Near-death experience (not for me, tho)

Wow, what a hike I had today.  I decided to hike a 2 mile loop on a couple of our trails here on the farm...down a fairly steep hill, thru the hollow, and up another long, steep hill.  Two of our dogs went with me, Marley (Australian shepherd-mix rescue dog) and
Sigmund (Jack Russell terrier, but the calm kind, not the terrorist kind, altho when it comes to cats or squirrels, he's a little white death machine).
It's still pretty muddy here and some shaded areas have snow, but it's high 40s today.  Great day to go. I had on flannel-lined jeans and high waterproof (thank heaven) heavy muck boots.
When we made it to the bottom, along the creek,  and walked to the end of the hollow, the dogs discovered that a big black and white fluffy cat had, can you believe this?! ventured into "their" land.  They ran to it like they were shot out of a cannon. The cat made it to a big tree and climbed up. Marley tired of barking within a minute and came along with me as I began to hike up the long, steep hill. Sigmund, being the dedicated cat killer he is, stayed at his post at the bottom of the tree, barking and repeatedly trying to climb the tree to get to the cat, who just sat there and looked at him from a high limb.  I went on, figuring Sigmund would realize he had been left and catch up.  How silly of me.  He is one determined little dog.

After hiking about 1/3 of the way up the hill, occasionally stopping to whistle (when I could spare the breath) and call for the (now) extremely aggravating dog, I thought perhaps I'd best go back down and grab him, in case the cat's owner heard the ruckus, noticed the cat was missing, and brought a gun to defend the cat.

I was not happy.  An old climbing adage is "never lose altitude."  Words to live by, I say.  I got back to the bottom and just as I was about to lay my hands on that ungrateful dog, the idiot cat jumped down from the tree, right in front of the two dogs!  They gave chase, all 3 running across the clearing and thru the creek.  Now what kind of cat runs into and thru a creek??!! It was about 6 inches deep where they crossed. I had to gingerly get down the steep bank, go down the creek, grab the dang dog, and get back on the trail, now unhappily carrying an 18 lb, wet, muddy dog.  I did spank him on the bottom and used the mean mother-in-law voice to tell him what I thought of his cat chasing. He had a couple of bloodied scratches on his face, so at least the cat got in a few good swipes.

Do not for a minute think this would deter him.  We've never been able to have barn cats here. He is a killing machine. I actually saw him kill a groundhog that had stupidly gotten into the shrubs by our back yard.  A groundhog!

After walking back the trail the way we had come (do you think I was going to haul his 18 lb fanny UP the hill??) about 1/4 of a mile, I put him down, admonishing him to stay with us.  He went running right back to the cat in the creek!!!!!!  I had to jog (yes, I'm counting these miles toward Moab) back to the creek (in now-wet flannel-lined jeans and muck boots..I think it should count double mileage), negotiate the slick rocks, and grab the recalcitrant dog AGAIN.

This time I took the string out of the hood of my hoody and he was led, wet, muddy, and disgusted (both of us) all the way back to the house, where he now sits in exile in the utility room until he dries.

I'm thinking that was enough exercise for the day.  Count it as 2.5 miles toward Moab.  Not a pretty 2.5 miles by any stretch of the imagination, but still....