John has wanted a dog for a few years but always hesitated due to our Bosun (the senior cat), who we figured would not want to deal with being harassed by Trekkie (the other cat) and a doggie.  If you have been keeping up with our infrequent blogs, you will know that our dear old friend and buddy, Bosun, recently passed away from old age.  It was really difficult dealing with the loss of him, but it opened up the possible opportunity to welcome in a new family member.  John started discussing the idea of a doggie with Jane and while Jane wasn’t exactly against the idea of a dog, she wasn’t exactly positive about it either.  As far as John was concerned, this was a hearty endorsement for him to start dog-shopping.

First order of business was to choose a breed, then the source of the dog (breeder, rescue, Humane Society, etc.) and then what age (puppy or adult)?  The choice of breed is extremely important due to temperament, care requirements, tendency to shed the coat, size of the animal, etc.  John was looking closely at Collies (like ‘Lassie’) and Shelties (small Collie) since they are intelligent, a medium size dog (Sheltie is much smaller) and the grooming/care requirements didn’t seem to be onerous.  He emailed a few breeders in the state of Texas and looked on the Internet at shelters and rescue listings.  Our sister-in-law (Bettye) happened to know

Click on the picture for Sassy’s album

we were thinking about adopting a dog and contacted the breeder of their two Corgis and passed along the situation of us looking for a dog.  Jaime the breeder happened to have a Pembroke Welsh Corgi (Sassy) that was retired from the show ring and needed a good great home with no other dogs since Sassy was jealous of attention paid to other dogs.  We all thought this was a good idea, so we drove over to the Austin area and met Sassy for the first time.  It was love at first sight, Sassy seemed to like us, we liked her, and more importantly, the breeder thought we would make good parents.  Sassy needed to have a cracked tooth pulled, so we had to wait about ten days before we could pick her up which gave us time to prepare us and the house.  After having her for several days, we are all settled in with each other and we think she is a sweet and loving dog and is very well trained.  She responds to commands and sleeps in her crate at night.  Sassy and Trekkie and getting along real well (okay – they’re not sleeping together, but they haven’t gotten into a fight either) and about the only issue we have is that Sassy has an insatiable appetite and will eat anything and everything (John feels like that sometimes, as well!)

So, what’s the deal with antelopes you say?  Jane and John are now officially critter-owning ranchers after recently buying their neighbor’s entire herd of blackbuck antelope (about 31-35 animals.)  Our neighbors have been struggling with the economy being what it is, and they offered to sell the herd to us (their house and property are up for sale), and while we didn’t particularly didn’t want to own a herd of anything, we were interested in helping them out.  There is also the possibility we can make some money from the herd by selling animals every year (the does have babies twice a year.)  Blackbuck is a very low maintenance herd animal and we should only need to do supplemental feeding (corn and hay) in the coldest part of the winter.  These antelope are extremely popular in this part of the Texas Hill Country and were first introduced to this country right here in Kerr county in 1932 as an exotic species for hunting.  They are a beautiful animal and are lots of fun to watch.  By the way, there is no closed hunting season on exotic animals (axis deer, fallow deer, blackbuck, etc), so that is the primary reason they are popular.  (You are also likely to encounter ranchers in the area with bison, zebra, ostrich, and camels.)

And now about John’s nose job.  No, it’s not cosmetic surgery.  John had a spot on the side of his nostril that would crust up and bleed and then disappear for a while and then come back over a period of months.  A visit to the dermatologist determined it was a basal cell carcinoma which needed to be excised.  This Tuesday John went to a dermatologist in San Antonio that specializes in only removing the minimum amount of tissue necessary (called Mohs surgery); they excise some tissue, examine it under a microscope, then excise more as required.  John needed two iterations of excision and then a skin graft was necessary to cover up the hole (skin was transferred from forward of the ear area to the nose.)  Jane was discussing a nose ring or Swarovski crystal as candidates for the hole, but John was contented with conventional skin.  A friend of ours was curious if John was going to be able to hear out of his nose now.  John can’t get any respect.

We were planning on leaving for the summer last Monday, but that is now on hold until late June since John needs tendon surgery on his right hand – that happens June 4th.  John is considering this stuff his 100,000 mile refurbishment.

May God richly bless you and yours.  Bye bye from Jane and John!