Hummer and Hemi

You all know what a sucker I am for dogs. I have this love for large dogs...Alley is short, but still falls into the large dog category. I have always owned a large dog especially since I live by myself. Being outside the city limits of Longview on 3 acres, I feel more secure having an animal that will at least intimidate unwanted visitors. I recently gave Boone away ( my wolf dog that Uncle Robert gave me) because I was concerned about how he acted around Blake, Carter, and Dawson.

About 6 weeks ago, I began looking for a German Shepherd puppy. I had a difficult time finding any in this area. So, I got on the internet, as I have done numerous times, to continue my search. I happened across some German Shepherd puppies in Jefferson about 45 miles from here. So, I hopped in the car after lunch one day and headed to Jefferson. I came home that day with Hummer, even though he was not exactly what I wanted. (Yet another example of my impatience.) I continued to look for my dream puppy and found him at a kennel in Colorado. After a couple of weeks of pondering about whether or not to get him, I thought..."what the heck". I made arrangements to have him shipped to me after I got home from a school trip to Savannah, Georgia. There was some sort of confusion about the the exact date that the puppy was going to be shipped, so I did not get him on December 12th as I thought. You can imagine my disappointment. I immediately contacted the kennel in Colorado and they rescheduled the puppy's flight for Thursday, December 21. Okay...Great!!! I would at least have my new puppy before Christmas.....I thought!!!! Not!!!! There came a hellacious blizzard in Colorado the very day my puppy was to fly from the airport in Denver. All of the airports closed indefinitely due to all the snow. Again...I could not hardly stand it. But...Mother Nature hasn't ever considered my needs or wants and obviously wasn't about to start. My patience was gone, but there was nothing for me to do except wait, wait, wait. Finally, the kennel called with tentative plans to ship my puppy to me on December 27th (missed Christmas, but oh well...) Okay, swell...I will at least get my puppy before the first of the year if I'm lucky...which I have not been so far....I wonder if he will still be a puppy when he finally arrives!!! On December 26, the day before I am supposed to get my puppy, the kennel calls to give me the travel plans which must be approved by me prior to shipment. First off, let me say that most if not all airlines restrict the shipment of animals if the outside temperature is above or below a certain temperature. I had not even considered the possibility that it may be too cold for the puppy to travel. The original travel plans were for the puppy to fly from Denver to DFW to Longview. Great for me because I hate DFW and because it is a 3 hour drive from the DFW airport to my house. With that in mind you can imagine my reaction when the lady said, "Okay, the puppy will be flying on United Airlines in the morning at 10:00am, fly to Houston, change planes and fly on to DFW airport. The flight to DFW will arrive at 8:30pm. You can pick up the puppy at about 9:00pm. Is that acceptable?" The nicest thing I could think of at the moment was, "HELL, DAMN NO"! I was not about to go to an airport that I hate, pick up a dog that was supposed to fly to Longview, and drive another 3 hours home with a dog that has been cooped up in a kennel for 12 hours. Let me repeat, "HELL, DAMN NO"! She said very nicely, "We are having a hard time finding an airline that is shipping animals in the cold weather". I said to the lady in my nicest voice, "I would prefer to pick up the dog in Longview if that is possible. That narrows down the choices considerably since American Airlines is the only airline that stops in Longview. Would you please check with them to see if they are still transporting animals?" ... I went to the Longview airport last night at 9:00 and saw Hemi for the first time. He is more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. Now, I am trying to decide whether or not I will keep Hummer, too. I love them both...

Feelings of Christmas

It's beginning to feel more like Christmas... This year my Christmas spirit feels more like it used to when my kids were home anticipating Santa Claus. First, I celebrated Christmas with my kids and grandkids on December 17. Needless to say, I had to have all my shopping done by then, which gave me an extaordinary feeling of accomplishment and a very satisfying feeling of calmness well in advance of Christmas day. There would be no panic-stricken, last minute shopping for me. YEAH!!!

