Collaboration Thursday

                                                 

The stars lined up. 

Three of my friends who like to share stuff virtually did just that yesterday. 

And, so today's post will feature their contributions. 

I haven't heard from Dick Gooby in a while.  Now, I know why.  

Dick, who is a few years older than I, still rides horses out there where grizzlies and grouse disorder the minds of horses and some people take a tumble from the saddle. 

Happily, Dick is alive and well and even well-fed, so his reports from the Gooby Ranch in Montana continue to come.

My friend and editor Helen also has a few contributions today.  She sent me and a bunch of her friends some wisdom gleaned from memes.  

"Something for everyone," she wrote. 

For some strange reason, I knew exactly which one she had personally selected for me. 

Betcha can't guess!

Two days ago I was thinking about my friend Connie from Hope and wondering if I should call her and ask if she and Jon ever found their Border Collie pup Willie. 

Jon and Connie brought Willie home just days before we chose Bridie to be our newest Border Collie. 

So, we have compared notes as puppy parents over the last year. 

Willie disappeared a few weeks ago, and there's been no sign of him, in spite of lots of Facebook coverage. 

It was his second disappearance.  The first time he took off, Jon and Connie drove about 30 miles away across the Montana border to retrieve him. 

No such luck this time, and I knew, from personal experience, how heart-breaking it is to have a family dog disappear. 

We never ever found out what happened to our beloved Pupper, the kindest, most patient Golden Retriever one could ever meet. 

For months, I held steadfastly to the hope that some day he would return.  

After all, our Bogey of Bogey and Julie and "Gone Dog Blues" fame returned to the house one day five months after he disappeared. 

That pair of English Setter siblings disappeared every chance they got---usually to Serva Burger or the Louisiana Pacific mill.

One time we picked them up and Bogey had a note attached to his collar.  It read, "Next time you send your dogs to work, send 'em with a hard hat and a lunch.  Sincerely, the LP Crew."  

Well, our Pupper never came back, and so far, Willie has not returned. 

BUT, Connie has exciting news in her latest blog post about "Lady III." 

So, check it out.  I think Little Lady has already melted some hearts.

https://retiredmtnlady.blogspot.com/

 

The beat goes on here at Lovestead. My "to do" list today calls for filling the lawnmower gas cans, paying bills and fixing the string dispenser on the weed eater so I chop  down shrubs rather than pruning them one at a time.

Looks like we may have a fairly dry day, so I'm hoping to make another dent in the winter prep. 

Happy Thursday.  Enjoy the contributions. 

                                                      Gooby Ranch Report

 

I heard rumors that there were a few feral cows on the mountain that the ranchers hadn’t gotten when they moved their herds.  I decided we should ride up and collect them.  We were a couple of hours from the truck riding up a narrow canyon with a steep hill on one side and a creek in thick brush on the other when the excitement started. 

A mama grizzly with three cubs came charging out of the brush right in front of us.  They ran up the hill a ways and stopped to look us over.  At the same time the bears came bursting out of the brush, a bunch of grouse also got rousted out of the thick brush.

The horses thought they were being attacked by an army of grizzlies.  Jeannie had been riding in front but in a micro-second she was riding in the rear.  Mary Ann, who was riding second, was now on the other side of the thick brush getting bombarded with grouse.  

My horse thought the safest thing for her to do was get rid of me.  So, she did and I was left sitting on my behind in the middle of the trail wondering where Mama grizzly was.  

The three cubs came trotting back down the mountain to see if there was any food around. Their mother was right behind them. I had to lie down and be real still so the bears didn’t eat me.

 Mary Ann had heard there was no bona fide record of a grizzly attacking a rider on a horse so she let out blood curdling yell and ran directly at the bears.  They looked at her as if she was crazy.  Since she couldn’t scare them away, she reached in my saddle bag, got out my lunch and scattered it on the trail. 

I had to watch all this while lying in the trail playing dead.  While they were distracted, Jeannie caught my horse, came over, hefted me up, draped me over the saddle like I was dead to fool the grizzly and we rode off.  Not only did I have a knot in my stomach, I had a hole in my stomach thinking about no lunch.

I tried to talk Mary Ann into going back to get the left-over food but she said to quit whining, those grizzlies wouldn’t leave until they had eaten every crumb. She said since they were eating people food, I should eat grizzly food. 

A little while later she pointed out an ant hill and said enjoy your lunch.   I decided I liked the hole in my stomach.  Later, while Mary Ann and Jeannie were talking, I reached over, got her lunch and put it in my saddle bag.  After a couple hours Mary Ann said it was time to eat lunch.  We stopped and tied up the horses. 

She reached in her saddle bag but there was no lunch.  Immediately Mary Ann dug through my bag to see if I had stolen her food but I was clean.  While we were riding, I was bringing up the rear as usual, I managed to snack the whole lunch away.  Jeannie divided up her lunch, giving me and Mary Ann half.  I no longer had a hole in my stomach.  It was over full.