- Joined
- Dec 3, 2000
- Messages
- 2,878
Thursday I had stopped by the knife shop on the way to work to just browse a bit. Before I was done "browsing" I had traded one of my folders off for a BK&T Magnum Camp knife and a Cold Steel Panga I'd had him professionally sharpen for me. Don't think any home should be without a fairly expendable machete for clearin' out brush an' such. The BK&T looked like it would be fairly versatile. Not exactly excelling at fine slicing, hacking, or anything else, but able to manage in most any activity that could be asked of a knife. Also not so damn unwieldy as other knives in it's size range.
So, along comes Friday night...Wife and I are watching Discovery channel or some such about what a true nutcase Hussein is when Jessie (our WELL LOVED family dog) decides it's time to go make some yella snow. So, I get up an' put him on his run. Never liked the damn thing, but we had a couple hundred feet of cable given to us, and we figured it'd do awight 'till we could get a decent chainlink fence up. Actually I'd prefer a moat, contertina wire,an electric fence and so forth, but the wife won't let me...
Now, the way it's set up, is that the dog has full run from end to end in the backyard. Definitely not one of those pups with three feet of chain. The chain comes all the way up onto our eight an' a half foot high wrap around deck so he can go in an' out with relative ease. Also had to keep the cable he's tied to long so he wouldn't hang himself where the yard slopes down.
Anyhoo, The wife and I are gettin' edgumuckated 'bout Iraqs' lovely dictator when we felt the house shake suddenly. Wife and I looked at each other with a "WTF?" kinda expression and listen more carefully. We were both thinkin' that was the damndest feelin' earthquake we had experienced. Then it happened again, 'cept it was a lil' more isolate towards the rear of the house. She and I both jumped up, and looked out the window. As my wife was screamin' "there's somethin' goin' on back there!" I was yellin' "get the shotgun!" grabbin' the Magnum Camp I'd just finished sharpening and diving out the backdoor in my house shorts. I thought for sure Jessie was gettin' into it with some stray dogs or havin' an altercation with our neigborhood moose. (Don't ask me HOW I was gonna take on a moose with a knife, but I damn well intended to try) So, once my eyes focused to the dark and the movement I saw that somehow my pup had tangled his cable on the porch and fell off the steps, subsequently hanging himself. Poor guys lights seemed to be pretty much out, and it was a situation where every second was counting. I found the cable on the railing, and didn't know anything else to do but hack at it with the BK&T. I figured that IF it worked, it wouldn't work immediately. Well...the good Lord, a good knife, and a dose of adrenaline musta been on my side, cuz I cut through that steel cable with one hack. Bear in mind, this was a size or two larger than most doggie run cables due to the fact that my family has always had the more powerful and giant bred dogs.
Anyhoo, the dog hit the ground and there was a silence that scared the hell outta me. A few seconds later though he was growling and snarling down there like hell. Presumably he was confused as hell at what had just transpired...or maybe he was just madder 'n hell about landing in the pile where his bowels had evacuated seconds earlier. In any case my pup was alive and well. By the time we'd bathed him he was right back to his normal self, although the wife and I were still pretty tightly wound. A few more seconds here and there...if we hadn't heard him...and most of all, if I hadn't had that big fockin' knife right there at hand....As far as how the knife held up to the steel cable, there was a bit of a chip where the knife had struck the cable, but it's almost invisible to the human eye after ten minutes on my Sharpmaker. Also cut about a half inch chip out of the railing. Which is obviously pretty darn miniscule in the overall scheme of things.
As the rest of ya'll dog lovers can imagine I'm VERY thankful to have my pup sleepin' here at my feet as I type this.
So, along comes Friday night...Wife and I are watching Discovery channel or some such about what a true nutcase Hussein is when Jessie (our WELL LOVED family dog) decides it's time to go make some yella snow. So, I get up an' put him on his run. Never liked the damn thing, but we had a couple hundred feet of cable given to us, and we figured it'd do awight 'till we could get a decent chainlink fence up. Actually I'd prefer a moat, contertina wire,an electric fence and so forth, but the wife won't let me...
Now, the way it's set up, is that the dog has full run from end to end in the backyard. Definitely not one of those pups with three feet of chain. The chain comes all the way up onto our eight an' a half foot high wrap around deck so he can go in an' out with relative ease. Also had to keep the cable he's tied to long so he wouldn't hang himself where the yard slopes down.
Anyhoo, The wife and I are gettin' edgumuckated 'bout Iraqs' lovely dictator when we felt the house shake suddenly. Wife and I looked at each other with a "WTF?" kinda expression and listen more carefully. We were both thinkin' that was the damndest feelin' earthquake we had experienced. Then it happened again, 'cept it was a lil' more isolate towards the rear of the house. She and I both jumped up, and looked out the window. As my wife was screamin' "there's somethin' goin' on back there!" I was yellin' "get the shotgun!" grabbin' the Magnum Camp I'd just finished sharpening and diving out the backdoor in my house shorts. I thought for sure Jessie was gettin' into it with some stray dogs or havin' an altercation with our neigborhood moose. (Don't ask me HOW I was gonna take on a moose with a knife, but I damn well intended to try) So, once my eyes focused to the dark and the movement I saw that somehow my pup had tangled his cable on the porch and fell off the steps, subsequently hanging himself. Poor guys lights seemed to be pretty much out, and it was a situation where every second was counting. I found the cable on the railing, and didn't know anything else to do but hack at it with the BK&T. I figured that IF it worked, it wouldn't work immediately. Well...the good Lord, a good knife, and a dose of adrenaline musta been on my side, cuz I cut through that steel cable with one hack. Bear in mind, this was a size or two larger than most doggie run cables due to the fact that my family has always had the more powerful and giant bred dogs.
Anyhoo, the dog hit the ground and there was a silence that scared the hell outta me. A few seconds later though he was growling and snarling down there like hell. Presumably he was confused as hell at what had just transpired...or maybe he was just madder 'n hell about landing in the pile where his bowels had evacuated seconds earlier. In any case my pup was alive and well. By the time we'd bathed him he was right back to his normal self, although the wife and I were still pretty tightly wound. A few more seconds here and there...if we hadn't heard him...and most of all, if I hadn't had that big fockin' knife right there at hand....As far as how the knife held up to the steel cable, there was a bit of a chip where the knife had struck the cable, but it's almost invisible to the human eye after ten minutes on my Sharpmaker. Also cut about a half inch chip out of the railing. Which is obviously pretty darn miniscule in the overall scheme of things.
As the rest of ya'll dog lovers can imagine I'm VERY thankful to have my pup sleepin' here at my feet as I type this.
