Happy Birthday Dylan Ferrero! In Dog Years He's Not That Old!

Early Saturday morning, after breakfast, Tony and I went over to the Lodge to drink a cup of coffee with Kinky. We talked about Thunder and her passing and Kinky's kind words about her made me smile. Then we talked about The Friedmans giving up dog bones for their New Year's resolution and Chumley being so happy to be back home since his observation stay at Hoegemeyers. "Is Maude coming home today?" Kinky asked.

"I think so, but I need to call the clinic, as soon as we get home, to see if she can," I said. "I really miss her even though I don't seem to count, with Maudie. She loves Tony and that's it." Kinky started laughing.

"In a few minutes I am going to Kerrville and I will be glad to pick her up for y'all," Kinky said.

Twenty minutes later, after talking to Susan at Hoegemeyers, I called Kinky and then Trigger and I took off for Kerrville. My first stop was to get groceries at H-E-B. Then I went to Hoegemeyers to meet Cassie, one of their new, sweet vet techs, so she could sign-off on Cowboy's adoption forms, because she had fallen in love with him, after we had rescued him from the pound, and then taken him there to get him neutered and his shots, etc.! 

"It is so nice to meet you, Cousin Nancy!" Cassie said, as she filled out Cowboy's adoption papers. "I love Cowboy so much! My husband and I have L.T., an Aussie mixed with Blue Heeler and Border Collie that we rescued last year. And Cowboy is the same size as L.T. and they are already best friends. Thank you for letting us adopt him."

"No, thank you, Cassie. We are all so happy about you adopting Cowboy, before he ever made it to our rescue ranch. He's a very lucky dog."

"Cowboy is really trained. He sits on command, heels and is house broken!" Cassie bragged, as she handed me my clipboard. Then Maude entered the lobby all excited and started looking around the room for Tony, her hero, but since he wasn't there, she acknowledged me and wagged her tail, so I picked her up and we came home. And the minute that she was reunited with T.—I once again became invisible to her.

This evening, three minutes before the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears, I called Kinky to see if it was okay for Tone and me to come over for a visit. "Sure Nance. Y'all come on over."

When we walked inside the Lodge, we were first greeted by The Friedmans, in the kitchen and then we walked into the big room and said our howdies to Kinky. "Y'all just missed Dylan," Kinky said, as he lit up a cigar. "Today is his birthday and he is sixty-eight years old. Can you believe that? Sixty-eight."

"Well, Kink, in dog years he's not that old," I said. "He's nine years older than me and I can't believe that. Tony, how old is Dylan in dog years?"

"About nine and a half or so." When the Jets and Steelers game started, Buttermilk took us home.

Tonight I have some exciting news to tell you about my good friends: Copper Love, the incredible world famous horse whisperer and Connie Strong, who wrote an incredibly great article about Copper for the popular magazine, "Horseback!"  And I promise that you will love reading it. Yeah, Copper and Connie—Y'all Really Rock!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Dylan! You Really Rock, Too!

Have a great evening and May The Force Be With Y'all!

The Graduate!

From last night's blog:
To Be Continued...Will it be Lori, Of The NoMads, Displaced In Texas, Dogmom, Garnet Sheffield or Anonymous aka Lynda Peters who won the contest? And also find out tomorrow about our lunch with Lori and Mari, which lucky dog found his fantastic, forever home, late this afternoon and what happened and what we got when Carol and James came over to see us, early this evening and lastly, what Kink had to say when he called me, a couple of hours ago, from Nashville!


"The winner of the Easy Soup Recipes cookbook contest is Lynda Peters!" Mari declared, then she called out the scores of each contestant and all of us were amazed about how close their scores were. Then we had a fun visit before Mari took off in her van and we followed her, in Trigger, to the restaurant where we were to meet Lori, of the NoMads for lunch.


As soon as the three of us were seated at our table, Mari and I started talking non-stop about organic food, organic seeds, made in America products, and dogs, etc., while T. sat back in his chair and munched on some chips and salsa, as we waited for Lori Graham, of NoMad and Cowboy Steak House fame, to arrive. Then Mari shocked me with some scary news.


