Mustang Sally

 

I had a very busy day Saturday.

It started off with watching the parking area of a local ACTHA CTC ride location fill up with horse trailers. I had hoped to be able to ride in this one, since I could not only ride my horse there in 5 minutes if it weren’t for the fences in the way, but I can also see the location from my bedroom window!

See that green barn and all those horse trailers in the center of the photo?

Yeah, this ACTHA CTC was held Saturday in the same valley that I live in, and the trails were up in the same Open Space area as the Founders Ranch ACTHA CTC that I rode Apache in last July.

I could even see the groups of horses and riders as they headed up the road away from the green barn towards the Open Space.(using full-strength zoom of course)

Yeah, I was feeling a little bummed that I wasn’t able to ride in this one, but I promised my twinlings that I would take them on Saturday morning, to their Boy Scouts Orienteering Class that they are required to take to rank up in their Troop.

So, that’s what I did.

And then afterwards, I went to Albuquerque to meet a 6 year old female Chihuahua.

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This is a prerequisite for reading the rest of this blog post: Turn up your volume and press the play button on this video before continuing. Trust me. It will make sense in a few moments.

I had heard about this dog a few days ago, from a local contact that asked if I could help.

This little dog needed a new home because her owner was in a desperate situation after supposedly going through a divorce last month, meeting a new man who planned to marry her in Texas next month, having to take care of her aged parents, also in Texas, having to move out of her mobile home tomorrow, and being disabled and unable to take care of the dog anymore. Whew! I’m not sure if all of that is true, but if it is, I will never complain about my life being complicated or overwhelming ever again!

So, I drove into Albuquerque and met the lady and her dog, and the dog met me and my daughter, and my Dobbie Girl, and everything went well and we all got along.

So, I agreed to take this lady’s dog and give her a good home.

Meet Mustang Sally.

(Poor Mustang Sally. All her front teeth have been removed due to poor nutrition and a lack of oral hygiene in the past, and so her lips tend to sink into her mouth, giving her a snarly look)

The lady had named her Callie, but since she had just adopted her from a local Animal Shelter only 2 months ago, I wasn’t worried about changing her name, since I doubted she was very attached to the name Callie anyway.

The reason I named her Mustang Sally is an odd story.

I wanted to name her something similar sounding as Callie, and the lady lived on Mustang Road. And ironically enough, as my daughter, Jen and I were discussing name choices and were sitting at a stop sign getting ready to turn left out of the neighborhood, a lovely pale yellow 68’ Ford Mustang drove past. Call it fate.

The name Mustang Sally popped into my head and stuck there. Besides, a skinny, little Chihuahua needs a strong sassy name, don’t you think?

Well, if it had been up to my daughter, this poor dog would have been named Dirt.

Why? Because Jen said she’s the color of dirt.

Anyway, I must be crazy for adopting another dog…and a Chihuahua, no less. No offense, but Chihuahua’s have never been my favorite breed of dog in the past, and well, they still aren’t. They just look weird, and they tend to be yappy, shivering, fearful, and fragile-looking. But something about this little dog and her situation just called out to me.  And now I’ve got two dogs with Chihuahua in their blood.

I’ve also been thinking about getting a friend for my Dobbie Girl for about a year now. She loves to play with our German Shepherd, but Zuni plays rough and is much bigger than Dobbie, so I worry about Dobbie getting hurt.

Of course, Dobbie can get a little rowdy sometimes, too and now I’m wondering if Mustang Sally might be a little too delicate for some wild play. So far they seem to get along well, but aren’t doing any playing.

Although, I think Dobbie is still worried that Mustang Sally is here to replace her somehow. (No way Dobbie. Never!)

Mostly Mustang Sally loves attention and wants to be held all the time, by anyone in our family. The second any of us sit down, Mustang Sally hops right up into our laps with cuddles and kisses. She’s very sweet and I’m finding it a challenge to juggle the doling out of affection to both my canine soul mate, Dobbie Girl, and this new little pooch, Mustang Sally. I’m not sure how folks do it with a whole pack of dogs. My lap is only so big and my arms only capable of holding one little dog at a time.

Thankfully Mustang Sally seems happy to have attention from anyone in our family, unlike Dobbie who prefers only me.(Dobbie doesn’t mind Mustang Sally sharing my lap, as long as Dobbie gets the Special Spot. (Mustang Sally loves to snuggle under a blanket)

Poor Mustang Sally was on her last leg, so to speak. This most recent adoption, by this woman, 2 months ago, was Mustang Sally’s third adoption. She had been adopted and then returned to the Animal Shelter two other times. If this lady had returned her again, the shelter’s policy would have been euthanize her. Three Strikes and you’re out.

So far I don’t see any glaring behavior that would motivate anyone to return her back to the Animal Shelter. She does her business outside, she’s sweet, she doesn’t nip, or bite, she is good when getting a bath(yeah, I already gave her bath ‘cause she was stinky), she craves attention and wants to be with humans all the time, and she travels in the car really well (she spent most of the day in the car with me as I drove back from Albuquerque, and then picked my twinlings back up from their Orienteering class and then later took them to another Boy Scout Eagle Scout Requirement class for First Aid/Emergency Preparedness Training, dropped them off and then drove back a few hours later to pick them back up again). She eagerly jumps right in and is ready to travel….perfect dog for me who loves road trips.

Which makes the name Mustang Sally seem even more appropriate, if you listen to the lyrics.

She also met the llamas, goats and Apache last night when I went up to feed. And while she seemed a little concerned about them (I doubt she’s ever seen horses, llamas, or goats before), she was also curious and willing to touch noses and say Hello to everyone in the barn.

The only weird thing Mustang Sally does is she likes to stuff her mouth full of a stuffed animal and suck on it like it’s a pacifier. (she also needs her nails trimmed)

She sucks the stuffy while kneading it with her paws like it’s bread dough, like I’ve seen cats do when they’ve been taken from their Mama too soon as kittens. Mustang Sally took Dobbie’s stuffed bear and did this and then returned it to Dobbie soaking wet.

Ewwwww. Poor Dobbie. I’ll have to get her another stuffy to call her own.

So, like my twinling Jax said today, unless Mustang Sally morphs into a flesh eating, crazed Tazmanian Devil overnight, it looks like Mustang Sally has a new home here at the Laughing Orca Ranch.