cly@cbdkc1.UUCP (Carl Yaffey) (02/27/85)
Last summer, about 20 of us were on a country road heading home from a 40-mile tour. Suddenly, we noticed a large sheep dog bearing down on us. Wew started yelling, "NO! GO HOME! BAD DOG", and other appropriate things. The dog kept coming. He was not barking at all. When he got along side of our pack, he just kept up with us for a few minutes. We were still yelling at him with no apparent effect. Water bottles and pumps were withdrawn and ready! All of a sudden, he cut in front of the nearest rider, ending up inside the group. The rider had to quickly apply brakes to keep from hitting him. Then, he cut across another rider on the other side and ended up outside the group. He did this several times. Each rider had to hit their brakes when he did this. The end result was that the entire group slowed down so much that we were having trouble avoiding each other's wheels. We ground to a halt. The dog rose up and put his paws on the nearest rider. She started petting him! He loved it! It then dawned on us that we had been herded! after all, he WAS a sheep dog! A lot of folks fell off their bikes laughing. He must have thought we were pretty strange sheep. He sure knew what he wanted and how to get it! Eventually, he was distracted by another dog and left us. If he hadn't, I guess we would never had made it home! -- Carl Yaffey at AT&T Bell Laboratories Columbus, Ohio 614-860-3399 cbosgd!cbdkc1!cly