What's Going On?

This morning I woke up at 6:00 to the ‘Sounds of Silence,’ because I forgot to turn off my iPod last night.

After letting my dogs go outside, I phoned Kinky to wake him up. No answer. Fifteen minutes later, I tried reaching out and touching the Kinkster, again. Second verse, same as the first—no answer. So, I fed my dogs, including Lucky, the cat, and then I washed my hair in the sink.

At twenty minutes till seven, I thought, third times the charm, and phoned Kinky—still no answer. Wearing a big tan bath towel on my head, with my long gray hair wrapped up inside it, I called Kinky’s number, again. When his answering machine decided it was time for me to talk, I said, “Kinky, it’s Nancy. Wake up! Mr. Magoo, Chumley, Brownie and Perky—help me wake up Kinky! Start barking!” And, then I hung up the phone.

Knowing that time was of the essence, I pulled my wannabe terry turban off of my head, twisted up my wet hair, tucked it up inside my white cap, and headed out the front door. The sun was fixin’ to come up over the bluff behind us, and when I climbed into Trigger—his windshield was covered in ice! I turned on the defroster and the windshield wipers.

Two minutes later, the ice had melted enough for me to throw Trigger into reverse. I flipped on the high beam headlights and took off for the Lodge! When I arrived at Kinky’s, no lights were on inside so I jumped out of Trigger and went to the door. I opened the door, went inside and said, “Kinky, it’s Nancy! You need to get up! You’ve got less than twenty minutes before you have to call Bob!”

The bedroom light came on. “Nance, I’m up. Do you want some coffee?”

“No,” I half hollered. “I need to get back over to the rescue ranch. Randy Travis is out!”

“Thanks for waking me up,” Kinky said, sounding half asleep. “I’ll call you when the show is over.”

I left Kinky’s. When I got to the rescue ranch, Randy was running from pen to pen teasing the dogs, but when he saw me—he headed for his pen, so I could let him back inside it. He greeted me when I climbed out of the truck and anxiously ran back inside his pen after I had opened the gate. The dogs outside, immediately quieted down and I went back to the trailer.

I listened to Bob Cole’s show with Kinky and it went really well, and as soon as it was over—Kinky called me. “Nance, do you want to come over and drink some coffee?”

I went back over to the Lodge and we drank coffee and discussed business for about an hour and then I came home and fixed breakfast for Tony and me.

Around 11:30, Tony came inside the trailer and said, “Nance, Carol, and John are here and they want to talk to you. Where are you?”

“I’m back here in the office,” I said. “I’ll be right there.” I shut down the computer, and left my little office, and headed down the hallway, for what I like to call, ‘the big room.’ John was sitting on a stool at the breakfast bar, Carol was sitting in a chair at my cluttered kitchen table, and Tony was pouring himself some coffee. “Morning y’all. Do you want some coffee?”

“No, thank you,” they said, in two part harmony.

So, as Marvin Gaye would say, I said, “What’s going on?”

“Well,” John said, wearing a smile, as he handed me some paperwork. “I want to tell you about this morning. First, I went to Hoegemeyers to pick up Lana and Snowflake.”

“I hope they didn’t get carsick, John,” I said. "I didn’t get your e-mail until 9:30 this morning, so I wasn’t able to call Hoegemeyers to ask them not to feed the girls.”

“Lana did, about halfway here, and then Snowflake started freaking out. I had to pull off of the road, clean up the vomit and then try to settle Snowflake down. After I arrived here, when I started to put Snowflake back in her pen with Maggie—they were growling at each other like they didn’t know each other and I had to break them up before they got into a fight. So, I put her in the alley over there by Honey and Baxter. Then when I went to put Lana back in with Jedi, her mom—they nearly got into it! So, I stayed inside their pen until I felt things were calm.”

“Good grief,” I said. “That’s too weird.”

“I know,” Carol said.

“I’m not finished,” John said. “Then when I went to feed Toby and Baby, that concrete strip under the gate, had been dug up, and when I started to go inside, I stumbled, but didn’t fall! I can’t figure out why all of this happened.”

“John, I think it’s your fault. Maybe we need to smudge you,” I said.

“What?” John asked. “What do you mean smudge me?”

I started laughing. “I’m teasing,” I said, as Tony, Carol and John laughed. “Smudging is a deal the Native Americans do—to get rid of bad vibes, etc. They usually use sweet grass or sage. I’m thinking that maybe Lana and Snowflake had upset you on the drive here, and the dogs picked up on it. And, that’s why they were acting so weird.”

Then I told Carol and John about the time when Kinky went missing in Cabo San Lucas, back on December 17, 1998, and I was freaked out, and the rescued dogs outside started fighting with each other and acting strange, until I had called Copper Love and told her about Kinky missing and the police being involved, with search parties, etc. And, when I told her about our dogs suddenly acting so weird, she told me that I had to change my thoughts, because the dogs were picking up on my fears.

I took her advice and tried to make myself happy, but that didn’t work—because I wasn’t happy. But, when I received a call from John McCall, a few hours later, telling me they had found Kinky and he was fine—I was truly happy! And, yes, after that phone conversation, I went outside and all of the dogs were calm and acting normal.

After my long winded story, the four of us made a plan for Friday night at Casbeers, in San Antonio, to see Steven Fromholz, Kinky and Little Jewford!

And, here’s tonight’s report: At approximately 6:45 pm—The Hummingbird Man and the Medina Bulldog tied!