Legacy

Rosie Hound Dog belonged to Farmer Bill.  There were two trails between the winter and summer pasture.   Bull Buffalo and the herd he led used both trails to go back and forth with the change of seasons.  It was time to come down from the high pastures to the low pastures for the winter.

One route was shorter than the other and naturally Bull Buffalo preferred the short one.  To use the short one the entire herd, one at a time, had to pass through a narrow neck coming out of the mountain pass.  Just as Bull Buffalo got to that point, there was his old friend, Rosie Hound Dog, stretched out right across the entire narrow neck of the passage.

Bull Buffalo didn’t know Rosie had become deaf in the last few weeks. She was sleeping and snoring “zzzzzzz!” like a buzz saw.   Rosie wouldn’t wake up no matter how loud Bull Buffalo shouted, “Wake up!”  Bull wondered why Rosie was there to start with.  Could she be guarding something? he wondered.

Bull looked over Rosie and just a little way ahead was a corn field ripe unto harvest. Bull said to his self, “That is what she must be guarding.  It wasn’t here when we last passed through.”  Poor Rosie must be really tired from all that guarding he thought.  So Bull told the herd, “Turn around, we are going to take the long scenic route this time.” So they all turned around and headed for the river pass.

About that time Farmer Bill, who had been looking for Rosie, came along and saw the Buffalo retreating.  Rosie woke up all by her self and saw a happy looking Farmer Bill just petting her to pieces. Farmer Bill figured Rosie had turned the herd around (in a way you could say that).  “My, what a good dog to save my corn,” he said.  He gave Rosie more petting and a great big bone.

Rosie wasn’t sure why she was getting all the attention and goodies, but she figured why knock it, her mother had taught her to never look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak.  Everyone likes a pat on the head, even people.