Long-time pet owners will understand that after losing our beloved Mollie dog last August after almost 14 years, getting a new dog right away wasn’t in the cards.

We waited all winter, which proved providential with all the snow and cold we experienced. Spring work took April and most of May, so it wasn’t until two weeks ago we felt comfortable looking for a new fur baby.

Because we firmly believe in giving dogs a second chance there was never a doubt that we would return to the Kearney Area Animal Shelter as that’s where we found Mollie as a puppy in May 2009.

This time we decided we weren’t going to seek out a puppy. Hubby just turned 65 and I will join him on Medicare in three months and we felt much more comfortable looking at grown dogs. No problem as the shelter was full of dogs at least a year or older the day we stopped.

There was no shortage of good farm-type dogs, and the hardest part was narrowing it down to just one. There were several Labrador crosses, but we also knew there would never be another Mollie, so we turned our sights to a totally different-looking dog.

A blue-heeler Border collie cross caught our eye, but we learned from the shelter attendant that she didn’t get along with chickens, so with 50-plus layers around we knew that wouldn’t work.

Several long-haired dogs were in the kennel, but on a farm long-hair spells trouble with burrs, stickers and weeds. As we rounded the final corner a reddish-gold Shepherd cross caught Hubby’s eyes. He reached in to pet her and murmured, “Her hair is so soft.”

A quick mutual glance and we had the attendant bring her to the meet and greet room. She immediately came to my side but cowered each time Hubby tried to reach out to pet her. After several minutes Hubby was about ready to have her taken back to her kennel. In what proved to be a wise decision, he removed his hat.

She immediately walked over to have her head scratched. We then learned that she didn’t like hats. This wasn’t new to us, but we just hadn’t thought about it. This winter when I visited my high school classmate in Arkansas, they warned Don to take off his hat before going into the house as their dog Wrigley hated hats. He was a rescue too, so we surmised somewhere in both their pasts someone wearing a hat had abused them.

We couldn’t take our golden girl with us that day and knew she had to pass one more test. We weren’t sure how she would be around children, and it was imperative that she get along with our grandson who will be spending lots of time at the farm this summer.

So, the next day Don and Juliana took Dorne down to meet her. She passed her kid test with flying colors and later that afternoon Don brought her to the farm and her new forever home.

After nine months without a dog on the place we all had adjustments to make. First, we knew she would need to be tied up for a few days to get used to the new surroundings. We moved the doghouse to the east side of the house where more shade was available throughout the day. Then we had to come up with a name.

Her shelter name had been Montana, but you need a short snappy name on a farm to get attention quickly. Juliana suggested Reba and it stuck. We have now named her Reba M. Batie, the M being a nod to her shelter name. That way when she’s in trouble she still gets the full human kids’ treatment by us yelling the whole name.

The shelter vet estimated she is five years old, so there are some habits we doubt we’ll break and that includes barking every time Don walks across the yard because he has to wear hats because of his fair skin.

She has also decided the front porch and back porch are her favorite places to sack out so her nighttime tieup is in one of those two spots as she’s refusing to use the doghouse. She would love to be in the garage, but that’s Mama Kat’s hangout right now as she’s raising a

Cont. Page 10 litter of five kittens. That was also a change for her as she came to us after Mollie died and had never had a dog to contend with. Let’s just say they’ve agreed to disagree and circle each other cautiously.

Finally, the squirrels and rabbits have learned they need to scurry out of Reba’s way when she’s in a mood to chase. No more dilly-dallying across the yard for the smaller four-legged creatures.