Last week I started telling you about my neighbor, Larry. I had been worried about him. I thought he might have been headed toward male menopause.  Larry and his wife bought my cousin's place directly behind my property and have built the place into a respectable country home. Larry and his wife enjoy horses.  Larry and I are the kind of neighbors that would do anything for each other.

We have this unspoken understanding that a lot of men have. We both know that if an emergency comes up, we can count on each other. We would both risk life and limb to protect each other's family and property. Have we said that out loud to each other?  No, we don't have to. We just know it. It's the way guys are. We guys also enjoy harassing those we care about. Again, that's just the way we guys are.

Larry has helped me out of a pinch on several occasions and, to be very honest with you, I have wanted to try to return the favors, but my timing always seems to be little bit off. About the time I see Larry has a need, I prepare myself to offer help, and by the time I get around to it, his need has already been taken care of.

I had a big six-foot fence across our back yard and the fence got torn down during the storm. I can now see things I had not seen before, namely, Larry's horses and building projects.

Larry lost a portion of the roof of his barn during the hurricane. He repaired it and it was damaged a short time later in another storm. His horses seemed to have a bad habit of kicking the barn walls, and they too have damaged the place.

Now as I look back across my newly opened back yard I see that Larry has started a new project. A BRAND NEW BARN! That lucky dog! I have wanted a new barn too, but now Larry has got me worried, which leads me to the male menopause thing.

I think he is getting ready to start raising little miniature horses. The reason I think this is now, as I look at the old barn, the top half of the barn walls are gone and the roof has been lowered down to about four feet high! I woke up one morning and peered out of the back window and all I see is this new roof line across the fence. A roof line that was once about seven or eight feet high is now barely high enough for a short legged jersey cow.

Now the next thing I see going on is Larry has a new trick horse. It furthers my concerns for Larry because the real short barn roof and the trick horse further reinforce my idea that he may be ready to open a petting zoo, or now I am thinking that he may be ready to join the circus.

I have been watching this horse for a few weeks now. It's a beautiful paint horse that has the ability to do something I have never seen a horse do. One day as I looked out of my back window I noticed the horse had picked up a stick about the size of a yard stick.

When I first saw the stick in its mouth, he was walking around like he had a giant cigar in his mouth. I first thought the animal had jabbed the stick down its throat and I was about to run outside and try to help the horse, but then I saw a wonderful but funny sight.

The horse threw its head back and actually tossed the stick several feet into the air and tried to catch the stick again in its mouth! He missed it, but he picked the stick up again and again each time tossing the stick into the air trying to play catch with himself.

Then a few days later I saw this round rubber ball come rolling from the barn into the horse's pen and I watched the horse run and pick the ball up in his mouth and throw it back again. Again the ball rolls from the barn area and the horse throws the ball back.

Shortly thereafter Larry came walking out the back of his barn from an area that was previously out of my line of sight. There was Larry playing catch with a horse! This was absolutely a beautiful but hilarious sight! I was wondering if I was missing something in my own life by not playing catch with my bull or maybe my donkeys!

Well, I am pleased to say, however, that my worries about Larry are now over. I think the male menopause thing is passing. He has since torn the rest of the old barn down and the playing catch with a horse thing is…well…kind of a really neat thing. I don't think I need to worry about Larry because I think he is going to be okay.

Now, lest anyone ask me who am I to judge a man and his own male menopause. I've been there, so I know how good it feels just to let your mind go wild and do things you normally would never let anybody know you were doing. The only problem for Larry, however, is the fact he lives behind Clifford! He probably never knew his life would become as open of a book as mine is.

"I gotta get that fence back up before he sees me through my kitchen window in my white briefs!"

- Clifford

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