Disclaimer: I don't get any money or royalties out of this, Mag.7 is all owned by all the big boys in Hollywood. But I wouldn't mind having a little fun with Chris Larabee!!
Notes: I really like picking on Buck, But I owe this all to my friend Brenda who got me started doing this.
NO FLAMES, PLEASE
It was a hot and blistering day in Four Corners and the town was as quiet as a ghost town. Nothing was moving but the hot blast of the wind blowing through town. You could hear the doors of the saloon bang back and forth that echoed in Buck's ears as he lay stretched out on the stool, with his long legs perched up on the rail across the walkway.Buck was almost in a dream sleep, thinking to himself that, "This day is for the dogs, too hot to do anything," as the man drifted off to sleep.
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"Hey Buck!" Wake up! Is that all yer goin' to do is sleep?" Nudging Buck again, JD jumped backward, pulling at Buck's leg.
"Gurruf!"
"Oh damn, JD, get the mangy dog away from me," half of sleep, Buck stretched his legs and started to stand up with his tired eyes opening into the bright sun.
"Huh! Some friend you are Buck! I'm not mangy, I just need a bath!" Growling, JD backed away from his friend.
"Huh? What? What are you talking about?" Eyes wide open now, seeing what was is front of him Buck shook his head to clear his vision of what he saw. Standing not too far away was a dog!
"Buck? Are you OK? You seem a little not yourself today?" JD's voice came from the small brown and white cattle dog looking at him with his head cocked to the left side with a questioning look in his eyes.
"ME?!!! I think you better take a look at yourself, pard!" Buck said with a worried tone in his voice.
Turning on his back legs JD bounced over to the water trough and looked into the water. Staring into the water JD began to lick at the water, taking in the cool liquid to moisten his dry throat.
Slowly Buck walked over to where JD was still drinking and stood beside him.
"Hey kid, what happened to ya, how did you get this way?"
He turned around with water drooling out of his mouth, dropping water all over Buck's feet making Buck shake his foot yelling, "Damn it kid! You're getting me all slobbery with your messy drinking habits! "
"Sorry! Buck, but you don't have any manners either when it comes to drinking! I've seen you stick your whole nose in when you are thirsty." He said, sheepishly grinning at Buck.
"What in Sam Hill are you talkin' about? I don't drink my water from a horse trough!" Turning to his right, Buck saw out the corner of his eye in the reflection of the water another dog standing by his little buddy who was now a slobbering, rag tail of a dog.
Standing there frozen in one place, staring into the reflecting water, Buck couldn't believe what he was seeing. Shocked and very upset, Buck Wilmington got closer to the water and leaned over the side of the trough. There he looked at another dog and with his voice coming out of it's mouth. Turning his head left to right, Buck leaned a little closer to the water with his front paws on the trough. Without knowing, he slipped off the corner of the wooden trough and fell into the water.
"Oh damn it to hell! What's happened to us, kid?" he asked, standing in the water, soaked to the skin. Buck started shaking like a cat that was being chased up a tree.
JD was obviously feeling a little uneasy about the way his buddy was talking, so he walked slowly over to the trough.
"Buck? Maybe we should go talk to Nathan, he could help ya." Not knowing what to say to his friend, the kid just stood, turning his head in question.
Buck jumped out of the trough and proceeded to shake off the water soaking his coat of fur all over his little buddy, while JD tried to get out of the way but didn't quite make it.
"Hey, watch it, Buck!" JD yelled, jumping sideways out of water flying distance.
As the two dogs stood there, Buck saw his reflection again in the water, turning his body this way and then holding his head up high; "Hey, I guess if I'm going to be a dog, I'm glad they picked such a handsome looking fellow! Strong muscle tone, good looking head, nice color, too. I think brown and black look good on me!"
"Oh gees, Buck! Shepherds are suppose to look like you. What else were you suppose to look like? You and that animal magnetism, no wonder all the females get in trouble around you." JD stepped back away from Buck's glaring look.
"I think we better go find Nathan kid. You're the one who is talking funny." He strutted down the road, shaking his back feet one at a time, trying to get the dirt off his feet that was turning into mud balls between his toes.
Starting to run beside him, JD started bouncing around his pal, "Yeah, lets go get Nath, he can help ya....I mean us.". He ducked away from Bucks snarl.
"Nathan, Nathan!!!!" He ran down the street now to the big oak tree where Nathan was resting in the shade of the tree to cool himself off. JD came tumbling in almost onto Nathan's lap.
"Dang it, JD, slow down. What's got your tail in an uproar? Oh sorry about that kid, just an statement of speech! Forgot you have no tail."
"Oh forget it, I'm worried about Buck, he's been acting really strange. He thinks he's human and got turned into a dog by a spell or something." JD's eyes got really big watching his buddy coming closer to where he and Nathan were standing.
