Adventures with Jazz

Okay, the "Dog Story" : (my curfew has passed by 9 minutes, so I'll make it short) =0)

Thursday night we let the dog outside, as he requested, and didn't think anything about it for awhile until Mom noticed his incessant barking (or that he hadn't requested in yet and opened the door and then noticed the barking). He was back under the trees in the back of the yard barking at something with great fervor. So she went out to call him in, and I decided to see what was up, so I slipped on my shoes and headed out too. Jazz was VERY excited, hence he was not listening to our commands to leave whatever he was so taken by and come in. Mom went and got two flashlights and shone them around where he was, but we couldn't really see what it was. It looked to me like a cat so, I climbed through the trees to try and see what it was, but couldn't really get close enough to see for sure. The fur that the light caught looked like a cat to me, but I couldn't understand why it didn't just run away from this yappy dog. I yelled out that it was a cat, and my Mom didn't agree (wisdom always trumps youthful inexperience). On an instinct, I thought it would be a good idea to pick up one of the forked branches I saw lying on the ground in front of me. The one I chose broke, but it was a big enough piece to make noise and push at the critter if I needed to. While I was coming out of the trees, my Mom had finally gotten the light on it enough to see that it was an opossum and...it's mouth was OPEN!!! NOT GOOD! Jazz being the stupid dog that he is sometimes, decided that it would be a good idea to get closer to this critter. At one point they were face to face about 5or 6 inches apart, with the possum judging when would be a good time to attack this mangy nuisance in front of him. Well, now knowing what it was, and realizing that our yelling and stick cracking wasn't going to scare it away, and Jazz not understanding that this critter could mangle him with one or two bites; I raced around the left side of the trees, next to the fence, trying to get to Jazz, so i could grab his tail and yank him out of there. As I approached him, he decided to move around 90 degrees to the possum. I still had the stick in my hand so I thought it a good idea to keep banging it on the tree branches to try to get the possum to leave, and this time it WORKED! Maybe i just smelled offensive to him. Unfortunately, when the possum took off, so did Jazz. I'm sure the neighbor were wondering what was going on, especially then Mom and I both let out a frantic yell as our knuckle-headed dog went chasing after this creature that could kill him if it wanted to (it was only a little bit smaller than he). Since Mom was not in the trees she took off after him, and I got there a few seconds later. The possum stopped over by the chain link fence on the right side of the yard, under the cover of the more dense trees there, and thankfully Jazz stopped out where we could see him. I told Mom, who was closer, to just grab his tail and pull him out, at the same time being concerned that Jazz might turn around and try to nip her (he's done that before when he forgets who it is that's grabbing him). Thankfully he didn't, and I scooped him up and we walked back into the house, allowing the silly opossum to wander on his merry way. I must say I have never seen a possum move so quickly before. Phfew! My adrenaline is up just recounting it, not as much as it was that night, but enough. =0) We had to put Jazz in the sink to clean off the tree junk and dirt that was all over him. Poor thing thought he was getting a bath (not his favorite thing to do) and he really needed one, but it was too late. He would never dry before bedtime. After he was released from "detention" in the sink, and his customary rug rub after getting wet, he curled up in his bed and had puppy dreams about this great adventure of chasing (and catching I'm sure) his foe. The only casualty was my white sweater that I was wearing. There was green grass-like "branch" stains and bark and dirt all over it, front and back. I sprayed it with stain stuff and let it sit for a day, but Mom figured a little bleach would be better (once again wisdom over inexperience). I must say it looks pretty good now. THANKS MOM!!! =0) Jazz is still having dreams about his great adventure. It's very cute to watch his little paws twitch as he "chases" his foe, corners him, "chases" him again, and then...in his version...I am sure he dreams about what ever you are supposed to do with a cornered foe.
Quite an adventure.

Well, it's now past my bedtime. That took longer to tell than I thought it would.
Have a loverly day today.
from me =0)