A Wonderful Surprise

I had the most wonderful surprise yesterday. After a long day of battling traffic to and from the city, learning a new craft (which is really quite fun, but hard on the old noggin), and an advisory council meeting thrown in the mix, I came home to a gift from one of our great neighbors. Amy and David may be familiar names to some of my regular readers as they are very dear followers and have been more than supportive in this blog and any other endeavor this crazy ranch takes on! They are a cool little family unit, both extraordinarily intelligent parents, a son who loves all of our critters and a happy little girl whose playful screams make me grin every time I hear them come across the winds, god I miss those days!

Anyway, as dogs will do, their dogs got out of their invisible fencing system and got in a fight with my Gigi. David was already out in his truck looking for the dogs and heard the fight start and me yelling at the dogs, so no damage was done. Actually, that's not true, because the fight started when I was up feeding so it was up behind the barn and my renters house. So, in the middle of the initial dog fight, my renters pit bull, who we have very strict rules for, got loose. It could have been a very dangerous situation with six dogs all at the ready to fight, but David was willing to be right there in the middle of it.

The problem was that once we got the dogs separated, Isabella and I, and our two dogs (Rosie and Gigi) were then stuck up at the barn because the renters dogs were loose and blocking our usual route back to the house. I hollered to David and of course he came ripping down the road to our rescue. He put himself and his truck in between us and the dogs so that I could run Rose and Gigi home a different way and run back up to get Bella who had done the smart thing and run back into the barn as soon as she saw the dog fight break out. He stayed here until he knew that we were home safely.

Amy and David know how I am about Gigi and were absolutely horrified! So, as I said, I had a wonderful surprise when I got home last night. They had left a huge bag of goodies for the dogs! All sorts of dog treats, a chew toy for Gigi, which is now Tia's favorite (sorry Amy and David), and even freshly baked treats for them. But, the real treat is for Tom and I, a gift certificate to a fancy local steak house, that of course on our tight budget, we have not tried. From one parent to another, a night out is a very thoughtful gift.

To be honest, I hadn't even thought twice about the dog fight. Gigi is quite a pain in the butt to the other dogs in the neighborhood and lets it be known that she can squeeze through any fence and gets to go places every dog wishes to go. What a superb example of special neighbors!