Literally. Two months ago I went for my weekly lesson and told my instructor that I would be gone for a while and I would contact her when I got back. And so began our amazingly, incredibly busy summer.

We packed the car, and hit the road. The route was easy. From our house go to the highway, take the farm road to the I-10, and don’t get off until you reach California! 

Plans? Heck yeah! We had my daughters wedding, my granddaughters 21st birthday, my great granddaughters 2nd birthday, and the wedding of a close family friend. In all, a five week stay.

The wedding of course, couldn’t have been more perfect. Tracy was a stunningly beautiful bride, we gained a son in law, and months of planning culminated in a beautiful, memorable event. For me, the best part was just seeing the happiness in Tracy’s eyes, hearing it in her voice, and seeing the love between the newly married couple. 

In between all these events I got to spend lots of time with the kids and grandkids. I thought I knew every nursery rhyme there was, but I was wrong! I learned about Mother Goose TV, and Chu Chu TV. (I still sing Johny, Johny in my head…eating sugar? No papa!) I was reminded what life is like living with a toddler, a teen, a young adult, and how much we should cherish each moment with them.

Before I knew it, it was time to come back to Texas. Of course the trip back wasn’t quite as fun as the trip there. The anticipation wasn’t quite the same, and poor Jackdodd had to listen to me sing for 1400 miles – each way! (Just because I can’t sing, doesn’t mean I won’t!). Eventually we made it home. All was well, we did laundry, caught up on mail, etc. and then we were off to the Czech Republic for Jack’s sons wedding. Prague was beautiful and I had a great time sightseeing, taking pictures, and of course – shopping! The wedding was beautiful, with the exception of some Czech traditions, it was much like an American wedding. Once again, it was time to come home, and return to our regular routine, which for me includes my weekly riding lesson with my buddy, “Buddy”. 

I was a bit nervous. Would I remember everything I had learned? How to put the harness on? The saddle? The bridle? Control? Loping? You always hear people say, “it’s like riding a bike – you never forget”. Well you never hear anyone say, “it’s like riding a horse”, so while I was excited to get back to riding, I was also a bit apprehensive. 

Just putting my jeans and boots on made me feel better! I walked out to the pasture and I’m pretty sure Buddy remembered me! I slipped the harness on and guided him up to the stalls. He was so patient with me while I brushed the cobwebs from my brain and saddled him up. Now to see if I’ve still got it.

I stuck my boot in the stirrup and as soon as I pulled myself up, my apprehensions disappeared, almost as if Buddy was telling me it was going to be just fine. We walked a bit, we trotted a bit and after a few minutes both Buddy and we’re ready to pick up some speed. I gave him a little squeeze and off we went. Without skipping a beat we settled into that nice galloping rhythm. It was a great welcome home!

And our busy summer – well it’s not over yet! Family reunion and then back to California to welcome the newest grand baby at the end of the month. After that, two more turn 2 and then another new grand baby. We’ll have just enough time to catch our breath and then the holidays will be here…whew!!!

WARNING: If you read this, you may be grossed out!

“I’ll never drive between California and Texas with a dog again”. Those words came out of my mouth, just about a year ago. And I didn’t. Instead, it was with two dogs! I know, what you’re thinking, and yes, it was crazy!

At the beginning of this year, we took out  calendar and month by month started filling in the blocks with all the upcoming events for the year. “Holy cow, this is going to be one busy year!” And the majority of these events are taking place in California. I think it was sometime around early April when I brought up the subject of driving to JD. Initially, he was kind of cool to the idea. In fact, I don’t think he actually warmed up to the idea until we pulled out of the driveway the day we left!

It made complete sense. This was going to be a five week trip (at least for me). We had weddings, birthdays, work, and I really didn’t want to board the dogs that long. And besides, who doesn’t love a road trip? So we packed up the car with clothes and dogs and we hit the road.

We had decided to make it a two day trip.700 miles each day? Piece of cake! The halfway point is Lordsburg, NM, home of a Hampton Inn (thankfully a pet friendly hotel), McDonalds, a gas station, and not a whole lot more. We checked in, got the dogs settled – sort of. Keep in mind, that at this time Rodeo was not yet housebroken, extremely curious, and at best – difficult to control. There was one teeny, tiny thread on the carpet which she immediately zeroed in on and before we knew it, she pulled a piece of the carpet up. O-M-G! RODEO! We wondered what the cost would be to repair and figured it would appear on our next credit card bill!

