karate chops

Following a very eventful afternoon, Matt says, "THAT's one for the blog."  Oh yeah.

So we're working with this Doberman.  Huge and scary looking, but being almost entirely untrained, more like a big puppy.  A very strong big puppy.  We're trying to get him used to us and the kiddos before Matt starts working on getting the night watchmen to not be petrified by him tomorrow.

So this afternoon, we take Ti-Boone out for a family walk around the campus (6 acres) when we know no one else is inside.  As we start walking down near corner where we burn the garbage, we see these little black things.  Chickens?  Ginny fowl?  We weren't sure what they were, but Ti-Boone was entirely uninterested.

As we kept walking, we realized they were 7 toddler pigs, having squeezed through one of the drainage holes in the wall, rooting through the garbage.  Matt excitedly scooped up Lily so she could see the baby pigs, who didn't seem to care at all that we were there.

After a moment, we started to walk on, and one of the piglets startled.  The SECOND that thing started to run...all was lost.  Ti-Boone was GONE, quickly chasing them down pig by pig, tossing them up in the air and catching them in his humungous teeth.  Matt tried, with the arm that wasn't holding Lily, to grab Ti-Boone, but let me tell you, "Ti" Boone is not that petit.

Totally deaf to all direction, he was on a gleeful chase, and the piglets by this time were all SCREECHING and running in every direction around us.  Lily was starting to get (understandingly) upset (I myself didn't know whether to laugh or cry), and I walked further away with the baby, reminding Matt that Lily was getting very upset by the shouting, barking and screeching.

Matt quickly changed gears and starting working on Lily, seeing that there was nothing he could do to help 7 pigs running in different directions from our giant puppy.  "It's ok, Lily!" he kept saying brightly.  "Look, they're playing a fun game!  Look, they're playing tag!  Oooo!  Look how fun!"

I join in the charade as we keep walking further away, not wanting one of the girls to get in on the action.  Lily starts cracking up, but after a few moments, Boone chooses one as his squeaky-toy and picks it up in his jaws, charging the few acres back to our home, all the while shaking the poor thing vigorously and occasionally tossing it up in the air.

We walked around the whole compound the long way home so that we could take Lily in the back door, avoiding the bound-to-be dead "toy" pig laying under Boone's front paws.  As we walked, mental note: tell Jean-Sius to get his beautiful goat off the property.  Warn the owner of the cow.  And...oops, also found several piles of white feathers...Ti-Boone had already found several chickens.

Lily kept incessantly asking, "What is Boone doing with the piggie?" and we kept laughing about what a fun game they were all having.  The other pigs were all in hiding (these must be dumb pigs, because they couldn't seem to find ANY of the many holes in the wall to flee).  We slipped in the house while Matt went around front and got rid of the dead pig.   (Matt: "Add to my list of things I've never done before...thrown a dead pig over the wall.  Pigs can fly!")

Our phone rings: Shayla and Rodlen are at the front gate to visit.  Matt starts off for the front gate to unlock it, and Boone follows him.

The moment Matt rounded the corner, he saw another pig cowering at the front gate, begging to be let out.  Oh man.  Matt didn't see it as fast as Boone did.  Rodlen and Shayla were standing right there, and before their eyes (remember, most Haitains are terrified of large dogs), Boone (again deaf to Matt) charged that thing, threw him up in the air, shook him ferociously, and bolted back to our house with the pig in mouth, squealing as they came.

Free advertising right there.  The whole community is in an uproar about the man-eating dog.

It was ALL Matt could do to convince them it was safe to come in the campus, and they watched in horror while Boone played the thing to death in our front yard, while I'm again trying to convince Lily that the animals are just playing.

We have a fun visit with Shayla and Rodlen, though they were wide-eyed and laughing nervously the whole time, the highlight being Rodlen's big question.  He has apparently watched a few Jackie Chan movies himself.  "So, could a man that knew a lot of karate fight that dog?"

Matt and I both started cracking up just at the image of someone leaping over the wall and going karate crazy on our security dog.

Not an hour later, people started calling Matt, asking us to lock the dog up and to come in and get their animals off the campus.

During bath time we heard Ti-Boone and another piggy playing.  "He's going to eat that piggie up!" Lily squealed, delighted.

Uncle Don comes Tuesday, and hopefully he'll build a fenced area for Jaws, who can stay fenced in all day and then roam with the night watchmen all night.  Hopefully.