We were invited to a friends’ ranch to spend Christmas day. They’ve invited us out several times, but we’ve never been able to make it before.

This was the dogs’ first “long” car trip, about an hour and a half. They did good. Chester, however, has to be looking at me. We have leashes that snap into the seat belt latches, and I’d put his on my side. So he took himself over to the other side so that he could watch me.

Lola takes a long time to settle down. She wants to be up front with us, I think. But she did eventually enjoy a short snooze in the sun. We took a couple of their beds with us so that they’d have something familiar there.

Lola & her Westie friend

We often call Lola a pushy broad. Above you can see why. Unfortunately, she’d thrown up a bunch of times the night before (we almost didn’t go), so she wasn’t allowed to have any treats other than the freeze dried chicken I brought with me. And whatever that was in the grass she was finding to eat.

The dogs & a Westie bud

Here’s all the dogs except for Chester (no doubt off somewhere scrounging for food). They all managed to get along pretty well. No fights, anyway. Lola & Chester are already buds with the Westies; the other dogs were new dogs to them.

Sadie, the dog in this photo (I think) was just fascinated by & also a little scared of Lola.

Don’t these dogs know they’re too big to be lap dogs?

While I don’t really think Lola would run away — at least not too far — it’s not a theory I’m willing to test yet. So we kept her on a long line. We let Chester off leash, except when we took our walk up to the barn.

He made himself to home quickly, running off every time someone new arrived — and giving me a heart attack in the process because he was scared of the open metal stairs, and he leapt right off the top of them — almost 4 feet down! Twice! He had no problems going up them, but he just refused to go down them. Lola had no problems with them.

Both Chester & Lola are really good with kids. Lola, especially, having been raised with one briefly, seems really attracted to them.

Quiet! If you look quickly, you just might be able to score that rare sighting: a relaxed Lola. She almost never lets us hold her like this.

Note the Westie & Lola in the corner

I keep thinking that that steer must’ve been wondering just what that thing (Lola) was.

The kids pet the horses.

One of the big dogs got into the horses’ enclosure, and had a great time racing around. Luckily, the horses were really calm & no one was hurt.

The kids (and some adults) had fun playing in the hay. We had fun watching. And if you look real close, you might see that the Westies had fun playing in the cow poop (made me really glad that we kept Chester & Lola on their leashes).

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