by David Kersey
“Stop here, Jim. Marlene, this is the old house and barn that was built in the late ‘30s by Joseph Morgan. His son, also Joseph, inherited it in ’66 and lived here for thirty three years. When he died his heirs put the 640 acre estate up for sale. I bought the south 320 acres which included the homestead, but lost out on the bid for the north 320 by only a few dollars per acre. I haven’t had the heart to tear down these old buildings. They’ve seen so much of history, and both buildings are structurally sound and updatable. Let me show you the insides of the barn and house.
Frank, Marlene and I have researched how we plan to operate the training facility. A part of that planning deals with the tremendous need for Vets that have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to find relief by developing coping mechanisms. An emerging trend is for them to assist in the training of service dogs, which dogs become their long term companions through thick and thin. So I’m thinking this old house could be used to house the veterans while they go through the training. They could also be put to work with the little farming we do here, for which I would pay them a fair wage. Marlene also wants to use the barn and house for training the dogs to work in different kinds of settings, but this is the first time she’s seen the interior. What do you think, honey?”
“I think it’s an excellent idea, John. I count four bedrooms. Yeah, I see it. Rotating vets in and out of here makes a lot of sense for that segment of the business. Works for me. Really, the canines could also kennel here if we should run out of room at the main facility. What about the barn, could we add kennels inside if we need to? And both structures are ideal for training the canines to work urban type settings.”
“The barn is functional, needs a little work, but most of it is cosmetic. An easy adaptation to make it dog ready. By the way, there used to be a big, old black bear that came around here, but Jenkins told me the bear died on his spread. There’s a few deer that come around here. I wouldn’t mind having some strong arms keeping watch out here.”
I looked at Cassie and I think she noticed my sense of relief. Maybe I would tell her about the bear, but then again, maybe not. I noticed that Larry Ward was filming quite a bit, but I fought the temptation to smile real big when he swung the camera to catch Cassie and me. “Cassie, next time he films us let’s do patty cake.”
“Ok, let’s ride. Jim, take the path between the old house and the cornfield to the north.”
We arrived at the dirt road that had originally serviced the north 320 acres. Those north acres were entirely in forest, and though John didn’t own them he had the right to hunt there. There were turkeys, quail, pheasants, a lot of deer and other small game up there but John hadn’t taken me hunting for well over a year. But I’d been on those acres before many times.
“This old road goes north and dead ends at the northern end of my property, but I want to show you the large pond. It’s fairly big, just short of 12 acres. There’s huge fish in there, including a catfish I swear is 30 pounds. Come Spring I intend to restock it with bass. It’ll be a nice diversion for the vets. I bring that old john boat you saw in the barn up here in the summer for some friends of mine to use while they fish. If you look real close you can see a fence just beyond the north end of the pond. That fence marks the end of my property”
“John, this is wonderful, like Walden’s Pond. In my mind I can see how it would look in summer. How tranquil and secluded? Did I tell you I love to fish? I fished with my grandpa in West Virginia every chance I got. I’ll show you some of those pictures. This brings back many pleasant memories.”
“We will do it, Marlene. But now let’s circle back on the dirt road. I want to show our guests the meadow.”
Even though it was the dead of winter the meadow still showed a lot of color. When the trees are bare the meadow looks bigger than it really is. John told them it was about 30 acres, and when in full bloom, it is spectacular. At the eastern edge of the property the terrain changed into some rolling hills.
“Jim, there are some slopes here. I want you to show Marlene what is safe and what to avoid.”
“It depends, John. If you’re hauling a big load the unit can become top heavy. But if not then I see nothing here that bothers me. What you want to avoid is turning down into a slope at an angle. Take a slope straight down or straight up. This baby is built to negotiate more than I see here.”
“Ok, it’s time to show Frank and Larry the facility. Sorry fellas, I’ve taken a lot of your time, but Marlene had never seen the whole place. Hope you don’t mind?”
“Not to worry. It’s all part of the big picture that helps make a great story,” Frank said. “Next time you want to call me to fish or hunt, I’m here, ok?”
“Open invitation. You too Larry, and Jim. Any time, just call ahead.”
