Through an Author's Eyes - Part 8

 Good morning!

It's overcast this morning. We got a little bit of rain yesterday, but not much. There's a chance of rain today, but we'll see if it actually happens.

This week I've been back to working on the house almost every day. We installed 3 new windows, which meant I had to take siding off some of the house. I put in the boxes for most of the new electrical outlets. We have insulation ready to be put up, and have talked to someone about hanging the Sheetrock for us. Hopefully that will happen the end of next week.

I haven't gotten much writing done this week. But I have some ideas. If only I'd have time to write again. :) Someday. Yesterday I worked on formatting some of my upcoming pocket books. That was fun.

Oh, and be sure you come to my Read Another Page blog on Monday for the Five Fall Favorites!

I hope you are planning on coming! It's going to be a lot of fun. And there are going to be so many books shared.

 Here's the next part of this story. I had been planning on doing a different story, but since I left you hanging on the last one, I thought I'd be nice and let you find out what was going on.

 

Part 8

    Arriving at the small pasture, Annette noticed the horses who had been left out for the night, pressing close toward her and moving restlessly. She couldn’t see any sign of John Wayne, but from the sound of his barking, he was on the far side of the pasture, probably in a little hollow that was there. For a moment she hesitated. Should she try to find out why the dog was so excited or should she remain where she was? Maybe she should run back to the house and get Levi. “He’ll be out in a few minutes, I’m sure,” she decided, carefully climbing into the pasture.
    Finding a few good sized rocks, she picked them up and started picking her way through the grass toward the sound. As she drew closer, she heard another sound. It wasn’t just John Wayne barking, there were other barks.
    “Annette! Stay where you are!” The low shout from behind, froze her in her tracks and she looked quickly over her shoulder to find Levi, gun in hand, loping toward her while Vic followed only steps behind.
    As they came even with her, she asked, “What is it?”
    “Could be almost anything. Want to come find out?”
    “You mean you’d let me?”
    Levi shrugged. “As long as you stay behind me and my gun. If Savanna was up she’d be here with us, but you can tell her about it later. Now let’s go.”
    Still holding her rocks, Annette followed with Vic trying to watch where she stepped and wishing she had on Savanna’s boots so it wouldn’t matter.
    When they reached the top of the rise, they saw John Wayne standing before three other dogs. All seemed to be arguing over something. One of the three newcomers would venture a short run at John Wayne but at his snarling lunge, it would retreat to his companions barking loudly.
    “Are you a good aim?” Levi turned to his cousin and asked in a low voice. None of the dogs had noticed their presence yet.
    She shrugged. “I used to pitch for Dad.”
    “Then try to drop a rock before that pack.”
    Drawing back her arm, Annette let fly one of her rocks, It landed with crash just before the leader of the pack and brought a yelp from him. When Levi nodded again, she threw the other one, this time brushing the tail of another dog.
    “Get out of here,” Levi hollered, waving his hand. “Go on. Get!”
    Encouraged in his stand against the intruders, John Wayne started forward, but a quick command from Vic made him halt. The other dogs, startled by the sudden appearance of humans and the rocks Annette had thrown, had turned tail and were trotting away, stopping now and then to issue a challenging bark.
    When he was sure they would actually leave, Levi whistled for John Wayne and ruffed up his ears. “Good dog,” he praised. “Those others shouldn’t be here and they know it.”
    “Do they live near by?” questioned Annette.
    “At a run down plot of land just on the other side and around that bend in the road,” replied Levi, pointing to a distant–something. “An sour man lives there. Won’t let anyone give him any help, won’t keep his place up, and lets his dogs roam where they will.”
    “Would you have really have shot them?”
    Vic grunted as Levi shook his head with a smile. “No. Not with this.” He patted the barrel of his gun which he now carried cradled in his arm. “I would have shot the ground in front of them to frighten them off, but I wouldn’t have shot them. Now, if Vic or Devon had the BB gun, we would have shot them. But that would have only stung them, not wounded them.”
    “Oh. Will they come back?”
    “Probably. But let’s get back. We’ve got chores to do.”
    Turning around, Annette retraced her careful steps through the pasture thinking about the dogs and her story.
    Once back to the house, she took her Bible and hurried to her room. Kicking off her shoes she curled up in the chair beside the window and turned on NEO.

*

    Hurling her first rock, Kate watched it strike a large, half burried rock and jump hitting the side of the snarling yellow dog. With a yelp, he tucked his tail between his legs and ran off. The other dogs, however, refused to give ground but came closer to the tiny, injured puppy, cringing and crying in front of Kate. “Go on!” Kate shouted, hurling her second rock, this time hitting the dirt and sending dust up into the faces of the animals.
    The pounding of hooves behind her, made Kate glance over her shoulder. Help had arrived.

*

    “Annette!”
    Starting, Annette looked up quickly. Savanna stood before her. “What?”
    “If you’re going to go on a trail ride with Bethany and me, you have to eat breakfast.”
    “Oh, I forgot about breakfast. Sorry. I was rather lost in my story.” Turning off NEO, she stretched her legs out and then stood. “Did you hear about the dogs?”
    “Mr. Texas’s dogs?”
    “I don’t know the man’s name, but there were three of them. Levi said they lived with a grumpy man.”
    “Yep, that’s Mr. Texas. No, that’s not his real name. We don’t know what his real name is, but he has a sticker of the Texas flag on his truck and more on the windows of his trailer. And, if you should meet up with him, all he does is compare things to Texas with Texas always coming out ahead. But what about his dogs. Were they on our land again?”
    “Uh huh.” And Annette proceeded to tell the story as the two girls walked down to the kitchen.

    “Bethany, this is my cousin, Annette. Annette, this is my cousin Bethany.” Savanna grinned over the introductions.
    “Hi,” Bethany said. “You know, if Savanna is my cousin and your cousin, I feel like we should be cousins too.” 

 

What have you been doing this week?

Are you planning on coming to the FFF?

Have you ever had to chase away dogs?