by Steven Bird
“You know, you look kind of sexy with that gun on your hip. You look like a woman who means business,” he said with a devious grin.
“I do mean business, Sheriff,” she said, pulling him in close for a kiss. “Unfortunately, you’ve got business to attend to as well. It’s getting late.”
With a deflated look, he replied, “You’re right. I’ve got to get out there. I don’t like the thought of the sheep being out there without Duke.”
Chapter Six
Riding his horse, Brave, along the trail to get to the grassy hillside where his flock was grazing, Jessie kept a keen eye out for any sign of trouble. Paying close attention to the birds, as they always seemed to have a way of alerting him to potential danger, Jessie was pleased to find them chirping away as if everything was right in the world.
As he approached his flock, he paused and scanned the area from a distance and did not see anything particularly out of place. Riding up to the ridge that overlooked his flock, Jessie dismounted and tied Brave’s reins to a tree branch in the shade. “We’ll just sit here and observe for a while before we set up camp. We’ve got plenty of time,” he said, patting Brave on the back. “I have a feeling you’re not going to be as talkative as Duke tonight, are you?” he said with a chuckle as Brave seemed to pay him no mind.
Using his binoculars to glass the area below, Jessie panned from right to left, pausing on each cluster of sheep, with everything seeming to be secure. Then, once his scan reached the left-most edge of the grazing area, he caught a glimpse of a lone ewe separated from the rest of the flock. “That’s not right,” he said aloud, as if Brave could understand. “Let’s go check it out.”
Mounting Brave and spurring him into action, he carefully traversed the steep hillside to the area where he had seen the ewe from a distance. As he neared, he could hear the distress in her bahh as she called out for something. Knowing that sheep are generally quiet animals unless there is a problem, he sped Brave up to a trot, startling the ewe as he rode up in such a hurry.
When he reached her, he saw her standing over the remains of a young lamb that had been torn to pieces by a predator. “Well, heck,” he said as he climbed down from his horse. The young mother ewe refused to leave her tiny lamb’s side, even though it was a gruesome scene to behold. She called out to her lamb as if it would somehow hear her and respond, not fully understanding the situation.
“Oh, momma. I’m sorry, girl,” he said as he approached slowly. The skittish ewe backed away as her distress-filled calls only intensified. “Go on now,” he said, trying to urge the ewe to leave and rejoin the flock. “There’s nothing we can do for him now. I’m sorry, but you’ll forget all about this soon,” he said, referring to her relatively simple cognitive abilities. “Go,” he repeated again, pushing her away.
Finally giving in to his urging, the young mother turned and slowly walked towards the flock, leaving him to deal with the remains of the young lamb.
“Those thieving mongrels,” he said under his breath. Standing up and walking back over to where Brave was standing, he took his collapsible shovel out of the pack that he had secured to the horse’s saddle. “We’ve got to bury the remains. We don’t want the smell of blood to linger.”
Once he had dealt with the remains of the slain lamb, Jessie looked up at the evening’s sky and said, “Well, Brave, no tent tonight. It looks like it’s gonna remain dry and I need to keep my head on a swivel. A tent would be the equivalent of wearing blinders. Besides, I can’t fit you in the tent like I could Duke, and you’re my only company,” he said jokingly to the unimpressed horse.
~~~~
As Jessie set up his open-air camp and prepared his kindling and firewood for the night, a feeling came over him that he was being watched. Turning around quickly, he was startled to see a large ram standing behind him. The ram was also frightened by Jessie’s sudden movement, taking several steps back.
“Oh, hey, boy. Thank God, it’s only you.” The ram studied Jessie for a moment and then walked toward him, lowering his head and rubbing his horns on Jessie’s leg.
Seeing the number on the ram’s ear tag, Jessie looked to his horse, Brave, and said, “This is Lobo. Lobo was a bottle lamb who was rejected by his mother at birth because he was too small. Now look at him. He’s magnificent,” he said with admiration, scratching behind Lobo’s horns. “You’ve always been a little different, Lobo. I guess having Stephanie and the kids bottle-feed you took away some of your instinct to distrust us mean ol’ humans. Here, I’ve got something for you,” Jessie said as he walked over to his horse.
