Tales from the Bark Side

By Keith Ross | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, July 14, 2007

Welcome back to the bark side of life here in Ottertail where the thermometer has soared to almost 100 degrees and our 10-foot “Easy Set” pool has become a sanctuary for the tired and over-heated.

While I'm on the subject of birds, does anybody know how to get rid of grackles and red-wing blackbirds without shooting up the place? The orioles and gold finches seem to shy away from the feeders when their ebony-hued cousins congregate.

The single brown thrasher, whom I call “Sheriff Brown” has chased a few of the unwanted fowl off but he can't be here all the time.

It's not a big problem, and I wish all my problems in life were this small.

I welcome any and all suggestions to help solve this situation. I can't always count on Sheriff Brown to save the day and scatter the miscreant flock.

I may be at fault here, by not emphasizing all the categories of the “best critter tales” contest. I have not received one single entry from people 18 and younger, in either the antidotal or self written category.

As I have previously stated, there are four categories:

• 18 and younger

• Antidotal (a story told to me or directing me to write it for them)

• Self Written (a tale written by the person with little or no editing from me)

• Adult Antidotal Self Written

Please encourage your youths to enter this contest. The prizes are going to be significant. Wal-Mart, The Country Store, Dave Peters Jewelers, and the City Bakery are on board. Don Pablo's, Coopers Technology, and Dan’s Sewing and Vacuums will have gift certificates.

The winners will pick up their prizes at the store location of the prize they have won.

I have a sample of what a young person's entry looks like. Meribeth Wothe of Perham wrote this one last year for the same contest in another publication.

Tinkerbell's Story

By Meribeth Wothe, age 10

Tinkerbell is my cat who's been through so much. Her story begins when my aunt asked us if we would like a kitten one day in the spring. We gladly said yes. She is a long-hair tortoiseshell. She isn't exactly “smart” because she was abandoned by her mother and didn't learn the things cats should learn like hunting mice and burying her compost sites.

She didn't learn where the barn was so every morning and night I would put her in there. But, one morning I couldn't find her so I hoped she was still in the barn. When I got back from school I still I couldn't find her. Later that evening the temperature was in the mid 40s and drizzling. We looked and looked but we could not find her.

As I called my dog in, I heard a meow. There under the deck was Tinkerbell, as stiff as board. She had hypothermia, so we put her on the heating pad, covered her in blankets, and put a hot water bag on her. When I checked on her about an hour later she was up and walking, a little dizzily, but she was OK.

Then someone stepped on her hip. She dragged her leg around the house for about a day. I hoped they hadn't broken her pelvis. Fortunately, it was only bruised a little.

Another time when she was pregnant she got a cut on her leg that got infected causing her to have her kittens a week early.

She wasn't producing any milk, so all of her kittens died. If we hadn't gotten her to the vet in the time we did, she would have died also. But she didn't.

She now rules the house. She tells you everything. She is now caring for her fourth batch of kittens. When the dogs are being annoying sometimes she gives them an open-paw, no-claws swat. If she doesn't like the food in her dish she yowls loudly. But we love our pampered cat.

Keep those tales coming in, and you adults can keep sending yours in as well.

E-mail me at info@rosswoodkennels.com or write to me at Keith Ross, Richville, MN 56576 or phone me at 218-495-2195.

Keith Alan Ross writes from his New York Mills home.