October 15, 2014---Evanston, Wyoming to Loveland, Colorado

Our trip today started earlier...5:50.  Bill was ready to get this leg of our journey over with.  The drive across southern Wyoming is long, but very pretty...rolling hills, ponds, windmills, snow capped mountains, and lots of horses.

We arrived in Loveland at about 3:00.  Bill was really tired and glad to be off the road.  It will take him a couple of days to recuperate.

Meredith, Dwaine, Joey, and Hapa came for a visit after dinner.  It was fun seeing all the Loveland kin again.

Today I will tell Hapa’s story...

One day, Meredith, Dwaine, and Joey went to a pet adoption place.  They had seen a puppy there and wanted to see how Joey would react to her.  He did just fine!  When the four of them got home, Joey acted like, “Well, I didn’t know she was coming with us.!”

But she was there to stay, in all her fuzziness.  She was eight weeks old.  Bill said she looked like a porcupine.  She was adorable.  Because she had one blue eye and one brown eye, they named her Hapa, the Hawaiian word for half.

Hapa loved her big brother from the very beginning.  It wasn’t always reciprocated, but he was usually very patient with her.  She chewed the hair off the tip of his tail.  She would watch him chewing a bone, hoping he would teach her how someday.

Hapa is a mix of Miniature Australian Shepherd and Australian Cattle Dog and likes to herd, be it people or dogs.  It doesn’t work with Joey, but anyone else is fair game.  She doesn’t have any expression on her face, and looks very much like a fox or a coyote.

When she was little, she had to “kill” her food before she would eat.  With dog biscuits she would circle them, go in for the kill, go back out, circle some more, and go back to make sure it was dead.  It was funny to watch.  She doesn’t do that anymore but when she eats, she’s like a lion.  She lies down, paws on both side to her dinner dish, and eats.  

Hapa is very agile.  I suggested to Meredith that she get her trained for an agility course.  Meredith said she is so strong willed she would only do it if she wanted to.  In one day, Joey learned to return the tennis ball to Meredith’s hand.  Hapa doesn’t get the idea even after all this time, because it isn’t her idea.

She loves to play with Dwaine.  She’s his girl!

For some reason, Hapa's pictures disappeared when I sent the post through.  I will send her gallery tomorrow.