by Jan Fielden
We have so much fun here at the ranch. Things happen out of the blue and so we never count anything out. Sometimes they are silly things, sometimes they are, well, OK things, and sometimes they are just laughing until you cry things!
One night this past week, our Beagles started barking like, “you better get here quick because there is danger around this place”. The Colonel has had Beagles for over 40 years, so he knows the different barks they make, and this was a serious one. We looked out the window and they were dancing in and out while barking. Dancing in as if they were going to attack and dancing out as to get out of the way of being attacked. “They’ve got a snake” said The Colonel. We have a lot of Copperheads here. So, he gets his gun ready, puts on his boots, and starts out the door. Me, well, I closed the door as soon as he was out of the way!
I am hearing him ask the Beagles where is it? He keeps looking, they keep barking and dancing, and suddenly The Colonel breaks out in laughter. Now, I am thinking why would he be laughing over a copperhead snake? Then he takes a stick and pushes something out from under a chair sitting on the porch. I jumped even though I was still inside, the Beagles backed up and The Colonel said, “here’s your snake”. It turned out to be some black masking tape about a foot long that they had dragged up from somewhere. The “snake” came in and made its new home in the trash can and the Beagles of the Red Oak Ranch kept sniffing the sidewalk to see where their quarry had gone.
