only treated the cat twice before to her knowledge, but she knew. She didn't point at a random cat either. (Token and Buckwheat were ignored).
The only conclusion: She's a genius...
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| The brains behind the guy |
...Not just for a canine.
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