Our German Shepherd woke us up at 2:45 this morning. Someone was at the door and being the good girl that she is, she let off her warning barks. Her barks would make you piss yourself if you didn’t know what a lovey girl she really is.

She rarely ever barks at anything unless someone puts their foot on those front steps other than me or Ray. Then she’s at the door in like 2.8 seconds, and she goes into her “WHO IS IT” bark mode. If you’ve ever heard a protective German Shepherd bark, you know what I’m talking about. It’s a bark that says “I better know who you are or you are going to regret it.”

The minute she see’s that we’re okay with whoever is at the door, (or if she’s already met you), then she’s okay, lol. Tonight it was a police officer cuz someone hit the mailbox across the street and he thought it was ours. She went into protective mode and I had to tell her it was okay before she let me out the door to the cop. She’s been extremely protective of me, I think she knew I was pregnant before I even did when she started sleeping on my side of the bed, so close that if I put my feet down I’d step on her. She started doing that right after Christmas, right after conception. We didn’t put 2 and 2 together till a couple weeks later.

We got Teyla 3 months after a really horrible accident that cost the life of our dog Ms B and put me in a cast for several months. (We got crushed in a rock-slide up in Peyson at the paleo site. Someone fell down the cliff and brought down a shelf of boulders.  I survived, our dog didn’t. That was by far the most horrifying experience I have ever been through.)

I had no intention of getting another dog for a long time after losing Ms B, and Ray and I had both agreed that if we did get a dog later on down the road, we wanted a female shepherd, at least 3 years old, who was great with all people, kids, and cats. We didn’t know that what we wanted would be delivered a couple of months later. I wasn’t even out of my cast yet when I met her and I was really leery to even look at her but I fell in love with her the minute I saw her.

Teyla’s an amazing girl. When we went to meet her, the first thing she did was run over to me, flop over on her back and expose her belly. Talk about a trusting dog! Then she ran over to Ray and did the same thing.

Teyla is very protective of “her people”, and as soon as you’re introduced to her, you become “her people” too and she knows you for life.

She is absolutely AMAZING with children, she is a mother-hen to them and stays by their side at all times when outside, she walks off-leash by their side and makes sure that they’re safe. Whenever we have family/friends stay at the house who have kids, she’s depressed for a day or two after they leave.

She’s going to love having a little one to watch over when Lilly arrives.  I wish Teyla was a little younger because she’s 7-9 years old now. (The vet guessed she was 5-7 when we got her). She’s going to be too old when Lilly’s old enough to throw a ball around with her outside. That’s a big bummer, but I have no doubt that the next couple of years will be filled with Teyla enjoying her role as Lilly’s guardian.

So that’s our good-girl Teyla.

Our horse farrier is the gentleman that we bought our ranch from. He’s a down-to-earth good old fashioned country guy and sometimes his philosophies crack me up. (I’ll call him “L” out of privacy courtesy)

He was out today to trim our horses and remove Neo’s horse shoes since we’re not riding him. (Too hot, not enough time, and I’m preggo)

We were chatting and Ray mentioned how he thought Penny’s picked up a few of Neo’s stubborn habits. I disagreed and said that was more our doing since we haven’t been working the horses and they’ve had a free-ride here at the ranch for awhile now.

“L” however put it best… he advised that horses are pretty much just like teenagers:

“If you let them sit on their butt all summer long, playing video games and eating chips, and suddenly at the end of the summer ask them to go mow the lawn, they’re gonna be stubborn butt-heads about it.” I totally agree. There are no free-rides in life. There’s always a little work to be done.

So, a few lessons from “L” and how they apply to life

“When it comes to shoeing a horse or not shoeing a horse— just like people, some things are more comfortable to do in shoes, some things are more comfortable to do barefoot.” ~~~ Remember, at the end of the day, we all kick off our shoes, it’s our way to relax. You can’t go in full gear all the time.

“If you work a horse over and over and over again, keep them penned up, sooner or later they’ll forget they’re a horse. You gotta let ‘em loose, let ‘em graze, let them be who they are.” ~~~~ Never forget who you are, and remember to be yourself. You might work your butt off for finer things in life, but if you don’t stop to enjoy them, you can lose yourself.

There are others, but those are the ones that pop into my mind…

I’m actually doing a blog post in a bit here, but figured I would put up a pic of the ducks that have taken up residence in our irrigated field. They’ve been here for about 4 days, though the water is getting really low so I’m not sure how much longer they will be around.

The marsh next door is still empty, though it looked like there was a little water in the bottom, as it had dark mud so maybe they’re fixing something and are gonna refill it soon? Please, I hope so. Despite the mosquitoes, I still love the fact there is a natural marsh and protective ground for the ducks and frogs and other wildlife.