One Of Them! or The Turkey Man!

The last few days and today has been great sort of, so I will save the bad news for last. This past Tuesday, in the middle of the day, I decided to take a break from my paperwork and watch something on television.

I was channel-surfing, looking for something interesting to watch when I came across one of those home shopping channels and the info channel guide read something like this, "Emergency Home Preparedness Kits for natural disasters."

Then I remembered in the past years, I've heard about those crazy shopping channels where people get hooked on watching them and then they end up buying all kinds of things and maxing out their credit cards. And it made me laugh out loud, because I would never do such a thing.

But I was curious, so I pressed the remote button and started watching these young, pretty, high-pitch sales, women do their thing. And in seconds I was completely hooked. I was oblivious to the world!

As the women bragged on the products and reported how many were left to sell, I kept my eyes peeled on the totals sold counter, in the bottom, left side of the screen. "Listen up," one of the smiling, sales women said, "We've just sold over 107,000 of this product and we predict that in the next five minutes we will be completely sold out of...."

So I immediately grabbed my credit card and called the 1-800 number and ordered two, one for Tony and one for me, because the price was greatly reduced and the shipping was free and we needed them—NOW—in case of an emergency!

I felt good and was thrilled about my purchases until I quickly realized that I had just become "one of them" impulse-buyer people that are addicted to watching the shopping channels.

Today has been great almost. (Remember, that I am still saving the bad news for the last.) This morning Tony and I rescued a handsome, three-year-old Lab Mix, named Jake. He arrived around 10:00 and the sweet woman who brought him to us was crying hysterically and sick about having to leave Jake with us. There is a little more to this story, but this is all that I care to share with you.

Anyway, about an hour and a half after she had gone, I told Tony that I needed his help, because I wanted to take Jake, who was still pretty upset about being left here, for a walk down to the creek. Tony agreed to help me, so I opened up our new package of H-E-B Honey-Roasted Shaved Turkey slices, that we were going to eat for our lunch, and pulled out the turkey and put it inside a Baggie. "Tony, will you please use my camera and take some pictures of Jake and me walking, because right now he is too nervous for us to take a good picture of him for our website. I just want people to see what a beautiful dog he is. We can take better pictures of Jake, in a few days, after he trusts us and has settled in." Then we went outside to go get Jake.

When we drove up to Jake's temporary pen, in Kermit, Jake was scared and doing a little growling, but the hair on his back was not standing up, which was a good sign. I grabbed the leash and walked up to the pen and started talking to Jake, in hopes to calm him, as I fed him a slice of turkey.

Then I went inside his pen. "Come on ,Jake. Let's go for a fun walk, good buddy. It will be so much fun and..." Then I slipped a leash over Jake's head. "Good boy. Let's go for a walk down to the creek." Jake calmly walked out of his pen with me and then he and I took off.

Then Tony took off, in Kermit, to chase out Roy and Gabby, the donkeys, that had wandered into the rescue ranch.

Once outside of the rescue ranch, Jake began to relax, but I kept on talking to him and telling him what a great dog he was. On our way down to the creek Jake kept stopping to check out new smells and mark them.

When we got to Big Foot Wallace Creek, I walked him right up to the water, in hopes that he would walk into the water and not be scared of it like some dogs are.

Jake stared at the creek, took a couple of drinks and then he slowly walked into the water. The water which was only about five or six inches deep when Jake started walking around in the water, for about three or four minutes, then he decided to get out of the creek. 

I praised Jake for being so brave about water and then I went over and sat down on a big rock. Then I unzipped the Baggie and fed him a slice of turkey and I was thrilled that he gently took it from my fingers. Then I asked him to sit.

Jake obediently sat down for me and I praised him for that. Then I tossed him a slice of turkey and he caught it in the air and I praised him for that, too. Then I talked to him some more, as I fed him most of Tony's and my lunch. 

Then we headed back to the rescue ranch and along the way Jake seemed to be having fun sniffing around the trees, marking rocks, etc.

When we walked inside the rescue ranch, Jake did get startled, because he saw the donkeys grazing near by, that were inside the corral, near the front of the ranch. "It's okay, Jake. They aren't going to hurt you...."

When he and I arrived at his temporary pen, I handed Tony what was left of the turkey and asked him to please give it to Jake, so Jake would know that he could trust Tony and that he was a good guy or better said, "The Turkey Man"cometh!

After Tony hand fed Jake and then tossed the last piece of turkey, into the air, for Jake to catch, I returned Jake to his pen and petted him all over, while telling him what a great dog he was and not to be scared of anything. And I am pretty sure that Jake understood, because he was wagging his tail.

Okay, now it is finally the time for the bad news. This morning my nose was stopped up, then later on, I started having a runny nose and by late this afternoon I was coughing lightly and sneezing some. Anyway, it looks like I might be coming down with a summer cold and I am not happy about that, because I don't like being sick. I am hoping that it is just an allergy and that it will go away sooner than later, but who "Nose" (knows).

Y'all have a great evening!