I got up Christmas morning at 5:00 and left for Whitehouse hoping to arrive at Windy's house in time to see the boys run down the hall toward the living room and the Christmas tree. I arrived at Windy's house at 7:10. Blake and Carter were already in the living room, but Windy had delayed the opening of the presents because Dawson had not yet paddled down the hall. (He had been up all night throwing up). Soon all 3 boys were around the tree opening up presents and screaming with delight at their new toys from Santa.

I left Windy's house around 9:30 and made my way to Deadwood. I enjoyed visiting with MawMaw and Papa and everyone else who came in during the day. When it approached 5:00pm, I knew it was time for me to think about heading home. I did not want to be on the road too long after dark. A few minutes after 5:00 I was on the road for home.
When I got to the intersection of 2517 and 699, I decided not to turn right on 699 which is my typical route, but instead went straight. When I got to Carthage, I turned onto the loop and headed for the 149 exit. I went a short distance and saw 2 German Shepherd dogs in the middle of the highway; neither of which made any attempt to move out of the road. I slowed down and stopped to watch them and realized that one of them must have been hit by a car. The other one was just sitting there with the hurt one and would not leave its side. I was only 3-4 miles from Aunt Renee's house so I thought I would get the hurt dog into my car and take it to her house and figure out what to do from there.

So I walked cautiously out into the middle of the road and quickly assessed the injuries. It seemed like the hurt dog was not hurt very badly, but one of her back legs had a couple of bad gashes that went to the bone. She also had blood in her mouth and my thoughts at the time were, "at least the blood is not gushing from her mouth". I thought that was a good sign. It only took a split second for me to realize that she was unable to move herself from the middle of the road, so I picked her up the best that I could and made it to the back of my car with her. She made no whimpering sounds or yelps of pain, which made me think even more that she must not be hurt very badly. The other dog followed and waited as I got the injured dog up and into the back of my car. The other dog immediately jumped in as well, which is what I wanted him to do.

I very quickly started trying to call Aunt Renee. She had left Deadwood about 30-45 minutes ahead of me, so it did not occur to me that she would not be home. She answered her phone, but she and Rowland had stopped by Larry and Jeri's house and they were still visiting with them. I decided to go to Tobi's house to see if he was home and thankfully he and Tasha were both there. This all happened within a span of 5-6 minutes. I left my car running and hurried toTobi's door and hollered that I needed help. Tasha got me a towel and we went out to my car. I noticed that the hurt dog's breathing was very shallow and I suddenly had the feeling that the dog was not going to make it.
We took her collar and tags from around her neck and ran back inside where Tobi started trying to call the number that was provided on the tags. I went back outside to check on the dog again. I opened the door to find that she had died. I ran back to tell Tobi not to worry about trying to reach a veterinarian.

Tobi took care of the dog that had died and my only option at this point was to take the other dog home with me for the night. So I headed home with the dog in the back of my car. When I got him home I realized that he was wearing a collar, but there were no tags. He was a very nice dog and adjusted to my house and this new environment very well. After a couple of hours, he decided to eat. We both made it through the night without much excitement. This afternoon Rowland called to see if I still had the dog because the owners of the dogs had just called him inquiring about them. I wondered how in the world they would know to call Rowland.

Well, remember that Aunt Renee and Uncle Rowland were at Larry and Jeri's while all of this was going on. I had talked to Aunt Renee a couple of times on the phone back and forth while we tried to figure out how to help the dogs. Earlier today, Jeri and her daughter had gone to town to shop and they saw a sign on the road saying someone was offering a reward for some lost dogs. Jeri put 2 and 2 together and thought it might be the same dogs, so she went back and got the phone number. Sure enough, they were. The owners of the dogs came to pick up their dog from my house just a little while ago. I was so excited to see them together. It was a tearful event.... I was so glad that I decided to go a different way home last night. You never know what kind of miracle is waiting to happen.

As I begin to pack up my Christmas decorations to store them away for next year, I have a happy heart and I know again what the Christmas spirit feels like!!!


This is one of my new German Shepherd puppies, Hummer. He has been with me for about 5 weeks. He and I have been PATIENTLY waiting for his new friend, Hemi, to arrive from Colorado. Hemi was supposed to be here 2 weeks ago, but the weather in Colorado prevented him from making the trip. Hemi will be here on December 27. We can't wait.