Ranch Revue: Home At Last
We actually didn’t know if we would make it out in the morning — we knew we needed to get back to town because the girls and mom were flying in to Mesa and we were planning to pick them up on our way back! We decided we’d better get up extra early in case there were any delays on the way out of the ranch. As usual, the neighbor’s three dogs were panting on our doorstep as soon as we opened the cabin door, wanting to know if Gwinnie could come out and play. I made the near-fatal mistake of saying “Oh, let her run around for a little while, she’ll be cooped up in that car for the next 5 hours. It’ll do her good.”
Off they all bounded, and were out of sight in a flash.
Meanwhile, we brushed our teeth and got the car loaded up, and then it was time to go. No Gwinnie anywhere to be seen. No neighbor dogs. We hollered. We tramped up and down the hill. We looked across the valley with the binoculars to see if we could find her over at the neighbor place. We saw Amy herding the goats, but no dogs anywhere. Paul got in the van and drove over to the other neighbor place and back, no dogs there, no dogs at our place.
Then he and Jacob took one final drive, and went out the front way a ways too — and about 5 minutes after they left though, Gwinnie came trotting down the hill, looking done in! The other dogs were not to be seen so I shooed her inside and gave her a good scolding – and some water. She drank, then flopped down on the cement floor to cool down. Finally Paul came back up the drive, and I opened the door just wide enough to give him a thumbs-up that she had come home.
He was thoroughly disgusted with her, and blamed the neighbor dogs for their corrupting ways. We ended up leaving about a half-hour later than we’d hoped, and were very thankful to be able to get out the back way without any trouble. We were even early enough that we got back into town with time to go all the way home to the West Valley to unload, before Paul then drove back to Mesa to pick up our traveling foursome.
What a relief and joy it was when they finally arrived at the front gate! That evening, after we’d all been to mass and were home again, as we sat in the living room, none was happier than Gwinnie, who snuggled up between her people and drank up the loves.
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