Buck watched JD running up to the big black Labrador that was resting under the tree and calling him by their friend's name. He thought that his little buddy had lost it this time, "He thinks that dog is Nathan". As he got nearer, he listened to JD talking and the Labrador just kept turning his head like he was listening to him. Then Buck stopped dead in his tracks as he heard the voice of Nathan coming out of the dog.
Running over to the two under the tree, Buck was panicking now. It was not only him and JD, Nathan got caught in the curse too. "Nathan....ahhh Nath, it got you, too? What are we going to do, I can't be this way...live this way..."
Nathan jumped up and stood by the big German Shepherd who was now acting like he just got into a bush of loco weed and puts a paw on Buck's shoulder to calm him down.
"Now, Buck ... easy...calm down...lets catch your breath and talk about this."
As this was going on, the three didn't know that they were being watched from all sides of the town. There was one watcher over at the church wall, another by the barn and there were two walking side by side down the main road of town coming in their direction.
As the other two were trying to keep Buck from losing his mind, they didn't know that the ones who were watching were meeting up with each other, as they still watched the sight of the shepherd bouncing around like he just stepped in a pile of cactus thorns.
Josiah was the first to reach Chris and Vin walking back from the hunt, while Ezra trotted up about two minutes later with a grin that told Chris he didn't want to hear what he was thinking.
Growling deep down Chris just glared at Ezra, showing he wouldn't stand for no tall tales right now, "Don't even say a word Ezra, unless you want to be eating your words!"
Side stepping his way away from Chris, Ezra just stood back listening to the other guys talk about what was going on with their friend.
"Well, Brothers, as I hear it, Buck is having troubles being what he is: a dog." .Josiah said with a troubled glance back at the oak tree.
"Grrreat! He's done got himself in trouble with someone's daughter and he's playing crazy again!" Chris said, growling under his breath.
"Well, playing or not, I think we better find out what's happenin' with our pard." Vin said quietly as he started walking to the oak tree.
"Coming, Brother?" Josiah turned around with Chris and headed off in the same direction with their friend just ahead of them, leaving Ezra standing on the side of the road.
Thinking to himself, Ezra was planning on just walking away from this one episode of Mr. Wilmington's escapades, that seem to always get everyone else in trouble. For as far as they knew, it was one of his follies with that wild female in the woods. He stood there for about two minutes and decided to go join the rest of this establishment of so-called friends he'd gotten hooked up with.
As the three came around the others under the tree, Buck didn't realize they had company til a shadow went over him, which made him turn around to see the biggest mammoth of a dog that he had ever seen. He had to weigh in at least way over 200 pounds and the biggest head he ever saw. That head would match one of the boulders in the hills. Now on his guard, Buck stood in front of the three that had just snuck up on them when his back was turned. Showing pearly white teeth and the hair going up on his back, Buck started growling orders to JD and Nathan to stand guard.
"Watch your back, kid. No mangy no good back jumpers are going to hurt my friends!"
Josiah walked over to Buck slowly and with a soft voice that could melt any bad tempered animal, said "Hi, Brother Buck...I hear you have a slight problem...could I be some help to you?"
Buck stared at him like he just saw a ghost and started swaying back and forth as if he was going to pass out. But then the big Mastiff walked over and put his body by the shepherd to keep him from falling down. Buck looked up at Josiah, shook his head and swallowed really hard.
"Thanks, Preacher."
Just as Buck was getting his bearings, Vin slid over to the tree and leaned against it, "Hi, Pard!"
Buck swung his head to the right really fast and viewed a half wolf/half husky with blue eyes, staring at him with care for his friend. This was all getting just too much for him, but then he saw another dog coming up behind Vin or what he thought was Vin. This one didn't even look like he belonged to this group, he was too fancy and too purty to hang around here. He stood with his feet slightly apart and his head tilted to the side and his chest sticking out like he was blown up like bloated fish. But this mutt had style, not very big but big enough, lots of thick fur, nice looking face, like all Norwegian Elkhounds.
Buck looked over at him and proceeded to say some words but slowly stopped when the dog beat him to it.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Wilmington. I see your misconduct has finally caught up with you," he said, sheepishly grinning at the now upset shepherd.
Growling and jumping in between them Chris snapped at Ezra: "That's enough!"
Surprised by this movement, Buck saw this huge Rotti coming in for the attack. With all the excitement that he could take in one day, Buck passed out, leaving all the six standing over him.
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"Buck....Buck wake up....are you going to sleep all morning?!!" JD pushed his friend to wake him up but pushed too hard and knocked him off the stool he'd been sitting off. He started to fall onto the walkway, but caught himself on the way down, yelling,
"What ...what the hell...dogs...not dogs.....Buck said, half asleep as he stood up.
"Buck? What dog? There's no dogs here." JD looked at his friend with questioning wonder.
"Never mind, Pard. Never mind.." Slowly walking away, shaking his head, Buck was glad it had just been a dream, but he wasn't going to tell anyone about it.
The End
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