Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1890-02-12

It is only in such companionship, too,
that man can fully appreciate the
value of a dogs friendship. When
every day revealed to me the selfish
ness and dishonesty of man, Il learned
to value the unselhsh loyalty, the hon.
or, of my dog.
Because of his gauntness, his color
and his persistence at my heels named
him SHADOW" He was the only shad-
ow ever knew that did not desert its
owner when darkness came on.
"A detailed story of Shadows eventful
career would be record Of the tramp,
and would fill large volume. 1t is
only the salient point in his short, faith
full life that I can outline here.
1t was the very next day after pass
ing Wagon creek that Shadow saw-so
far as have knowledge-his first jack
rabbit. We we're pacing smartly down
the abandoned Government trail to Fort
Garland, a spiteful snow-squall driv-
ing in our faces, when black streak
shot by me with funny yelp.
There was Shadow flying frantically
down the smooth road, his straining
nose perhaps foot behind the heels of
the kangaroo of the West" which
loped along as if troubled with rheuma-
tism. Finding his neighbor too atten-
tive, the jack suddenly doubled to the
left into the sage, with the dog ga good
second" All, what a sight it was, as
the chase swept broadside by me and off
down the long slope!
l watched with tingling blood and
swelling chest that superb strain of
fleet, buoyant, dexterous muscle. The
jack seemed to be sailing over the two
foot chapparo like great hawk skim
ming along the ground for prey, so con-
tinuously was he in the air. l could not
really tell when he touched the ground
with those elastic hind legs, they
bounced him into sight again so in
stantly.
Ten minutes afterward Shadow came
llmping back very shamefacedly, as if
afraid l might not be aware that no
greyhound of four months could run
down full-grown jack-rabbit.
He sat down in front of me and lifted
one of his paws with a wistful little
whine. No wonder! The pads were
pincushions nova bristle with hum
dreds of the maddening needles of the
mopah, or prickly-pear cactus, each al
most as painful as the sting of bee. 1t
took me two solid hours to pick them all
out, and he stood it like hero.
His reward came that night, in the
lonely camp Of two beaver-trappers on
tho 'Epinohoroc ,1,1o h1
antelope meat until he looked as if he
had swallowed a young balloon.
We tramped on down the upper valley
of the blue Rio Grande, vastly interested
in the quaint Mormon and Mexican set
Elements, and equally prejudiced against
the half-score of swapping curs-of every
degree of mongreldom, and unanimous
only in ugliness and treachery-that
swarmed about every house.
One moonlight night that week, in a
deep ravine above Embudo, Shadow
who had dropped we'll behind-came
suddenly boiling up between my legs
and upset me. He had good reason to
seek help A hundred feet behind US
came long, dark figure, crawling with
that inimitable, deadly grace that only a
cat has.
It aoas a cat-the hugest cat of the
! Western Hemisphere, the mountain
| lion," or cougar of the Rockies. Terri
BILE as it is when wounded, the cougar
does not voluntarily attack man, and
when stood with my rifle at a ready
but unable to see the sights shout
ed, the great brute made an incredible
leap up the side of the arroyo and dis
appeared in the brush.
All the rest of the walk Shadow chung
to my side; and when I spread my
blanket sleeping-bag in a Mexican
howell at Embudo, he was still shivering.
Quaint old Santa Fe, where we lin
gered a week, was the first town Shadow
had ever been in, and he was duly awed.
The market, however, delighted him.
The first time we passed it he seized a
suspended rabbit and brought it to me
with a proud air that said: ''Ah, ha!
Here they have jacks that can catch,
anyhow!'' And he was greatly puzzled
and panied to learn that marketed
rabbits were not fair prey.
For fortnight he followed me faith
fully, but with evident fnisgivings,
through the mines of Golden and San
Pedro. We were now literally insep-
arabic. If I changed my chair in q
room while he slept on the floor, he
must get up and lick my hand before he
! could continue his nap. He seemed to
be haunted by the fear that the only one
who had ever shown him kindness would
escape from him.
Going out of Golden in two feet CT
snow, with twenty miles to make be-
fore dark. we waded laboriously across
the wooded hills-our only guide the
trail OF single horse. Presently a
strong wind began to dry and drift the
snow, and soon had absolutely obliter-
ated the trail.
1t was fearful day we passed there,
lost in the mountains, laundering
through the heavy snow, tumbling into
| drift-hidden aa7oyos, faint with hunger,
expecting death-and kept up only by
trained muscles and stubborn will.
At last Shadow could go no further,
but fell, bowling dismally, under
spreading pinon whose piny branches
partially averted the bitter storm. I
took him up on my shoulders as one car
ries sheep-his long legs on either
rs