Honking Your Own Horn!

Today has been great. Early this afternoon I went over to Kinky's for a visit. We talked about Donna Gable Hatch's great article that she wrote for Steve Pietzsch, in The Kerrville Daily Times. After that Kinky told me that he was very concerned about Sophie Friedman, his adorable, sweet Cocker Spaniel that he had rescued several years ago, from a woman that was fixin' to become a homeless street person, in San Antonio. Because she didn't want Sophie to have to deal with that.

Anyway, Kinky was concerned that Sophie had back pain, because she had gone on a walk with Kinky and The Friedmans, earlier in the morning and since then she would not get up or walk around. I suggested that I leave and come back and honk Trigger's horn, in hopes she might get up. Kinky didn't much care for my idea, but he said, "Okay, it's worth a try."

So they went back inside the Lodge, where Sophie was and Trigger & I drove away and circled the ranch once. When Trigger & I returned to the Lodge, I honked twice and waited. The Friedmans barked and then I saw Kinky opening his kitchen door to let Sophie, Winston and Peanut come outside. And Kinky was smiling, even though Sophie was moving slowly. "Thanks, Nance. You got her up...."

This evening around 5:00, Kinky called me again, because he didn't know if he should take Sophie to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic. "She won't get up and she might be in pain. Maybe it's her back...." After a long discussion, I suggested that I come back over there and honk, in hopes that Sophie would get up, so we could check her out.

Five minutes later I half-hollered, down the hallway, "Tony, I'm going over to Kinky's and should be right back. I've just got to go honk the horn, again." Then I jumped inside Trigger and we took off, but I didn't make it very far, because as I was waiting, at the entrance gate to open, I looked to my left and saw an adorable, little, black, dog, in our fenced corral.

"What?" Then I shoved Trigger into park and jumped out of the truck. "Hey, little Buddy. Come on over here. Are you lost or did some bad person drop you off?" As the cute, but matted-up, little dog walked slowly up to me, on the other side of the fence, I said, "Now, don't worry. I promise that I'm not going to hurt you." Then I bent down and let him sniff my hand. When he started wagging his tail slowly, I said, "Let's get you out of there. Come on follow me." Then I walked up to our gate and then around it to the white board fence—and he was following me through the tall grass. Second later, he crawled under a board to get out of the corral and I petted him. When he jumped up on my legs to let me know that he trusted me, I picked him up and carried him back to Trigger.

All of the way over to the Lodge I talked to him and as he listened he seemed to be very relaxed riding in the truck. When we arrived at the Lodge I honked twice. Seconds later, Kinky opened the kitchen door and out ran Sophie, Winston and Peanut Friedman. Then Kinky walked outside wearing the biggest grin on his face and half-hollered, "Thanks, Nance! Look at Sophie! I can't believe this. She seems to be fine now! Come on in."

"I can't, Kinky. I just rescued this little dog. You've got to meet him." Seconds later, Kinky was petting the little dog though the window as I told him the story.

"Nance, he's so precious. Why don't you let him out to meet The Friedmans and drink some water."

As the sweet little dog met the friendly Friedmans and drank some water, I told Kinky that we had no room at the rescue ranch and would put him in our trailer, but I was also seriously thinking about Tony and me adopting him, because he had already stolen my heart. "What are you going to name him, because I might take him too if you don't adopt him? He's about the same size as The Friedmans and would fit in perfectly," Kinky said.

"Felix," I said. "No wait. Walter Matthau, because every dog that we name Walter Matthau always gets adopted fast." Kinky loved the name. Then I stayed over there and visited with Kinky, as we watched Walter make himself at home.

Before I left the Lodge to come back home, we had decided to let Walter spend tonight with The Friedmans and Kinky, at the Lodge, I said, "I am so glad that I came over to honk the horn again, because this little fella might have spent the night outside being scared, hungry and thirsty and now because Sophie is feeling great and totally back to normal, you don't have to take her to the vet."

Kinky agreed with me and then teasingly said, "Me, too. Quit honking your own horn." And that is about it for tonight, except I want you to meet our latest Mr. Walter Matthau.

Y'all have a great evening! And remember that sometimes it is okay to honk your own horn, because you might just save a dog or a trip to your veterinary clinic.

The Procedure!

This morning I got up early and walked eight miles before seven o'clock. After breakfast I did a little paperwork and then went outside and helped Tony clean the dog pens. When our cleanup was complete T. asked me to go with him to hay the cows, but I didn't want to because he always makes me open the gates and I am afraid of the cows. When I told him no and why Tony promised me that he would open and close all of the gates. So I went and I am glad that I did, because I have never silently laughed so hard for so long.

It all started when we went to get the giant round bale of hay over by the corral. After Tone backed Buttermilk up to the hay trailer he started to get out, the door wouldn't budge, so he put Buttermilk into park, rolled down the window, unlocked the doors from inside and then reached his arm outside and opened the door using the outside handle. "I think Buttermilk's door is broken, dang-it." Then he got outside and hitched the trailer to Buttermilk so he could load the hay on it.

When he got back inside the Explorer he had to do a lot of back and forth maneuvering to finally line the trailer up to the round bale then he tried to open the door so he could get out, but it would not open and that is when I started silently laughing. "Dang it!" Tone said, as he put Buttermilk into park, rolled the window down, pressed the door unlock button and then stuck his arm outside and opened the door from the outside.

He had to repeat these steps four more times before we took off to go hay the cows and I could tell that T. was a little more than bothered about it. "Tony, Buttermilk can't help it. She's over fourteen years old. She's old like me." I tried to explain to his deaf ears.

