They were on the road dark and early this morning - way before dawn, but then, before dawn on a Saturday morning is an excellent time to go through or past Dallas.

The dogs were so funny - my routine here when strangers arrive is to walk up the driveway to the back gate and greet the dogs and introduce company. Especially if there is a dog with the company; that gives my dogs a look at the visitor and helps discharge the pack energy somewhat. So there was an excited bit of jumping at the gate, then in the house Zeke first met Maggie, and after a minute the other two joined in and the poor girl had three dogs all larger than her checking her vital signs and everything else. She's a trooper, and after that initial shock they roamed the house during the evening while we talked. At one point my dogs wanted to start a rumble under the dining room table, something that was going to involve running, jumping, and picking up and throwing or dropping heavy dog chew toys. (If you've ever seen a dog pick up a toy and fling it, you know that property damage sometimes results. Or human injury, depending on what was flung).

During the night every couple of hours the hall outside the bedrooms sounded like the inside of a drum because my dogs all came inspecting the closed door outside the room where Maggie was spending the night and started wagging tails against the hall table and the walls and whining to invite her to go play or perhaps howl at a few coyotes out in the back yard.

Everyone is going to need a nap today.