1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 158 Ridiculous Hunting [Monthly Ticket 3000 plus more]

I don’t know when it started, but dark yellow spots began to appear on the green skin of Provence, and the flowers, plants and trees stopped their vigorous growth that had lasted for several months.

All the natural signals are reminding the people living on this land that July has begun.

Farmers no longer go to the old taverns to drink. In addition to the reason that tourists brought by the peak travel season have occupied their happy nest, the hot weather is another fatal reason.

Starting in July, Provence enters the hottest period of the year.

Before 10 o'clock every day, the temperature soars to over 30 degrees. At noon, the blue sky of southern France will turn into a blazing white. The high temperature and the frenzy of enthusiastic tourists have turned the Lourmarin Camp into a "hot hell".

The Ronan family also adjusted their daily routines immediately.

Luo Tianhai and Feng Zhen would get up at 5 a.m. with Ronan, finish all their work before 10 a.m., and the family would never engage in any "intense" activities before 4 p.m.

'Vigorous' activities naturally include walking the dogs. Ronan takes Xiao Hei and Masai out for enough exercise every day.

He didn't want these energetic and excellent hounds to tear down his beautiful home.

At 7 o'clock in the morning, Ronan took Xiao Hei and Ma Sai out on time.

Xiao Hei likes to sniff around, and Maasai likes to chase squirrels. In short, they all have things they like to do.

But from one day on, they started to like one more thing.

Ronan is used to walking his dog on the gentle slope behind Theo's house, where there is a large forest that blocks the sunlight and offers a view of the beautiful valley of Luberon.

While the two dogs are having fun, Ronan can also be in a good mood.

Xiao Hei and his little follower Masai were running freely in front, and Ronan followed behind them and thought about what to do when he returned to the donkey shed.

He already has a general idea for the restaurant's decoration and has recently started making furniture.

When he finished thinking about his work tonight and came back to look for the dogs, he found that he had lost the trace of the two dogs.

"Xiao Hei, Marseille." Ronan shouted a few times in the woods.

These two dogs are very obedient. No matter how far they run, they will come back when you call them.

But this time, Ronan called three times but did not see the black and gray figures.

He quickened his pace, heading in the direction where he last remembered seeing them.

After walking for about a minute, I finally saw them.

But there was something wrong with the two dogs.

They were staring at a certain direction nervously in an 'attack attitude'.

Xiao Hei's front legs are slightly bent, looking ready to attack, and Maasai's fur is slightly raised, as if it has seen prey.

Ronan immediately squatted down vigilantly, and one man and two dogs stood in a triangle, which is a very common formation when hunting.

Pierre said that in summer large animals often come to the village to look for water sources or to steal watermelons.

Are there wild boars or other large animals ahead?

But Ronan soon discovered that he had done something very ridiculous.

What he and his two dogs hunted for turned out to be a "red plastic bag".

Ronan was no longer on guard, but Hei and Marseille were still in the 'hunting' state.

They moved towards the "red plastic bag" in tacit understanding, and the two dogs knew how to switch positions during the process.

Ronan followed behind, laughing.

Is this their first hunt together?

But this prey.
"Forget it, just treat it as a training session."

After closing the distance, Maasai and Xiao Hei began to circle the prey, intimidating the target with growls and barks, ready to attack at any time.

After about 10 seconds, the 'prey' was finally awakened.

Ronan was just about to say, "I'm sorry to wake you up or you guys should take a rest, but camping is not allowed here. Didn't you see the sign outside?", when a white arm stretched out from the red tent, with a piece of fragrant bacon in the hand at the end of the arm.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Ronan issued the first injunction after the 'hunt' began.

Ronan stopped the tourists from feeding the two dogs, but since then, Xiao Hei and Masai have developed an inexplicable affection for the "red plastic bags".

They are all smart guys. After just that one experience, they knew that the appearance of the "red plastic bag" meant that their feast had also appeared.

Maybe because of his young age, Marseille, a puppy that is less than three months old, has developed a liking for all red things, whether it is food, toys or people's clothes. Seeing red is like a bachelor seeing a woman, and he can't stop attracting it.

This made Ronan think of something - in a corner of his closet, there was a pair of red socks.

Ronan is a man of great action.

At 4 pm that day, when the temperature dropped slightly, the training for Marseille began.

The truffles I bought for Xiao Hei’s second round of truffle training are still at home. Although they have become dried truffles, the aroma is still strong.

Ronan cut off a small piece and fed it to Masai so that it could get familiar with the smell.

The little guy enjoyed the meal very much and kept "smiling" at Ronan to show his love for the food.

Ronan carried out a mobilization as usual.

He touched Marseille's head and said:

"Your brother is useless. All the hopes of the whole family are on you. If you learn well, you can have meat every meal. Maybe I can find you a purebred wife. If you don't learn well, you will be single for the rest of your life."

Marseille tilted his head, not knowing whether he understood or not.

