Rainbows and Puppy-dog Tales

Sam cuddled up with China last night. How sweet is that?















The three new boys ... tuckered out!




















Put a puppy (Joey) in Caroline's arms and see what happens?





















It works with Sam, too!!











The trip home went well. They all slept most of the way. Ali was not happy for the first hour or so. He woke this morning looking like he didn't feel good at all and he wouldn't eat breakfast. I gave him some Pepto Bismol, and it seemed to help, as he went back and ate a little before we left. He could have been "hung over" from the night before. I don't know what got into him, but he was acting like there was a horrible thunderstorm (he hasn't had a problem with those for a couple years!!) and, as you see here,





.... he was looking for a place to hide!











There were storms in the area last night, and I wonder if the atmospheric conditions in the Midwest are different from those here. He used to go crazy when it stormed in KC, but I've had no problem here when it storms. Poor guy.

I really think he was not feeling well and that caused him to be restless in the car. I stopped and gave him a "chill pill," an herbal thing that helps him relax, and it worked. The rest of the trip was good.

Max and Joey are doing pretty well on the leash now. It seems that they needed some examples (China & Ali) about how it works. There will be an occasional problem, but for the trip home, there wasn't anything big. Once hooked up and on the ground, they did their business and off we went!

Sam, however........ sigh. On the leash, he just turns into a statue! He just sits on the ground with his neck stretched as long as he can make it, and doesn't move much but his eyes!!! I don't pull him or do anything to scare him, but he just goes stiff! I tried lifting him enough to make him stand, hoping that he would take a step or two, but the only thing that happened is that Caroline and I became hysterical with laughter while watching him, stiff legged, looking like a furry piece of work from a taxidermist! I guess that leash training him is going to take a bit more work than the others, to say the least!! Why would I expect otherwise? That is his M.O.!! It's a good thing he is so sweet and lovable!!

Caroline really fell for Sam. After I was on the road, I thought maybe I should consider letting him go with her. And immediately I said huh-uh!! He's already my baby!!

The drive was uneventful, too, but a short while after we were in New Mexico we had a very hard rain. It was so heavy for a couple minutes that driving at 35 mph, I could barely see the car ahead of me and could not see the road, at all. That couple minutes seemed like a long, long time, however!!! I really hate driving in that kind of rain! There was a brief time, too, when a slushy mixture was hitting the windshield. It looked like someone was throwing tablespoons full of Icee against it! Weird weather!

Just before that storm, the temperature was in the mid 80s, a drop from the 90s I'd experienced most of the day, and right after the center of the cell passed over, dropping the Icee and torrential rain, I looked up at the thermometer as it seemed cold in the car, and it was 52° outside!! As the rain cleared, the temp rose again to the low 90s. It was really odd!

As I neared home, I saw another heavy storm ahead of me. I was about thirty miles or so from home, hoping I could get here before the rain did. It rained off and on all the way but never very hard. The coolest thing happened during this. About 10 miles from my turn at Carrizozo, there was an awesome double rainbow, very bright, vivid and distinct! It stretched from around Corrizo Peak across the valley that I would drive through to go home to the Sierra Blanca range. It was as if it arched over the way home!



This is where I first saw it, the south end of it.













Have you ever noticed how cool it is that rainbows "follow" you? As I drove along, it just moved with me, and when I turned East, for the few miles before the last southern leg to the house, the rainbows just moved ahead of the car as if guiding me. About a mile before the turn, they finally faded out.

At home, I brought the dogs in, then went back to unload the car. When I turned from the front door, the rainbows were back!





Those mountains in the background are the Capitans.















They stretched completely across to the southern sky.













Look at those colors!!

















Could there be a better way to come home?














What could make me feel more welcome .... a gorgeous double rainbow and three darling new family members to join me, Ali and China!

Life is beautiful!!!!