Patricia L. Ballard

Life here in New Mexico rocks on. I’m down to two more rooms to paint. Then I get to start on fixing all the little things that don’t bother me while I’m living in a house but need to be fixed before we can sell it. Fortunately, we did most of the major repairs before we decided to sell. It’s mostly cosmetic remodeling that we left undone before the move to Chapel Hill. I’m in bed this morning sore from painting all day yesterday.

Now, on to more fun stuff. I have a question or interesting thing to share with all of you Australians. About six years ago someone abandoned a dog in our neighborhood in Albuquerque. He refused to come to anyone, so people started putting out food and water for him. The street looked like a canine version of Hansel and Gretel for a few days. After the poor thing wore down a neighbor caught him, and we ended up keeping him We knew he was a cattle dog of some sort, but we were never sure what breed he was. He looked like a Blue Heeler, but that was not quite right. We ended up naming him Ringo. His full name for us was Ringo the Dingo. Well, my daughter was searching dog breeds online this week and ran across the Australian Stumpy Tailed Cattle Dog. That’s our Ringo! There are only two breeders in the whole US that currently breed this dog. He’s a total sweetie. Do any of you Australian know anything about this breed? After six years, we’re all hooked on his personality.

Oh, and you wouldn’t believe the dogs that we picked up in this neighborhood. We also found a pure bred Bassett Hounds and a little mutt that was the cutest dog that ever lived.

I’m thinking about all of you.

Pat