Mali and the Monster

[Hedgewitch]

Every night Steve and I take Mali to the green way. The green way is a 17-mile walking park. In between the trails, we walk and the return course there is a large field and today there were tractors racking and bailing hay. Mali loves going to go to the green way. She has many friends there, who often walk with us in a pack as we travel our three-mile route. One day when Mali was 7 months old, no one from the pack was on the Green Way with us, it was just Mali, Steve, and I in my wheel chair; as we came out from the wooded area Mali saw the monster for the first time. It was huge, brown, and just as wide as it was tall. It stood in one place threatening malice.

As soon as Mali saw the monster, her hackles rose from the tip of her head all the way to the tip of her tail. She puffed out the fur on her chest showing the monster she was big and tough. For the first time in her young life, I heard her growl. Not a puppy sound but that of a dog determined to save her people from that terrible mincing monster. She growled even louder as Steve slowed my wheel chair down. Then Steve took her leash from me and my two strong protectors began to stalk the monster.

Mali kept her hackles high as she lowered her head. Her feet could not decide if she was going to prance or stalk. Steve was just as brave as Mali when facing down the monster even though it was almost twice his size. Mali and Steve got within touching distance before the monster seemed to cower. I saw him touch it as Mali pranced around her nose twitching as she waited to see if she would have to come to his defense. At last, she and the monster got face to face and peace ensued. Mali and Steve returned to me at an easy pace, as they would not want to let the monster see how quickly they wanted to get away.

We moved further down the trail and it was here we found the young monster. Unlike the adult, it was only about knee high to Steve, yet it was still far wider than it was tall. Mali approached the young monster without raised hackles after all; she had just put a huge monster in its place. Steve was very brave and even briefly sat on the young monster, while Mali circled it just in case. Then once again, we returned to our trek around the Green way.

~The actors in this real life drama were Steve playing himself, Sherri playing the bystander and Mali my service dog in training when she was just 7 months old played "Mali the Brave and Fearless".~
~The adult monster was played by a gigantic roll of hay and the young adult was played by a bale of hay~