The Same, But Not Really

So, we got home Monday night at 10 p.m. after driving 20 hours nonstop from Amarillo, TX to Oakdale, CA. Awesome visit back to see Texas' family (and my-soon-to-be fam!), great food, some good times at the bar dancin', expensive but much needed shopping, and some relaxation thrown in the mix. Just some though.

Today was our first day back to work. Back to the daily grind. Everything was going fine and dandy all morning long. I moved some cows around with Manny, joked around a lot, and Texas drove around a lot pretending to look busy. ;)

Well, a little twist in our daily work day came about 11:45 a.m. We had thrown the doggies outside while we had a repairman come measure our floor to replace the linoleum from water damage last winter. Both our dogs were chipper and bouncin' around the place when we threw them outside in the kennel. When we went to take them back inside 20 minutes later, we came out to vomit, diarrhea (sorry yall but ya should know I don't leave out the details), and Hote glassy eyed, and immobile. Texas threw his violently ill dog into the truck and booked it to the vet. My mom and I followed as quick as we could. The news we got from the vet was not promising. Hote was so terribly sick, and we just couldn't pinpoint the reason. We left Hote in the care of the vets and God. We all left the office thinking that could be the last time we see the red haired hound.

I guess we should have known that Hote is not like any other dog. C'mon, this is a dog that can corner 100-200 lb wild hogs. This severe, sudden illness that came over him was nothing. He had us all, including the vets, convinced he wasn't going to make it through the day, but Texas got a surprising, but very very welcoming phone call an hour after we got back home. His pup was sitting up, and "100% better". 

Now? He's sitting in my Momma's back porch with a catheter in his foot, snuggled up with his brother, lovin' life, and under very watchful care.

The cause? We still don't know. It could have been a bacterial infection that finally surfaced, or possibly a reaction from the poisonous nettles weed that is sprouting up right now from our unseasonably warm weather, or something else entirely.... we may never know.

Besides that whole dramatic and scary part of the day, everything else around this place is pretty much the same.

My baby girl is still sweet. And sassy. And fat. And cute. And the list goes on...

Stoney Bee is still pressshhhh-us.

And he still loves his dad... which he will be legally adopting soon! ;)

Peps and Dos are still alive and kickin' - which ain't easy around this place, lemme tell ya.

I'm still chasing after these critters... I know you're jealous of my view.

There are some things that are different... different things that we intended on... like 4 more deer heads to hang up in the house. Pretty nifty for Texas having his Pops be a Taxidermist.

Another kinda different thing about being home - this girl in the corner is not quite as happy as she once was. She's absolutely terrified of the new deer heads in the house. You would think with 2 deer and 1 antelope already in the house,  Goose would have said," "Oh, the more the merrier, bring on the dead animals!" 

Well, in case yall were wondering, she doesn't dig the new dead heads. She confined herself in "her room" with her food and litter box all of yesterday evening and most of today. I forced her to spend the night in our bedroom last night, but she hid under the bed the entire night because she was too afraid to come face to face with the two new bucks in the room. She slinks by the new guy in the dining room. She's actually so scared that she's been trying to escape out of the door to the outside world which she has, believe it or not, never done before. Slowly, but surely, I hope we can get her used to her new dead friends.

So yall, like I said, I guess things in California are the same, but not really.