Everything was fine at home, but after Ronan took it out alone, Marseille's condition was not very good.

The little follower has no dog to follow!

It squatted at the door and refused to move, as if asking:
Why doesn't Xiao Hei come out?

Ronan sighed. Bring Xiao Hei out, they only know how to play and cannot be trained at all.

He fed Marseille another truffle and then dangled the sock with the truffle in front of its nose.

This trick actually worked.

Marseille left home and followed Ronan to the open space near the vineyard.

Ronan finally felt relieved.

Truffles are a fatal temptation to Marseille, so the training has a great chance of success.

He threw the socks out with force, and Marseille flew out with a 'swoosh'. Soon, it pounced on the socks and started to bite them, wanting to eat the things inside.

Ronan fed it a piece of bread, and Marseille hesitated for a moment before putting down his socks and eating the bread.

"There's nothing wrong with my IQ this time!" Ronan excitedly picked up the socks and threw them out for the second time.

Marseille rushed out again.

The effect of the first training was significant. Although Marseille had not yet learned to bring back the socks, it knew to chase them, and Ronan successfully gave it several rewards.

However, this smooth process did not last long. After Ronan threw out the socks for the tenth time, no matter how he tried to tempt Marseille with bread, Marseille would not let go.

It bit the sock hard, as if it would not stop until it got the sock in its mouth.

Ronan wanted to take the socks, but Marseille took them away and continued to tear them somewhere else.

Pierre only taught Ronan the "socks" technique, but he didn't teach Ronan how to deal with this kind of "emergency situation". Ronan could only yell at Marseille to let go while he tried to grab it.

The man and the dog pulled each other for a few times, and Maasai suddenly loosened his socks, raised one of his front legs and howled like a dog being killed.

Ronan thought it had pricked his foot, but after checking for a long time he didn't see any wound.

The Marseille's call is very penetrating. When it calls at home, Theo's family, which is hundreds of meters away, can hear the noise. Soon, the shrill call attracted Luo Tianhai and Feng Zhen.

"What's wrong with it?" Like Ronan, Feng Zhen's first reaction was to check the Maasai's front legs.

Ronan frowned and said:
"I don't know, it just started yelling all of a sudden."

Luo Tianhai picked up Ma Sai and walked towards Freddy's house nervously:
"You must have hurt it. It's so small, why are you in such a hurry?"

Ronan pointed at himself speechlessly and said:
"I hurt it? I didn't even touch its legs."

After identification by animal master Freddy, it was found that Marseille had neither skin nor bone injuries. The only possibility was that his tendons were injured, which was caused by "violent treatment".

Since then, Ronan has become a sinner, and even Zoe said he was "too much".

Ronan had no way to express his suffering and could only swallow his loss in silence.

But he did feel quite guilty, because Marseille was badly injured. For several days he walked with one leg lifted up, as if his leg had been amputated.

"What's the point of being nice to it now? It's already lame because of you!" Feng Zhen was furious when she saw Ronan carefully combing Marseille's hair.

Luo Tianhai frowned and checked Ma Sai's raised leg:

"Why is it still not well? Is he going to be disabled?"

Ronan said with mixed feelings:

"If it doesn't get better, I'll take it to Apt and find a veterinary hospital that can take an X-ray."

Feng Zhen said with a thumping voice:

"You shouldn't be jealous. If others have truffle dogs, you should have one too. If that were the case, every family in Lourmarin would have a beautiful big yard."

"I just suddenly remembered that I had a pair of red socks at home and wanted to try it out." Ronan retorted weakly.

Feng Zhen said sarcastically:

"Just save it for your own zodiac year."

Ronan: "."

Am I the one who kisses or is the dog the one who kisses?

"Okay, let's not talk about Ronan anymore. He must be feeling uncomfortable too." Luo Tianhai changed the subject. "There are still some vegetables left in the car. Come out and get them with me."

Feng Zhen pointed at Ronan and said:
"Reflect on this carefully!"

Ronan touched Marseille's belly lying on the ground and said:

"sorry."

A few minutes later, Feng Zhen shouted outside:
"Ronan came out to help. We bought too much today."

"Okay." Ronan opened the door and went out to move a box of tomatoes.

The work in the backyard is coming to an end. In order to reward Kafu and the others, Luo Tianhai is going to prepare a sumptuous meal for them today.

As soon as Ronan put the tomatoes on the ground, a steel-gray shadow came rushing over and kept sniffing around them.

The three people were stunned at the same time.

"Marseille?!" Feng Zhen and Luo Tianhai shouted sharply.

Ronan raised his arms angrily:

"You cunning Maasai dog! Let me teach you a lesson!!"

"Oh, don't hit it! You'll really break it if you hit it again!" Feng Zhen and Luo Tianhai held Ronan tightly to stop him from using violence.

As the three of them were in a mess, the fat boy Cornell ran in breathlessly:

"Ronan Ronan, the beautiful lady has come to Lourmarin!"

(End of this chapter)