Hi everybody!

I thought I'd post a lil' short story that Mom wrote a few years ago, about a lil' adventure we all took to Enchanted Rock in Texas.  This is before Oz and Gull, but during the time we shared our life with Maddie, my lil' Cairn sidekick and Mom's soulmate dog (are so she says). Maddie's since went onto Heaven and Mom still misses her, but I gotta say me and my hair are somewhat relieved for the reprieve from her yanking it out, during one of her irrational rampages.  My hair doesn't quite grow back like it use to and dang! if it don't hurt to have somebody yank it out by the roots anyway. :)

Anywho, that's enough set up for the story.  Here we go:

[b]Les and Jeff's (and Murph and Maddie's) Excellent Adventure - Part 1[/b]

Written by Les (or as referred to in the dog world, Murph's Mom ;))

I never really gave much thought to what I get out of hiking other than I enjoy it immensely, until I went on a day hike to Enchanted Rock State Park in the hill country of Texas, with my then boyfriend, Jeff. Jeff was very hesitant climbing up and over rocks, while I didn't give it much thought. He seemed fearful, so I finally asked him what was up, assuming I'd find out he was afraid of heights. His response was that he'd thrown his back out once trying not to fall, so he needed to be extra careful. <hummmmm... hurting yourself, trying not to fall and hurt yourself. This I did not understand>. As a card carrying, klutz my philosophy is if you fall, just enjoy the ride, until impact. A skill, I ultimately get to demonstrate for him on this trip.

We'd been set up by a mutual friend, who thought we had a lot in common, which I was beginning to have my doubts. We'd been on a few dates to movies and dinner and I felt it was time to find out, if he enjoyed my love of the outdoors and animals. So off we head to the hill country, with my two Cairn Terriers in tow. Maddie, who's blind and experiences nature from a pack strapped to my back and Murph, who's very adventurous and exuberant, from a leash. As we take the easy way up, everybody seems to be enjoying themselves. Then feeling the need for something more challenging, I start searching for paths with rocks to scramble over. Murph, easily jumps from rock to rock. Neither of us realizing Jeff's fear, forge obliviously along. Murph naturally pulling on the leash trying to keep pace with me and making Jeff feel like he's about to be pulled off of every rock. Not a good situation for someone who's afraid of falling.

(continued in Part 2)