One morning me and Ronnie were going down a little road through the woods in the ATV when I smelled smoke. I barked and Ronnie stopped and let me out. I tracked the smoke smell to a rough little trail a little way off the road. At the beginning of the trail there was a post with human words on it. The trail had truck paw prints on it. Just as we passed the post I saw the smoke and I think Ronnie did too. We both started going faster, me on my paws and him in the ATV.
We came to a little open place and saw two humans sitting around a little fire. The truck that had made the paw prints was there and there was a human dog house on the ground not far from the truck. Ronnie did not seem too happy about all this. The two humans stood up when they saw us. We walked over to the fire and Ronnie started talking to them. He said they could not camp there and that a sign had said so. He said the Rangers were trying to take care of the plants and animals in this part of the forest and let them rest because humans had been hurting them. The humans smelled like they did not care about any of this. They smelled like bad humans from the beginning.
Ronnie kicked dirt on the fire and told them to pick up their stuff and leave. They were growling at Ronnie saying things like the campsites were full and they had a right to camp somewhere. One of them said it was pup lick land. They didn’t have any puppies with them so I don’t know what he meant by that. Ronnie told them they drove right past the no camping sign and they would have to pay the government humans some money for doing that. Ronnie was not growling but he was talking in a very low, strong bark. He gave them both a paper he had put some writing on.
One of them threw the paper down and moved toward Ronnie. He never got to Ronnie because I had his leg in my mouth before he took another step. He yelled and stepped back but I didn’t let go because being Ronnie’s helper dog was feeling pretty good at that point. Ronnie yelled off and stay so I let the leg go and sat down right in front of him staring at him with a low growl. The man was yelling he bit me he bit me. Ronnie told him he was lucky that was all I did and to pull up his pants leg so he could see if he was hurt. He was bleeding a little but not anything to howl about.
Ronnie told him he should thank me for keeping him from being charged with assault on a federal officer. He told him to pick up the paper and leave before he decided to arrest both of them. They said a bunch of words to each other as they were picking up their stuff and getting in the truck. When they were about to leave the one I bit yelled that he was going to shoe Ronnie. He said I’ll shoe you, I’ll shoe you. I guess he meant he was going to kick Ronnie. I don’t know why he didn’t just say so. Ronnie yelled back that he was more worried about his dog getting sick from biting his dirty leg than he was about getting shoed. Their truck made a loud noise when they left. Ronnie gave me a pet and picked up some things they had left on the ground. He put the things which were paper and metal things in a big green bag we carried on the ATV. Ronnie made sure their fire was out and then we left the way we came.
That night before I went to sleep, I remembered what Ronnie had said about letting the plants and animals in the woods rest because humans had been hurting them. Ronnie and I had picked up a lot of things in the woods that didn’t belong there. And we saw humans cut trees and bushes to make fires and left what they didn’t use just lying there. They walked and drove their trucks on flowers and plants that animals needed to eat and good humans might want to see. They threw things in the water that made it dirty and ugly and hard for the animals to drink. All the sounds they made scared animals and made them move from where they had been eating and sleeping. I don’t think the bad humans cared about any of this at all. Me and Ronnie did.