#62
Saturday morning was clear and cold. The entire Hanson clan stirred slowly and carefully. Chores were handled and plans for the next work week were planned. For the first time in many days, Mark bundled up and he and Milo went down to check on the horses. Walking carefully with a cane, he navigated the slippery slope down to the barn.
He carefully introduced himself and Milo to Mama dog and the pup, now affectionately named 'Big Otis'. "Why?" Milo wanted to know, and Mark sorta guessed as to what he was questioning.
"She doesn't know us," Mark explained, "she needs to smell us and figure out we mean her no harm, or won't hurt the pup."
"We wouldn't do that, I like them." Milo was puzzled.
"So do I," Mark replied as he scratched the pup's belly, the chubby little legs frantically scrambling in the air. Milo laughed delightedly, asking Mama dog if he could pet her. Mama sniffed him well, and then consented. Milo sat by her, petting the massive head and heaping love on her by the heart-fulls. Mama dog finally licked his hands, accepting the small boy in her world.
Soon he and the pup were wrestling, Milo learning to dodge the sharp little puppy teeth as they played. "Otis is awful cute, can he come inside and play? Can he Uncle Mark, can he?"
"Milo, you need to know that Otis is an outside dog. He has to be with his mother to learn how to be a guard dog, that's her job, and she needs to teach her boy what and how to be a good barking protector." Mark explained gently. "Do you want to walk down to where the horses are?"
"Sure," Milo drug his feet, making patterns in the dirty snow as they walked around the corral and down to the board fence marking the horse pasture. "There's no horses here," Milo was severely disappointed as he climbed on the fence.
"Just watch," Mark promised as he leaned against the fence for support. Holding his ribs, he drew in a breath and let out a piercing whistle. It took three of them before they could hear the horses running in from the back pasture.
"What's coming?" Milo was in awe at the sound, "there must be a million of them."
"Almost," Mark laughed very carefully. "There are seven mares or mama horses, and six of them have babies, or colts if they are boys, or fillies if they are a girl. Now listen carefully. I have some very important instructions to give you. Do not go in the pasture. This is very important and I want you to listen carefully, do not go in the pasture with the horses. Do you understand?"
"Why?"
"Because you are so much smaller that they are, they will walk over you, bump into you and the babies will nip and bite you. You may climb on the fence, talk to them, pet them, but do not go in the pasture. Not Ronnie, you or Teddy may go in there. Understand?" Mark stressed sternly.
"OK, but I can be on the fence? Can I be there now?" Milo was looking at the milling horse's legs between the board slats and was anxious to get higher.
"Climb up carefully" Mark encouraged. "Sit next to the post and you can loop your arm around it to hang on."
"This one is Lucy; now horses like to be petted on the neck, scratched by the ears and rubbed on their backs. Just don't pat them hard full on the face. They will jerk back and sometimes bump you with their face. It is your responsibility to be safe and help them be safe."
"I like this one Uncle Mark, she's soft and tickles me." The mare smelled the pint sized little man, snuffing in his boy scent, the dog smell and what he had for breakfast. As a last minute welcome, she blew a little slobber on Milo, eliciting a "Eww, she goobered on me," complaint.
Mark laughed, and Milo joined in, their breath making cloud puffs in the cold air. Milo turned to ask Mark very seriously, "uncle Mark, what Mama dog is supposed to do for her kid, who's gonna teached us?"
"Let me give the ladies a treat for coming when I called, and I'll answer your question on the way back to the house," Mark slipped the mares sweet feed cubes from the box in the barn, and lured a couple of the colts in for the desirable snack.
"Milo, you have Aunt Clora and myself to guide you; also here there are Uncle Ben, Aunt Lainey, Uncle Wayne, Uncle Ev and Aunt Cheryl, the whole family will help you grow up. We will teach you like Mama dog does Otis, and if you have questions you need to ask us, so we can answer them." Mark took Milo's hand as they walked to the house.
"Like this morning, I instructed you how to behave around the horses. You listened very well, did what I asked and had no problems, did you?"
"Yuppers, I had fun. I like living here. What about my Dad? Did he do another bad thing?" Milo asked in a very small voice, like he knew the answer and was dreading hearing it out loud.
Slowly the super tall man and the short stubby boy climbed the front stairs, "Let's have some hot chocolate and I will tell you that your Dad did do a bad thing. That is a problem when you are an adult, the punishment is more strict. When you do bad things, you get a time out, right?" Mark asked, drawing Milo into the conversation.
"Yeah, I hate time out's," Milo looked pretty stubborn while he was thinking about previous punishments.
"Your Dad has a punishment of a very long time out in a place where he can't leave," Mark mixed two mugs of chocolate and added hot water from the tea kettle on the stove. He rummaged in the cupboards for marshmallows and found a partial sack. Dropping a couple of the white pillows in each cup, he carried the mugs to the table.
Clora came through with a huge basket of laundry and smiled at her guys hanging out.
"So Dad's not gonna be able to take us?" Milo asked in a off hand but very cautious manner.
Mark turned to look at him, puzzled by the attitude but trying to be very honest. "Not for more than a year, do you know how long a year is?"
Milo nodded as he bent over to take a sip of the hot liquid. "I don't want to go with my Dad, I don't like him."
Flummoxed, the only thing Mark could do was say "OK"
When Clora came back through, she noticed Mark had a strained and panicked look on his face. "Hello guy's, how was the walk down to see the animals?" she asked, hoping to find out what had caused Mark's discomfort.
"It was good," Mark replied, as he took a sip.
"What did you think Milo?" Clora nudged the child into talking, he was busy poking at the marshmallow, bobbing it up and down making dangerous waves. "I gots to pet the dog, Otis and a horsey. She blowed snot all over me."
Clora grimaced at the mind's eye picture, "she did huh," she teased, "were they big gobs or little ones?"
"Like sneezes," he clarified, "Uncle Mark was telling me about my Dad and I was telling him I don't like my Dad." Milo was very matter of fact.
Mark and Clora crossed looks and Mark shrugged briefly, out of his league with the precocious 4 year old.
Clora asked "How about some ham sandwiches for lunch? Anybody hungry?"