"The other day while I was shopping at a grocery store in Kerrville, I discovered that many of the cheaper "store's brand" foods are not products of the United States."


"What!"


"I picked up a can of beans that had the store's brand name on it, instead of the more expensive name brand can, next to it, and looked at the bottom and was horrified when I read that it was a product of India! I could not believe it, so I started picking up more cans along that isle, with the store's brand name on it and none of them were products of the U.S.A.! I had always thought that the cheaper store's brand name products came from the same place as the big brand name products, but with different labels..." Then Lori showed up and apologized for being late.


"Who won the cookbook contest?" Lori asked, as she removed her coat.


"Not you," I jokingly, quickly quipped, and then we all started laughing. After we gave our waitress our orders I said, "By-the-way, I want to thank y'all and the NoMads for sponsoring a pen at the rescue ranch. Y'all are so nice and please thank all the NoMads for us and..."


While we ate and enjoyed our delicious meals—Lori, Mari and I continued to talk non-stop about how much we loved The RockBox, in Fredericksburg, while Tony spoke not a single word. When it was time for us to leave the restaurant I asked where our check was, because Tone and I wanted to treat them to lunch, but we found out that Lori had already paid it. Thank you for lunch, Lori! 


When we came home Carlton was flashing on the breakfast bar, because Rose had called earlier to say, "Mom and I are leaving Kerrville and nearly there. We brought Dunn with us to see how he and Dustin get along. I hope it is okay. Bye." So, I pulled Dustin's paperwork from the files and quickly wrote up his adoption papers. Ten minutes later Rose and her mom, Sharon, arrived with Dunn!


After howdies and hugs we drove down to Dusty's pen and introduced the two dogs by taking them on a short walk to see how they got along. As we walked I thanked Rose, once again, for the dog toys that she had made for our dogs and then Rose blows me away, when she tells me that she and her friends wanted to do even more to help our rescued dogs, so she and I discussed some cool ideas, as we happily watched Dustin and Dunn become best buds. Before leaving the ranch, Sharon handed me a sack full of assorted Girl Scout cookies, which made T. and me happier than we already were about Dustin being adopted by Rose and her wonderful family, so I took this picture of Rose with Dusty and Dunn before Rose climbed into the backseat to ride with "The Boys" for their two hour drive back home. Thank you, Rose, Hannah, Sharon and Kevin—we love y'all!

After Kermit took us back to the trailer the first thing T. and me did was open up a box of Girl Scouts Thin Mints! After I ate one cookie and Tony ate two, we decided to invite Carol & James over for a visit, because it had been way too long since we had seen them. In fact, the last time we got together was when they taught me to weld and use a plasma cutter. 

Twenty minutes later we went outside to greet our good friends. After howdies and hugs Carol handed me a big plastic bag of her famous homemade cookies, that she had baked just for us—the ones that we love so much, that have caused T. and me to fight over the last one.

Tony and I love Carol & James so much, because they're like family to us, because we can go a long time without seeing or hearing from each other, because of our busy lives, and then when we finally get back together—we can't wait to catch up with each others news. So, as we drank coffee inside Nellybelle—it was non-stop fun and laughter, as we took turns telling each other about our latest escapades and fun adventures. Right before dark they went home and we hated to see them leave, but the good thing is—we are going to go on a double-date with them next month, to a comedy club in Kerrville and we can't wait!

Kinky called me from Nashville, a little before eight o'clock last night, to find out if Dustin Hoffman had been adopted, because I had forgotten to call him after Dusty got adopted and he was thrilled when I told him, "Yes, Kink. Dustin is the graduate today and..."

Okay, y'all it is eight-thirty and I am fixin' to go watch "The Mentalist" which I recorded last night while I was writing my blog, because Carol and James love the show and told me that I would love it, because we are all hooked on "Lie To Me."

Today has been more than fantastic too, but I will write about it tomorrow. And, I want to thank every one for their sweet notes and kind words about Thunder's passing. I love y'all.

Have a great evening and May The Force Always Be With Y'all!

Judgement Day!

Today has been another great day, as most of mine always are, thanks to my dear friends: Sandy and Jon Wolfmueller, Mari Villanueva, Lori Graham, Sharon & Rose Kemp and Carol & James!