I noticed John skirted the clearing and made no mention of it. That would have been too much for these men to understand. Talking animals, no, it would then be a fairy tale, not a story. Cassie and I high fived when we passed up the hardwoods and corridor that led to the clearing. I did salute Ferd though when we passed the small pond. No one noticed.
“So Marlene, why this configuration, with four wings?”
“A number or reasons, but the most important is to allow the canines’ better rest. Fresh animals learn twice as quickly as unrested ones. The more animals in one place, the more barking, howling, and such, which can become contagious, and that often leads to inattentiveness in the exercises. Another reason is to separate some breeds from others which I’ve learned from experience heads off potential conflicts. Also, I want my help to have immediate access to the hub rather than stretch out the kenneling for long distances. So there are many practical reasons, but basically it’s all designed to have better trained dogs. Another thing is that we’ve already had requests from the local population for short term kenneling and obedience training. We need to separate those animals from our students. To continue, a lot of people don’t realize that our military service canines can suffer post traumatic issues just like the soldiers do. Lackland, which is a military canine training facility in Texas, has already contacted us to help with rehabbing retired and stressed out canines. Those dogs need special attention. I could go on but you asked why the design and those are some of the reasons.”
“So what do you want to accomplish here, and will you make a profit doing it?”
“John and I have talked at length about the money. We realize that we will probably not make a dime, in fact, projections show us losing quite a bit depending on labor costs. But Larry, we both have agreed that what we hope to accomplish is a service to our country. We have learned that one of our goals, which was to train canines for cancer detection, is going to be a tough one financially. Neither of us realized the expense, which is shockingly large, of obtaining cancer volatiles from labs. Still, we intend to focus on that, but to a much smaller degree than we had first envisioned. John is working on finding some grant money and I sincerely hope that avenue is available. By the way, all the vertical improvements you see here were donated. If we didn’t have that financial boost we would be strapped. We are naming the facility after that donator, which will be known, when the sign is done, as Bucks Canine Training Facility. And the sign will have a picture of this young man right here.” Marlene pointed to me and I smiled for the camera. Wasn’t that long ago that she called me old. But that when she was Miss Kibble, the spy. My how things change.
“What other things beside the cancer detection?”
“John, take over for a second, I have an idea. Picture better than a thousand words kind of thing. I’ll be right back. Jim, drive me to the garage, please. Better yet, let me drive and you supervise me.”
I looked around and got the shock of my life. Mortimer, Penelope, and all the rest were peeking through the fence. I had to laugh. Good thing they weren’t cats, else their curiosity would have done them in. John showed the men the interior rooms and explained the purpose of each. As he was finishing up Marlene and Jim returned. They were carrying the
empty paint cans, eight of them.
“Larry, you’ll want to film this.” She spread out the cans and put the swatches inside each can. “Buck will demonstrate what we will train some of the canines, that being drug detection. Watch this.” She looked at me and said, “Go.”
I knew I was on camera so I acted as cool as Steve McQueen. I slowly strode by the cans, paused at each one and performed, yes, performed a very deliberate sniff. I already knew which one had the marijuana scent, but I wasn’t about to make my acting debut a flash in the pan. At the eighth can I stopped, sat, looked at Marlene, and barked with my most sexy voice. Mentally I heard the director say, “Cut, that’s a wrap.”
“Buck just told me which can had the marijuana volatile. That’s one of the other things beside the cancer detection. We’ll also do explosives in the same way. I already have the volatiles of seven different types. Buck hasn’t learned those yet, but he will. So bomb detection will be another discipline. We will train dogs for police work, security work, guard dogs, rescue dogs, and more. And help out with our PTSD veterans too. One other thing, some of our dogs will be looking for permanent homes, so we will set up an adoption service too. It’s going to be a full time job and I will need a lot of help.”
“What you’re doing here is quite an undertaking and I’m extremely impressed. I wish you all the luck in the world. We’ve seen what we came to see, so I will need to go through some boring things with you just to get an accurate story. Like spelling of your names, ages, short bios, that sort of thing.”
Cassie and I strolled over to the fence and met up with the gang. We talked about John’s new toy and the idea of a hayride. I noticed Frank was looking our way.
“What’s that all about, John?” pointing to the host of different kinds of animals having some kind of powwow it appeared.
“Darned if I know,” was John’s quick reply.