Skeleton Dog

A bed of hay for a sign of an early Halloween

Skeleton Dog

“It must be getting close to Halloween!” I said, muttering to myself as I walked through sort of a grim looking, yet still green grass on an early October, darkened morning.  

On such mornings there isn’t usually much to see anyway.  Yet, I didn’t have much of a visual option, as the moon wasn’t shining brightly and the sun didn’t seem to be very interested in getting up, out of the eastern sky yet.  It was so early that there wasn’t really even any shine being proffered from lights gleaming through windows from surrounding homes.  I could see well enough though.

At least I thought I could see well enough, right up to the time when I wished I could see very clearly!  So, of course, that’s when I saw something!  Well, sort of saw something.

My big red bull feeder was just up in front of me.  I could see its bright, yet lack of light diminished color.  I saw its outline, but I couldn’t make out the identity of a shape curled up inside of that round, curving, sustenance-offering-sculpture.  There was something there!  I just couldn’t tell what it was.

“It’s way too much like spooky Halloween!”  I instinctively thought, as shivers of fear began to convulse throughout my body.

There was a definite, in the wrong place, shape there!  It was an unrecognizable shape, yet providentially, the color was all wrong for the one thing I would normally, well, always want to avoid at all times on Salty Shores Ranch. Luckily, it wasn’t black as night with a white stripe.  Not a skunk! 

Whew!

Gray was its color.  Which gave me courage to pursue a closer look.

I apprehensively edged a little closer.  After all, I’m a careful sort.  Just ask my daughters!  Because they’ll tell you I’m the guy who abandoned them.  Yes!  I’m the guy who fled, leaving my little girls to fend for themselves, when one of those giant, terrifying Egyptian upright-walking dog type creatures, who I thought was a statue, reached out and touched my shoulder while we were “enjoying” a walk though “The Mummy” experience at Universal Studios.  Yep!  I have proven I know when to run!

It was feeling very much like Halloween, so I was ready to run.  To scram! If necessary.

Its head lifted!  I saw it move.  Its angular body followed, slinking off its luxurious bed of uneaten fodder toward the edge of the hay’s red metal halo. 

“Lucky for me!”  

This thing was more afraid of me than I was of it.

I watched its front legs rise above the feeder’s rim. Next, its rear legs thrust the rest of its body up and over the rim.  I had just observed the thinnest dog I’d ever seen duck under a fence rail and trot its bones away, while blending perfectly into barely morning gray.

“A skeleton dog!  It is surely close to Halloween!”  I said, muttering to myself as I walked through a sort of grim looking corral on an early October, darkened morning.  

On such mornings there isn’t usually much to see anyway.  Yet, I on this morning, I was frightened by a most unusual, even spooky sight, as the moon wasn’t shining brightly and the sun didn’t seem to be very interested in getting up, out of the eastern sky yet.  It was so early that there wasn’t really even any shine being proffered from lights gleaming through windows from surrounding homes.  I could see well enough though.

It was a sign of an early Halloween for sure.  Because I had just seen a Skeleton Dog!

Yet, this eerie sight tugged at my heart as I watched him go.  I could still see the imprint of his body pressed into the hay and I felt grateful to have unintentionally offered him some comfort and rest.  Because, even though I’m often afraid to offer help to one in need, it’s always the right thing to do.