Deb & I were married in ’98 in Palmer, TX. We had a great reception at the Crazy Horse
Café in Waxahachie, TX and celebrated with family and friends. We lived there for a
couple of years after marrying, and then moved up to Claremore, OK in what is referred
to as Green Country.
It’s a little chilly in the winter, and it’s hot in the summer. The main difference between
Claremore and north Texas is you don’t have to turn the A/C on until May-June time
frame versus Feb-Mar time frame in Texas, and the A/C gets to go off at least by
October versus December. The biggest difference is “no fire ants.” For those of you
that have not been blessed by the greetings of fire ants, let me just say you ARE
blessed.
Deb and I had a couple of pups, and really started training obedience after moving to
Tulsa. Actually, Deb had trained obedience several years earlier. Our obedience dogs
did well, and generally finished at the top of the heap when it came to performance.
We have had multiple dogs over the last few years and most we still have. A couple of
years ago we gave up many of our extracurricular activities and have gone strictly to
the dogs….and sheep. We started collecting Border Collies, and we quickly learned
they are like Lays Potato Chips….you can’t have just one. So we started our collection
slowly, and have grown one by one.
We had a couple of horses that ended up in California, Texas, Vermont, New Hampshire
and Massachusetts. We had a few chickens and they ended up down the road about
five miles. Funny story about the chickens is that the night we went to catch them to
give them away, there was one black hen that was missing. We figured she was
grabbed by an owl. Well 21 days later she showed up with about 17 chicks. The next
phase of the story is, the next time we went to get rid of the chickens, she again
turned up missing the night of the raid. Again, she showed up 21 days later with about
15 chicks. Unbelievable! So, we didn’t wait near as long to catch the next group and
we delivered them down the road. I was out of town about 21 days later, and I was
talking with Deb on the phone, She said, “You’ll never guess what!” So I inquired as I
would have never guessed. She said, “That black hen showed up with 10 baby
chicks.” I was in disbelief. I was gone for a few days. When I got home, she finally
confessed the truth that there was no black chicken.
We have some nice herding dogs. We have only just begun. We have struggled, and
still struggle with this activity as we have only been doing this for a short time. I
suppose if it were easy, everyone would do it. If we were as bright as our Border
Collies, it would improve their chances when we go to a trial.
Of course, this is the short story….the very short story.
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