In honor of the holiest of days back in the land of Daddy & the Queen Mother, I give you a mule story.
This morning I took Bucka to the doctor. Busha had to go to Indy to have her eye checked since it's been 2 weeks since her glaucoma surgery. She was concerned about Bucka making the trip to the doctor on his own. When he gets stressed out, he can be easily confused. I volunteered to make the trip with him when she mentioned it to me.
During the almost 30 mile trip home, Bucka & I started talking about his parents, Busha's parents, grandparents, and great aunts & uncles. It was very interesting to hear some of the stories. Many of them were ones I'd heard before but had forgotten. One story I love to hear & it came up again today.
My Great-great grandfather could have walked on water...well, at least if you ask Bucka. Grandpa Catt was a very kind, very patient, very good man. He was Bucka's mother's father. He farmed all his life but flat refused to use a tractor or drive a car. Bucka said he thinks they got him on a tractor once & it scared him half to death. Grandpa Catt would much rather stick with his mules. Bucka said he never, ever saw his grandfather strike an animal.
One mule in particular, Katie, was a rather stubborn young Jenny. Grandpa had been working with her quite a while, but she had a mind of her own. Bucka thinks she was about 2 years old or so when this incident occurred.
The pasture was across the road from Grandpa Catt's place. Every morning, he'd let the cattle & the mules out, drive them across the country road to the pasture, and close up the gates. Every evening, he'd bring them back across the road into the corral & the barn. Katie usually had other plans. When it came time to head back to the barn, she would bolt & instead of heading East into the gate, she'd head West around the barn & down to the bluffs behind the house. Grandpa Catt would have to spend 30 minutes chasing her down & herding her back to the corral where she belonged.
One day Katie pushed Grandpa too far. He opened the gates & she took off for the bluffs again. Grandpa went in the house, got his shot gun, came back out & headed behind the house. When he got close enough, he shot Katie in the rump with a load of buck shot. Katie turned tail & ran into the corral as fast as she could. Grandpa put the gun away, went into the barn & doctored Katie up. He spoiled her rotten until her back end healed up and after that she never again bolted when he opened the gate. She very willingly went back into her corral every evening like she'd been doing it all along. Katie & Grandpa got along famously after that.
2 comments:
I know a few people who would benefit from that sort of lesson!
you know, your mule story reminds me of the mule story in my family and this is very timely as this weekend I believe is Mule Day in our hometown. In our family's story my great-grandfather who loved animals had a mule named Kit. And he was teaching my dad about how you need to be gentle with animals. Most times when he wanted Kit to do something he could just say so and she'd go, during his great speech to my dad, Kit in typical mule fashion did not go. So he walked up to her petted her gently and spoke in her ear. Then went back and gave the command "Get Up, Kit" and she still didn't move. Then he grabbed a small stone, chunked Kit behind the ear with it and gave the command again and she went. And he explained to my dad, that "you should always be kind to animals, but sometimes you just have to get their attention". Sounds like your great-grandpa got Katie's attention.
Sorry for usurping your post.. but your post reminded me and I just had to tell it.
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