I Had A Dream!

Fall came and went today! We had an early Fall this morning when it was 45 degrees outside on the front porch, and now, eight hours later, that same thermometer outside, just hit 90 degrees! This morning Tony and I drank hot chocolate and he just now pulled a Popsickle out of the freezer and asked me if I wanted one, too. I didn’t.

This morning was great at the ranch! June Hartley and Carol Vail, two of our favorite volunteers, showed up and that was a very nice surprise for us and the dogs! While June was handing out treats and spending time with each dog, Carol began her dog walking program.

Inspired by the volunteers and the weather, I grabbed a leash and took Maggie, a shy sweet dog, for a three mile hike! At one point, Tony became concerned, because I was gone so long, so he sent Blake Kesterson out to find me. When Blake pulled up on our green, four-wheeler, “Kermit,” I explained to him that it was taking me so long, because about every five minutes, Maggie would stop and then jump up on me for kisses and hugs.

Normally, we try to teach our dogs not to jump up on people, but because of Maggie’s shyness towards people, I encouraged her and praised her for wanting to interact with me. The more I praised, petted, and kissed her—the more happier and relaxed she became.

When we returned to the rescue ranch, Tony and Blake were taking off for Kerrville, June was fixing to leave, and John and Carol were still out walking the dogs. After returning Maggie to her pen, I went inside the trailer to return some phone calls.

The couple who were coming out to possibly adopt today had canceled and are coming out tomorrow instead, and Kinky had called to check on his dogs, “The Friedmans.”

I checked my e-mails to find that Fay, my dear friend up in Canada, who had adopted our biggest dog, Kris Kristofferson, that we had flown all of the way up there, had sent me an update on Kris aka Prince and this is what she wrote:

Nancy,
OMG. I am FREAKING OUT!!! It's midnight, I just sat down for the first time in 2 hours of a nightmare. I let Prince out the back and when I went back to let him in I opened the door and ... SKUNK!!!

All I could see was Prince standing over a dead skunk, what a stink! Stink isn't even close: I DON'T HAVE A WORD!! Then little daughter comes to the back & FREAKS because the dog took the skunk out - Big Time. So I have a very smelly, distressed dog and my daughter bawling her eyes out. oh, and a dead skunk that the dog keeps nudging. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGH!!

I managed to:
1. Put the HUGE dead, stinking skunk in a bag. Triple YUK and a gag or twelve.
2. Shampoo the dog twice for 45 minutes. Twice.
3. Spray Febreze, Lysol and have umpteen candles burning as the stink inside the house is OBSCENE. I just can't leave Prince outside—the stinky #$%&^*.

OMG! I'm traumatized!!!! Poor Prince, he was just trying to protect us. Idiot.

I am actually managing a smile, but probably because I just had a 2 oz. straight shooter of Jack Daniels. WTF! F.

Trying not to laugh, I shot her off a short note to cheer her up.

Talk about high-speed—she sent back this note immediately:

Thanks Nancy ; )) This isn't the first time a dog we've had has been skunked. I just have never had to deal with the dead skunk part before. Yikes!! At first I thought he just got sprayed, then I turned the light on and he was standing over this huge dead skunk! It weighed about 10 lbs.!
I feel so sorry for Prince, he was SO sad this morning, he's miserable. Man, does he STINK.

I have to deal with the disposal of the skunk body bag when I get home. I have no choice but to take it to the pond and throw it in one of the garbage cans there. I will NOT put it in my van so I have to drag it up the street and through the park. I'll probably get reported and have a homicide SWAT team at my door in no time ROFLMAO!!

There's a deodorizing shampoo "recipe" a couple of people sent me, but it has hydrogen peroxide in it. No way! He'll get sick and look like a giant red fox at the end of it. Plus, wouldn't that burn his skin?!

A guy I work with told me his dog got sprayed and was told not to put any liquid at all on the dog, it just spreads it around. They put baking soda on the dog and then brushed it out. I've bathed him 3 times, he's really shiny LOL I'm going to try the baking soda tonight when I get
home, it won't hurt him.

I love him, poor wee soul. You're not getting him back ; )) F.

The dogs started barking outside because John and Carol were coming back from their dog walk. I had promised to loan Carol my copies of ”Napoleon Dynamite” and “Blades of Glory,” to watch because they are two of my favorite movies, and she hadn’t seen them. I caught up with Carol and John after they had returned the dogs to their pens and I teased her about finding a perfect arrowhead and then handed her the movies and we all visited for a few minutes.

“I had a dream!” John says with a chuckle. “Last night I had a dream and you won’t believe it!” “Nancy and I are at this huge coliseum, filled with people, who were anxiously waiting for Nancy’s book signing event to start. And, the reason so many people were there, was because Nancy was going to read from her book!”

“You’re kidding? I sound like Gabby Hayes on helium,” I said. “But, please tell us more.”

“Right before the event was to start the people in charge of the event tell Nancy that they had changed their minds. Instead of doing a reading—they wanted Nancy to sing instead!”

“What?” I asked. “I’m deaf in one ear—thanks to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and tone deaf, too! “Now we’re talking nightmare, John.”

John continues on, “Nancy agrees to sing, and then asks me if I can play the guitar for her. I tell her no, because I don’t know how to play a guitar and she says, ‘Oh, John—it’s easy, come on you can do it. I know you can.’ And then, she hands me a guitar!”

Carol took a sip of water, and was laughing so hard at John’s dream, I was waiting for the water to come shooting out of her nose, but it didn’t.

“I ask Nancy,” John said. “How do you tune it? And, Nancy says, ‘See those knobs up there at the top— turn them until they’re tight, but not too tight, because you’ll break a string.’ I knew I couldn’t play the guitar for Nancy, so I told her I was going to go find someone who knows how to play a guitar. Then I leave to go find someone. I’m now standing in this crowded, gigantic lobby and I see John Wayne. I walked up to him and said, ‘Hey Duke, I need a favor. Could you please play guitar for Nancy?’ Then he says, ‘I don’t know how to play a guitar, but I’ll help you find someone.’ And then I woke up!”

Carol and I stood there laughing for over two minutes.