Reaching into the pack on the saddle, Jessie retrieved one of the horse treats that he had brought along for Brave. “Here ya go, Lobo. You’ll love these. Stephanie makes them out of oats and dehydrated apples.”
Sniffing the treat in Jessie’s hand, Lobo happily took it into his mouth and vigorously consumed it.
Turning to look at Lobo, Jessie said, “I guess you saw what happened over there, huh, boy?” pointing to where the young lamb was killed. “I don’t envy you sheep these days. Those wolves have gotten a taste for you and it’s gonna to be hard to break them of it now. Short of killing each and every one of them, that is. Grazing domesticated sheep are just too dang easy compared to hunting and catching wild game.” Scratching him on top of the head, Jessie added, “I’ll do my best, but no promises.”
~~~~
As the evening slipped off into the night, the world seemed at peace to Jessie; the sounds of nature all around him, a faint breeze blowing just hard enough to keep the mosquitos away, and his flock grazing on the rich grasses of the hillside, seeming to not have a care in the world. Tending to his fire, Jessie looked off to his left to see Lobo lying in the grass on the edge of the light provided by the flames.
“Not too keen on fire, are you, boy?” Jessie asked. “I guess no animal is, though. Fire in the natural world means a forest fire, which is bad. As far as animals are concerned, fire outside of the natural world means humans, which is also bad. Yeah, I guess it’s just about right for you to all be leery of fire.”
Turning his head quickly, Lobo looked into the darkness as he and Jessie heard a howl off in the distance.
“There they are, boy,” he said, staring off into the blackness of the night. Poking at the fire with a stick, he added, “Having a campfire is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it does a good job of keeping the critters away—no offense intended to you, of course. On the other hand, it destroys my night vision. When those fleabags make their move and I have to engage them in the dark, I feel as blind as a bat in a soundproof room.”
Brave, shifted his hooves restlessly at the sounds of the distant menacing howl. Walking over to him, Jessie stroked his neck and said, “Easy, boy. They sound like they’re pretty far away right now. Don’t worry. I’ll cut you loose if it comes down to it.”
~~~~
Awakened by the sounds of wolves in the distance, Stephanie sat up in bed and reached over for her shotgun, which she still kept handy for its firepower, despite having the pistol. That sounded close, she thought. Duke, who had been sleeping by her side, perked to attention, having heard the howl as well.
Just then, Sasha and Jeremy came running into her and Jessie’s bedroom, frightened by the ominous sounds.
“Mommy, Mommy!” Sasha cried. “The wolves. They’re outside.”
“It’s okay,” Stephanie said reassuringly. “They’re off in the woods somewhere far from us.”
“No! I saw one out the window,” Sasha insisted.
“What?” Stephanie shouted as she pulled the covers aside and climbed out of bed.
“I woke up when I heard them howling. I looked out our bedroom window and saw a dog go by in the moonlight out near the treeline.”
Duke sprang to his feet with a whimper, haunted by his previous injuries and began to growl under his breath.
“Shhhh, it’s okay, boy,” Stephanie said as she scratched him on top of the head. “We’re
safe in here.”
Just then, she heard a disturbance near the chicken coop as the sounds of frantic clucking shattered the silence of the night. Springing out of bed with her shotgun in hand, Stephanie ran to the front of the cabin, opened the front door, and yelled, “Get the hell out of here!” Followed by the loud crack of the shotgun as she fired into the sky with hopes of scaring them away.
To her horror, the flash of light from the muzzle illuminated the night, exposing the silhouette of a large wolf standing just ten yards in front of her. Redirecting the shotgun, she racked the pump action, chambering another round, and fired into the darkness where the wolf had stood. With the muzzle flash once again lighting up the darkness for a fraction of a second, she saw that the wolf was now gone.
