excerpt
“Okay if I let Blue out to meet your dog?” Tyler asked. “I want
to use him to help me push the cattle. I figure some of these cows
are going to need some canine encouragement.”
“You bet,” replied Joel. As Joel and Harry went to the barn to
claim the horses that Tanya had saddled, he realized that he
should be mad but he actually really liked this kid. By the time
that the three of them returned with their horses, Tyler and Blue
were already hard at work. Swinging a rope above his head and
moving his horse, a leggy black mare, Tyler was starting to get
the herd’s attention. That is, when Blue kicked in. He went to
work barking at, and yes, even jumping at, the cattle. Finally,
some of the cows started to move, and others started to follow.
Joel, Tanya, and Harry joined in to help young Tyler, but there
was no doubt who the real cowboy was here. With Tyler and Blue
pushing the back of the herd, the rest of them tried their best to
keep the cattle moving in the right direction.
It was several hours of hard riding before all of the cattle were
back on the Smith spread. After using his fencing pliers to temporarily
fix the fence, Tyler promised to ride home to retrieve the
fencing truck and finish the job properly before nightfall. With
that kind of cooperation, Joel had a tough time being upset about
what had happened, but he felt that he had to say something.
“Any idea why this happened?” Joel cautiously asked young
Tyler.
“Wouldn’t surprise me if it was exactly what I’ve been predicting
for a week now.”
“Which is?”
“I told Mr. Smith that the spring was about to run dry and it
would be no time before that sorry watering hole goes dry. We
could march over there right now and I bet that is exactly what’s
happened. These cows were after water. Come to think of it, I’ll
bring the water truck over and we will start filling the water
tanks. I need to do that tonight. Now that these cows know
where the water is, they won’t be shy about coming back for it.
Can’t really blame them can you?”
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