A Horse's Tale, Chapter 5, Is there no end?
Steph turns to Bruno, "What does Halloween have to do with this?, Bruno turns and says "I don't know what Halloween is, Tell Me, Tell Me.", Steph looks at Bruno, "It's when kids dress up in costumes and go around trick or treating."
Before Bruno could answer, Mama Dog looks up, "Baby goats go around and get treats?" Steph shakes her head... "No, No People kids, you know like the grand children." Mama Dog nods, Bruno is excited, "Treats, Treats, Please Treats."
Steph looks over to him, "No not treats for dogs, Treats for kids." Bruno lower his head, and mumbles "Treats for the goats not for the dogs...Pffft".. "Bruno you have to be one of the dumbest...." Steph voice trails off....
"Well gang we need to find Fred the goat, I need to talk to her, it is really important.", "GO GO find the goat." All the dogs jump up, barking and running for the doggy door, out into the yard, Barking, barking, then all quiet.
Bruno comes back in the doggy door, as Steph is putting the things back into the bags. Bruno looks up, "We don't know where the goat is." Steph looks directly at Bruno "You are all dogs, hunting dogs, FIND THE GOAT." Bruno nods, and runs out the door barking.
As the barking fades into the distance, Steph continues to return each of the items back into Justice's and Spirit's Bags. Steph stands picks up the bags, and the Frank Sinatra hat, and Justice's bowtie. and heads out the door.
"I guess I need to return these to Spirit and Justice. Dang, I wish I could talk to the horses, it would make this a lot easier." Justice has just finished rolling around and is shaking off the dust. He looks up, and whinnies, Steph places the bowtie back on the rail
She opens the gate and walks in and shows Justice his bag. Justice very carefully takes the bag from Steph and walks to the middle of the pen, sets it down on the ground and using his nose, opens the bag and looks inside. He closes the bag and kicks some dirt on the bag.
He walks over to Steph and places his head on her shoulder. "Thank you, I thought I had lost it." Steph looks up, almost in tears, "I can hear you", Justice steps back and looks at Steph, "No, it was them." He looks behind Steph, she turns, looks she sees Eight Dogs, and a goat. Bruno, waggin his tail so hard, that he actually falls down once. "We found her!", Steph says, "Good Morning Fred." The goat, who stands nearly as tall as the big dogs, nods her head, Bruno says " She said good morning." "Where did you find her?"
Bruno says, "She was driving by the gate in her bus." , "Fred you have a bus???", Bruno looks at Fred, nods and looks back at Steph, and says "Yes she stole it from the retirement home last night to bring Spirit and Justice home..." "WHAT"
Steph, looks around, "We can not have a stolen bus sitting out front of the ranch, Fred you have to move it some place... and I mean now." Fred nods, she and all eight dogs take off to the front of the ranch.
Steph walks out of Justice's pen and as she looks back, Justice is kicking a bit more dirt on the bag. She walks over to Spirit's pen and like with Justice, Steph places the Sinatra hat on the rail, she steps in the pen and holds out the designer bag from an outlet mall,
Spirit walks up and just like Justice very carefully takes the bag, and Spirit turns and looks around, water barrel or middle of the pen, decides on center of the pen, walks forward, very carefully places the bag on the ground, and just like Justice, uses his nose to open the bag and look inside, seemingly taking inventory, closes the bag, looks up, and kicks some dirt on the bag, turns and walks back to Steph, "Thank you." Steph not to be caught twice turns and looks behind her, one goat, eight dogs. "That was quick, where did you leave the bus?", Bruno again waggin his tale has hard as his could, "We, We parked it next door near...." "WHAT YOU CAN'T PARK IT THERE, MY LORD, GO PARK IT NEAR THE HIGHWAY OR SOME PLACE FAR AWAY....", with that one goat, and eight dogs head back to the gate....
As she leaves the pen, she turns and Spirit is eating some hay. Steph shakes her head, "Dogs, goats, horses. There is no end." She slowly walks toward the Ladies Parlour, in the distance, she sees 'B' standing there, all is quiet in the parlour, in fact all the horses are standing, resting or sleeping.... As she approaches the pen, she looks around the pen, nothing unusual nothing hanging on the rails, no mounds of....Wait, "what is that..." Over to one side, is a mound of dirt, she had not noticed it before. She walks to the gate, opens it, steps inside. As is the norm, the residents of the parlour, those that are awake, look and see what Steph is going to do. Steph closes the gate, and turns "B, Come here"....
