Fiesta, Flowers and Friendship

What a difference a year makes. This time last year I was making celebrity appearances all over town as a member of the Humane Society’s Rey Fido court. As a duchess I got to wear a fine velvet cape trimmed in (fake) ermine at the doggie coronation.

This Fiesta Week I had fun hanging around home with my young companion, Chica. Between mock battles waged throughout the house, we like to rest up on a huge dog bed passed down to us from Chigurh, my mistress’ son’s Labrador retriever.

As long as the coolish weather holds out, we will be going to the country on weekends. Whenever we go, Mary takes photos of wildflowers. She and granddaughter Christina--who stays at our house every day after school--identified 64 varieties last year. This spring, they have already added a dozen more. After they identify a flower, Christina prints the name to accompany photos pasted in a book they are making.

A recent trophy Mary and Christina are thrilled about is scarlet leather flower, which only grows in a handful of counties in Texas and nowhere else. Another rarity they identified is smoke tree, whose bloom resembles its name. Though not uncommon, one of the most dramatic flowers they added this year is antelope horn.

On a personal note, today Dr. Kothmann removed the stitches from Chica’s abdominal incision. She will never be a mother now, but hopefully she will someday meet a dog that becomes as much a daughter to her as she is to me.