VT Tale No. 1: Tess The Wonder Hound

During one of our long walks with Dr. Moo's new pooch, we tried letting her off the leash to see how she'd do. She came back to us once and then disappeared. We called and called for her and the only reply was a constant echo of bullets -- it's both deer and duck hunting time in Vermont and we were by both the woods and the lake. We were worried.

Then we heard woofing. Frenzied woofing. "Tess, Tess, Tess," we called. I whistled. She kept barking, somewhere off in the forest.

"I guess we have to go to her," Dr. Moo said.

Which suddenly made sense -- Tess' main job is to sniff out medium sized forest creatures and tree them and then WOOFWOOFWOOF until her person comes and shoots them.

We picked up her trail in the snow next to some large footprints and frozen drops of blood and followed them through a cornfield and into a thicket of prickers. Not just any old prickers though -- these were some sort of monster pricker trees. Tess was at the base of a very tall oak tree, trying to leap up into it. There wasn't anything up there, thankfully.