Hanna’s Story: Joining the Tribe

My sister Marianne and her family moved to Mountain Grove, Missouri from California last summer. They bought a fifty-acre fixer upper with the hope of raising the kids in the rural simplicity of the Ozarks. When Ross and I visited them for the first time last fall, we thought they needed a cow dog to complete the bucolic setting of their new lives. Of course, they didn’t know they needed a cow dog—not until we presented them with Hanna. We did an internet search to find a puppy, and Ross located a red heeler four month old, a cow dog mix with big eyes and floppy ears.
Like Chelly and Simba, Hanna was a rescue, found abandoned in the woods. When Hanna’s foster parents described her as an energetic, sweet-tempered, gentle puppy that was great with children, we decided she was the one. We described the fifty-acre farm that would be Hanna’s new home, the foster family agreed that it would be a perfect setting for the growing pup. We named her Hanna, a good strong name for the new faithful companion we planned to present to the Medina family upon on our arrival in Mountain Grove. We arranged to meet the foster family in the Walmart parking lot in Springfield, MO the day we flew into town. We ran through Walmart for puppy supplies, gathered the little bundle when they arrived at the appointed time and place, and set out for Mountain Grove feeling like over-aged Christmas elves.
Now at one year old, Hanna enjoys the rambunctious company of two children, five cats, fifteen chickens, roaming freely across the green hay fields catching turtles, swimming in the pond, chasing rabbits, and hopping across hay bales. Montreat is her first cross-country journey with her new family. She is especially happy to meet her cousins, Chelly and Simba. Our happy pack of red-headed step children.