It's been a long strutting season. As hard on the heeler sisters as it has been on me. So I wasn't surprised last Friday morning, dark and early, when the little maskless heeler decided she didn't wanna go anywhere.

Except up to the head of the bed to use my still warm pillow.

And I tried several times to persuade her sister to stay in bed as well. Because I knew she would be disappointed out in the country when she realized she had no one to race against. No one to help snoop through the sagebrush.

But she insisted.

Wasn't until we were pulling away from the curb that she figured out her sister wasn't with us. And turned to look sadly out the window at the empty porch.

I'm not sure of the sadness was because her sister wasn't coming or...

Because the masked one suddenly realized that she, too, could have stayed home and still been in a warm bed. Sleeping with the Alpha.

The masked heeler and I ran the standardized lek count in the desert, for the sixth and last time this year. Heelers tend not to enjoy the standardized routes so much, because I am always in such a rush to get the entire route completed on time that they do not get many breaks for playing.

Not until the route is completed.

As we left the fifth and final strutting ground (Total count on the route = 154 cocks, 6 hens. Compared to 191 cocks on the count ten days before. The strut is definitely winding down.), the masked sister made it clear she still wanted a running break at their usual spot.

So I stopped.

And she went launching off my left knee to barrel down the road behind us. Only to quickly return and begin frantic barking up at me.

Okay, okay.

I'll race you.

Race was over almost before it began. With a clearly disappointed heeler.

So I put her on 'stay' in the dirt road. And gave myself a good 50 meter head start before whistling, and turning to run.

She still caught me almost immediately, but at least she was breathing hard. And bouncing against my hips in celebration.

"I won! I won!"

A race back to the truck, with the four-legged contestant running circles around the two-legged one, and we were homeward bound. We made one extra stop on the way, as compensation to the masked heeler for coming along alone, and missing out on sleeping late in a warm bed.

Her sister noticed it immediately, as she greeted us at the door with ears down in a guilty pose.

Noticed the smell of bacon, cheese and egg biscuit on her masked sister's breath.