Rain and Mud and Horses and Dogs

That is the extent of our afternoon! Our sweet friends who own "Hickory and friends" had a family crisis today and called for our help. They are in Meridian with B's dad who is in critical condition (pray for Mr. S's recovery). Jo drove over last night to be with her mom and dad, not knowing if her grandpa would make it through the day. B and Jo called early this morning with a great need. The horses needed to be checked on, and probably fed. And 3 of the 6 dogs were in the house and, obviously, needed to go "out".

We were happy to help. But we had to wait until Kat finished her meeting at church (preteens preparing to help with pre-school camp next week). Kat had to go with us, because she knows the most about the horses and the dogs...where stuff is, how to feed, which dogs need what, which horses need what, etc.

Now, it has not rained in our part of Mississippi in something like 8 months...well, maybe not that long, but it has been very dry. Not today. It has rained a little almost every afternoon this last week. But today was REAL rain. Steady rain. Wet rain. Our friends have recently moved to their new home, further in the country than they were. Real country. Gravel road country. The new house has no grass. It has red mud. Today it was WET red mud.

Kearsdad, Kat and Banana wore their boots. I just planned to stay out of the mud.

So our adventure...Kearsdad got out and made his way around to the back of the house to let the bulldogs out of their downstairs lair. Great guard dogs they are. They woke up after he was all the way in and looked up at him as if to say, "Oh, hey! How are you?" Then they remembered they needed to go out so they got up. Kat and Banana and I (and Kat's friend who is spending the night with us) stayed in the truck to stay dry for as long as possible. We could see the bulldogs make their way out in the rain to take care of business, but when they trotted up to the driveway to see us, Kat got out in the rain to help direct them back to their door. Just as they were starting back in, Missy remembered she forgot to do something, and ran back out to finish. This whole time, Kearsdad is standing in the rain with mud up to his ankles.

Then Kearsdad went in and made his way upstairs to the kitchen. The BIG dog (remember Luthie, the doberman?) was in the kitchen. Upon hearing Kearsdad coming up the stairs, she let out a loud "You are in my house" bark. Kearsdad approached carefully, all the while reminding Luthie that she knew him. Pretty quickly she remembered that he was a friend, and let him in the kitchen. He let her out of the garage, where she stood in the rain looking up at him with a look that said, "You gotta be kidding. You went through all that to bring me out in the RAIN??" Then she spotted Banana, whom she loves, and after greeting her, went on to begrudgingly do her thing in the rain. Then she followed Banana into the house and didn't leave her side for the next hour.

Banana and I stayed in the house with Luthie, feeding her and checking on the house, while Kearsdad and Kat proceded to the barn to fill the truck with hay and began feeding. Kat and friend got a HUGE kick out of getting to ride in the BACK of the truck with the hay. By now, the rain had slowed to a drizzle, but it didn't really matter since they were already soaked. Off they went, to each pasture, feeding horses. Hickory and his buddy are in one pasture, the "girls" (aka mares- minis, Shetland, - and Tootie the big horse) were in their pasture, and Nick (Tootie's son, who is even bigger than Tootie) has his own pasture. Oh, and Samford (a shetland mix of some kind) is in a 4th pasture. Hay had to be delivered to all the pastures. And for the girls, the hay had to be divided into seperate piles because apparently Tootie doesn't share well.

Kearsdad's truck is now FILTHY. Red sticky mud and hay everywhere, inside and out. But in spite of it all, it was actually pretty fun. Of course, the fun is tempered by our concern for B's dad and our hopes and prayers that he recovers. But it was quite an adventure, and something to add to the list of fun and new things our family has now done together! We came home and all the wet nasty people got a shower. The truck will get washed tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures of the truck, the mud, and the dogs...