05/04/07 Too many pups

Too Many Pups All pups are cute. Sometimes they are too cute. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to tell you what happens when pups are too cute. We were flat out of stock dogs on the ranch. We had one older dog that was a fun dog and would follow along when we moved cows but she was more interested in rodents, bugs, birds and butterflies than cattle. Well, Dad heard Oscar; a cattle feeder at a local feed lot had a litter of pups to give away that were from two decent working stock dog parents. My brother and I were pretty young at the time and when Dad said the family would go pick out a pup we thought, neat! A trip to the feedlot and bring home a pup  what a day! There were three pups left in the litter and we surely looked them all over. I like a gray spotted male pup and my brother liked a black female with a white strip in her face. Only one pup was supposed to go home. Somehow I got my way and we loaded up the gray pup. About a half mile up the road my brother started looking real sad and began sniffling just loud enough for Mom and Dad to hear. You guessed it  he was pleading his case to take the black pup home. He should have been a lawyer, because Dad turned around and said we would get the black pup. Not to be outdone and being a quick learner, I let the tears go and threw a colt fit to keep the gray pup. Dad drove up to Oscar's house, went in, got the black pup and drove off. It worked! I still had my pup! We must have caught Dad on a weak day. Mom remembers Dad muttering if he had three kids he would have the whole littler by now. I'm Jeff Keane.