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Fiction. © Copyright 1999, Jim Loy
Max is a sheep dog. His job is to herd sheep. His owner whistles and signals. And Max does what his master signals to him. He runs back and forth, barking and growling at the sheep. And the sheep try to get away from Max. And, in that way, the sheep are herded in just the way that Max's master wants.
Max is famous. This story is about how he became famous.
Max was a little puppy. His mother was herding the sheep. And Max was supposed to stay in the back of the truck. His job, that day, was to stay out of the way.
Max had never seen a sheep dog herd sheep before. His mother had told him all about it, before. And, he had thought that he understood it. He thought that he already knew how to herd sheep. But now that he saw his mother racing back and forth, it was all so confusing. What did that whistle mean? What did that signal mean? He was trying to figure it all out.
In a year or so, his master would train him. But Max wanted to learn right now.
Max's mother herded the sheep through the gate, and down the road. The owner's son got in the truck, and started it up.
[Later that day, after they had gotten the sheep into their pen, nobody could find Max. The people and his mother knew that he had not run away. He must have had an accident. And it was getting dark. They had to wait until morning.]
When the owner's son had started up the truck, Max had noticed one of the sheep running away, into the woods. Max barked and barked and barked. But the sheep kept going. Max's mother didn't hear him. She was barking louder than Max was. Max barked at the owner's son. He just shouted, "Shut up, Max. Hold on." He put the truck in gear, and away they went, down the road.
Max had to do something. He jumped out of the truck, and fell a long ways to the dusty road. He tumbled in the dust, and made a little cloud of his own. He quit rolling. He wasn't really hurt, maybe just a little bit. He barked at the truck, which made a big, long cloud of dust.
Max could have followed the others home. But he had to do something about that missing sheep. He was a sheep dog, after all. And his mother might get into trouble if the sheep got lost. Max ran after the sheep.
He found the sheep eating grass. Max had tried to eat grass once. And it tasted terrible. Dog food tasted much better. Sheep didn't seem to be smart enough to know about dog food.
Max barked, trying to reason with the sheep. The sheep kept on eating grass. The sheep was way bigger than Max.
Max remembered how his mother had herded the whole flock of sheep. One sheep shouldn't be so tough. He got on the other side of the sheep. He ran at the sheep, barking and snarling and growling. Max showed the sheep his little teeth. And the sheep ran away from him, right toward home. Max thought, "This is great! Sheep dog to the rescue!"
When Max stopped barking and running, the sheep stopped and ate grass. So, Max kept it up, running, barking, and growling. He found that it was hard work. The sheep would start running in the wrong direction. Sometimes it took Max a long time to get the sheep going in the right direction. Max thought that he was running ten miles for every mile the sheep ran. Sometimes he thought that he really hated that stupid sheep.
But he kept it up. And he got better at it. He was learning.
The gate was locked. But, Max found a hole in the fence. And he herded the sheep through the hole. He couldn't wait to tell people about that trick. They ran down the road. It was dark out.
They crossed a bridge, and Max realized that he was very thirsty. He let the sheep stop and eat grass, while he drank lots and lots of water, from the stream.
When he was done drinking, Max walked to the sheep. And he saw something moving, in the moonlight. It looked like a dog. Max barked a greeting, and wagged his tail. And he heard a growl, out in the dark. Max thought, "Hm, not very friendly."
Whatever it was was stalking the sheep. And it was sizing up Max. Max thought, "Well, I've gotta protect my sheep. I'm a sheep dog." He barked a warning, and waited.
A huge, snarling dog appeared out of the night, attacking Max instead of the sheep. Max had to dive into a bush to save his life. The sheep ran off. The huge dog ran after the sheep. Max ran after the huge dog.
The big dog leaped onto the back of the running sheep. The dog and the sheep rolled end over end in the grass, as they slowly came to a stop. The dog was growling, and the sheep was making desperate sheep noises.
Max caught up with them, and bit the big dog on the hind foot. His teeth went almost all the way through the big dog's foot. The big dog yelped, and was gone, into the darkness.
The sheep was not hungry anymore. It really wanted to go home. When they got back on the road, it ran straight home. Max had to run really fast to keep up. And Max watched out for danger in the dark, as he ran.
They got home. But the gate to the sheep pen was closed. Max barked. And that started a commotion, as all the sheep in the pen started saying, "bah." It was very noisy.
Max's owner and the son came out of the house. The owner had a gun. Then they saw that it was Max. And they saw the sheep. They both shouted, "Max!" They both said, "I knew you hadn't run off." In joy, they petted and rubbed Max. And they got blood on their hands. "Blood?" They examined the sheep, "No blood." They examined Max, "Lots of blood here."
The owner's son said, "Max isn't hurt, as far as I can see."
The owner said, "I think Max won a fight." He was amazed.
They opened the sheep pen. And Max herded his sheep into the pen. The two men grinned at each other. They shook their heads in amazement. The next day, Max was famous.
Whenever the sheep would be herded down the road by the school house, the children would go to the window. "There's Max!" The teacher would let the children go outside and wave to Max.
Max couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. He was a sheep dog. He was just doing his job.
But, Max's mother was very proud of Max. And Max's owner, and the owner's son, were also very proud of Max.