My Protectors

Over at Audrey's Ambition I just posted a little story my grandmother wrote about a boy and his dog. In it she described a strange snake that was "gingerly attacked" by the dog "in an effort to frighten it away."

Levi and Gimpy "gingerly attacked" a strange creature they found in our backyard last night. To see almost exactly how they moved during that attack, watch the first 20 or 30 seconds of this video:

Now, if you can, keep the fast, low-slung movements of those wolves in your mind, but replace the actual wolves with big, blond, curly-haired, pretty-faced, snarling, growling Goldendoodles. Once you get that picture firmly in your head, take it a step further: that grizzly bear in the video? Replace that grizzly in your mind with a black, tall, kitchen trash can, lying on its side. Woooooo! Are you scared yet?

I bought that garbage can at least six months ago. It normally stays under the overhang of the garden shed unless I'm toting it around the yard while I pick up sticks and/or doggy-doo. Levi and Gimpy explored it thoroughly when I first brought it home and haven't paid any attention to it since then. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I will concede that it normally stands upright.

We had a little storm late yesterday, though. The rain came quickly and forcefully, and I guess I should have known by the rain blowing sideways that the wind had kicked up quite a bit. Apparently, there was enough wind to knock the trash can over and blow it 20 feet out into the yard, where it hunkered down and posed a threat to life as we know it. That's where it was when my boys--the same ones who didn't bark more than once apiece when six strange roofers, wearing hats and carrying tools, climbed out of multiple strange vehicles and crawled all over our house for two days--leaped into action.

Gimpy and Levi thought they knew all there was to know about that trash can until yesterday. This morning they moved hesitantly beside me when I walked toward it and picked it up. It's back in its place now, but they'll probably never trust it again.

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Thanks to FunnyAnimalsList for posting this video on YouTube.