Bud runs to the fence behind my studio and barks. Lulu lifts her head ears up. Constance lets out a baa and Kim is ready to run.
Bud is barking at Zip who is calmly making his way from the marsh toward the barn. His shoulder blades move up and down and his paws feeling the earth beneath them. His tail is hanging down then curls up floating just above the ground.
I don’t know all the boundaries of Zips territory.
I’ve seen him go as far as the front porch on the west side of the farm. He drinks from the pond on the east, hunts in the marsh on the north, and slips under the fence and into the stand to trees on the south.
Back home he only bothers with the hens if they get too close to his barn. If I feed them anywhere else on the farm he either joins them or leaves them alone. If I throw meal worms in front of the barn door he chases them away.
He’s friends with Asher and Issachar but Constance will always butt him if she gets the chance.
He taunts Bud by sitting on the fence posts around the dog yard.
He sleeps in the barn, on the back porch, under the front porch or waits for Jon on the blue Adirondack chair under the apple tree.
Or he hangs out on Jon’s raised flower beds. His legs draped over the edge as if he were a panther in a tree.
