We heard noise from the backyard today and went to investigate.  A big husky was standing on the far side of our pasture barking his head off–but since the orange cat was up in the carport, with us, we couldn’t see what he was fussing about.  Then I noticed a spot of grey standing out from a wood table in the middle of the fenced area.  Our tom cat, Shadow, was facing down the dog with his back arched and his tail the size of a giant roller brush.

The hissing and barking went on until I walked down to the near side of the pasture (still a good thirty feet and two fences from the dog) and called Shadow.  He jumped down and came to me, and I put both the cats up and chased off the dog, no harm done.

Interestingly, the dog could have gotten into the pasture where Shadow was if he’d had the intelligence to run around to the open gate, but he never left the side of the fence where he was closest to the cat.  He looked like some kind of Husky, with a narrow face and mean little eyes.  I like dogs, but I didn’t like this fellow…still, that might have just been the fact that he was on my property uninvited.  He had a collar, and took off down the long side of our property when I told him off.  Our guess is he lives somewhere down there, with a distant neighbor, and followed Shadow home.

Shadow has, of course, decided the trespasser was intimidated by his big bad self.  He’s dropping comments about getting a medal of valor, and has reassured us that he’ll keep out a sharp watch in case the intruder were so foolish as to come back.