In which Emma escapes unscathed

- from Great Sky Demons; plus When Purse Dogs Attack!

Great Sky Demon hunting near scene of today's attack

Got a bit of a late start today; got to sleep about 1 AM, didn’t wake up to stay until almost 11. I’m still a bit drained and catching up.

Anyway, I took myself off to VI, ate huevos rancheros and wrote some. Next I did some errands, then came home, snagged Emma Dog, and took off for the Vineyard.

It was a beautiful day: clear and bright blue sky, calm, warm. Of course that last varies: if the wind’s not blowing, 50 is warm for me. Today was at least 60, I’d say. Really a delightful day, that filled me with a sense of happy well-being.

As usual there were plenty of Canada geese grazing, as well as a number of cranes, grazing in groups of four or five. The fields were full of meadowlarks; some seemed to be signing. Also mourning doves were marking territory; around my house they started over the weekend.

We walked down to the end of the first lane, turned around and headed back. We had a brief encounter with a pair of long haired yellow and white Corgis – I’m guessing Pembrokes.. At least one of them wanted badly to start something, displaying what someone in the classic novel The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters terms “the poorest kind of judgement,” since the two of them together made maybe a quarter of Emma. They got so insistent Emma actually growled back, something she hasn’t done in a long time.
Fortunately I dissuaded her from punishing their disrespect; she’s a good girl, and responds well to “no.”

As we walked on I saw, away to the northwest, a hot air balloon – I originally typoed that “hot hair balloon,” which is just gross – hanging against the sky. I enjoyed seeing it. They’re cool and rather exotic, except for a week in October when they become a plague upon the sky.

Then another appeared, a blue and yellow balloon low down and pretty much due west. I thought that was really cool.

Then I noticed it was floating fairly briskly toward us. And it occurred to me why that wasn’t so cool.

I may enjoy seeing hot air balloons. Emma decidedly does not. She knows them for what they really are: vast disembodied floating carnivorous heads, who scan the terrain below for prey with big terrible eyes. And their favored prey is, of course, helpless dogs.

Of course, Emma is as helpless as a killer robot with chainsaw arms. But she thinks she is, in the face of the malice which is a Great Sky Demon!

So it turned into a race. I didn’t run, just walked fast. My big concern was, aside from the fact I don’t want my beloved dog terrified by aerial monstrosities, that if she got too freaked out she’d never want to go walk in the Vineyard again – given that it’s a hunting ground of the Great Sky Demons.

The wind cooperated, pushing the balloon a bit higher and northward. Then when we reached the bridge across the ditch to where my car was parked, we faced a new menace.

Killer Purse Dogs.

There were a pair of them, tethered to a nice little older lady (must … resist … obvious … joke.) They were terriers, not the real minute teacup kind, but quite small. Like each about half a Corgi.

We halted on the south bank to let them pass – it’s my practice to avoid stress by always yielding right of way. Despite that Emma’s presence provoked them into becoming balls of snarling fury. Tiny, fuzzy, balls of snarling fury.

With difficulty the lady wrestled them across the bridge and onward. They kept trying to fling themselves at Emma and getting brought up short, like attack yoyos with a ranging problem.

There seems to be a size cutoff line, below which Emma doesn’t seem to take dogs seriously as threats. Evidently it lies somewhere between Corgis and Purse Terriers. Emma mostly watched them with great curiosity.

And then we got in the car and made our escape before Emma could see the Great Sky Demon or hear its fearful roar. The end!

(As always, feel free to click on the link above to purchase The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (Arbor House Library of Contemporary Americana) from Amazon and support this site and me! It’s a great book. I need to reread it OOTD.)

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