Karma's Kolumn: Good Advice from a Dog -- Going the Second Mile

This blog was posted in June but was lost in cyberspace or outer space when Patch changed its format.  I hope you like it.

I want to write to you today from my personal experience.  It was really one of those dog days of summer, when a dog with long hair heads for the cellar floor after being outside for awhile.  I like to cool my heels there and often spend time in the basement even before getting a drink of water.

Today I relaxed most of the morning.  My friend Phoebe came over late afternoon to pick some sour cherries and mulberries.  She remembered to bring me some roast beef!  I needed to go for a walk in the field and noticed a turkey acting like he owned the place, so I took off after him.  I scared him away and then noticed another one, so I chased that one, too.

Then we went down to the garden to see how it's doing.  John has been away for a week, so the weeds are beginning to take over.  Maybe that's good, because I found a woodchuck hole up near the driveway a couple days ago and the vegetables may be safe hidden under the weeds.

I sniffed all through the brush, tied to a very long rope so I could go as far as I wanted.  Then I went over to an area near the raspberries to check out a woodchuck hole I'd discovered the other day.  The hole had been filled with rocks and now had freshly dug dirt near the rocks.

This evening I went out again to check the hole, hoping to catch the woodchuck at dusk when it came out for dinner.  I was tied to the apple tree by my owner to guard the hole, which I could just reach.  My owner went into the house for about 15 minutes to try to figure out what to do about the woodchuck.  My job was only to guard the hole, but I decided to "go the second mile" and actually catch the woodchuck.  I am a very proficient excavator and within just a few minutes had dug a very large area around the rocks and had gone deep enough that I could get half my body into the hole.

My owner hooted upon discovering what I had done and suggested I could be rented out to do excavations for septic systems or to make planting furrows.  I would have dug to the far ends of the earth to get that woodchuck, but my owner, seeing that my legs were covered with mud and that my tongue was black with dirt, decided to take me into the house.

It was a very hot afternoon for all that digging.  I drank two bowls of water but could not stop panting because I was so hot.  I was a little worried, so didn't head for the basement.  Instead, I sat down on the dining room floor, panting to try to cool myself off and pulling at the burs that were stuck on my legs.  My owner finally took me outside and poured buckets of water over me to cool me down.  I didn't object, and it did help.  When I came back in, I had some chicken – a reward for not passing out from heat exhaustion -- and some Rescue Remedy to calm me down.

What I learned from this experience is that in my enthusiasm to go the second mile, I overdid it.  The weather was extremely hot, I was so excited at the thought of catching the woodchuck that I didn't realize I was overextending myself, and I worried myself and my owner because I got overheated.  It's not my nature to use caution, but I do want to recommend to my people friends that instead of going the second mile you might consider just going a mile and a half if the weather's hot and you're not used to the activity you're doing.  Children and older people especially should be careful.  You can always save the extra half mile for the next day.

On a hot day, remember to head for the cellar, which is naturally cool.  Spiders enjoy it down there, too.  I always liked Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White, so I'll have to ask around to find out whether one of Charlotte's descendants lives in my basement.