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ARCTIC MUTTON CHOPS Vic Frandsen Springville, Utah Senior Division First Place Anecdote Malius, a few years over from Sweden, owned a Muggy dog. Andrew, a half mile away at the edge of Moroni, had a hundred sheep in a pasture by his bar. A cold January night in 1895, Muggy joined neighbors' dogs for socializing over a mutton supper. Liking their meat fresh, they did the butchering; liking the excitement, they killed more than they would eat. Next morning, an angry Andrew sought revenge. He moved his survivors into a netwire corral too high for dogs to jump. He skinned the dead sheep and left the carcasses, smeared with strychnine, outside the fence. At darkness the dogs with new recruits returned for more fun. They could not reach the live sheep, so they ate from the dead ones. Muggy, still alive, but "sicker than a dog", reached his under-the-porch nest. At daybreak Malius hitched his team to the sleigh, loaded hay, and left to feed some cattle a few blocks away. He called, and Muggy, obediently came to follow. A block away Malius was passing John's place as John came out of the house to see an excited Malius climb down from his sleigh and go back to where Muggy, in a convulsion, was writhing in the road. Muggy twitched a bit and expired. Malius gathered up the dead dog, turned to John and lamented, "It's the coldest dum wedder I ever seen. Dat dog run along back a da sleigh and froze to det." Source: I have heard my father tell this story on his old neighbor many times -54- |