This morning while Tony fed the dogs outside, I bundled up and cleaned the dog pens for him, because we had some urgent business to take care of in Kerrville, before having lunch with Mari and Lori.

When we arrived at Wolfmueller's Books we were twelve minutes late when we walked inside the bookstore. Mari, who was sitting in a chair, visiting with Jon, behind the front counter, greeted us and then I apologized for running late for the judging of the soup contest and yes, I blamed it on the Full Moon, of course. "Where's Sandy?" I asked, as I handed out copies of the six contestants entries on why they thought they deserved to win my soup contest and receive a free copy of the Easy Soup Recipes cookbook.

"Sandy is out buying more books," Jon remarked. "She told me to vote for her if that's okay with y'all?"

After we agreed that it was not a problem, I said, "Listen y'all, I've got a real big problem on how we are going to judge this thing, because all of them are hilarious."

"Don't worry about it, because Mari has got it all figured out," Jon said. "Tell them about it, Mari."

"Okay," Mari said, as Jon passed out pencils to us. " I think Nancy, since you are the writer amongst us, you should read each one out loud to us and using a scale of one to ten with ten being the best, then we secretly give each entry a score and then we add them up at the end and the highest number wins."

"That's great, Mari," I said. "I like that. And oh, by the way y'all can all mark off Karin Pohlmann's entry, because she has already received a copy of the cookbook, because I sent it to her in Germany, the same day that I mailed Ben his copy of the cookbook, which he loves. Karin was the "Mystery Friend," but, I think we should all take turns reading these aloud." And that is when Mari ignored me—making me feel like I was suddenly invisible. "Okay, I'll read "Lori of the NoMad's" funny one first..." When I finished reading it aloud we all laughed and then we wrote down our secret scores. Then there was the sound of silence.

"Go ahead, Cousin Nancy," Mari said. "We're ready for the next one." Jon, Tony and I looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"No, it's your turn to read one, Mari," Jon said, followed by a laugh. "Nancy wants us all to take turns reading them." After we all chuckled, Mari read, "Displaced Texan Polly's reason—which we all thought was hilarious, too. Then we secretly wrote down our scores, again. Then Jon read what "Dogmom" wrote and we laughed throughout Jon's reading and then we once again wrote down our secret scores.

By now, I, Judge Cousin Nancy, was starting to feel like a real pro at judging this soup cookbook contest and I could not wait for Judge T. to read Garnet Sheffield's reason why she thought she deserved to win the free soup cookbook.

Tone stood up, cleared his throat, because he has "Cedar Fever," a Hill Country allergic reaction to cedar pollen, that affects just about everyone who lives down here, and then he began slowly reading Garnet's, more than funny, reason why she thought she should win the contest and we laughed throughout Tony's reading and then we wrote down our secret scores, again.

After we had quit laughing I read what "Anonymous" aka Lynda Peters, wrote and like the other entries—it was so funny that my back started aching, because I had been laughing way too much. After writing down our scores for Lynda, Mari took over. "Okay, everyone give me your scores for Lori." After we gave Mari our scores to tally up, we gave her our scores for "Displaced Texan Polly," then "Dogmom," Garnet Sheffield and "Anonymous." Then Mari added up all of their scores and said, "It was really close, y'all. Guess who won?"

To Be Continued...Will it be Lori, Of The NoMads, Displaced In Texas, Dogmom, Garnet Sheffield or Anonymous aka Lynda Peters who won the contest? And also find out tomorrow about our lunch with Lori and Mari, which lucky dog found his fantastic, forever home, late this afternoon and what happened and what we got when Carol and James came over to see us, early this evening and lastly, what Kink had to say when he called me, a couple of hours ago, from Nashville!

Have a great evening and May the Force Be With Y'all! I'm going to bed.

Thunder, The Perfect Dog!

I'm sorry, but tonight I cannot write a blog, because I need to shed some tears, because this afternoon we had to put our beloved Thunder down and our hearts are truly broken, because T. and I loved her so much.

