Taking my Cooter for a walk

After trompin through the woods, she and Cooter got a bit dirty and she decided it might be nice to check out the beach and get a chance to wash some of the mud off. With ample amounts of curiosity, she payed attention to everything she could along the way, wanting to get to know the place she was now starting to call home.

The storm surge had brought all sorts of wondrous things to shore. Broken bits of ancient ships, trash, sargasso, sea weed, broken glass and other treasures from the Atlantic are strewn about. The warm wind along the North Eastern Seaboard lended itself to a pleaseant frolic around the beach. Lee Ann and her Cooter had the place all to themselves.

Thankfully the creatures that had arrived with that awful storm seem to have retreated and signs of life can once more be seen in the city. Automobile Engines, Train Whistles and Ship Horns can once more be heard echoing throughout the city just above the din of the mighty Atlantic Ocean. Cooter prances happily along the sandy shore enjoying the one-on one-time that she gets to spend with her master.

Spring was in the air!

The beach was a treasure trove of interesting junk, and her curious Cooter did enjoy junk. Cooter pranced out onto the sand (as much as a 40 pound raccoon could prance) and began eagerly exploring everything.

Lee Ann just stared around in awe for several minutes, taking everything in. She had never seen such a site, and didn't quite know what to do. Finally curiosity won out, and she joined Cooter in the exploration. Anything that looked interesting was picked up for a closer examination.

After rummaging around through a pile of rusty metal debris (Country girls don't get tetanus) She'll find a strange sealed cylinder. It is encased with a strange thick rubbery material that makes it somewhat buoyant. There is writing in easy to recognize German on the outer casing along with the depiction of a skull and bones. Achtung!! It says along the top. It appears to have a rubber stoppered area on one end of the cylinder that could be pried open with a small amount of effort.

There is no feeling of foreboding or dread to Lee Ann's fledgling psychic sensitivity, although the device is very strange and foreign. It definitely does not belong washed up on the shores of Massachusetts.

"Hey Cooter! Check this out!" she called out as she pulled the strange cylinder from the rubble. Of course, her Cooter didn't listen. She never listened, especially when there was interesting junk around for her to get into.

Sitting down on a piece of washed up wood, she turned the cylinder around, looking at it from all sides with avid curiosity.

"Now what do you think..... "Ack-tongue" means?" She tried out the unfamiliar word, pronouncing it in her typical accent which would probably make any good German cringe.

"Maybe its booze!" She cried out triumphantly! After all, some of her kin made moonshine and they often had a skull on cross bones on their jugs. Just as she was about to pry the lid open, she had a moment of responsible thinking.

"I should probably take this to that doctor lady.... or maybe the guy with the purdy hawk. They both speak them funny words...."

but her curiosity was too much for her to be totally responsible.

"I'll just take a peek, then take it over to them." She reasoned outloud to Cooter, who of course was only now just taking interest in what she had in her hands.

With careful fingers, she slowly pried the rubber stopper open, just a crack.

Beneath the rubber top she discovered a set of rotating pass-code combination dials. Similar to what one would find on a briefcase or luggage. However this time there were ten numbers to be deciphered instead of the customary four. As she manipulated the cylinder she could hear something small moving around inside it, it was fairly light weight by the way it rattled and sounded. The mystery was both tantalizing and mildly frustrating.. What was in this damn German Tube?!?

Now that just wasn't fair! After diddling with the dials for several minutes, she shook the cylinder in frustration, trying to figure out what could be inside. The shaking and rattling of the cylinder of course caught Cooter's attention. Without hesitation, Cooter started grabbing at the cylinder, demanding to have a chance at playing with the intriguing object. When pulling and prying didn't work, she quickly set to biting at the thing. Cooter knew from experience that biting made almost anything open up for her.

"No Cooter! No bitin'!"

Snatching the cylinder away from a now very grumpy Cooter, she got to her feet and started heading back towards the woods.

"Common, lets go take this to Samson. He knows how to read them funny words....I think."

Cooter sulked after her master, grumpy that she didn't get to play with the tube, and even more grumpy that sand was all in her fur. She didn't even get a chance to go get wet!!