Page 111 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

SUZANNE, BRAD, AND THE ROGUE COW

When we were living at the Bar None Ranch on Ogden Lake, there was an area of about 3 acres that was
fenced off from the rest of the ranch, and the house was situated on that 3 acres, overlooking the lake.

It was a drive northward off of US 90 of about a mile before you came to the location where the house
was located, and we drove into the yard, and out of the yard, across a cattle gap which was made of
about a dozen railroad irons laid down side by side, and animals could not negotiate their way across
those railroad irons, because their hooves would slip down in between the railroad irons and they could
not gain any foolage.

At least that was supposed to be the way it worked, but there was one instance which could have proven
fatal to Brad, where the cattle gap did not deter a mean old Brahma cow, with long, long horns, from
getting over the cattle gap and getting into the yard. About a week before this cow managed to get
across the cattle gap and get into the yard, an old yellow cur dog showed up at our place one night,
hungry and needing to be fed, and of course Julie could never turn down a hungry animal. So we fed the
dog, and in a week’s time the children, as well as Julie and I, were quite attached to the old dog. We
already had another dog, which was named Gertrude of all things, and this stray dog that we took in we
simply referred to as “the other dog”. This very quickly grew in to the name Underdog, and that is what
Suzanne and Brad called him. At that time Andy was just a baby.

I was out in the yard one day, and Suzanne, who was about 3 '/a, and Brad, who was about 2 years old,
were playing out in the yard when we suddenly looked up and here came this old Brahma cow as hard as
she could go headed straight toward Brad. Suzanne saw the cow coming and in order to “protect”
herself, she climbed up on top of the garbage can, as if that was to be a place of safety. Brad did not
know what to do, as he just stood there as the cow rushed toward him.

Suddenly, there was a yellow flash, and Underdog made straight for that charging Brahma cow, sunk her
teeth into the nostrils of the cow, and threw that cow as Hat as a flitter. That dog was really not all that
big, but she sure did throw that Brahma cow to the ground, after which the old cow got up and looked a
little startled and trotted off back where she had come from.

Elsewhere in this book there is an account of Brad and his wife and his mother surviving the worst train
wreck in American history, and their escape from that train, after it had completely gone under water,
and the fact that Brad’s guardian Angel showed up and without a doubt saved his life. Also somewhere
in another place in this book are my thoughts on angels, particularly a guardian angel, and there is no
doubt in my mind that Brad also has a guardian angel which has saved his life on at least 2 separate
occasions. Now I am wondering if a guardian angel can take the form of an old yellow dog, because not
more than 3 days after the incident with the cow, Underdog disappeared, and we never saw her again.
To this day 1 feel sadness when I think of it.

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