In 1996, I ended up being the lucky one, because Thunder decided to make me her best friend, the day that I drove into the small town of Utopia, after a tipoff from a friend, to rescue Thunder from being shot, because of no fault of her own, She had been dumped in Utopia and was homeless and had been caught eating out of stores trash bins, and that was over two years before Kinky, Tony and I decided to officially start our rescue ranch over at my mini-ranch in Utopia.

And since that day that I put Thunder inside my truck and drove her home, she was my shadow and constant, loving companion and she always followed me everywhere that I went and she was never more than ten feet away from me at anytime.

Thunder always made me laugh and smile when I looked at her and she had a way of letting me know that she loved me. I am so grateful and thankful that Thunder came into our lives, because she has given me over fifteen years of unconditional love, joy, devotion and happiness.

Thunder, please know that Tony and I loved you as much or more, as you loved us. We will always miss you and you will live in our hearts forever and you will never be forgotten. We thank you for sharing your life with us. Rest in peace my love, because you deserve it, because you were one of the best dogs that I have ever had the honor to know and love.

Thunder Heart Simons

1995 - 2011

Around Three-Thirty!

Today has been so much fun thanks to the Force (sunshine) being with me, but not because of the Full Moon outside. Tonight's blog is going to be shorter than usual because it is nearly nine o'clock and I need to go to bed. So, Mari, let me apologize upfront about this being a continuing story.

This morning Charlie Cooper, our good friend and neighbor, came home with Tony this morning, because he wanted to help T. with his morning chores, so he could learn how to do them in case of an emergency. Even though I didn't have any coffee made we had a really fun visit with him, as we ate our breakfast.

After breakfast Tone and Charlie went outside to feed our dogs and clean pens, so I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky and hear about his and Chumley's mad dash, in the wee hours of the morning, to Hoegemeyers Animal Clinic, to get Chumley looked at, because he was shivering all over.
"Chumley and I left the ranch around one-thirty. Sophie wanted to go, but I made her stay home to keep Brownie company," Kinky said, as we sat outside drinking coffee in the sunshine. "Autumn, the new veterinarian at Hoegemeyers was already there waiting for us when we pulled up, and she immediately went to work on Chum. He was stopped up and Autumn told me that it would be a miracle if she didn't have to operate on him in the morning, because his ex-rays looked really bad...The good news is, Autumn called me just a few minutes ago to tell me that the medicine worked overnight on Chumley and he is going to be fine! But she wants him to stay at the clinic for a few days for observation."

"That is fantastic news, Kinky. What time did you get back to the ranch?"

"Around three-thirty."

"Well, I tell you what. If we go to Kerrville today, we'll run by Hoegemeyer's and visit him. Can he have visitors?" Kinky started laughing.

"Yes, that would be great, Nance," Kinky said. "When I told Autumn that you might want to stop by and visit Chum-bum, since I'll be out-of-town for the next couple of days, she got real excited and said, "I love Cousin Nancy and I can't wait to meet her. I listen to her on Harley..." "You're getting famous, Nance," Kinky teased, as we chuckled about it.

"Well, guess who's butt and bottom of their foot are sore today?" Kinky started laughing and then lit his cigar, before Sophie jumped up into his lap.

"That was a great "Chevy Chase fall" you did yesterday, Nance. It was classic and you..."

When I came back home I returned several phone calls and then I decided it was time, "To do something for Nancy"—like trying to learn the new Apple software, that I bought last week, so I can turn my latest book, Meanwhile Back At The Rescue Ranch: The Dog Days Of Cousin Nancy into an e-book and start generating more money for T.'s and my early retirement in ten years—when I turn sixty-nine.

Because I am old and not the brightest candle on the chandelier or a computer nerd, which I wish I was—the hours flew by fast, as I slowly tried to figure it all out. I admit that I am a slow learner, and I blame it on being Left Eyed and Right Handed because—my wiring is messed up and also because we're under a Full Moon, again.


Right before I thought my eyes were fixin' to fall out, the phone rang—it was Kinky. "Nance, do you and Tone want to meet me for a late lunch in Kerrville?..."

