Saturday Trials...

So, saturday started out being a bad day. We slept in a bit, and when we got up, we got ready to go to town. There was an equipment auction my husband wanted to go to, and I needed horse feed from TSC. When we went outside though, we realized Annie was not in the yard, nor in the surrounding area. My husband got on the four-wheeler to go look for her, and I got mine out as well. We looked for her for the better part of two hours, but there are a lot of hiding spots on a hundred acres. I knew, in the back of my mind, that some dogs just go away to die when it's their time, but I knew Annie had just gotten lost. So I kept looking. Hubby went in because he was froze. I went in the house for a while to warm up, then hopped in the truck to go down the road again. My husband had already gone down it on the bike, but I knew somehow that that was the direction she had gone. She's gotten to the point that it's hard for her to go uphill, so downhill I went, towards a neighbors house that had barking dogs. And there she was. Lying on the bank as the neighbor loaded cinder blocks on a trailer. I know I left an incredible impression on this guy, whom I had never met, getting out of the truck and blubbering the way I did, but I couldn't help myself. I was so happy to see that damn dog. I loaded her up in the truck and took her home. She seemed as happy to see me as I was her.

So, after everything had settled down, we finally loaded up to go to town. I bought another collar for Annie, with name tag, because she tends to pull them off and leave them. I also bought a goat bell for Murphy. My reasoning being that if the two dogs go walk-about, Annie won't get left behind because she can't hear Murph leave. I thought it was a good idea.

Murphy thinks he's in trouble.

He sees the bell as a punishment. It was the smallest goat bell they had, but still is pretty irritating. So, every time he moves, the bell rings. It's hilarious trying to watch a 180 lb dog tip-toe to keep the bell from ringing.

Another change is we are now chaining Annie up at night, to keep her from getting lost. I feel bad, because she normally has the run of the acreage, but I don't want to go through again what I did on saturday morning.

So, both dogs are mad at me, but I have peace of mind.

Also on saturday, I found that all the baby bunnies had died. I don't think Eva knows what exactly to do with them. Rabbits are very particular about their nests, so I was especially careful to stay completely away from it, but I don't know what happened. Luckily, I hadn't even told the kids we had bunnies.

Once we got home and settled down, I actually got a lot of writing done. Maybe it was the emotion of the day coming out, but things just seemed to flow. I'm in the middle of this ms, so I'm really trying to keep things flowing. I find mine tend to sag in the middle, so I'm really digging in to keep it interesting.

So, how did your weekend go? Better than mine I hope.