In Which Dino Narrowly Avoids Becoming A Dog Murderer

the muzzle of a killer?

Yesterday evening I was doing my barn chores, minding my own business, when I saw some guy in a blaze orange jacket go crawling under our pasture fence and into the field where Dino and his buds hang out.

Ready to rip this dude a new one for trespassing on private property and hunting so close to horses, I immediately marched out towards the field to raise hell, which is when I saw his dogs.

They sure weren't hunting dogs.

A Miniature Poodle and a French Bulldog were gleefully cavorting through the pasture, having a grand old time and chasing the horses. Their owner apologized profusely and explained that they had gotten loose and he had followed them to our farm to catch them.

The poodle was quickly captured, but the Frenchie proved more difficult to catch.

The little ankle biter was doggedly (har, har) chasing the horses, snapping at their legs, and ignoring all human pleas for it to Please Come Here And Stop Trying To Get Yourself Killed. The horses were Really Not Okay with the whole situation, and were running around like lunatics, kicking and bucking and trying to get away from the Frenchie.

At one point I nabbed it, but during the hand-off to the owner, the dog wiggled and the owner dropped it. Away went the Frenchie!

By now, the farm owner had seen the whole catastrophe from up at the house, and had come down with a baggie of leftover chicken to try and tempt the dog. Brainless Frenchie wanted no part of humans with food, and was now locked on to Dino - darting around his legs and trying to bite his ankles. Dino was really not cool with this and was striking out with his front legs and kicking with his back legs to try and dispatch the Frenchie. My heart stopped approximately 586 times as I watched flying hooves pass by the dog's body with only inches to spare. I was pretty sure my horse was going to kill this dog.

At this point, the horses were getting really worked up and the Frenchie was more intent than ever on chasing them. I decided to start trying to catch the horses and put them away in the barn since our efforts to grab the dog were failing. It took me a little bit to halter Dino since he and his buddies were roiling about in a twisting, bucking, kicking mass of unhappy horses. Once I caught my pony, he did calm down a little bit.

Unfortunately, the Frenchie seemed to think that I had captured a horse JUST FOR HER, and began chasing Dino's hind legs and biting at his pasterns.

My good, good, wonderful, incredible, intelligent pony just kept slowly turning on his forehand, nervous about the dog, but listening to my requests to be calm and just move gently away from it. Every once in a while he'd stomp with one back foot, but never kicked out and back towards the dog's head. After what seemed like forever, I was able to get close enough to the Frenchie to grab it by the scruff of its neck. I don't think I've ever scruffed a dog so fast in my life!

And that, dear readers, is the tale of how Dino almost went to jail for dog murder.