My Dog Starbuck

     Last week, Starbuck and I worked on the dried up pond with the backhoe.  At the end of that day I had a hydraulic hose to bust.  As I worked on repairing it, Starbuck stayed right with me.  His favorite place in the whole world is on the deck of the backhoe.  Now that he is getting older. after about thirty or forty jumps up and down, the last few are a little more difficult. 
     The only difference between yesterday and last Saturday was the hose that busted.  This time it was on the opposite side of the bucket, but the hose was virtually identical.  After replacing the hose, we were able to continue on with our work.  I was clearing a road through the woods between my neighbor and myself.  It was tight getting the hoe between the trees and a few small ones had to be taken out. 
     At one point, I had to get off the 'hoe and stretch my legs.  Starbuck was off chasing squirrels or digging up chipmunks or some other such nonsense.  As I stepped off the hoe, I stepped into a hole that was covered with leaves.  My ankle was twisted pretty bad and I yelled in pain.  No one was around for a thousand feet in either direction, and the woods were thick anyway.  Out of nowhere Starbuck showed up to check on me.  He licked my face and used his front leg to scratch me as if to say "Are you ok?"  Yeah buddy, just relax a minute, I'll be ok.
     Now that is a good dog.