Outfoxed

CHAPTER 13

“Going to be a great year. One of the best. They go in cycles.” Lafayette dropped some of his hay, reaching down to snatch it up.

Rickyroo, in the next stall, stuck his nose between the iron stall divider bars. “We were right behind Aunt Netty.”

“Could you see her?”

“No. She vanished. The usual.” Rickyroo picked up his red play ball with a handle. He threw it over his head.

Ricky, full of energy, found things to do, things that were upsetting to the humans. If a bridle hung on the stall door, he’d play with it until he had pulled the reins into his stall; then he’d chew them to pieces.

He tore off other horses’ blankets when they were turned out in the field.

He also tore a flap off Cody Jean Franklin’s frock coat last year because he felt like it.

The humans called him a handful. The horses thought of him as a joker.

Aztec, a graceful five-year-old light bay, a blaze down her face, said, “It’s not fair. You two go and I stay home.”

“You’ll go out in the field, Az. Sister believes in bringing along horses slow,” Lafayette counseled her.

“I’m as big as you are.”

“And so you are, but I’ve seen a lot more than you have. The last thing we need is you spooking all over the place with Sister on your back. She’s a good rider but she’s no spring chicken.”

“I’m not going to spook. I hilltopped last year.” She referred to the practice of hunting but not taking the jumps.

“Be patient,” Rickyroo advised.

“You’re not,” Aztec grumbled.

“I know what I’m doing.” He threw the ball at the bars between them.

Golliwog strolled in during the conversation, Raleigh behind her. “If you knew what you were doing, you wouldn’t be playing with that stupid ball.”

“Raleigh plays with balls,” came the retort from the dark bay.

“My point exactly.” Golliwog sat down on a hay bale, picked the tip of her tail up with her paw, and began grooming.

Raleigh, an exceedingly good-natured dog, said, “Golly, you’re such a snot.”

“Cats,” was all Lafayette said.

“You’re jealous. You’re all jealous. You have to work for a living whereas I simply exist to be beautiful and catch the occasional offensive mouse.”

“You’re doing a piss-poor job of it.” Aztec laughed.

“Oh, really?” Golly dropped her tail. “Do you have any idea how many places there are for mice to hide? Shall I list them, grass-eater, eyes-on-the-side-of-your-head, big fat flat teeth, no-good . . . !”

“We’re scared.” Lafayette reached for more hay in his hayrack.

“I could scratch your eyes out if I wanted to. You’re lucky that I like you—basically.”

“Golly, cool it.” The sleek Doberman nudged the cat. “We all know that you are the most beautiful, the smartest cat that ever lived. Even smarter than Dick Whittington’s cat.”

Having heard what she wanted to hear, Golly’s mood instantly improved. “Say, I heard Dragon got nailed.”

“Archie told me on the way home that the little shit had it coming,” Lafayette said. “When Archie realized they’d split and told his group to catch up with Cora, Dragon refused. He even called Cora an old bitch. Archie’s furious.”

“She should have drafted him out when he was a puppy. He was beautiful but he was rotten even then. I told her but she missed it. The problem with Sister is it takes her too long to figure these things out. I knew that puppy’s attitude was wrong. Outrageous.” Raleigh stood on his hind legs to peer into Lafayette’s stall.

“But you’re a dog. Dogs know about one another. Same with us.” Lafayette nodded to his stablemates. “We know if a horse will work into the program long before Sister or Douglas knows. It’s the nature of things.”

“I suppose, but I’d like to save her the trouble.” Raleigh loved Sister with all his heart and soul.

“Humans need trouble. Makes them think they’re living.” Golliwog laughed.

“Cynic,” Raleigh returned to the cat.

“Means ‘dog’ in Greek, you know.” Golly adored showing off.

“It does?” Aztec was surprised.

“Yes. Diogenes lived like a dog. Really, he lived in a hovel and wore rags but he was brilliant. He questioned everything, especially authority. He upset the rich, obviously. They called him a dog. They called the people who followed him dogs. Stuck.”

“How do you know all this?” Aztec asked, her deep-brown eyes filled with admiration.

“I read whatever Sister is reading. I sit on her shoulder or on the pillow behind her shoulders. She reads all the time.”

“I don’t understand the appeal of books.” Ricky tossed his ball again.

“Big surprise.” Lafayette snorted in jest.

“I’ll tell you about books.” Golly stretched fore and aft, then sat down quite regally, prepared to declaim. “It’s the best way to enjoy an uninterrupted conversation with the best human minds from any century, from most any country. Superior as we are to humans, imagine if we wrote books. You might know what Man O’ War learned and thought. I could learn from the cats of ancient Egypt. It truly is our one great failing. We don’t record our experiences.”

“We’re too busy living them.” Raleigh laughed.

“There is that.” Golly smiled and purred. She did love Raleigh quite a bit.

The slam of a truck door diverted their attention. The cat and dog walked to the open barn doors. The sun had just set and soon a light frost like thin icing would blanket the ground.

“Doug and Cody,” Raleigh said.

“That started up again?” Rickyroo paid little attention to human couplings and uncouplings.

“How could Doug pick such a loser, even if she is pretty?” Golly returned to her hay bale by the side of the aisle, set up for the morning feeding.

“On again, off again.” Lafayette’s stall dutch door opened on the other side of the barn from Doug’s cottage.

“I don’t want her to hurt Doug again.” Raleigh’s ears swept back.

“Of course she will. She’ll hurt everybody, including herself, but there’s one thing I’ll say for Cody . . . if she gets somebody in trouble, she gets right in there with him.”

“What’s the worst that can happen? She gets pregnant,” Ricky said.

“There’s lots worse than that. People commit suicide over love and really dumb stuff,” Raleigh replied.

“Well, it doesn’t affect us.” Ricky felt the whole thing was silly.

“The hell it doesn’t.” Golly spoke forcefully. “Everything they do affects us.”