Hindi Ranch.

My sister's boyfriend's stepfather Joseph (do you follow?) is from Duran, New Mexico.  Duran, located about an hour and a half outside of Albuquerque, is home to no more than 20 people, most of whom are ranchers in the area.  Joseph's ranch, Hindi Ranch,  is appropriately named after their family...and now, our big, mischevious monster, Hindi the dog (see my about me for a picture of the 100+ pound bundle of love).

We recently celebrated our one-year anniversary with Hindi. Last August, upon the return of my family's annual trip out to the ranch, our family of seven people, three boyfriends, and five dogs got a new member.  Joseph always jokes that he's no cowboy, he's a sheep MAN.  The ranch specifically raises sheep.  Not only do they have sheep dogs (border collies), but they also have Marimas.  They are primarily responsible for guarding the sheep against wild dogs and coyotes.  The big white fluff balls had a litter about a month prior to my parent's visit out to the ranch.  Unfortunately 2 of the puppies got loose from the pack, and Joseph hadn't had any luck finding them.  Two weeks later a neighboring rancher mentioned he'd seen two puppies wandering around the watering hole.  Joseph went out searching for them, and to his excitement  found them curled up together in a little metal box.  One of the puppies had unfortunately passed away, but the other still lay there weak curled up against his brother. He was so weak, couldn't stand up, and to top it off had been rejected by his pack.

My parents decided to take him home and foster him back to health. One year later Hindi is 115 pounds, and crazier (and sweeter) than ever.  

This past weekend we took him out to the ranch for a visit....


On top of that, our family grew even bigger in size this year with the introduction of my sweet nephew, August.    Here are pictures from the trip out there.