Well, I had an interesting Christmas Eve experience... kinda an extension of part of my trip. And it begs me to ask the question, "Who needs 14 fucking dogs?????"

This has been unbelievable and last night went into the extremes!! First, we have to be sure someone is at home to let us in the gate at John's mom's house, because the dogs will "herd" and bite you through it if you try on your own. So once through the gate, you can't get out of the car until his mom comes outside, because they surround your car and bark and jump. It's also really hard to drive without running over the dogs!

Then, we can't get in the house because the dogs won't let us, so his mom had to go get the box of dog bones I had left there from earlier on the trip,,, and I had to coax each stupid fucking dog to let us in and past them... even then, many of them were growling and eyeing us and well it made for some nice tension.

We finally get in the house, and now the dogs have decided I'm the one with the bones, so they surround me.... and I'm afraid to walk anywhere. His mom had to grab a couple and let me out of the circle of dogs...

Unbelievable shit!!! Then we manage to have dinner, but all the dogs are around the table. One is growling under my feet, and I manage to be stern and yell at it and it stops. Then it finally moves. Another is growling on the side and snapping at another dog, and here I am, halfway between them.... YIKES! Then John's stepdad feeds one of them something from the table, so now they all stand at attention by us wanting food. I tell them no way, I'm not feeding them.

Finally dinner is over, and the dogs get to lick all the plates... plus they try to climb on the fucking table and eat what they didn't have! I yell at them to sit down, get down, etc. John's mom goes off to practice at church, John's stepdad goes upstairs and leaves us downstairs.... with the dogs. Lovely.

We go in the back room where the computer is and shut the door. Meanwhile, the dogs are climbing on the stove and knocking pans off. (His mom allows this, so I make no effort to stop them), and we kill an hour in the computer room with the three dogs that came in... rather calm ones, at least.

Time to leave for the Christmas Eve Service. I realize that I forgot to bring my black turtleneck inside to change because it's colder there. We can't go out to the car to get it without being dog-chaperoned and his stepdad isn't up for it. So we decided I would change at the church. Now we try to get out the front door. No dice. Dogs are not going to allow it. Ridiculous. So his stepdad decides to take us out the back door, which is where the computer is. Some dogs are still outside, no idea how many are where, too many to keep track of. We step out back and it's pitch black. We can't see. John refuses to walk, and so do I, because the back porch goes to a sort of drop off, and we can NOT FUCKING SEE!

His stepdad can't find the flashlight so he goes around in the dark and turns on the front porch light. John can see a little now, and he leads me around to the car. Dogs converge on us, the stepdad tries to get them away, John and I manage to get in the car, stepdad opens gate, and we leave.

UN-FUCKING BELIEVABLE!!!!

We get to the church, I want to put on the turtleneck. To make matters worse, it's been out in the car and is REALLY cold. I get there they say, go outside to the bathroom, because they won't let me up by the front to get through. I go around and there is a huge dog lying there (not one of John's familie's dogs). John decides to walk by it, it lets us. I change in this really cold, really little bathroom, finally get done and get in the church and sit.

The church service goes fine. After the service, his mom leads us back, (leading the way in her car), opens the gate and tries to corral the dogs as we get out. They growl and one eyes me but I look it in the eye and try to be brave and walk on in. Then they are all excited that we are coming in the door. She gets me the dog bones, and we repeat the fucking entering routine.

We get in, stepdad isn't wanting to come down to open presents. He hurt his back earlier, apparently, and went to bed after we left. So we open presents, without much ceremony, with dogs all around growling and hovering. We get that done, she corrals dogs again, we manage to get out the door throwing dog bones all the way, she opens the gate, we get to the car and leave again. WHEW!

A little ways out, we smell something horrid. It's a fucking AWFUL smell. Turns out we had stepped in lovely DOG SHIT on the way out, BOTH of us. So I spend the rest of my Christmas Eve in a gas station in Espanola, cleaning off our shoes with paper towels and a plastic fork! I also manage to get my shoe so wet that my foot is cold!!! I also have to clean off both floor mats, and the brake and accelerator! We finally leave Espanola around 11:00 p.m. our time, I think, get back to Placitas near Albuquerque, somewhere around midnight. I had a headache, my stomach was upset, I was in a bad mood, and I was freezing.

Merry Fucking Christmas to me.

Nightowl >8#

P.S. Sorry for the bad attitude, but I had to write it or say it somewhere. Hopefully today will get better.

'Cept they were big enough to knock me over. Fortunately, they didn't, although it almost happened twice.

I don't think I scare them much, not even when I yelled at them. (sigh).

Nightowl >8#

That we'll have a next time. (sigh).

See, we're trying to think of a way to not ever stay there again, other than to go and visit, which is bad enough.... but I know that's going to hurt his mom's feelings.

On the other hand, I can't handle that much tension and stress with all those dogs. My stomach has been upset ever since Christmas Eve. (sigh).

I also have to write my monthly letter when I get home, and well, do I write how bad it really was, or do I write that to everyone else and edit it for his mom?

I hate family entanglements and messes like this. (sigh).

Nightowl >8#

Yep, I did, but I have never been allergic to dogs before. Was wondering if that many could have affected my regular allergies, or perhaps the fact that they made everything so dirty and dusty and smelly could have.

Keeping that one in mind too, thanks Alex. And I didn't mind your spelling errors. :)

Nightowl >8#

That is the general plan. I wouldn't lie to her, I was just wondering why my allergy was so awful in the house, so the number of dogs was a possible factor.

John said I could be honest, I'm just working on a tactful way to say it all, and also trying to decide if I should tell her personally in an email before sending out the general one.

Honestly, at this point, I just want to go home... we are starting back on Monday. It's nice here, at his dad's, with the laptop and CNN, but honestly, I want my Nikolai back, and my shower massage, and my birdie... and my house.

Nightowl >8#

Yep, unfortunately, I don't think that's the case in Dixon, N.M. I think as long as you have a certain amount of acreage it doesn't matter, cause they can own goats, sheep, etc.

I was wishing for one of those stun guns, or maybe a nice dart pistol, at times, honestly. I'm glad we're done seeing the dogs this trip. We're staying here till the 29th, at his dad's and then heading back home.

No more fucking dogs, YAY!

Nightowl >8#