Four Legged Views

Wow, I made it. I have lived with Vickie for one whole year. Now this may not seem like much to many of you but, it isn’t easy living with Vickie and to have made it a whole year and still be alive, well that is truly an accomplishment.

To celebrate, Vickie took me to the ranch for the night. We met John up there and all went for a ride on the ATV’s, hoping to see some wildlife. I hate the ATV and I am proud to say that before I was through with this ride, I had Vickie hating it too.

Well maybe she just hated taking me along. The ride went like this.

When she pulled the ATV out and got it all set for me to ride in, I made it very clear to her that I would rather run along side the bike than ride in it. I kept dodging her as she would go to lift me up into the place where I am supposed to fit. Finally she gave up and with some very explicit language, she said “Fine, if you want to run, then run.” And off she went.

I kept up pretty good for the first mile but after a while, I got really winded. The back of that ATV where I was supposed to be sitting was starting to look pretty good. Thank goodness Vickie took mercy on me and she stopped and asked me if I wanted to ride now.

It was either ride or run and right then, Riding was my choice.


Because Vickie was going really slow so I didn’t hurt myself while running, John had left us far behind so after I got on, it took us a while to catch up.

Now if I had my own ATV and could drive it myself, everything would be fine but it really isn’t very fun sitting behind the driver. I mean, you can’t see all of the scenery from the back and I like to see all the scenery. Especially those little critters Vickie calls “Pot Guts” who run across the trail in front of you.

I love watching them and I bet if I were free to do what I wanted, I would be able to catch each and every one of them. You know, were I on foot/paw. I wouldn’t hurt them or anything, I just like to see how fast I am.

So here I am riding behind Vickie and no offense, but she isn’t the easiest thing to see around. So I am leaning to the left side, then the right side, and even sometimes standing with my feet on Vickies shoulders so I can see.

Vickie is cussing me and pushing me back, telling me to “Sit” “Stay” “Stop this” and “Stop that”…. “Burt your going to kill both of us” “Burt SIT DOWN NOW”

She really is a mess. She is so busy cussing me that neither one of us gets to enjoy the view. And it really is a view. Flowers and trees, water and birds, glorious sounds. All this potential and all she can do is holler at me and sway all over the road with the ATV.


Well finally I had just had enough so I jumped off. Whoa, now that wasn’t a good idea. It was a bit higher than I expected and we were moving so I was pretty lucky when all I did was fall on my face and roll.

“Burt, you nut” Vickie screamed as she jammed on the brakes. “You could have killed yourself.” She was really concerned, but I was lucky and other than a fat lip, I didn’t break anything. However, I may re-think this jumping out of the ATV thing in the future. That is if there is an ATV in my future.

When we met up with John, Vickie was telling him that she figured she would leave me in the trailer from now on when she rides. That didn’t sound to good of an idea to me so I tried really hard not to do anything wrong for the next three minutes.

We all stopped at Rock Creek lake and hiked around looking for any sign of moose or deer. It was pretty sad. It seems like all the mature moose have been hauled off by the Fish and Game department. They have killed off all of the beaver in the area and the water is grungy and smelly because natures naturalist (the beaver) has been destroyed.

Sadly we all loaded up and headed back to the trailer. As we came around one of the turns in the road, a big buck jumped out into the road in front of us. It was gorgeous. I was so excited that I leaned too far to the right to get a better view and when Vickie tried to correct for my weight distribution, we almost crashed into a tree.

That is when my future on the ATV became permanent. No more……

“It will be a cold day in” well, you get the point……before I am ever allowed to ride with Vickie on her ATV rides. She said I will just have to settle for our hikes before and after her rides. I did get a promise from her that I could chew on a bone while she is riding so maybe it wont’ be so bad to be left behind.

Almost back to the trailer “the Ranch” John spotted a moose. At this time I was running behind the bike ( you know, after the deer thing) so Vickie and I stopped and stayed at the top of the hill and watched while John took videos. Even though we were far away, it is pretty clear that moose are big……

Vickie said this one was a small two year old female and one of only three that were left in the area so it was pretty cool to be able to see it. John was standing in one place taking pictures when the moose decided to cross the road right next to him. Vickie got a video of it. Hopefully it will come out so you can see it. John just stood there as the moose walked right by him. They were eye to eye about 10 feet from each other.

I though John was pretty darn brave. I think I would have run like a scared kitty cat if I saw something that big coming towards me.

When we got back, it was almost dark. Vickie and John ate some sandwhiches. Vickie was in no mood to share so I thought I would try John but he was pretty fixed on eating the whole thing to so all I got was my regular old dog food. Vickie say's I cannot eat human food anymore because it gives me gas and also that I don't have any manners. Something about grabbing it out of peoples hands when they aren't looking. She says that is poor etiquette. Mmm, like dogs need to worry about etiquette...

After dinner John went home and Vickie and I settled in for the night. It was pretty cold so just before she turned off the flashlight to go to bed she shut the trailer door. Good thing too, because around 1 am while I was fast asleep by the door, Vickie woke up to see that same big moose looking through the window at her.

Vickie says she watched the moose for about ten minutes as it would look in the window, then lean down and eat some grass then look back at her in the window. I don’t know what woke me up cause they were both really quiet but when I woke up I could smell that ole moose just outside the door not inches from my head.

It shook me up pretty good so I stood up and looked out the window to see what I was smelling. Well when I saw that big monster looking right at me I jumped backwards into Vickies lap. Then realizing that I was her protector, I started barking and barking and barking. I admit the big thing had 500 pounds or more on me, but I must have been scary enough cause she finally turned and trotted off into the night.

Vickie said to tell you she is sorry the videos are so dark, but it was pretty late when they were taken.....