Post Traumatic Stress!

Yesterday morning, I went over to visit with Kinky. While Kinky cooked breakfast for his dogs, The Friedmans, I was sitting at the kitchen table, when Mr. Magoo walked over to me, to get petted. I talked to Gooie and Kinky, as I continued to pet Goo. When I stopped petting Goo-man, he suddenly did the strangest thing that I have ever seen or heard a dog do—he opened up his mouth wide, and let out the longest, loudest five second burp! Seriously, he burped just like Kinky does—it was totally hilarious! “Kinky, did you hear that? Gooie burped just like you do! He’s turning into you!” Kinky thought it was pretty funny, and praised Mr. Magoo!

Around two o’clock, while Aaron, Josh, Tony and Ben worked in the garden—putting up fence around it. I went outside and asked Tony when he was going to put up my roping post. Tony told me that they were real busy, and for me to be patient.

During a water break, I decided to pull a prank on Josh. “Josh, has Tony shown you the deer head, that he shot two months ago?”

Josh shook his head—no. “Tony shot a deer?”

Tony, Aaron and Ben were trying not to laugh. “Yes, Josh, but don’t tell anyone,” I said, with a straight face. “Tone, why don’t you go show Josh your deer head.”

Tony took my cue. “Come on, Josh. You’re not going to believe this deer...” Tony said, as they took off for the trailer. As soon as T. and Josh went inside the trailer, Ben, Aaron and I burst out laughing, because they both knew about the fake singing deer.

About a minute passed, and the front door flew open! “I got Josh good!” Tony hollered from the porch! It scared the living daylights out of him!” Then he and Josh returned to the garden, both laughing.

“We got you, Josh!” I teased. “Josh is scared of deer!”

“You got me,” Josh said. “I should’ve known something was up, when you told me Tony shot a deer.”

“When I showed Josh the deer head, he went up to it, touched it, and was looking at its eyes, and telling me that the eyeballs looked really real, and then he touched the eyeball—that’s when I pushed the remote! The deer’s ears twitched, and then I made it move it’s head, as it began singing, ‘On the Road, Again!” Then Tony broke out laughing, and so did all of us! Then the guys went back to their work, and I returned to the trailer wondering when they were going to put up my roping post. I couldn’t wait!

An hour passed. I went outside and saw Tone and Ben down by the barn, and Aaron and Josh still working in the garden. I walked down to the barn, “Tony, can y’all do my roping post pretty soon?” Five minutes later, I showed Tony exactly where I wanted my ropin’ post to be planted. He then grabbed the post hole digger, and began digging. Josh showed up real quick, and took over the digging. Ten minutes later, they had dug a two foot hole! Yeah! Hello ropin’ post!

T. then went and found a round post. I was standing in the Space Ship watching, when he walked up, and put the post into the hole. Josh then quickly shoveled the dirt back into the hole, while I was hanging up more pictures inside. When I came out, they were back at the barn, unloading bags of dog food. I loved seeing my new roping post, but it was over four feet tall—way too tall!

So, I went to the barn. “Thank you, Josh and T., I love it, but it is way too tall.”

“Nance, my shoulder is killing me,” Tony said. “I’ll cut it off later. Okay?”

“Okie dokie,” I said, a little bit sarcastic, and then walked (stomped) back towards the trailer. I could not wait to paint it, but I couldn’t paint it, until Tone cut it down to size for me. When I reached the Space Ship, I heard someone driving up fast behind me! I turned around, it was Josh and Aaron!

“Nancy, we're not trying to ignore you,” Aaron said, as he climbed out of his truck, picking up a chain saw in his truck’s bed. “Where do you want me to cut it?” I showed him. He pulled the rope to start the chain saw—and cut it off perfectly straight!

I was so thrilled! After thanking him, he and Josh drove back to the barn, and I went inside to get my brushes, painter’s tape, and paints. It only took me about fifteen minutes to paint it! Then Ben walks up, “Nance, you ought to put your initials on it.”

“Ben, that’s a great idea, but I’m not good at lettering,” I said. “Are you?”

“Ben then sat down, and painted my initials on it, for me! I loved it! After the paint had dried, I sprayed several coats of clear finish on it—to protect it from future rope burns.

When the guys were finished working for the day, I challenged them to my first official rope off! Ben and Tony declined because their backs were aching. Aaron declined, too, because his arms were still sore from pushing the tiller. So, I handed Josh a rope and we started the contest! First to rope the post five times.

Josh roped the post on his first throw. I missed the post, because my rope was all kinked up, from not being used for so long. Josh missed his next three throws, while Tony tried to help me straighten out my rope, while Ben and Aaron laughed, at the whole situation. I ended up roping the post only two times, before Josh roped it five times—it was traumatic for me! My ropes, my roping post, my rules—and I lost! Not fair! I have now vowed to spend at least twenty minutes a day, practicing my roping skills—it will also be good exercise for me.

This morning, Tony asked me to show him, once again, how to post pictures to his blog, because he hasn’t blogged in several months. In less than a minute, he was uploading one picture after another! He has now posted twelve new pictures, and they are awesome! His blog address is: tonyspicts.blogspot.com I hope that you will check them out!

This afternoon, after returning a phone call, Peter W. arrived at the rescue ranch, to give us his dog. Peter is a doctor in residence, and because he is working over eighty hours or more a week, and studying the rest of the time, he asked us to please take his dog, that he had rescued several months ago. “I rescued this dog, that was fixin’ to get hit by a car. I didn’t plan on keeping him, but no one wanted him—I couldn’t find him a home. I’ve had him neutered, and he has all of his shots. I love dogs. I just don’t think it is fair to him, because I am so busy. He is a great dog, too! He is very sweet, and lovable. He loves to jog, snuggle and is very good with other dogs. He is almost one year old, and definitely not an alpha dog. No signs of aggression.”

When we took his dog to our puppy pen, Tony and I met this very friendly dog, and gave out dog treats to him. “What’s his name?” I asked.

“Tom Landry,” Peter stated. “I call him, Landry.”

“I loved Tom Landry!” I said. “Dallas’ best coach ever! I was born and raised in Fort Worth.” We played with Landry, and talked to him. Peter was sad about giving up Landry, and told us that he and his mother wanted to come out in February to see the rescue ranch, and to visit with Landry, if he was still here, then, bless his heart, he teared up. Tony and I tried to reassure him that his dog would be fine, and get a great forever home soon, but it didn’t seem to help. We understood his sadness.

My dear friend, Cindy, then arrived at the rescue ranch, as Peter gave us Landry’s dog food, and his veterinarian records, and a donation. After handshakes and a hug, Peter sadly drove away. Here is a picture of Tom Landry that Peter took:

Y’all have a great evening, and say a prayer that Tom Landry finds a forever home real soon. He is one great dog!