My piece of heaven was by chance right in the middle of an Amish community.\u00a0 Some seventy families strong, they worked hard and were
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warm and friendly, yet reserved and cautious.\u00a0 Since I too shunned electricity, relied on wood for heat, and hauled my own water, the Amish liked me\u2014they opened up a bit, and I was invited in to eat lunch once in a while. There were many images I have cherished from that summer, mostly the realization that Amish folks are really genuine and honest.\u00a0 They are absolutely committed to what they hold dear.\u00a0 I learned that even though Amish people don\u2019t go out of their way to mingle with the modern world, they are aware of it, and sample ideas from it, adopting knowledge when it doesn\u2019t conflict with what they believe to be right.
One of the teenagers next door brought home a little beagle puppy one fall day, and it was, of course, a really cute little thing.\u00a0 Beagles, like any other pups, are curious and impulsive, and given to wandering around the countryside a bit.\u00a0 So it wasn\u2019t unusual for the pup to be nowhere in sight at times.\u00a0 But one day the pup didn\u2019t come home.\u00a0
For several days everyone looked for him.\u00a0 After the third day a tearful Amish boy told me, \u201cDad says the coyotes got \u2018em.\u201d\u00a0
\u201cLet\u2019s take Cindy and Ananda out and check again,\u201d I said.
So Cindy and Ananda and I walked increasingly larger circles around the Amish farm with a couple of their kids.\u00a0 Now Ananda was a big, rangy Irish Wolfhound, and he could cover a lot of ground.\u00a0 Cindy was a little Rat Terrier who couldn\u2019t resist sticking her head down every hole she ever came across.\u00a0 Around 2:30 that afternoon, we heard Ananda barking ahead of us.
When we caught up with him, he was standing with his legs spread wide and little Cindy underneath him, digging furiously.\u00a0 Every time Cindy got tired, after digging 2 or 3 inches, she\u2019d step aside and Ananda would dig in and really make the dirt fly.\u00a0 I pushed them both aside and got down on my hands and knees, trying to look down the hole.\u00a0 When I got down close to the hole, I heard an unmistakable whine.\u00a0 Sure enough, it was that beagle pup, and he was way down in that hole.\u00a0
I sent the Amish boys home for a shovel…you never saw boys run so fast.\u00a0 But by the time they got back, that big Wolfhound had dug so far I was able to stick my arm down there and pull the pup out.\u00a0
Unfortunately his back leg was held by a trap\u2014probably set to catch a fox\u2014and the trap had ruined that leg.\u00a0 When the Amish boys saw the trap, the older one, Amos, declared, \u201cThere\u2019s my cousin\u2019s missing trap.\u201d\u00a0
The other boy shook his head, \u201cIt\u2019s lucky he\u2019s not here, \u2018cuz I\u2019d like to shove him down that hole!\u201d\u00a0 We rushed the pup into the veterinarian in town, and the whole vet office flew into action.\u00a0 A surgical team was arranged, and soon the pup was lying on the table knocked out cold while the doctor amputated the leg.\u00a0
It was all over in an hour, but the pup was out all afternoon.\u00a0 As soon as he was beginning to wake up we took him home.\u00a0 The boys carried him to a makeshift convalescent room at the back of their shed\u2014Amish dogs never enter the house.\u00a0 One of the younger boys spent the night with him.\u00a0 It was lucky it wasn\u2019t the dead of winter.\u00a0
Over the next few weeks they changed bandages, assisted him in making his way around the yard, and spoiled him to death with table scraps.\u00a0 They complained later that he refused his regular dog food, but by then he felt he was pretty special.\u00a0
Having survived, he spent the summer demonstrating how he could get along on three legs.\u00a0 If he got cold at night, he\u2019d sleep with the pigs in some hay in a little lean-to they had.\u00a0 For some reason the big sow, Tiny, didn\u2019t mind him there.\u00a0 In fact, she sort of adopted him.\u00a0 Wherever the big sow went, that dog was not far behind.\u00a0 He used to sit on the lean-to roof watching for anything amiss, so they came to call him \u2018Lookout.\u2019\u00a0 If he saw anything, he\u2019d let out with that classic Beagle sound\u2014on a windless day you could hear that dog baying through the hills, all the way down in my front yard!
All that summer Lookout would come to greet me warmly whenever I was around, and I always brought some dog biscuits for him, and carrots or apples for his friend the old sow.\u00a0 She seemed such a big gentle hog, and smarter than you think, which is why she kept her eye on the whole farm along with Lookout.\u00a0 The two of them were quite a sight.\u00a0
Fast forward to Christmas Eve, when I happened to find myself alone, for reasons not necessary to detail.\u00a0 So the Amish boys came down around noon and announced, \u201cMa an\u2019 Pa would like you to come up this evening for dinner!\u201d\u00a0
Now, normally, the Amish keep to themselves, so this was a big deal.\u00a0 After I got myself cleaned up I lit out walking through the dusky woods toward their house.\u00a0 On the way there I saw an owl fly across the valley and for some reason the hair stood on the back of my neck for a second before I brushed it off.\u00a0 Nature is full of prophetic symbols, and if you are paying attention, they sometimes jump out at you.\u00a0 Owls are supposed to inspire caution, according to an old Native American man I know.\u00a0 The journey up to the Amish takes about 25 minutes when you can see where you\u2019re going, and the last part of the trail is very steeply uphill.\u00a0 I never thought about what it might be like in the dark, after all, it was mostly my own woods, wasn\u2019t it?
It was a long and pleasant evening, and even Mother Nature cooperated with the Christmas spirit and arranged a brisk snowfall.\u00a0 We sat in the living room and told stories while it snowed, and threw logs on the fire.\u00a0 Around 11:00, which was way past a typical Amish bedtime, father Jake announced, \u201cWe best be goin\u2019 to bed, we still gotta milk in the mornin\u2019.\u201d
Oldest son Ben offered to give me a buggy ride home, but I turned him down because I knew how long it would take to harness up the buggy horse and pull the poor horse out of a warm stall in the middle of the night. I was imagining the snow would make for a beautiful walk home.\u00a0 When I stepped outside and felt the wind and realized the snow was really piling up and drifting, I almost went back in and reconsidered the offer.\u00a0 But it was just back home to my place; I\u2019d done it a thousand times.\u00a0 So I clenched my teeth and started down the path between the barn and the hogpen.\u00a0 When I passed by the lean-to I heard one muffled woof from Lookout.\u00a0 \u201cJust me!\u201d I called out, \u201cGo back to bed!\u201d\u00a0 There was no answer, so I knew he understood.\u00a0
A few more steps and I was out in the fields behind the farm buildings.\u00a0 Now I knew how bad the wind had become.\u00a0 It blew the snow so hard it stung my cheeks.\u00a0 I bend my head down, turned up my collar and trudged through the snow.\u00a0 It was already about five inches deep on the level ground, but drifts were much higher.\u00a0 When I stepped into one it went over my big army surplus boots, the snow packed into them and down to my ankles instantly.\u00a0 I regretted not wearing better gear for the journey.\u00a0 Several times I tried to skirt a drift, changing course to do so.\u00a0 Once I backtracked and plunged through because I knew it was the only way.\u00a0
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