Horses and Dogs

I knew from Sharon's email that there was a horse in the family and that it normally lived in a field at their place. Sadly, when we were there, the horse was at its other home, a riding stable whose owner usually boards a second horse with Sharon and Tom, in addition to their own.

However, I was very pleased to make the acquaintance of Gabby, a young rescued dog. She had a great big scary bark, but she was actually very affectionate and a little shy. She couldn't get enough of our attention, once she got over being nervous, and I filled up on doggie love, having not had any for so long.


Despite her size she was definitely a lap dog and between Tom and Bill, she was obviously a very happy puppy.


Then it turned out that we did have a horse in our future. Her name is Chelsea and she's a Great Dane. She came out of the back of the house the first morning when I was talking with Sharon and it was quite a shock seeing her standing there looking at me.


Fortunately, Chelsea turned out to be just as affectionate as Gabby. Equally fortunate, Chelsea being quite a bit older wasn't nearly as bouncy, though she did try to gambol about with Gabby a couple of times in the yard. It made Bill and me fall about laughing, she looked so comical. The yard is plenty big, but she's so enormous that it only took her a couple of gallops to cover the length of it.

Bless her, Chelsea preferred the couch to the yard, just as Gabby preferred laps to the floor.


I petted each for as long as they liked, but stayed out of lap-dog reach, fearing I'd be buried completely, having seen it happen to both Bill and Tom.

So far as I could tell, the large couch actually belonged to the dogs, which is a concept that I grew up understanding. They generously let Bill use it, in return for a little attention.