An hour later the three of us gave the young, blonde waitress our orders—which were exactly alike. Then we talked about hair. "When we leave here Tony is going to get his hair cut at Snippers...." And by the time we finished eating lunch—Kink decided to follow us over to Snippers and give them a try and get his hair cut there, too.

While the men's curls fell on the floor at Snippers—I shopped at the craft store, a few doors down, for fabric for my Space Ship. Twenty minutes later, after Tony's and Kinky's ears were lowered, we stood outside the beauty parlor and decided to go over to Hoegemeyer's and pay Chumley a visit.

Okay, it is now ten minutes past ten and I must go to bed now.

Have a great evening and May The Force Be With Y'all!

To Be Continued...(Sorry, Mari)... : )

May The Force Be With Y'all!

This morning I was feeling a little down because of no sunshine for too many days, because I am one of those people who literally powers-up on sunshiny days. So, I've come up with a new name for people like me, who are so affected by the lack of sunshine and it is—WASP! And it doesn't stand for White Anglo Saxon Protestants. It means "We Are Solar-Powered-People!" And for all you WASPS out there reading this, you'll understand why my mood drastically changed for the better, when the sun finally came out this afternoon, as Trigger took us to Kerrville to run two errands.

Our first stop was at Home Depot, so I could buy some lumber, screws, paint and nails for my nail gun, for my upcoming Space Ship Project which is scheduled to start tomorrow afternoon, after I return phone calls, e-mails and do some paperwork, because it has been predicted that the sun will be out in full Force to power-me-up! So I guess my new sign-off for now, on e-mails etc., is going to be the same as the "Star Wars" famous saying—"May The Force Be With You!"

After we left Home Depot we went to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic to pick up Walter Cronkite and Cowboy, but Cowboy wasn't ready to come home, because he had torn out his stitches. Here is a  picture of our new rescue ranch anchordog, Cronkite, in the front yard of my cabin. He is one great, happy dog and is so sweet. In fact, he kissed T. and me non-stop as we drove him home. Tomorrow I will take his official "glamour shot" for our web site and post it on my blog tomorrow night. Isn't he adorable!

Early this evening I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky and he was thrilled when I told him the good news that Dustin Hoffman was being adopted on Thursday by the Kemp Family. While I was over there he showed me a beautiful, black & white photo that Billy Joe Shaver had sent to him, of Billy Joe and Kris Kristofferson standing side-by-side, in their late twenties or early thirties and I absolutely loved it. After that, we went outside and played with The Friedmans for a while. Before leaving, I offered to help Kinky gather some firewood to burn in his Lodge and it turned out that it was an offer that I should not have made.

As I finish writing this blog tonight my foot and butt are somewhat sore, because of the fall that I took when helping Kinky. And here's what happened when I picked up my very first log."Nance, that log is way too big for you," Kinky warned. "Get a smaller one." I laughed and picked up the heavy log anyway.

"I'm fine, Kink. Don't worry about it." Then I tried to take a step, but my pink boot wouldn't budge because it was tangled up in a vine, so I stepped backwards with the other foot to try to free my boot and that's when a rock shifted under my boot and I lost my balance and fell right on my butt and started laughing!

"Are you okay, Nance?" Kinky asked, with concern in his voice, as he came over to help me.

"I'm fine, Kinky," I said, before laughing, again, as I stood up and brushed off the back of my 501 Levis. "I just lost my balance, again, that's all. You know how I am always tripping or falling on something outside. And that's why I don't like to walk outside because I..."

"Well, I must say that it was a really great fall, Nance," Kinky said, as we both started laughing about it, and loaded our original two heavy logs into the bed of Kink's pickup, Mr. Green Jeans. "It was as good or better than any of Chevy Chase's famous falls. He was so good at that and..."

Have a great evening and May the Force Be With Y'all!

We Need More Roses!

Yesterday and today have been great! Yesterday morning, to my surprise, because of the cold weather, our super volunteers Eileen and Lisa came out to walk our dogs and then Jim showed up to walk our dogs, too, while Tone had taken off for Bandera to photograph his nephew Zachary showing his pig at the stock show!

About an hour later, Jim took off when it started raining, so I invited Eileen and Lisa to be the first to take a tour of my new, thirty-three year old Space Ship before I started renovating it. Even though it is pretty rough inside—they liked it and told me that they couldn't wait to see the end results.

