Eventful holiday weekend

Whew, and when I say eventful, I mean it! I went to visit some friends at their lake house on Canyon Lake. It was gorgeous! (I mean, except for the rain..though even that was beautiful!) I drove the Devil's Backbone on my way there--an awesome drive, which I had never done with the Miata club (my own fault). Though I did take a little side trip through Wimberley, almost to Driftwood--I forgot that I wasn't supposed to turn off right there.

Saturday night was an awesome lightning storm that woke everyone up, including and especially the dogs. I had taken Hannah's collar off so she wouldn't wake everyone up all night, but I needn't have worried since the storm took care of that. The following morning, we let the dogs out to pee, and lo and behold Hannah found some deer to chase!

That little dog of mine can run fast!!! We hollered at her to come, but she was so focused and having so much fun that she of course ignored us. Unfortunately in her fun she managed to get lost. I have never been so...scared...for another being in my life, I think. How could a five-pound dog survive living in the wild? We kept searching for her, combing the woods, checking the campgrounds, walking the neighborhood. The neighbors all knew we were looking for a little black dog, as did the owner of the beer and bait store up the road. We kept calling for her, we put food out on the front and back porches, and we kept an eye out for her. At some point we tried calling animal control (closed until Tuesday, it would be a $500 fine if they had her) and I dug out the phone book and started leaving messages with area vet clinics.

Sunday night there was another storm, not as scary as Saturday night's but still a big one. We all hoped that Hannah had been taken in by someone so she could at least have a warm, dry place to sleep.

Monday morning I was wide awake at 6, and praying that my little dog would be returned to me...after all, she is rather indestructible! Finally at about 9:30, the guy at the store called--a lady had found my dog but couldn't catch her! We hauled ass to the store, getting there in about five seconds (seriously!) and she said to follow her and she'd take us to where the dog was. Sure enough, Hannah had apparently found some houses and was basking in the sun on the concrete driveway, seemingly none the worse for wear. We profusely thanked the kind soul who had found her and had asked at the store. Bless her!

I don't think I have ever been so happy to see my little Hannah bug. After drinking lots of water and snoozing even more, I think today she is back to normal. Whew!

Above pics are of my friend Pat reassuring my parents' dog Bo, and of Pat and Amy's dogs Tara and Bean recovering from the stress of missing Hannah. :)

P.S. I did call back all those vet clinics Monday night to leave messages that my baby had been found.

Body Worlds

I went to Fort Worth a couple weeks ago to visit some friends and meet their 3-month-old baby girl, and somehow I managed to talk them in to going to the Body Worlds exhibit in Dallas. Wow! I totally recommend going to see it. Everything has been "plasticized", so it all looks a little unreal and is easy to forget that these were once-living people who donated their bodies to science and education. Except some of the bodies still had hair. But one of my friends managed to make it through--I was so proud, because she's not a scientist but an accountant. Then she told me that she had been expecting to see body parts in JARS, entire bodies in big windowed freezers, and other such things. Whoa! That would've been a totally different experience, indeed!

It was a very interesting exhibit, and one that we were all glad to have gone to. They had healthy organs alongside unhealthy ones: smokers lungs next to nonsmoker lungs, cancerous organs next to healthy ones, etc. It was amazing to be able to see what a difference disease really causes. I mean, I can look at diagrams and stuff all day (and have, in fact), but to see these, and to know they are real, is fantastically educational. Amazing, really. I highly recommend it!

(And, for the record, my friends' baby was beautiful and adorable! And my friend even cooked while I was there! ) We also went on a mad dash one evening to find the Grey's Anatomy Trivia Game, but we couldn't remember what store's ad we had seen it in, so we rushed to 3 or 4 different stores before we finally found it, right before they closed. Whew! Then, of course, we stayed up playing a few games of it, and even my friend's husband won a game! (he's not a fan...)