As she began to pull the door shut, Stephanie felt Duke push by her, knocking the door open as he ran out into the darkness. “Duke! No!” she screamed in an attempt to call him back to the cabin.
~~~~
Hearing the sounds of distant gunshots toward his home, Jessie sprang to his feet as his heart pounded with the thoughts of what might be happening there. Quickly mounting his horse, he rode as fast as he could through the darkness with the faint moonlight guiding his way as he raced toward the cabin.
Nearing the cabin, he heard the ferocious sounds of a struggle in the direction of the coop. Dismounting Brave before he even came to a stop, Jessie hit the ground running, bringing his AR-15 to bear, switching on the barrel-mounted tactical light. To his horror, he saw three large wolves ravaging Duke.
Flipping off the safety with his thumb, Jessie began firing at the wolves, striking two of them while the third dashed off into the darkness. He then quickly scanned the yard, seeing feathers and blood scattered throughout the area.
“Jessie!” he heard from the cabin.
“Stay in the house with the kids!” he yelled in reply, as he continued to scan the area for threats.
Unable to see any other predators in the immediate vicinity, he quickly ran over to Duke and was horrified to see him take his last breath, as he bled to death from a gaping neck wound. Placing his hand on Duke’s side, he muttered, “I’m sorry, boy. I’m so sorry.”
Reluctantly turning his attention to the chicken coop, Jessie shined his light on the chain-link fence that had been torn loose, allowing the wolves access. The coop was a horrific scene, with at least seven dead chickens that he could see. The others had either fled and escaped or were killed off in the darkness away from the coop. The answer to that he knew he would not know until the morning’s sun gave them the safety of daylight to investigate further.
Chapter Seven
The sun’s first rays of morning light shining over the horizon illuminated the fog of Jessie’s breath as he sat silently in an old rocking chair on the front porch of their cabin. As he began to doze off, relieved that the long night was finally coming to an end, Stephanie opened the front door and came out bundled up in her robe, carrying a fresh hot cup of coffee.
“Coffee?” he said with excitement in his voice. “What’s the special occasion that we’re dipping into our reserves? Aren’t we down to the last of it?”
“Yes,” she replied. “We only have about two pounds left. You’ve had a rough night, though. You look like you need it.”
“Thanks, Steph. Are the kids still asleep?”
“Finally. They couldn’t go back to sleep after all of the commotion last night. They kept asking where Duke was—and I just didn’t know what to tell them. They saw him run out when the wolves came, but they never saw him come back,” she said with a deflated tone. “They fell asleep about an hour before the sun started coming up. Hopefully, they’ll sleep for a while. You can have Duke taken care of by then, can’t you?”
Taking the cup of coffee, Jessie stood up, took her by the hand, and said, “Here, sit. I’ve been sitting in that chair for hours. I need to stand anyway.” As she took a seat on the rocking chair, he said, “Of course. I’ll deal with Duke first thing. We can’t lie to them about what happened. They need to know the truth. They need to know that there are real dangers out here. If it can happen to Duke, it can happen to them. Or even you or me for that matter. We can’t sugar-coat this world for them anymore.”
Taking a sip of his coffee and then placing it on the small table next to the rocking chair, Jessie sat down on the front porch directly in front of Stephanie, leaning back against her legs to feel her warmth. Leaning forward and draping her long, brunette hair over his shoulder, she kissed him on the cheek and said, “Let me run in and change clothes. I’ll deal with the chickens while you deal with Duke. The kids should sleep long enough for us to get it all cleaned up.”
“Thanks, babe,” he replied, turning his head toward her and kissing her.
~~~~
A little while later, after Stephanie had changed out of her robe and into a pair of jeans, a flannel shirt, a jacket, and a pair of old muck boots. Jessie led Stephanie to Duke’s grave which he had just finished covering with large rocks to deter scavenging. After a few moments of silence honoring their fallen friend and four-legged family member, they surveyed the rest of the night’s carnage together. They were horrified to find that only three chickens remained alive, all three of them hens. The rest were scattered around the coop like bloody confetti, their bodies torn to shreds by the vicious attackers as they had begun consuming them on site before turning their attention to Duke.
