Chicken Fried!

Today has been great, but tonight's post is going to be short, because I want to play my guitar for a little while before I have to go to bed early, so I can get up at 1:00 to reset all of our clocks.

This afternoon around two o'clock the dogs outside started barking to let us know that someone was here. "I hope that it is Robert and Traci's friend, David, coming to adopt Nellybelle," I said, as Tony and I walked out the front door to go greet the stranger getting out of his black Jeep Cherokee.

In a matter of minutes David was no longer a stranger to us—we liked him, as Traci and Robert had promised. When we reached Nell-Bell's and Hank's pen it was love at first sight for David and his new-found forever friend. But, Hank was a little bit jealous though, as he watched David and Nellybelle fall in love.

"Betty Boop is a great dog," David said, as he petted his newest best friend. "Last night I was over at Robert and Traci's house and Betty and Jake just slept peaceably near our feet as we visited. "They are so happy about adopting Betty Boop and so is Jake. You should see the pile of toys that they have already bought for her!"

Thirty minutes later after we had visited with David, he anxiously signed Nelly's adoption papers and told us that he could not wait to take her home. Before they drove away I took this picture of Nellybelle and David.

After I filed away Nelly's adoption papers, I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky and tell him the great news about Betty Boop's and Nellybelle's super adoptions. To say the least—he was thrilled. Then we went outside. "Nance, I still can't believe how beautiful your new teeth are," Kinky said, while he carried in one heavy plant after another inside, so the soon-to-be freeze wouldn't kill them.

"I know, Kinky. Wednesday afternoon, when we went to Kerrville for supplies, we stopped by Wolfmueller's Books and Sandy and Jon thought my teeth looked great, too and they told me that you had told them that I should have done it years ago." We were laughing about it when Frank walked up and greeted us. Then we went inside, so Kinky and Frank could watch the UT / Georgia football game.

As I pushed balls around the pool table, trying to sink them into the pockets, we visited, as they watched the game with the sound muted. An hour later Buttermilk took me home.

Tonight T. and I had an enjoyable dinner with Lisa & Mark-In-Mississippi—in Kerrville. Tone and I love Lisa and Mark and they love each other. The four of us did a lot of laughing as usual, as we ate dinner. During one part of our conversation Mark told T. and me that he was born in DeQueen, Arkansas and had lived there for the first eight years of his life, but he didn't know our friends Nelda and Jimmie Dunn. He couldn't believe that we had friends from his small hometown.

"Mark, I had never heard of DeQueen, Arkansas until I met Nelda and Jimmie," I said. "It is a small world isn't it?" Then Mark told us that his father had been a doctor up there and I cannot wait to find out from Jimmie and Nelda if they remember his father.

Well, that is about it for today. I'm going to go get my guitar out of my office and try to figure out how to play one of my favorite Zac Brown Band's songs—"Chicken Fried."

Y'all have a great evening!

A Running Buddy!

Today has been a great day! This morning after I walked eight miles I cleaned up and then went outside to greet our great friends / volunteers: June Hartley, Ellen Jackson and Eileen Gotke. When I saw the three of them returning with our super dogs: Marlin, Princess and Honey & Baxter I walked down to greet them.

After we said our howdys to each other they complimented me on my new teeth and I smiled without being embarrassed. As we walked the dogs back to their pens Eileen told me about the eight foot banner that she had designed and ordered for our 1st Annual Dog Adoption and Training Seminar on November 6th from 10a.m. to noon and I could not wait to see it. "OMG!" I said, as Ellen and Eileen unrolled the  banner. "I love it! It is absolutely beautiful! Thank you so much, Eileen. I love the paw prints, too."

As the two of them rolled up the banner we discussed the upcoming event that Eileen volunteered to do for us with the much needed help of Ellen and June and Sharon Griswold, the incredible Kerrville dog whisperer, who owns Rover Mishaving. After hearing everything that they have done so far for the event and what they are planning to do before the event I was speechless. All that I can say is these women are super women and the greatest volunteers in the state of Texas. Thank you, Eileen, Ellen, June and Sharon—Y'all Rock Big Time!

After a fun visit and thanking them for all that they do for our ranch and our dogs I said, "I have some more good news—Betty Boop is getting adopted today." And they were as happy about it as I was, but not as happy as Betty was.

At three o'clock, after Robert had played with B.B. in her pen and had her fetch her white boat bumper, he and his sweet wife Traci signed Betty's adoption form and Betty couldn't wait to get out of here and it was sort of embarrassing, because when Robert told her to load up—she jumped so fast into the back seat of their big, fancy pickup with her big, boat bumper in her mouth and her tail wagging high and non-stop, which made all of us laugh. "By tomorrow morning or sooner Betty Boop is going to think our rescue ranch stinks compared to her new life with y'all. I hope Jake likes her."

