The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-11-17
A PET HBIFEa's EXPLOIT.
Impales Too 'Coons While Her Owner
and TWO Dogs Kill Three Others.
From the Nel0 York Sun.


From the NeU York Sun.
SCRANTON, Nov. 9.-On Farmer Abner
o. Houghton's fertile dairy farm in Spring.
vale township pastures pet 3-year-old
Devonshire heifer named Bess, She is a
beautiful dark-red animal. her hide is o.
sleek as q deer's, and her horns are shapely
and very sharp. Mrs. Houghton and the
children have made a great pet OF BeSs
since she was little, and tbs heifer is
so tame and fond of every member OF
the family that she follows them
around the farm whenever they let her.
Bess is as mild and gentle as a oosset lamb
except when she spies a strange dog. There
Is 10 fence on the farm high enough to
keep Bess in the field when size starts after
dog that doesn't belong
on the premises. A neighbours dog
bit one of Bess' heels when she was
a calf, and ever since then the intelligent
heifer has had a bitter hatred for all dogs
except those that belong to MIR. Houghton
One morning, soon after Bess had her first
calf, a neighborinR farmer went into the
barnyard TO see Mr.. Houghton. His dog
followed him. Bess was under the shed
with her calf, and when she caught sight Of
the dog she plunged out, pitched at it. and
gored it to death before It's owner could stop
her. But the heifer is very friendly and
| afectionate to a pair Of fox terriers on the
farm. They were pups when Bess was a
| calf, and Bess romps aud plays with them
on the grass. as she did the first summer.
Mr.. Houghton calls the terriers Lord and
Lady.
Several days ago the dogs got in the no.
ton of going to a piece Of woods on the hill
| above the COW pasture and barking for en-
! hour at stretch. After they had done 50
for three or four days, Lord left Lady in the
woods, ran across the farm to where Mr..
Houghton was blowing, and tried to coax
his master to go TO the woods with him.
Mr.. HOughton was too busy, and the dog
raced back to the forest. Ia few min
utes Lady appeared before her master and
Whined for him to follow her, and
when Mr.. Houghton told her TO 90
away she ran back TO the woods. An hour
afterward both dogs begged Mr.. Houghton
to go with them to the woods. He put the
dogs of until last Wednesday noon, when
Lord and Lady coaxed so hard that he fol-
lowed them. They led him to a dead bass
wood tree and began to bark furiously
around it. Mr. Houghton found marks Of
coons' claws on the bark, and a feet from
the ground he saw hole in the trunk.
Then he went back to the house, and the
dogs were very much disappointed.
Directly after dinner on Thursday. Mr.
Houghton and Harrison CriDpen, a neigh
Dor, took their axes and went M to the
woods to CHOP che tree down. thinking that
the coons would be more likely to be in
the trunk Ia the day time than after darlr
Lord and Lady led the way, capering around
IN great delight. Bess was grazing with
the herd when the dogs and men crossed the
pasture, and she Immediately fell in line be-
hind the men aud followed them to the
woods.
While the two men were choppine the
tree Bess stood back few yards. chewed
her puh aud yuak Nd
were so eager for the prey that they danced
around and whined. The tree was hollow
to It's foot, and men 1t fell two fat coons
skipped out of the butt end Each dog
caught one by the side Of the neck and Mr..
Crippen ran to the hole near the crotch.
Another coon popped out Of the butt, and
while Mr.. Houghton was clubbing it to
death two more skipped out and ran for
lear life directly toward the heiTer, side by
side. Mr.. HoughtOn was 90 busy with his
coon that he didn't notice them, and the
logs were wrestling with their ooous in the
bushes near by. Harrison Crippep saw the
,oons pop out, and SO did Bess The sight
IF the boons angered the heifer and while
Mr.. Crippen was running toward them
With his AK, Bess made luuge at them
With lowered head, caught one in the belly
IN each of her sharp horns, jammed them
against the trunk of a maple tree, and im-
)Gled them so tightly that they couldn't
rick themselves loose.
The coons squealed and struggled. and
3ess shook her head and whirlsd around so
asst that MIR. Crippen couldn't get near her.
She soon flung the coons from her horns.
md then she turned and ran believing
Town to the pasture with her face and head
covered with blood. By the time Mr..
1oughton and the dogs had killed their
,ame, and Mr.. Crippen quietly put an end
o the ones that Bess had gored. Then the
men marched down the hill with five fat
,oons, and the fox terriers went home con-
enued.