The bright sun had been shining with a vengeance all day. But the heat of the afternoon was giving way to the cool of the evening. I had been busily catching up on all the necessary work it takes to keep and maintain five and one half acres of land.
My last hour had been spent carefully weeding and cultivating my garden. CORRECTION: My wife, Pat, has informed me many times that it is her garden. OUR garden grows enough vegetables every summer to last us thru the long winter months with more than enough left over to share with our neighbors.
With my chores finished, I felt like cleaning up and getting out of the house for a while. Pat was busy and said she couldn't go. No problem. This evening I'd take Butch and the dogs for a ride in the back of my Chevy Pick-up.
Twenty minutes later, I was ready to boogie. Walking outside, I whistled for my dogs. A moment later three dogs rounded the corner of the house at a high rate of speed. On the back of the biggest dog rode Butch, my Rodeo Monkey.
This was a very pleasant and fun time of life for Butch. I don't hook him up to a chain to restrict his movements anymore since I was able to work so hard with him a few months ago. His learning abilities amaze me all the time. At night, I put him in his cage to go to sleep, but during the day, He pretty well has unrestricted freedom to move about the Toad Farm.
Butch had a fist full of dog hair in both hands as he clung tenaciously to our newest dog, Buddy. He was a stray dog who just wandered in one day and adopted all of us. Buddy was a fabulous dog, the only problem was he liked to chase guineas. Butch and Buddy hit it off right away. Sometimes I thought Miss Murphy (our cat) got a little jealous of the close relationship.
My dropping the tailgate was the signal for the dogs to jump into the back of the truck. Butch was still astride Buddy as I lifted the tailgate back into place.
"Butch, you're up front with me," I told him as I reached down and plucked the furry "cow-monkey" from off his Buddy horse.
For several months, I've had Butch getting used to riding in the front seat of the pickup with me. He was quite like an excited child every time he went for a ride with me. I get so tickled when Butch sees something out of the window. Maybe it is a herd of cows, a grazing horse or a jack rabbit racing across an open field. Butch would point out the critter to me and "Ooh!" and jump up and down on the seat.
Of course Butch had to look out the window on my side too. You know what they say -- The grass is greener out the other window. So, the same way you let your dog sit on your lap, I so the same way with my pet.
Today, just for a laugh, I thought I'd let Butch "drive." I carefully set him on my lap, placed his hands on the steering wheel and then placed my hands on either side of his. Then I leaned back in the seat. To all intents and purposes and especially to any driver we happen to meet, it seemed as if a real live monkey was driving the truck.
Children squealed with delight when they saw Butch driving. Even the grown-ups got the biggest kick from this rare and unusual sight. I was having a pretty good time myself until I saw the dreaded flashing lights behind me. Oh! Oh! Fun time was over.
I pulled over to the side of the road and waited as a cop walked up to my window. To my surprise, he had a camera in his hands.
"They would never believe me back at the station if I didn't get a picture of this," he said, as he raised the camera to his eye and snapped a picture of Butch "driving" the pickup.
Suddenly, he was all business as the smile disappeared from his face. He warned me not to play around like that again. He said I could cause someone to have an accident or even have one myself. So - another one of my clever jokes backfires on me. Why wasn't I surprised?
I eased Butch back over to the passenger side of the truck, quieted the dogs down in the back and headed back to the Toad Farm.
Twenty minutes later, I pulled into the driveway and killed the motor. Opening the door and getting out I called to Butch. He bounded across the seat and jumped into my open arms.
The dogs had made no move to jump out of the pick up. They were trained pretty good themselves. I walked back to the tailgate and lowered it.
Instantly, all three dogs jumped out. As they ran past Butch, he jumped back on Buddy's back and again he was the pig-tailed cowboy of the Toad Farm. I laughed at the sight he made before they again rounded the corner of the house and disappeared from view.
Duce is the penname of Carman J.W. Vance at the Crest Yard in Fort Worth.
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