Because it was cold outside, I invited "The Girls" to come inside for some coffee and a visit and that is when Lisa went to Eileen's car to get the Brownies that she had baked for Tone and me. Within minutes we were drinking coffee, eating Lisa's delicious, homemade Brownies and laughing! After we shared funny stories about some of the weirdest funerals that we have attended, Lisa reaches inside her jacket and hands me a little black book, Pocket Astrologer  2011  and says, "I want you to have this, since you are into astrology." To say the least—I was thrilled! Thank you, Lisa. I love the book and your Brownies somehow have magically disappeared!

When Eileen was telling us an hilarious story about trying to bury her and Dean's mother—I saw a man standing outside near our fence, so I interrupted Eileen and said, "Y'all some man is out there and I don't know who he is. I'll be right back."

"We'll leave so you can talk to him," Eileen said, as she put on her coat.

"No," I said. "Please stay because I have no idea who this guy is..." Then I opened the front and half-hollered, "Come on inside the trailer." The bald headed man smiled and then came inside and told us about a sweet dog that had been dumped where he was staying, that he was trying to help. I wanted to help him, but because we are "full-up here" I said, "Sir, I'm sorry, but we can't help, because we have no space available for the dog..." And fortunately he understood. Thirty minutes later after a fun visit with "The Retired Postman From Wyoming" he left and went home with the dog. And twenty minutes later The Girls left to go eat lunch in Medina, before heading back home to Kerrville.

An hour later, Paul, our great volunteer from Helotes, showed up with a truck load full of free dog food, so I went outside in the chilly, drizzling rain and helped him unload the dog food, because Paul recently had some back surgery. I didn't mind the heavy lifting of the bags, because I considered it exercise, and the only hard part for me, was climbing up into the bed of the giant pickup, to move the dog food to the tailgate, so Paul could move it into the barn. Overall it was fun, because Paul and I caught up with each others news. In all, it only took us thirty minutes to unload the free food.

An hour after Paul left—T. came home and said, "Zach took third place!"And I told him all about my  busy day as he drove me to Kerrville to turn in my year-end reports to our accountants.

Today was great because our friends Kevin Kemp and his beautiful daughter Rose came out, so Rose could give us dog treats, and homemade toys that she made for our dogs! If you remember, last year, about this time, Rose came out with her sister Hannah, her mother Sharon and Kevin to give our dogs the toys she made, which are our dogs "Favorite Toys Of All Toys!"Here are a few pictures that I tool of Rose, Kevin and our dogs. And I hope that you will  enjoy watching this funny, if I might say, five minute video that I put together this evening of our dogs LOVING THEIR TOYS!  I titled it "A Rose Is A Rose, Is A Rose! Thank you, Kevin for bringing Rose out here so she could make our dogs happy! And all I can say about Rose is—Rose Kemp Rocks Big Time! And we need more Roses in this world! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I have only two more things to tell you. Early this morning I received an interesting e-mail from my friend Cheryl Ratliff of Cheryl & Walt Ratliff fame. She congratulated me on getting my new Space Ship and sent me a link to view an old Airstream trailer that had been renovated and I nearly fell out of my chair, because I LOVED IT! Here's one of the pictures. And thank you, Cheryl!

I still can't believe that it is a trailer, but because Eileen and Lisa told me about everybody in Hollywood buying up old Airstreams and getting them renovated—I can believe it. And when I showed it to Aaron, who had come out to help me tear down the inside of the Space Ship, early this morning, while T. did his chores—he about flipped out and so did T. when he saw it! 

After Aaron and I had basically gutted my soon-to-be rocking, rocket ship he found this little rock inside a drawer and handed it to me and then I nearly flipped out. "OMG! Aaron, this is unbelievable!" I excitedly half-hollered. "It's a sign!" And I could tell that that made Aaron nervous. "This is the universal symbol for GRATITUDE!..." After Aaron went home, I phoned Cindy and Ronnie to tell them all about my new Space Ship and the Gratitude Rock which mysteriously appeared as a sign for me.

Y'all have a great evening!