The Mange

Saturday we were invited to dinner, along with the younger elders to the home of a member. When we arrived, Heleman (the head of the household), came out on the porch with a pistol in his hand. For a split second I thought, okay, what have we here? His great big white pit bull was hanging around sniffing us. He said something about the dog having the mange and he was going to shoot it. He has a pronouned southern drawl, so we weren't quite sure what was going on. I thought maybe he was going to put his pit bull down, and that we were in imminent danger. Then he explained that there was a stray dog hanging around his place with the mange. Elder Barlow and I went inside, and the elders joined Heleman to help dig a pit to bury the dog. We never did see it. He came in later and said his pistol had several blanks in it, but a real bullet came up and finally finished the job. Kind of creepy. In case you wonder what the mange is: "A skin disease of mammals, causing itching, hair loss, etc." They say it can't be cured and it is very contageous. Thus, Heleman wanted to protect his dog against it. I saw one out at the Sandridge a while back and didn't know what it was. Yucky!