A COAT OF MANY COLORS

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A friend of ours has a new mowing buddy, and it sure is a pretty little thing. Well, I guess it actually belongs to his neighbor but when he can he shows up at our friends’ house. He has a coat of many colors and loves to prance around and show off how pretty he is.

Our friend has a long drive back to the house with a little creek with a bridge over it just before you get to the house. It has thick woods all but a couple of places that our friend has cleared away the trees and left small open areas of grass.

I drove over to our friends one day and as I came back down the drive to leave the new mowing buddy was walking around in one of those cleared areas. He ran toward the road and I stopped to see what he was going to do. He slowly strutted out into the road and over to the driver’s side of the car, then slowly sauntered into the grassy area on the other side of the road and watched me drive by.

He likes to greet the cars that arrive on their property and must understand that the interloper will leave by the same way and will wait for you to come back. He is not always visible when you are coming down the drive but he will appear to greet you on the way in or send you on your way when you leave.

He wanders down the drive and makes it perfectly clear that the area you are driving through is his and that he is the boss. You will be allowed to pass when he is ready to let you. He will even talk to you in his own language as you drive by.

We went to town the other day and waved at our friend as he was sitting on his big lawn mower. He was not mowing; just sitting on the mower near the driveway. His new mowing buddy was wandering around the mower while he sat there. Our friend waved at us and started to mow again. As soon and he started mowing by the drive, his mowing buddy with a coat of many colors moved next to the mower and started running along beside it.

He is so happy running beside the mower and he talks to our friend while he mows. When he stops for a few minutes, his new buddy will come up beside the mower and stay by his side even while he sits and rests for a minute. Then will join the mower on its rounds when it starts to move again.

Our friend said the little guy has learned the mower means food if he stays close to it. The little guys’ owner has a mower like our friends’ so when he hears the mower running next door, he makes a bee line for it in hopes of getting a treat. It is like Pavlov’s dogs that were trained that a bell ringing meant food. This little guy has the theory down pat and meets our friend as soon as he starts to mow.

Some of the animals that decide to join us on our journey through life and become friends are not always cats or dogs. We have a little cotton tail that has decided our yard is his home and he comes around a couple times a day. He is just a young one so I hope we can see him grow up. And hopefully he will stay close and not get into the yards with the dogs or try to cross Monroe Street.

We have had a couple of squirrels that have become almost like pets that hang around our yard to eat the birds sunflower seeds. They stay pretty close but will sometimes cross the road. Stubby was the one without a tail and only had a nub that stood up on his back.  He was fun to have around until he decided to get crazy and try to go across Monroe.

Unfortunately before I could finish and send this story our friends’ new mowing buddy with a coat of many colors was killed by his neighbors’ dog so he won’t be around anymore to run beside the mower and greet visitors coming down the driveway. To contact Sandy: [email protected]

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