A Bull Named Joey

Something wet was being dragged across my face. As my sleep-induced befuddlement started to dissipate, the wetness dragged across my face again, this time accompanied by a low whine. With my head starting to clear the more I woke up, I realized the wet thing was my dog’s tongue and smiled lazily without opening my eyes. He must have noticed that I was coming-to because the kisses increased tenfold as he attempted to climb on top of me.

“Morning Coop, how’s my handsome man?” I sleepily scratched behind his ears, my eyes finally open and adjusting to the daylight. Once he was satisfied with his morning scratches, I rolled over to remove the window coverings that I could reach on my van turned into a home on wheels to survey our surroundings. I had managed to find a place to park for the night tucked into a little wooded area before we made our way through the Catskill mountains of New York on our adventure. I had recently gone through a horrible divorce and decided to sell most of my belongings, convert a van to live in and go on a soul searching adventure. Sitting up and swinging my legs over the side of the raised bed, I leaned forward to open the side door so Coop could go to the bathroom. He bolted out of the van and I slowly followed, stopping only to turn on my electric kettle. Standing just outside the door, I stretched my muscles that were still a little stiff from sleep while keeping an eye on my dog.

“Coop, stay close by please!.” I called to him before turning to make my morning cup of coffee. He was a good dog and listened pretty well, but every now and then he would hit a rebellious streak if something caught his attention more than I did. I had found early on in my trip that instant coffee was pretty awful, so I splurged and bought an electric kettle-coffee maker combo because good coffee was worth the money. After making my coffee I wandered to the back of my van and sat on the bumper to enjoy the hot brew. Across the dirt road was a humongous pasture with a few of those round bales of hay throughout but no animals that I could see. Finally able to take a small sip of the steaming liquid, I hummed to myself quietly, savoring the taste of that first sip. As I sat there enjoying the scenery and my cup of coffee, I mentally started going over what my plan was for the day. I definitely needed to find more water to refill my supply and bathe in, so that was a priority. I was so focused on planning my day that it barely registered as Coop ran past me, barking at something in the distance.

“Coop, no! Get over here! Coop!” I yell at him, but it’s no use. He’s already through the fence of the pasture across the street and hauling it toward what I can now see is a herd of cows making their way to the back end of the pasture. At the back of the herd I see the biggest bull I have ever seen in my life, causing my stomach to drop. Coop is only about 65 pounds and absolutely no match for the behemoth at the back. “Coop, come on boy, come here!” I continue to yell, feeling completely helpless. I can’t even see my dog anymore as fear surges through me, I make the only choice I can and climb through the fence. I start to slowly make my way toward the herd and am caught off guard when someone on a horse comes galloping from behind them with Coop in tow.

“Hey, is this your dog?” A surprisingly feminine voice asks from atop the caramel colored horse. She’s wearing a classic cowboy hat which is causing a shadow across her face, making it difficult to make out her features. I tear my eyes away from her to glare at Coop, who is sitting by the side of the horse looking quite pleased with himself.

“Yes, he’s mine and I am so sorry! He got past me before I even realized what he was doing, it won’t happen again, we’re just passing through.” Embarrassment tints my cheeks as I look back up at the woman.

“It’s alright, he’s lucky that Joey and the girls are so well behaved though. Coulda been trampled real easily if they weren’t used to dogs being around.” She warned while wiping the sweat from her brow.

“Well I appreciate you making sure that didn’t happen, I’m going to have to invest in a tie out so he doesn’t run on me again. He usually sticks to me like glue, I guess today he just got brave or something.” I glared at Coop again, who was sitting with his tongue lolling out of his mouth happily panting away. “Sorry again, we’ll get out of your hair now. Come on Coop, we have to get back on the road anyway.” I waited for Coop to get to my side before waving and turning to make my way back to the van.

“Ya’ll have safe travels, and if you pass back through feel free to stop by and say hi. Maybe next time just come to the door of the main house instead of the back way through the pasture.” The woman chuckled and straightened her hat before turning her horse and riding back over to the herd. I watched for another few seconds before grabbing Coop’s collar and leading him back to the van. This trip was definitely going to be an adventure, but even with hiccups along the way I knew this is what my soul needed.