A Day at the River

This post has nothing to do with gardening and everything to do with my life in the Texas hill country.  My husband and I have a beautiful second home deep in the hills on the Dry Frio River.  We go there often, mostly on weekends, and just hang out.  It's a beautiful place and our dogs love it out there almost as much as we do.  We turn them loose in the river and they are as happy as they can be.

Last weekend was the first weekend in 10 years we were at the ranch house without our dog Bandit.  A sad time for sure, but it also made me realize that as much as Bandit loved the water and loved to swim, I had no pictures of either him or Tyson in the river.  I set out to remedy that last weekend.  I turned Tyson loose in the river and began taking pictures.  Now remember, Tyson is almost 11 years old; but in the water, he still acts like a young pup.  His mission in life is to chase and retrieve sticks.  Here is a small sampling of what our Saturday afternoon was like:

 Shake shake shake...

Would ya throw the stick already?!

 No stick is too big for Tyson :)

My beautiful sister just moved to Texas and is staying with us for awhile until she gets settled.  She and her little dog, Chico, came with us last weekend and Chico was "baptized" into the Dry Frio River (a misnomer because there is always water in the river).  Here is the lovely Carol and a few snapshots of Chico enjoying one of Texas' most beautiful rivers.

The dogs get along very well and Tyson was a great mentor for Chico, although Chico was *not* interested in going any deeper in the water than where her feet could touch the bottom!  The little minnows were quite intriguing to Chico as well. 

Despite missing Bandit and the huge void created by his absence, it was a wonderful weekend for all of us.  And Tyson was totally wiped out by Sunday afternoon.

But he is my best dog ever and I am so grateful that he is healthy (although quite arthritic) and still has such a zest for life.  Hang in there beautiful old boy Tyson, there's plenty more sticks to chase!