To Bait or Not to Bait!

At 8:00 this morning, I received an e-mail from Fay telling me that today is Dwight Yoakam’s Birthday and Prince, that giant dog that she adopted from us, still stinks to high heaven—thanks to his close encounters of the skunk kind! I want to wish Dwight a Happy Birthday! And, if any of y’all know of a cure for skunk smell—please let me know so I can pass it on to Fay.

This morning at 9:30, when John arrived at the rescue ranch, I was outside waiting for him. As soon as he parked the van, it was time for ‘Operation Cookie Dough’ to commence! I walked up to the van and said, “Morning, John, can you believe what a beautiful morning it is? Oh, Carol baked these cookies for you and asked me to give them to you. She said that she thinks of you, and the rest of us as family—she is so nice.” Then I handed him the cookies.

“Why, thanks Nancy,” John said. “I love her cookies!”

(I thought to myself—Bribe Number 2. just accepted—thank you Carol!)

Then I said to John, “I love her cookies, too. Carol gave me some for my birthday and I’ll have to agree with you—they are the best cookies made in Texas. And, that’s saying a lot! I’m going to ask her for the recipe.”

“Hey, when are you and Tony going down to Port Aransas to fish and visit Rick, Pete and Kelly? I thought y’all were going to do that soon?”

(This is when I put into motion, Bribe Number 3. ‘To Bait or Not to Bait!’)

“We are and we want you to go with us! It will really be fun, too! What do you say?”

“Well, I guess I could go,” John said. “I know it would be fun, too. I’ll go if you will let me take off of work.”

“Not a problem!” I said. “Come on inside the trailer and let me show you where my brother Ron and his wife, Nita, and my sister Cindy and her husband Ray—went fishing. They said they had a blast at this place, and they caught their limit on Red Fish, too!”

I booted up my Apple G4 laptop, on the kitchen table, and typed in the web site and showed John—the picture of Ron, Nita, and their dog, Gus with Cindy and Ray taken with the fish that they had caught! By the look on John’s face—I could tell that he was hooked! I loved it!

Of all of the bribes accomplished, so far— I’d say Bribe Number 3. was Reel easy!

As soon as John had left the trailer, I quickly put calls into Pete Hartje and Kelly Broomfield, and Rick Reichenbach, and Ben Welch to set the reels in motion. Pete and Kelly said yes, Rick said yes, and Ben said maybe—he would have to check his schedule and get back to me.