We own property out in the Nevada desert, roughly an hour outside of Montello. There is very little to anything out there. Even Montello, as a town, is barely a town at all with its population of less than 100 people. They do have two bars, though, so they have that going for them.

That's why we like it. No, not the bars. The quiet serene feel of the area.

As my children call the night skies, "It's like our own planetarium!" Out in the middle of this desert oasis, we can look up at the stars and see it all. It's amazing!

So, that's why when our security cameras (motion activated) produced a video of what appeared to be a little black dog on the property, we were confused. Where in the world did he come from? How did he get to our property which is located a good mile or more up a dirt valley road?

The first video we received came in late on a Monday night. The video was slightly fuzzy and we weren't exactly sure what we were looking at. Eventually, we figured out it was a small dog. (See pic to the left. This is a still shot from one of the videos).

Because our property is nearly four hours away, and as sad as it sounds, we figured the little guy wouldn't make it through the night (sooo many coyotes in the area). If he did survive the night, he could be long gone before we got there. The desert is huge.

Tuesday afternoon, we received another motion activated video. The little dog was still there! He was sticking close by our cabin. Now, we were quite concerned. There wasn't water there. We didn't leave food outside. We tried reaching out to some acquaintances in Montello, to see if we might be able to get some help. Unfortunately, we had no luck getting a hold of anyone. My husband was out of town (he was actually sending me the security videos from New Jersey) and due to life being life, I couldn't go out there to check on the dog . We kept trying to get a hold of someone.

 A writing partner, you say? Why in the world would you want one?

Well, let me tell you...if you find the right match, a person who "gets you" and your writing style, then you will have hit writer's gold. In all honesty, I'm not sure that I would be the writer that I am today without my perfect writing partner at my side. She's been there from the beginning, and boy, does she GET ME.

Not only can I bounce ideas off her and get her input, but on the rare occasion that we get together in person, I can sit in my pjs on my laptop, knowing that she too, will be sitting in her pjs writing on her laptop.

Perfection.

Our relationship is the ultimate balance of push and pull. Enough push to get me to put my butt in the chair and my fingers on the laptop. Enough pull that when either of us make a suggestion we don't like, we feel safe to say, "Nope. You can't make me. You're not my real dad."