Friends,

As many of you know, I have a fairly large menagerie, which includes six dogs.

In rural Kansas, winter has been over-staying its welcome. In fact, we had some very light snow flurries earlier today.

Yesterday, I wasn't up more than 10 minutes when I heard an expletive escape from my husband's mouth as he stood at the front door. I say, "Did Gracie get out?" He said, "Yes."

I was out of my chair grabbed the truck keys and a leash and I was off in my knit, floor-length nightgown. By the time I was getting in the truck, Gracie was headed towards the road.

She slipped out of sight as she went down in the ditch on this side of the road. She came back in sight in a few minutes tossing some bones in the air. All my honking and calling for her to come were for naught.

In a few minutes she bounded across the road, as I held my breath. She was under our neighbor's barbed wire fence lickety split, and chasing our neighbors' cattle within a minute.

Now mind you, Gracie, is all of 15 lbs., but she thinks she's BIG!

After a minute or so I drove over the the little driveway outside the fenced property, and tried calling Gracie again. Thankfully, she decided to come, and we went for a quick ride to reward her for coming.

Today I was checking messages on my computer when I heard two of my dogs barking fairly frantically outside. When I looked to see what was going on, there were two of my St. Bernards out in the middle of the driveway.

Their 30-foot tie outs, don't allow them to go that far. Well the leads were still attached to the dogs, but they had managed to get the brass clip off the large metal loop on the back deck.

Missy, the Saint we rescued about a year and a half ago, was running directly for the road. Fortunately, Baby Girl was not directly behind Missy, and the lead hung up on a tree, allowing me to catch up. Of course I was running around in my flannel pajamas this morning.

I was able to get them back in the house safely.

That's all from the Prairie for now.

EJ