The Procedure!

This morning I got up early and walked eight miles before seven o'clock. After breakfast I did a little paperwork and then went outside and helped Tony clean the dog pens. When our cleanup was complete T. asked me to go with him to hay the cows, but I didn't want to because he always makes me open the gates and I am afraid of the cows. When I told him no and why Tony promised me that he would open and close all of the gates. So I went and I am glad that I did, because I have never silently laughed so hard for so long.

It all started when we went to get the giant round bale of hay over by the corral. After Tone backed Buttermilk up to the hay trailer he started to get out, the door wouldn't budge, so he put Buttermilk into park, rolled down the window, unlocked the doors from inside and then reached his arm outside and opened the door using the outside handle. "I think Buttermilk's door is broken, dang-it." Then he got outside and hitched the trailer to Buttermilk so he could load the hay on it.

When he got back inside the Explorer he had to do a lot of back and forth maneuvering to finally line the trailer up to the round bale then he tried to open the door so he could get out, but it would not open and that is when I started silently laughing. "Dang it!" Tone said, as he put Buttermilk into park, rolled the window down, pressed the door unlock button and then stuck his arm outside and opened the door from the outside.

He had to repeat these steps four more times before we took off to go hay the cows and I could tell that T. was a little more than bothered about it. "Tony, Buttermilk can't help it. She's over fourteen years old. She's old like me." I tried to explain to his deaf ears.

When we reached the gate to the pasture, Tony took a deep breath and then he quickly did the four-step procedure: park, roll down the window, unlock the doors, and open the door from outside and then he got out of Buttermilk to open the gate. Then the cows from afar saw us and started stampeding toward us, so Tony jumped into Buttermilk and drove us through the gate entrance and then he cussed under his breath as he quickly repeated the four-step procedure to get out of Buttermilk so he could close the gate before the herd descended upon us!

It was hard for me not to laugh, but when we reached the area where the hay needed to be dropped, Tony did "The Procedure" and got out and unloaded the hay. Then we took off to the water tank to water the cows and Tony was cussing out loud as he parked, rolled, unlocked and opened the door. When he was out of earshot I laughed uncontrollably until he returned. His cow chores were now done so we took off. Three procedures later we were back home.

Because today was unusually cool, Tony and I decided to do some mowing. While he rode around on the riding lawn mower I push mowed our front and back yards.

During lunch I let Carlton take a call from a sweet, young woman who wanted to adopt one of our dogs for her son. Ten minutes later after eating my last bite I returned her call. After a short telephone conversation she told me that she and her family would be here by four o'clock to possibly adopt one of our dogs! I was on Cloud Nine about it, but it didn't last long.

Ten minutes after I had cleaned up the kitchen a woman called and told me that she was returning one of our dogs, because he kept running away. Hmmmmmmm?  Running away? I knew there must have been a reason, but she wouldn't tell me. When I told Tony that Walter, one of our super dogs, was being returned he was disappointed and felt sorry for Walter. "Walter is a great dog, Nance," T. said.

An hour later when the woman showed up we immediately got mad, but hid it, when we saw Walter riding in the back of her truck. As soon as the woman handed Walter over to me I listened to her complaints about him constantly running away. "Hi, Walter," I said. "Welcome home, buddy..."

"He won't answer to Walter anymore. We changed his name to #*^+*," The woman said. "He doesn't answer to Walter. It's..."

"It's okay, Walter," I said as he sat in front of me as I petted him. "You're a great dog, Walter and we've really missed you..." Then Tony took his leash and took him to a pen and then the woman drove away.

At four-thirty Kim, her husband and young son arrived from Del Valle to possibly adopt a dog from us. Tony and I immediately fell in love with the young couple and their cute son and we were thrilled when they decided to adopt Emmylou Harris, the young, black and white sister pup to Rita Coolidge that we rescued earlier this week! Needless to say her adoption made our day! Now we must get Rita into a great home as soon as possible, because she is already missing her sister.

Y'all have a great evening!