We arrived in CA the next evening. We were staying at my son’s house, and since he also has a dog (Cub), we watched while the three of them scoped each other out and figured out what the pecking order was going to be. Since she’s the oldest, and had already put Cub in his place when he was a puppy, Lucy was top dog, then Cub. That left poor Rodeo at the bottom of the totem pole. Rodeo is like the pesky little sister than doesn’t understand why the older kids wouldn’t want to play with her. About an hour into our stay, I had my first “oh my gosh maybe we shouldn’t have brought” them moment. Thankfully, by the second day, they all settled down.

My granddaughters are dog lovers and they couldn’t wait to see the pups. “Can Rodeo come over for a sleepover?”, they asked. Well of course she can, but put everything away because she’s like a baby – everything ends up in her mouth, or at the very least, all chewed up.

What I’m about to tell you is the absolute truth. I got a phone call from my daughter the next day telling me that Rodeo had swallowed a sock. Not eaten a sock, but swallowed it whole. And it wasn’t a cute little baby sock, it was an adult size sock. Yes, a woman’s sock, size 9-11.

“I’m calling the vet and I will be right there to pick her up.” Got to the vet and when he walked in, he says, “oh they told me this was a puppy that had swallowed a sock. I should have known it would be a lab” (I didn’t realize that comedy was part of the curriculum when one goes to school to become a vet). He then praised us for getting her there so quickly and explained that he would give her a shot to make her vomit (I know, gross!) and hopefully that bring it up. I was so nervous, I knew this could be really, really bad and my mind had already gone to worst case scenario. I was mentally preparing myself for the fact that we might be going back to Texas with one dog.

After about 5 minutes, the nurse came out and as if she’s announcing the birth of a baby, she says “we got it, was it black?” “Yes! With orange stripes?” I ask. She confirms that was it and as she walked way she tells us they also found something with a bar code on it! That was one of those “one day this will be funny” moments. We paid our $150.00 bill and off we went.

After this event, we made sure that EVERYONE knows not to leave anything laying around that Rodeo might mistake for food. End of story, right? WRONG!

A few days later, my son gets out some shoes and socks to put on his little girl. I started to worry when he announced that he was missing a sock. Oh no, please not again. This was the day before my daughters wedding and the although we had made arrangements for someone to check on them, the dogs were going to be home alone all day. My worry was unnecessary, she was fine.

Fast forward one week – as in 7 days. Now we are at my daughter’s house and Rodeo is out in the backyard. My granddaughter calls me outside and tells me that Rodeo has just thrown up something that looks like a sock! Oh my gosh – Stella’s sock! I ran out and sure enough, there it is. I ran back in to get something so I could pick it up. By the time I came back out, it was gone. Yep, gone. Gone as in, wow that was good, got anymore of those? Yikes! I cannot believe this! If I take her back to the vet, they’re going to take her away from me! They will call animal control and tell them I’m an unfit mother!

So I did what anyone would do. I Googled, “How to Make a Puppy Vomit”. For those of you that don’t know, hydrogen peroxide is the answer! One teaspoon for every 10 pounds. Fortunately, there was some on hand and in addition to saving another trip to the vet and another $150.00, Rodeo gave up the sock  – AND, an elastic headband. Ugh!

Surely, that’s the end of it. And it seemed to be. We enjoyed the rest of our stay and after five very quick weeks, it was time to drive home. We hit the road and headed back to Lordsburg, NM for the night. Can you believe they put us in the same room? As we checked out, I was really tempted to ask for discount since the carpet in our room had a hole in it!

We arrived home the next evening, and a few days later Rodeo started acting a little strange and making that familiar coughing noise. Oh no. It can’t be. Seriously? Not again! Ugh. RODEO!!! I’ll be so glad when she outgrows this.

Dogs are like kids. You can have one that’s so mellow, and so well behaved – and then the next one comes along and you can take your eye off of her for one second! We now keep the closet door closed, the laundry room door closed, and put up anything that we think would look even the slightest bit appetizing to Rodeo. Then last night, my granddaughter sent me the link to a news clip that showed a vet that had done surgery on a lab (of course!) and he had removed 62 elastic hairbands and 8 pairs of panties from this dog’s stomach! Oh my – she may never outgrow this!