“They’re all hens,” she said softly.
“What?” he asked.
“They’re all hens. The roosters were killed trying to protect the flock, no doubt.”
“Knowing Rex, he would have gone down swinging for sure,” Jessie said, referring to Stephanie’s favorite rooster, a mix between a Barred Rock and a Golden Red.
Picking up one of his feathers, Stephanie began to shed a tear, only to quickly wipe it from her cheek, saying, “Well, what’s done is done. We’ll get an egg or two per day for a while, and then they will eventually dry up. With no rooster, there will be no more fertilized eggs to keep our flock going.”
“What about the ones you have in the incubator?” he asked, referring to the electric incubator they had been keeping warm using a small solar panel for power.
“There are only four eggs in there right now,” she said. “Odds are only one or two will hatch. Who’s to say one of those will even be a rooster? Remember, don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Do you remember when we first started incubating? I had twenty eggs and thought I was going to have twenty new chicks, to end up with only six.”
“In hindsight, I should have built a second coop away from this one to mitigate our risks of such a thing. Having all of the chickens in one place was just plain stupid,” he said as he kicked a rock on the ground out of frustration.
“You can’t prepare for everything that comes along,” she said.
“Maybe not, but I can try,” he said with determination. “I need to take a good look at this place and see where our other weaknesses may lie and deal with them before something like this happens again.”
“You just focus on the sheep. They need to be your priority. We can’t afford to lose them, too. If we do—ˮ
“Yeah, I know,” he said, interrupting her before she got a chance to say what was on both their minds.
Hearing the bell-chime on the front door of the cabin jingle, their attention was diverted toward the sound as they heard Sasha yelling, “Mommy! Daddy! Where are you?”
“We’re right here,” Stephanie shouted in reply. “Stay in the cabin. Your daddy will be right there.” Turning her attention to Jessie, she then said, “You’ve been up all night. I’ll finish up out here. Go spend some time with the kids. They need you. You’ve been spending so much time out there with the sheep.”
“I have to. If I didn’t—ˮ
“I know,” she said as she pulled him toward her and gave him a kiss. “Now, don’t argue and just go be Daddy for a while. You can be the shepherd again
tonight, but for now, you’re just Daddy.”
Answering with only a smile, Jessie turned and shouted, “I’m coming, kids. Who wants to help me brew some chicory?”
Chapter Eight
Over the few weeks following the wolf attack on the Townsend’s chickens, Jessie continued his ever-vigilant watch over his sheep, knowing that they were now his family’s only reliable source of protein. Encounters with wolves had dropped off sharply since that fateful night. Perhaps having killed several of them, he had made it clear to them that his homestead was not a place where they could expect an easy meal, or perhaps they were just biding their time. Only time would tell for sure. Until then, though, Jessie would remain on guard, keeping an eye out for any sign of potential wolf presence.
Being high in the Rocky Mountains, the winter was creeping up on them much earlier than in the lower regions. Morning frost was now a daily occurrence, and the occasional light dusting of snow seemed to be warning shots fired across their bow by Old Man Winter. This morning was no exception. Jessie peeked out of his tent to find that four inches of fresh snow had fallen during the night.
“Well, hell,” he mumbled to himself. “It’ll be feet deep before we know it. Then I’ll be back on snowshoes instead of horseback.”
Wishing his flock of sheep a good day as he always did, Jessie mounted his horse and headed for home. As he pulled his collar close to his neck and his hat down tight, he thought, I sure hope Steph has something piping hot ready to eat.
Approaching his cabin, he saw that some of the night’s snowfall had been freshly disturbed off in the distance. Urging Brave toward his discovery, he immediately dismounted at the realization that they were the boot prints of what appeared to be a fully grown man. Instinctively putting his right hand on his Colt revolver, Jessie looked back to see that his rifle was still in the scabbard attached to his saddle. He began to visually scan the area looking for any signs that someone might still be in the vicinity.
