Dog In The Deer Lights

For the most part, Spackle has ceased to believe that there is a universe outside the car when he is in the car. He will glance up occasionally when we've gone a distance that usually signifies the arrival of someplace fun—i.e. he'll look out the windows after 45 minutes to see if we're at Mom and Marsh's place, and again after about an hour and a half to see if we're in Anacortes. If we're neither of those places, experience has taught him that we're on our way to Jerome Creek, and he'll pretty much sleep the next 4 hours without even stretching. Hoover, on the other hand, still believes that his squeaking is what actually powers the car to his favorite destinations, and so he keeps up a pretty constant state of vigilance, to be ready to lend his assistance as soon as it is needed.

Saturday afternoon we were driving through our land on Orcas, slowly because it is pretty rough going, even with 4-wheel drive over dry ground, and it's impossible to see the ground because the grass, at the moment, is about 5 feet tall. Ian was the driver and I the passenger, and the dogs were in the back. Spackle was asleep, of course, or at least dozing, and Hoover was scanning the horizons, such as they were, through the nodding heads of the grasses. Suddenly, off to our left, the head and antlers of a young buck appeared only partially camouflaged by the grass. Hoover uttered a high-pitched SQUEEEEEEEEEEE and launched himself toward the windshield, from the way back of the car. Since we had not expected back seat passengers, the seat was covered with an array of camping gear and tools. Hoover perched precariously amongst the gear, only because I had turned around immediately and grabbed him by the collar to halt his forward momentum. His eyes dilated until the brown irises disappeared, as if he'd just taken a hit of something illegal. He squeaked and squeaked and squeaked, a plaintive, high-pitched sound I'd never heard before. It was completely unlike his I'm-helping-to-drive-the-car-to-my-favorite-places squeak.

It's true, he has nothing on this dog, but I think the blue eyes helped him.