'B' walks up and stands facing Steph, wait for scratches and a hug. Steph using all her training, knowing that a horse has to face you to know that you want. Steph takes a couple of steps and turns to face 'B', 'B' turns her body to face Steph. Steph steps to the side and points at the large mound of dirt across the pen.
"Is that yours? and looks back at 'B', 'B' nods and gallops over to the mound, between snorting, and using her front hoofs, unearths the mound and pulls out a designer bag, a big bag. She reaches down grabs the bag by the handle and picks it up.
She walks back to Steph and holds it forward for Steph to take. Steph reaches forward and carefully takes the bag from 'B', its a beautiful bag, from a top designer, a bit dirty, but you can tell. Steph slowly opens the bag and looks inside...
"Where did you get the bag?" 'B' nods and says "My moms bought it for me, and FEDEX delivered it", having been through this several times in the last few minutes, she didn't want to look behind her, but she did. A goat, and five dogs, "Where are the small dogs?" Bruno says, "They have short legs, we parked the bus at the gas station on the highway, It will take them some time to get back." "We can't have that, go find them NOW." Steph stands there as the pack and goat turn to take off to find the small dogs, "Except Fred and Bruno, the rest of you find the small dogs." Fred and Bruno come to a halt and turn about. Steph turns back to 'B' and opens the bag.
Steph looks in the bag, all she can see is treats, seems like a dozen or more, she looks at 'B', "B, what are these?", 'B' says, "Oh, there are treats we have saved for emergencies or parties, and my Tiara, and some other things, I like." Steph smiles, "Why are you having Bruno collect Wal-Mart bags?", "Oh, Oh, so that everyone has a bag for Halloween to get treats."
"What about the things that Spirit and Justice have in their bags?" 'B', has to think a bit, "not sure what you are talking about, we horses collect things we like, Spirit is the assigned treasurer for Halloween, he has been collecting coins to buy treats. Did you know he has holding 'Horse Washes' at the Chicken Ranch for the last few weekends, seems to attract a lot of male human interest and gets some coins for the fund. Not sure why sure why people want to have to have their horses washed by the ladies at the chicken ranch, but no telling about people...."
Steph smiles, "You know that the moms, and aunties are buying treats for Halloween?", 'B' Looks straight at Steph, and says "Yes, but we want to make sure that each horse or mule gets a treat and a costume of some sorts."
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Now Stephanie, in full tears, looks up at 'B' "That is wonderful, you are a wonderful horse, and Spirit and Justice for helping."..."Oh, its not just myself, and Justice and Spirit, its all the horses that can help, we all work together, we younger horses do the hoof work..."
"Its amazing what you are doing to help the other horses 'B'," but before Steph can finish, 'B' says, "well its getting harder for a horse to get into Wal-mart, so we might need some help getting all the hats and masks and capes we need." Jerri and Dublin used to do it as leaders of the herd, but Jerri kept biting people in line at the cash register, and Dublin would just sort of walk out with the goods, so it was decided that the younger horses would handle the Wal-mart activities...."
'B' Continues, "We are still short 23 or so costumes, ya know hats, and masks and things, we need some help in getting them, time is short, Halloween is only a week away."
Steph hears some barking from the north, it's the pack coming in the ranch with three very tired small dogs.... "Well we have a few issues to solve first, a bus, a goat, and Rob will be back in just a few minutes for lunch..."
Steph hugs 'B' and walks to the gate, the hug triggers a mass appeal to the other horses in the parlour, and Steph hugs each, and slowly makes her way to the gate. As she exits, she notices that 'B' has picked up the bag, and is walking to the other side of the pen.
Steph turns and walks back toward the house. "You know Fred, you know that you can't be stealing buses from the old folks home, it isn't right." Fred through a translation from Bruno says, "Yes I know, but it was the only way to get the Equines home before dawn, we have only done it a few times. The people at the retirement home don't notice it gone before say, noon or so...",
Steph looks down at her watch, and says, "well its 11:50 now"... Steph is stopped in her tracks as the goat yells "Holy shi..." and takes off followed by the big dogs, the small dogs have seen enough running for one day..
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To be continued.
AUTHOR: SAMM
MHR PMU horses
