Out for Bud

Something made me wake up. It took a few moments for me to shake off the disorientation I was experiencing. Was it a dream, was it a premonition, or was it all the beans I ate a few hours ago.

"Yeah probably the beans." I told my self and settled back down on my air mattress as I crossed my arms behind my head. The sound of crickets was dampened just a little by the gurgle of the creek. A slight breeze was delivering the sweet smell of pine to my nose. In the distance I could hear the yipping calls of coyotes. I reached over to my canteen and took a drink of lukewarm water. I swallowed the water after swishing it around my mouth.

"You don't care if I have bad breath do ya Bud?" I asked my dog. In response he lifted his head and started smacking his tail into the floor of my tent. That lasted only a few seconds; Bud is starting to get old. He stretched out his big black and tan body and settled his head on his crossed paws. Bud is my best friend. And he always gets real excited whenever I pack up my old Chevy pickup. In fact it usually starts around the time I put on my hiking boots. But then again we have been coming up here for almost seven years now. Anyway, Bud always wears himself silly running from tree to tree inspecting and adjusting the smell of each to

Fit his taste, and then there is the creek. The creek is spring fed somewhere higher up in the mountain. I never have found the source, but Bud doesn't much seem to care and neither do I really. As long as there is still water in there to splash around in Bud is happy. But the darn fool always wears himself useless the first night. Which is ok for me too, I guess. I just eat too much and go to bed early.

Except this time I woke with the feeling of impending doom. Doom to Bud's and my olfactory that is. I decided to unzip the window a little to help with ventilation. As I did I could see the moon, just a few nights past full, through the trees. I figured I had only been asleep for a few hours. Plus Bud's tradition is to poke his cold wet nose onto my face and neck just before pre-dawn so I would let him out. So it couldn't have been very late yet.

I yawned and rubbed my eyes a couple times with the thumb and forefinger of my right hand and then reached out and patted my old German shepherd a few times on the shoulder. He looked at me with a kind of annoyed looked and I almost expected him to tell me to go to sleep.
I yawned again and decided that was probably a good idea. I closed my eyes and started to think about my girlfriend. I tried to talk her into coming with me but between her classes and her apparent dislike of camping it was a lost cause.

"Besides," She told me with an exaggerated look of concern on her adorable face. "What about all those dangerous animals up there." We both had a good laugh over that. In all the years I've been coming up here only once have I even seen the tracks of a mountain lion. Sure they are up here but they are really rather skittish about anything that stinks like humans. And between the smell of water-resistant vinyl and the smell of fresh ash and coals I certainly stink of my race. Oh well, she is a third year law student and besides, what would Bud think. He just recently decided that he doesn't really mind her coming to visit, even though she does smell like her two cats. She got into the habit, shortly after meeting Bud, of bringing him a Slim Jim whenever she would come to visit. To any one who doesn't know any better he is a big intimidating dog. I actually give Bud less credit than I should. He sure has Julie well trained.

I was just beginning to doze off again when I realized that the crickets had stopped chirping. I figured a mule deer was probably working its way down to the water to drink. I propped myself up on one elbow and concentrated on listening. I tried to tune out the constant babble of the creek but to it did no good. All I could hear besides the creek was Bud's whimpering. I looked over at him and saw that he was kicking out his legs in a dream. Just as well I decided. A deer walking through camp could be a bad thing. I remember when he was just shy of a year old

and we came up here. About this time of year too, something really got Bud going. I mean his hackles were up and so was that strip of fur down his spine. Something really had him upset. Poor guy, the next day I saw deer tracks leading down to the creek. That poor muley was probably half dead of a heart attack the way Bud started in barking. I couldn't help but chuckle a little as I thought of the way my brave little buddy was going to rescue me from big bad Bambi. Although deer can be spooky at night. They will place one foot down before they even lift another when they walk around at night. So a big mule deer will sound a lot like a man walking around outside your tent.

Bud kicked out hard one last time and woke up enough to realize he was uncomfortable. He quickly remedied the situation and was soon back asleep. I have always been a little jealous of how quickly dogs can go to sleep. Usually I have to lay here and let the crickets and the creek lull me to sleep. I realized that I still didn't hear any of the little critters chirping. Must be a deer coming to drink.
My mind drifted back to a story my Dad told me about a mule deer that walked through his camp one night. He was camping alone up near the Snake River in Idaho. He had his lantern sitting on the top of his truck as he was cooking his dinner. I guess a gust of wind must have come up real suddenly. He told me that the glass globe broke when his lantern blew over.

"No big deal." He told me "I just finished by candle light, ate, and went to bed." Then the next thing he knew he heard this loud step, step, step.
"Ooh shit this is it." He told me. "I was sure that Bigfoot was coming to get me!" He was right up in the middle of that country and I sure couldn't blame him for jumping to conclusions. There he was after all, by himself in the middle of Idaho with several hundred pounds of mule deer sounding like some big two-legged animal strolling up to say "Hi there." He told me that it was kind of funny after he knew what he was hearing. Although at the time he was afraid he would have to change his shorts.

Another chuckle decided to come out from my lips as I set the back of my head back down on my crossed arms. Funny that the crickets were still silent. I considered unzipping my tent to take a peek outside. The moon was almost bright enough to read by, so I wouldn't have any trouble seeing. I figured instead of that I would let Bud get his beauty rest. Nothing worse after all, than an indignant dog.

I was thinking about Julie again when this smell assaulted my nostrils.
"What happened Bud?" I asked. "Did something crawl up there and die?" I realized that it couldn't be him. What I smelled actually smelled kind of like the sickly-sweet smell of rotting flesh. "Where the hell is that coming from?" Bud was awake now too. He was looking around and "testing" the air the way dogs do when

they smell something. He kept giving me these odd looks. Kind of a cross between. "What's that?" and "You still there?" Whatever it was it seemed to be getting worse.
Bud looked at me again. He had a feral look in his eyes. Something was wrong.
Bud started to growl in a way I'd never head before. I was scared.
I had unzipped my bag and was reaching for my hunting knife when Bud started to bark. It was the kind of bark that could make a guy realize that dogs have been Mans' companions for thousands of years. But they still are only a few steps away from being wild animals.
I reached for the zipper on the door when bud made a move like he was going to jump right through it.

Cold sweat was running down my forehead. My heart was beating like a jackhammer. My body started to shake with adrenaline. I was crouched in the center of the tent with my knife held blade out. Something pushed a massive indention into the side of my tent as a huge shadow loomed over us.
Both Bud and I were primal beings at that time. With no concern for anything, except survival.
Bud lunged at the indention and grasped flesh between his huge jaws as I

Slashed at the intruder.
An Earth shaking shriek erupted from outside the tent. An enraged cry of fury bounced of the walls of the canyon as in-human lungs echoed its pain and rage for miles.
Bud was shaking his head furiously from side to side. Blood was staining the tent red where his jaws were locked onto his opponent's flesh.
The top of the tent suddenly came crashing down on top of us. I was able to stab upward once before a crushing weight came tumbling down, pinning man and beast both under enormous weight.
I was prepared to die.

I awoke suddenly to find Bud sitting next to me with one of his huge paws resting right in the middle of my chest.
As I moved my head Bud nose dived at me and started to lick my face. Poor guy, I guess I gave him quite a scare. He sure seemed happy to have me scratching him behind the ear. He lay back down after a few minutes. I kept rubbing on the top of his head any way.
"What a terrible dream Bud." I told him as he cocked his head at me. "Next time I'm bringing a salad"
That was when I noticed the smell of rotting flesh.