The First Noel

This blog has gotten entirely too serious.  So in case you think that our life is all death and doctors and no fun...

Tali's golden retriever pup, Noel, is 7 months old now and is super social and is the darling of the ranch. She is the one that sticks her head in a boot to go to sleep when she gets stressed.

Everyone raves about her.  "She is the best addition to the ranch."  Maybe we can get our vet bills paid for. The kids are crazy in love with her.  She is constantly stealing their boots, hats, socks, you name it and the kids and the parents just LOVE it.  We're glad they love it cause we can't get her to stop taking things.  She doesn't chew them up.  She just takes them and carries them off and then abandons them.  So there are socks, gloves, hats, boots and shoes in the weirdest places all over the ranch.  After a while we just started leaving them.

She loves, loves, loves water.  It kinda clued us in this winter when she started blowing bubbles in her water bowl and then jumping in it to watch it splash all over my walls and floors.  Or she would drop a piece of food in her bowl to watch it bob around.  I had to start taking her water bowl away from her the minute she was done drinking.  Ginger, our 8 yr old mutt, finally got disgusted and stopped trying to lick her dry.

Then Noel started running across the frozen pond and fell through twice, but that didn't stop her.  Now that it's summer she is out there paddling around in the pond at least twice a day just looking around at the blue sky.  "Ahhh, this is the life!.  Got my own pond, my own pool, my own fish.  Even had my own ducks for a while, until they flew away after giving up their quest for nesting in MY pond.  What were they thinking???  They never asked.  Hmmph!  The nerve!"

She loves to go fishing with Nate or dad and when they get a fish close to shore she is out in the water waiting to walk the fish up to the bank.  She tries to retrieve them, but the wiggling freaks her out.  The other day she put her entire head under trying to see the fish and dad said you could see the bubbles coming up like she was trying to smell it.  She came up with a dirt clod instead.  The guests just think it's hilarious.  She stinks like fish 24/7.  She came trotting up with a fish one day and carried it around by the tail like she was afraid to get slimy (it was already dead).  The kids all thought she was a hero.

Her name is Noel, but we call her Noezer because her nose is constantly in things, or Snickers because when she gets wet she gets out and rolls in the dirt, of all things, and is caramel on top, chocolate dipped on the bottom and just a little bit nuts. Or Pigpen because there is a cloud of dust where-ever she walks.  My (Rachelle's) carpets will never, ever be the same. I throw a fit and won't let her in when she is black and Nate and Tali think THAT is funny until I make them wash her off. Then the joke is on them.  I told Tali she could help me vacuum every day this summer.  She said that was over the top and I said no way.  You can see the dust billow when you walk.  All thanks to Noel...or whatever her name is.

We had a group of indigenous folks here for some meetings and they would take their shoes off at the doors because it was mud season.  Yep, you guessed it.  Shoes ended up out in the snow, the mud, all over the place.  Noel is now famous all over the Amazon and known as La Ladrona, the thief.  I've never known a dog with so many names.

Nate and Tali were in the pool the other day and Noel went running up the path, under the fence and didn't slow down before plunging into the pool, chocolate and all.  The housekeeper had just been saying how some days it takes her forever to clean the pool.  Ummm, yeah, about that....

Some nights Noel gets to running circles around the couch and when she runs by Ginger, Ginger will bark each time like she is counting.  They did that 7 times one night.  I think Ginger would be glad to give you a puppy.  Anybody.  Anyone???