When we reached the gate to the pasture, Tony took a deep breath and then he quickly did the four-step procedure: park, roll down the window, unlock the doors, and open the door from outside and then he got out of Buttermilk to open the gate. Then the cows from afar saw us and started stampeding toward us, so Tony jumped into Buttermilk and drove us through the gate entrance and then he cussed under his breath as he quickly repeated the four-step procedure to get out of Buttermilk so he could close the gate before the herd descended upon us!

It was hard for me not to laugh, but when we reached the area where the hay needed to be dropped, Tony did "The Procedure" and got out and unloaded the hay. Then we took off to the water tank to water the cows and Tony was cussing out loud as he parked, rolled, unlocked and opened the door. When he was out of earshot I laughed uncontrollably until he returned. His cow chores were now done so we took off. Three procedures later we were back home.

Because today was unusually cool, Tony and I decided to do some mowing. While he rode around on the riding lawn mower I push mowed our front and back yards.

During lunch I let Carlton take a call from a sweet, young woman who wanted to adopt one of our dogs for her son. Ten minutes later after eating my last bite I returned her call. After a short telephone conversation she told me that she and her family would be here by four o'clock to possibly adopt one of our dogs! I was on Cloud Nine about it, but it didn't last long.

Ten minutes after I had cleaned up the kitchen a woman called and told me that she was returning one of our dogs, because he kept running away. Hmmmmmmm?  Running away? I knew there must have been a reason, but she wouldn't tell me. When I told Tony that Walter, one of our super dogs, was being returned he was disappointed and felt sorry for Walter. "Walter is a great dog, Nance," T. said.

An hour later when the woman showed up we immediately got mad, but hid it, when we saw Walter riding in the back of her truck. As soon as the woman handed Walter over to me I listened to her complaints about him constantly running away. "Hi, Walter," I said. "Welcome home, buddy..."

"He won't answer to Walter anymore. We changed his name to #*^+*," The woman said. "He doesn't answer to Walter. It's..."

"It's okay, Walter," I said as he sat in front of me as I petted him. "You're a great dog, Walter and we've really missed you..." Then Tony took his leash and took him to a pen and then the woman drove away.

At four-thirty Kim, her husband and young son arrived from Del Valle to possibly adopt a dog from us. Tony and I immediately fell in love with the young couple and their cute son and we were thrilled when they decided to adopt Emmylou Harris, the young, black and white sister pup to Rita Coolidge that we rescued earlier this week! Needless to say her adoption made our day! Now we must get Rita into a great home as soon as possible, because she is already missing her sister.

Y'all have a great evening!

Walter Matthau Has Found His Forever Home!

I didn't blog last night, because we invited Will to come over with his new Apple computer, and we helped each other set up our Macs!

Yesterday, around one-thirty, Walter got adopted!. That is four dogs in a row! Friday, Ashley Judd got adopted, Saturday, was Hudson's day, Sunday, Tasha was officially adopted, and now Walter!

We are all thrilled about the adoptions, and Kinky said, "We're on a roll, Nance!"

I Love Walter Matthau and Rosanna Dana!

Today has been painfully great, again! When I woke up this morning, I could have sworn that a Harley Davis motorcycle had run over my arms during the night, but there were no signs of skid marks or beer cans on the floor. Then I remembered what Tony had said to me, about being really sore this morning. It's weird. I never knew Tone was a psychic.

After I climbed out of our tall bed, I reluctantly went to the kitchen, because I knew I had to feed the dogs and Lucky. As they, Toto, Little Girl, Thunder and Hank, yapped at me to hurry up and feed them, I swallowed two baby aspirins. Then I chased them down with an Aleve.

As I painfully scooped up dog food, and filled their bowls, I tried to explain to them that my arms were killing me, but they didn't care! Once they were all fed, I put them outside, so they could take care of some unfinished business. Then came the dreaded hard part—I still had to feed Mama and Abbie. They are our two giant dogs, and they require several scoops of dry dog food, in their heavy, but cute, hand painted, ceramic dog dishes. After feeding them, I was the happiest girl in the U.S.A., because the Aleve had finally kicked in.

When Tony came home, he teased me about my arms being sore, but he was nice enough to pick up Mama's and Abbie's dishes, and wash them and put them up for me. When T. went outside to do his chores, I walked six fast miles.

At eleven o'clock, we rescued Walter Matthau! Walter is a big, sweet black Labrador mix. My friends, Lindy and Kim brought him to us. Someone had dumped him near their ranches. Walter is approximately one year old, and he is really well trained! Here's a picture of him.

After a fun visit with Lindy and Kim, Buttermilk took Tony and me to Kerrville. A dog that we rescued last week, Rosanna Dana, was ready to come home, after undergoing heart worm treatment and getting her shots. She didn't need spaying.

When we walked inside Hoegemeyer's Animal Clinic, I saw the two cats, that we had rescued last week, from Johnson City, sitting happily in their large crate—waiting to get adopted. Here's their story.

Last week, Dr. Sam, my dentist, had called to tell me that an old woman had died in Johnson City. She left behind over one hundred cats. With the help from various shelters and concerned citizens, all of the cats were spayed or neutered, given all shots, and checked for diseases. When Sam called me, she told me that they had two cats left that needed homes. I told her we would take them, after talking to Dr. Craig Janssen, to make sure his clinic could help us adopt them out. The happy ending to this story, is that all one hundred cats were extremely tame, friendly, healthy and had all found forever homes!

After Tone and I talked to the cats, Kathy, Dr. Janssen's sweet wife, brought Rosanna Dana out to us! She is the sweetest, one year old dog, and so beautiful. Here's a picture of her:

Kinky is up in Dallas, for the Willie Nelson Bloody Mary Morning brunch tomorrow morning, but he will be back here tomorrow evening!

P.S. Today Jim and his friend, Leo, came out and walked our dogs! Thank you, Jim and Leo! Our dogs loved it and so did we!

Y'all have a great evening!