January 6, 2005 - john, joyce and the tuckmeister woke up to an outside temperature of 3 degrees. Yesterday they woke up to the end of an ice storm which had the city without power for about 40,000 homes. There are hardly any trees left at zenpond to break, so john and joyce didn't have to worry about those. Actually, there are some trees left, just a very heavy thinning of the Bradford Pears after the last heavy snow.

January 18 - joyce's sister Nancy and husband Ken visited john and joyce on the weekend of January 8th. Nancy had been looking on the Internet for a new dog and they wanted to go to several animal shelters in Kansas City to see some of the ones Nancy had noted in particular. They went with john and joyce to the Olathe Animal Shelter where they were going to look at "Box Car Willie". He was given that name by the shelter workers because he had been hit by a train. The animal patrol officer saw him lying on the tracks and ran over and took him off the tracks just before another train roared by. The officer and the dog hardly made it off the tracks alive. They were not sure if Willie would live through the night, but gave him special bedding to keep him from lying on the concrete floor in the shelter. They stetched him up on his head, chest and ear. When they came in the morning they found him still alive. They would not allow him to be adopted for three weeks while he healed. It was exactly three weeks when Nancy and Ken came to the shelter.He turned out to be such a nice dog they went no further. They adopted him on the spot. He is so patient and such a good dog. He seems to be part Border Collie. Here are some pictures of Riley: