by David Kersey
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"Cassie, would you mind going through your little door to see if John is still in the house?" which I seriously doubted that he was.
"Sure."
As I watched her cute fanny disappear through her little door, it occurred to me that perhaps cats are superior to dogs. She had her own door, I didn't. Ah, but it's me that John taught things to, and hunted with, swam with, and called "old boy". Fair trade-off. Better than fair.
I strolled over to the corner of the house and looked in the direction of the cornfield. There were still tiny wisps of smoke, but the tall corn stalks that had graced that forty acre plot were entirely gone. I know John hated to do that. Cut off a toe to save a leg, that sort of thing. Painful but necessary. I looked at my own paw, yes, that would hurt.
"He is not in the house unless he's in the basement," Cassie said upon return.
"OK then, I know a place that we can squirm under the fence to the pasture. Let's go check out our new guests."
"I already know where that is, Buck."
We made our way into the pasture and we were surprised to see both Penny and Candace had joined their kin. I wondered how they had been able to enter the pasture until I saw that the fence had been breached some fifty feet away from my entry point. Cassie and I exchanged "good mornings" with the two cousins, and they replied in kind.
"So who do we have here, is every animal I see from your old home?" I said.
"Yes, they are." Candace replied. "Buck, I was so happy to see them I burst through the fence. I know I'll be in trouble. And Buck, they don't know how to speak like Penny taught me to do, and which you taught Penny to do. I tried to teach them but I don't have the gift. They think I'm weird."
"No worry, and may I call you Candy?"
"That would be sweet."
Penny then said, "Cut the comedy routine, let's get down to business." Surely Penny couldn't be jealous? That would be so unlike her.
"Do you think there are more coming?" I deftly switched gears by asking.
"I don't know, maybe."
"We will try to teach them a thing or two, but there is little time to waste. What I want them to know is that they are big and have hooves that we can use if need be." I realized that I needed one of those dead ants as a prop.
"III'mmm aalllrreeaddyy wwooorrkkinnnggg onn iitt."
Good old Mort. After all, he was the one who taught me. Mort the professor. I should have known and leaned on him to do the job at hand. He beat me to it.
"Hhaarrroolldd iiss alllrreeaddyy ggettttiinngg iitt." Mort then turned his head to look at the horse who was busy stuffing his mouth with what I knew were weeds.
Mort then bent down to my ear and said in a low tone, "tthhee ppigggs tttakkkee lllonnnggeerrr."
I wondered if Mort was to be the teacher if the students would also take forever to say something. No matter, he was in the right place at the right time. Go for it.
"Mort, we're going to go over to Ferd's pond the check on things. I hope that you will stay here with our guests and do your best to teach them."
"IIttt'sss aallll gggooooddd." he replied. I love Mort. Glad to see he is strong and wise beyond his years, which were many.
Cassie and I crawled back through our not so secret fence place. We made our way to the familiar trail, and I said, "Be on the lookout. Better safe than sorry. Cassie, either the storm has moved elsewhere, or this could be the quiet before the storm. What do you think?"
"I'm leaving that up to you, Buck. You've seen the secret room stuff and understand what John tells you better than I." Hmmm, yet she has her own door. Go figure. I wondered if she was playing me like a fiddle.
We were not fifty yards down the path when a bulldog ant, alive and well, was crossing the path in front of us. It looked our way and we froze in place. We were about five feet away. Could it see us? It flayed its tiny antennae and stayed put. I looked behind me and all around to see if it was a loner. OH NO! There was another on the path where we were walking just seconds ago. It was looking our way and it was about five feet away also, antennae waving.
"Cassie, don't move."
While we waited for the stalemate to end, a third ant entered the arena, and it jumped onto Cassie's leg.