"Jake is going to love her," Traci told me. "He is the sweetest yellow Labrador that we have ever had. He is going to be so happy to have a running buddy. It is going to be so much fun when we take them with us on our trips to Ruidoso and the Coast. Honey, is Betty going to sleep on your side of the bed with you and Jake with me?"

"We'll let her and Jake decide that tonight," Robert said, as they climbed into their truck.

Before driving Betty to her new home Traci said, "Robin told me that he will be coming out tomorrow to adopt Nellybelle and he can't wait to meet her and take her home. He fell in love with her the minute that he saw her picture and read her story." That made T. and me smile and once again I wasn't embarrassed to smile. We have our fingers crossed that Nell-Bell finds her forever home tomorrow.

This evening when Tone and I came inside, we listened to Traci's message, "I just wanted to let you know that Jake and Betty are in love with each other and they won't quit playing with each other. She is an awesome dog! Thank y'all so much for what you do and for letting us adopt Betty Boop. We love her so much. She and Jake are a perfect match! I will call y'all soon with another update. Robert and I are fixin' to take them for another walk in the park. Bye."

Y'all have a great evening!

The Hood!

Today has been really fun. This morning our super dog-walking volunteers: Lisa, Kevin, Melody, Steve, Ellen, Eileen and Jim came out and walked our dogs! After I had walked "my dogs" six miles inside the trailer with Leslie, I went outside to thank and visit with all of the volunteers.

Ellen told me that she is thinking about adopting "Miss Moose" if she is good with cats. Eileen told me that she loves her sports car even though young men are constantly trying to catch up with her car. She said when they catch up to her it makes her laugh at the young men's disappointed expressions on their faces, when they discover that she isn't a young, hot chick, but an older woman with gray hair.

While our dogs were coming in and going out of the rescue ranch Lisa, Steve and Melody helped Tony move Miss Moose and Toby Keith over to one of our giant pens, and then they put Buddy and Sparky back into their old pen after Lisa removed a really large tree branch about five foot long (Miss Moose's  favorite stick toy.) and put it into Miss Moose's new pen. As soon as Lisa heaved "the giant stick" into Miss Moose's pen, she came running up and picked it up in her mouth and happily trotted off with her stick in tow. It made all of us laugh.

As we watched Miss Moose and Toby happily running up and down their new giant pen we talked about what name we should give Miss Moose. We came up with Tinkerbell, but Tony didn't like it. Lisa and I then came up with Twinkle Feet, Twinkie, Maybelline but we really didn't think the names were all that great for such a wonderful dog like her.

After lunch Buttermilk took us to Kerrville so we could run a few errands. Before going to H.E.B., our final destination, Tony asked me if it would be okay with me if he got his hair cut.

When we arrived at his favorite hair cutting place it was packed full with people with various hair problems. After T. signed in at the desk we sat down, and I started people watching as Tony read an old sports magazine. During our one hour wait as Tone occasionally growled about it taking so long, I was having a blast because people are so interesting to me.

There was this balding man sitting in a chair, who was probably in his late forties, flirting with a pretty, young hair dresser who kept smiling at him so she could get a big tip, even though he was acting so obnoxious. Every time when she thought she was done with his hair cut, and raised his chair up so he could check out his new doo, he would ask her to cut a little more hair off. That lasted over twenty minutes and he was almost completely bald when he paid up and gave her a tip.

A woman much older than me, probably in her late seventies, sat two chairs down from him. She was getting a permanent and a little blue tint done to her thinning gray hair. After getting her pale blue tint applied to her short hair, which exactly matched the color of my eyes, the talkative hairdresser wound up the woman's hair tightly using about forty plus spoolies, and then she made her sit down next to me to get her hair dried under "the hood." The elderly woman read an outdated issue of Time magazine as her blue hair baked on high.

Then there was this young teenage girl getting her short brown hair blown dried for over twenty minutes by an oversized hair stylist wearing way too much makeup on her face, with three watches on each wrist, and wearing Spandex pants that were so tight on her I knew they were fixin' to pop if she drank one more sodie water and bent over, while the only male barber calmly trimmed off Tony's cute curls five chairs down. I was getting nervous about the the stylists pants exploding right in front of me, and I could not wait to get out of there.

As soon as Tone's ears were lowered an inch I ran out of the beauty shop so I wouldn't get hurt. And y'all, that is why I have long hair. Beauty shops scare me to death.

P.S. I have just now come up with Miss Mooses' new name. It's going to be Betty Boop and Tony likes it!

Y'all have a great evening!