That's Because She Is So Smart!

Today has been a lot of fun. This morning after Tone had fed the dogs and I had cleaned their pens we went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky. When we arrived Ben and Will were there to our surprise and we had a fun visit with them.

Around 12:30 the dogs started barking outside to let us know that Ben was here. When he walked inside our trailer he was carrying his new mandolin and he said, "Y'all feel like jamming?"

Two minutes later, the three of us were sitting across from each other, in a triangle position, in the big room making music and the only thing bad about it was Lisa, our talented ukulele player and Eileen our sound woman weren't there, because this jam session happened on the spur of the moment.

I had so much fun playing the guitar with Ben and Tony on mandolins and we played for over an hour until our fingers were killing us. We practiced the song My Rifle, My Pony and Me, that Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson sang in the 1959 movie Rio Bravo and then we played Circle Be Unbroken, On Top of Old Smokey, I Got A Dog and His Name Is Blue and several other old favorites. And not to brag—we sounded pretty good and I know that we will sound even better when Lisa plays with us and Eileen is mixing the sound for us.

Late this afternoon I checked my e-mail and two of my good friends, Mari of The NoMads and Jim C. who seems to be constantly flying around the world on business, sent me two great videos to check out and they both made me smile and make my eyes wet and I hope that you will check them out, too.

Jim sent me a video clip from England's Got Talent of Kate and her Border Collie dog Gin doing a freestyle performance and Tony and I loved it so much that we re-watched it several more times. And the video that Mari sent to me is a true story about Sgt. Reckless, how this small Mongolian mare, Korean War hero horse became a Marine Corps legend and it was a touching story with a beautiful ending and I am so glad that she sent it to me because I had never heard of this hero horse.

After Tony and I watched these videos I was so inspired by Kate and Gin's performance, I decided to see if I could teach Belle how to walk back and forth in between my legs, so I called for Belle and she came running down the hallway, from T.'s office at full speed ahead and she nearly knocked Toto down trying to get to me.

I got some treats for her and then tried to get her to sit and watch Kate and Gin's performance on my laptop, but she didn't want to, because she seemed more interested in what I was hiding in my hands, so I began her training session, which only lasted for fifteen minutes, because she learned how to do the crazy-eights between my legs.

The only sad thing about all of this is Belle will only do it for treats. And when I complained to Tone about her only doing it for treats, he quickly defended his dog by saying, "That's because she is so smart, Nance. She thinks why do it if she ain't getting paid for it and that's a smart dog."

Well, that's about it for today and I am so glad, because my fingertips are still killing me and hurt when I type.

Y'all have a great evening!