Hot Dog!

Monday afternoon, we went to see Trisha, at Copies Plus. I gave her some CDs and then we discussed the 2009 calendar. After we left her business—Tony and I headed back to the rescue ranch.

When we crossed the cattle guard, welcoming you to Echo Hill Ranch, Tony slammed—on the brakes! And, I nearly went through the glovebox—had it been bigger! “Tony?”

“Sorry Nance, I think I just saw a dog back there,” Tony said. He threw Buttermilk into reverse, and we slowly backed up about twenty five feet, where we found a scared looking yellow Lab mix—on a short, three foot leash—tied to a tree—with no food or water!

For goodness sakes, it was ninety degrees outside! I won’t tell you what Tony or I said, about the cowardly jerk, who had done this to that poor dog—we were truly mad! How can people do things like this?

We got out of Buttermilk, tried talking to the frightened dog, who was so scared, he was in a frozen, crouched down position. We didn’t know if he was going to bite us, or what, so we told him that we would be right back, and then we took off. We stopped at the barn, grabbed a bucket, filled it with water, and grabbed a package of hot dogs.

We then returned to the dog! Tony put the bucket of water near him, and the dog didn’t budge. Tony then tried to give him some weiners, but the dog remained in his frozen crouch—no tail wagging, no movement—nothing. Not sure if the dog was going to attack or bite, Tony decided to cut the leash tied to the tree, and try to walk him into the rescue ranch.

Tony went behind the tree, cut the leash and then asked the terrified dog, on the other end of the leash, to walk with him. The dog stood up, and started walking with Tony. Ten steps later, the dog’s tail was up high and wagging—as he pulled Tony towards our entrance gate!

I grabbed the water bucket, emptied the water on some nearby cactus, then I tossed it into the back of Buttermilk, and then slowly followed Tony and the dog into the ranch. Tony put the dog into a big alley, because we had no pen for him to go into, because we are at capacity. I gave Tony the bucket. He filled it with water, as the dog wagged his tail and kissed Tony’s hand.


“Let’s call him, Henry,” I said, as Tony went off to get dog food. While Tony was gone, the poor dog drank half the water from the bucket, and then he put his four paws into the bucket—to cool off.

When Tony returned with dry and canned dog food for him—Henry was wagging his tail wildly! Henry the 8th, cleaned his food dish real fast, and he seemed to be happy! He let us pet him and he kissed us on the face. I was so glad.

Tony told him to sit and he did on command! “Nance, this is one fine dog and he is smart, too.” I agreed.

After talking to him, petting him, and telling Henry he was safe and everything was going to be fine. We returned to the trailer.

I spent Tuesday morning working, non-stop, on the 2009 rescue ranch calendar! Around 12:45, our good friends, Garnet and Sandy S., from Utopia, showed up! They were celebrating the day, because of a very special, important anniversay—Sandy had been cancer free for three years! We were so happy to see our friends, and happy about their great news!

After hugs and handshakes, they told us that they wanted to see my Space Ship, and go into Outer Space with us. And, they were possibly interested, in a small black and brown dog that we had—Hannah Montana #2 to be exact.

Tony and I showed them the Space Ship first, and they like everyone else—loved it, and were blown away with how cool it was! Then we took them into Outer Space! They loved it, too, and could not believe that Ronnie and Tom had built it in a day and a half!

We had a really fun visit in Outer Space with them, and like all of our dear friends—we did a lot of laughing! During our visit, I discovered that Garnet had become a writer, and I was thrilled for her! I asked her to please e-me some of her stories and she said she would.

Then our conversation turned to Hannah Montana. We told them everything that we knew about this precious little dog, and then we went to go see her. Hannah stole their hearts immediately, and they asked if they could adopt her, and try her out with their other dogs, and menagerie of other animals. Of course, we said yes, because we knew our friends would spoil Hannah and give her a super home!

After signing Hannah’s adoption form, we said our goodbyes to Garnet, Sandy and Hannah. That made our day.

Then I went back to the trailer, I finished the calendar within twenty minutes, and then Tony and I took off for Kerrville to go see Trisha at Copies Plus.

When we returned to the ranch, Kinky had left a message, on the answering machine, “Nancy, Tony call Kinky! Y’all need to get over here!...”

To be continued...