[Critique Group 1] Submission for May 2018

[DQ Noriega]

Chapter 13.

Woodland Wanderings

 

Curt loved the outdoors. One of his professors said that he was the finest
natural field biologist he had had the pleasure of teaching.  Many of Curt's
friends were hikers and climbers. On long weekends or school holidays, they
loved nothing better than to head out into the desert or up in to the
mountains.  Not to be left out, Tammy and I learned to hike.  She was a
marvel at picking the easiest path down and around boulders and drop offs.
She enjoyed the scents and sounds of the woods.  On one trip to Yosemite,
Curt put up a small two-man tent a good distance from the nearest road.  We
hung our packs up in a tree.  Since the tent was barely wide enough for our
two sleeping bags, I tied Tammy to a nearby picnic table.  She barked
intermittently during the night.  We were camping with friends from school.
I didn't want her to disturb everyone's sleep a second time.   On the next
night, I took Tammy into the tent sharing the edge of my sleeping bag with
her.  She woke me by leaning hard against my side.  Her ribs vibrated with
almost inaudible growls.  When I woke Curt, he peered outside. He found that
a large mother bear and her two cubs were raiding our campsite.  Tammy's
barking had spared us a visit the previous night.  The voices of our friends
called back and forth.  Michael, the boy sleeping next to our tent kept
whispering to his girlfriend Chris to turn her flashlight on the bear to
scare her away.  Chris hissed back a frightened "no."  A baby bear was
ensconced on the foot of her sleeping bag happily munching down a bag of
potato chips.  A crash came from behind our tent and all I could picture was
our friend Rusty who had brought a folding cot going over in a tangle.  It
was actually mama bear throwing an ice chest to open it.  Curt could see
Michael trying to inch away like a six-foot caterpillar.  He had tied
himself into a mummy bag so tightly that he couldn't get free. When the
bears ambled away, we gathered to assess the damage.  We discovered a fat
raccoon seated on the picnic table devouring a box of pudding mix.  His
rotundity attested to his habit of following the bear family on its rounds.

 

Curt and I were the only ones with any food remaining untouched after the
raid.  Our packs hung up in the tree had been too much trouble to disturb
with so much easier plunder around the campsite.  The next morning I cooked
oatmeal with raisins and pancakes for all with the dry supplies I had
carried.  Tammy was fine too as she had carried her dog food in small
saddlebags on her harness.  They too had been stored hanging over a branch
in the tree.   

 

Another trip took us to climb Mount Baden Powell.  Tammy's claws were
natural crampons to give her purchase as we climbed.  I spent as much time
sliding back down as I did climbing.  More experienced climbers followed to
catch me as I slid passed them.  I didn't try to have Tammy guide.  I needed
both hands to hold on to rocks and roots.  I even gave away my ice axe
because I thought I was at greater risk of cutting off a foot trying to chop
footholds with it.  When we reached the top, our names were recorded in the
book and we all sat around enjoying snacks before slithering back down.  I
decided that hiking trails were fun, but I would remain at base camp with a
good book the next time Curt and his friends wanted to climb another
mountain!  Tammy thoroughly enjoyed the experience and kept within reach in
her customary position on my left as we climbed.  

 

We bought a used tandem single-speed bicycle and Tammy learned to run beside
the bike on a long leash.  She started out almost pulling us and as she
tired, she dropped back beside me.  When she started to lag behind the bike,
we stopped for a five-minute rest.  Then she was eager to go again.  She got
very excited whenever we brought the bike out of the storage shed.  She
quickly learned to keep on the far side of it away from the road and enjoyed
our trips as much as we did.  

 

Tammy liked the beach too, racing up and down chasing the waves.  She was
puzzled that the water didn't taste good.  Of course she never ran too far
before returning to my side.  Only once did she forget her primary concern,
(looking after me,) to race off in pursuit of a rabbit that burst from cover
nearly beneath her paws.  She went from a sedate ramble to a dead run in
seconds.  A call from me brought her trotting back across the brush with a
slightly guilty expression for forgetting her duty.  She liked lakes and
rivers best for water environments.  We bought an inflatable canoe.  Tammy
overcame her dislike of swimming to chase us across a lake.  Her desire to
always keep me in sight resulted in her overcoming her timidity in any
situation.

 

The summer we graduated from college, we drove across country visiting 21
states.  Since we only had about four hundred dollars to spend, we camped
out each night and cooked over a camp stove.  Most of our money went for gas
and for entrance fees to sights along the way.  We stopped to pick up my
youngest brother in Michigan and drove to Washington D.C.  At the national
zoo, kudu came to the fence and hung their heads over to call greetings to
Tammy.  The Siberian tiger appeared to be wondering if guide dogs were good
eating.  

 

At the F.B.I. building, our tour guide demonstrated shooting off a revolver
and a machine gun.  Tammy only lifted her head from where it was resting on
my foot to glance at him.  She seemed to think that if I weren't worried
about all the noise, then there was nothing to concern her.

 

When I climbed up a ladder exploring a blockhouse at Fort Bridger, I turned
around to find that Tammy had followed me up.  Of course, she couldn't quite
manage getting down the ladder.  Curt had to carry her down.

 

Since she had never been trained to use escalators safely, Curt was put to
the task of carrying her on those too.  She seemed to smile and wagged her
tail frantically each time she was given a ride in this fashion.  I
sometimes got the impression she went out of her way to find reasons to be
carried.  Since she had now finished growing, she was a hefty ninety-pound
load. This was just another task for that guy who insisted on being a part
of our family, dog porter. 

 

 

 

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