The temperatures in Streeterville have been hovering in the high 20's and low 30's for the past few days. That means the rich ladies in their fur coats have brought out the little doggie sweaters for their doglets to wear when they walk them. There is no coating of snow and ice as yet so there have been no spottings of little doggie footwear.
I spotted one little doglet this morning proudly sporting his best Wisconsin Badgers sweater. Somehow I doubt the doglet in question has ever met a badger, real animal or UW mascot. Nevertheless he looked natty in his little Badger-wear. Oddly enough, the only time I have ever enountered a real badger outside a zoo was not in Wisconsin at all, but in Northern Iowa.
Ever seen a pair of dogs tag team a badger? Not a pretty sight, but given some of the possible alternatives I was pretty glad to have dogs with us when we encountered a badger while on a walk in the woods near my in-laws' house. And what we're talking about here are two family pets, tail wagging, lick you in the face pets, not trained killers.
Babs and I had been visiting her mother and father in the house in the country and we decided to take a walk and get some exercise. The walk took us down the gravel road past rows and rows of corn. What else do you expect to see in Iowa? At the end of one corn field was an expanse of woods and an old road that was grown over in grass and weeds. There was a fence along the edge of the woods and a gate across the road. We climbed the gate and headed off down the road in the woods and the two dogs (Dogs or dawgs, but definitely not doggies with sweaters.) squeezed under the fence and followed, running and barking and doing things dogs do in the woods, sniff, bolt for squirrels that scurry up the trunks of trees, etc.
About a quarter mile up the road in the woods was a clearing and an old farm house that had been abandoned for many years. It was the kind of place that high school kids like to call the old haunted house and dare one another to go into it after dark, usually after consuming copious quantities of beer. It was the middle of the day with the sun high overhead and Babs and I wandered in. What we saw was an old farm house from a previous era and odd little remnants of lives and people who had moved on.
When we came out of the house we discovered the two dogs barking furiously at something on the edge of the woods. Babs and I went over to see what was going on and what we discovered was the two dogs taking on a badger. For the record, badgers are ugly nasty looking critters with nasty looking yellow teeth. Wouldn't want to encounter one without the dogs or a gun or something.
The way the dogs worked it was to come at the badger from both sides and take turns coming at it and attacking while the badger was occupied with the dog from the other side. Want to try and stop a dog from attacking when it's in a life or death fight with a badger. Not a good idea. The only thing we could do was stand back and let it happen, and hope the dogs won, not the badger.
Eventually the dog tag team prevailed and the badger stopped moving. We were able to coax the dogs back to the road and the trip back to the house. These dogs had reverted to their deepest instincts had worked the kill like a pack does. They protected themselves and the people who feed and love them. Then, as if an on/off switch had been flipped, these savage pack animals were the tail-wagging, face licking family pets once again. They looked up at us expectantly as if to say, "That was fun. What're we gonna do now? Pant! Pant!"
The trip back to the house was uneventful. Back over the gate. Back up the gravel road between the rows of corn. Then the trip down the long driveway to the house in the country overlooking the Cedar River. The dogs took a nap. Babs and I poured ourselves a drink. Think I'd rather encounter a badger in a zoo, or as a costumed character on the sidelines of a UW football game.
Next up in the Northern Iowa Chronicles: Angel Tits All Around!
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