Catahoula

Snooks looked around. Not far from where they were was a piece of tree trunk that had never been split. It had a couple of knots in the wood where limbs where made it difficult to split into firewood. The chuck was used as a chopping block when they needed to behead a chicken. Snooks pushed it over and grabbed hold of the remaining piece of limb and drug the chunk over to Lil’Ray. “Place it about right there,” he said as he pointed to the chosen spot. Snooks placed the block of wood in place and then held the pole while Lil’Ray climbed on top. It was a little shaky so he hopped down. Snooks laid the pole down and shifted the block around until it was level and steady. Lil’Ray hopped back up on top and Snooks handed the pole to him. “Well, I’m goin’ in men,” he said with the confidence of an experienced combat soldier. He took one last look over his shoulder and gave his final orders before going in, “You better stand back, but watch my flank.” Steading himself on his perch, he slowly lifted the pole toward the enemy camp. All of the activity on the ground had caught the attention of some of the wasps and they were watching the end of the pole as it approached their nest. Lil’Ray carefully and slowly moved the end of the pole up close to where the nest was attached to the underside of the tin roof. He slowly slid his right hand back to the end of the pole all the while keeping the other end steady. Once his right hand was in position and he knew he could get maximum thrust, Lil’Ray pushed the pole forward striking the base of the nest with enough force to knock it loose from its base. At least that was the plan. His plan went awry as his attact was less than sufficient to release the nest. He did succeed in disengaging it some and in disturbing about 30 hot, angry Red wasps. Lil’Ray knew that time was of the essence if this operation was to be successful. In this case success was getting the nest down and getting out of Dodge before he was wrapped up with wasps. Hanging in there he quickly gave one more jab at the target and successfully severed their prize from the barn roof. Lil’Ray knew from experience what was coming and he knew they were coming fast. Once the nest was down it didn’t take them long to locate something to attack. He let the pole fall to the ground and barked out his last orders to his men. “Run!” As he turned, the block shifted and he fell forward on the ground landing on his belly. The fall knocked the breath out of him leaving Lil’Ray stunned for a moment. For Snooks all this seemed to take place in slow motion. He stood there watching the nest and pole descend to the ground. He watched the block of wood flip over and Lil’Ray fall helplessly to the ground. It was then that he realized that the fall saved Lil’Ray and he had eluded the fiery attacker that was bearing down on him. The lead wasp and his two comrades flew right over Lil’Ray, but immediately they picked up their next target. Snooks was in their direct path. Had he run when Lil’Ray had bellowed out the command, there might have been a chance to escape. As always, hesitation on the battle field leads to inevitable doom. Snooks turned to run. Had he thought and dove to the ground he might have escaped the onslaught. He could not out run three angry wasps flying at full speed when he only had a twenty-foot head start. Snooks had only made two steps when the lead wasp hit him in the back of his head just below the edge of his cap. The pain seemed to take over his whole body. His right hand flew to the spot of the attack to dislodge the wasp. The reaction caused him to spin around. A second wasp came in and hit him just above his elbow. His efforts to remove the second assailant only served to transfer it from his arm to his hand. Through instinct alone he jerked his hat off and began to swat at his attackers. Snooks knocked one to the ground. Lil’Ray ran up to him swinging a croker sack around over this head like a lasso. Intentional or not he removed the second from the fight. “My back, my back,” Snooks screamed. He turned his back to Lil’Ray. Right in the middle was the largest of the red devils. Lil’Ray wadded up the croker sack and used it to rake the wasp off. The attacks had stopped. As the adrenalin rush began to subside, Snooks became aware of every sting. Each place was like a pulsating beacon calling out for attention. Lil’Ray ran ahead of Snooks to the house sounding the alarm. “Snooks’ been stung! Snooks’ been stung! Snooks’ b!” his warning cry ended as he abruptly halted just before colliding with Maggie coming out the back door onto the porch. “Where you been stung?” she asked Lil’Ray as he grabbed him by his shoulders and began to look him over. She had that crisis look on her face. It was a look that was about two-thirds panic, one-thirds anger, with a smidgen of irritability thrown in. “I ain’t been stung, its Snooks that’s been stung.” She immediately turned her attention to Snooks as he was stepping onto the porch. All the younger girls had come running when they heard Lil’Ray’s distress call. They were curious to see what Lil’Ray had stirred up and what kind of trouble he had gotten himself into today. It had been several days since his last shenanigans and they were overdue for some excitement. They encircled their mother, each one trying to get a good view of the action like gawkers at a bad accident.