"It's my family's property," Allison answered, adding more about the generations of McGees who'd lived on, farmed, and ranched the property. "It was all timber then, not like it is today."

"That sounds about right," Frank responded, clarifying, "Without timber, we'd all be living in sod houses, I guess."

As they continued forward, he was amazed at the diversity of livestock occupying the pastures and pens, as well as how many of each there were. He asked, "I imagine the number of head is based upon how many the land will serve?"

When they were closer to the house, something moved in the shadows of a gigantic walnut tree, catching Frank's eye. He hesitated, unsure of what he was seeing, then stopped cold as he realized that the [i]creatures[/i] were running at full speed his direction. He took a step back, wrapping his arms more tightly around little Robert as he realized that the [i]creatures[/i] were dogs and that they looked ready to take him and the child down and eat them both alive.

Of course, his fear was unfounded as each of the three Australian Shepherds zoomed past him to circle excitedly around his hostess before only then coming back his direction to look him over and sniff at him. Frank's heart was beating hard, even now that he realized he was in no danger; he'd had more than his share of incidents with vicious dogs in his childhood and early adult years, resulting in a deep fear of them, regardless of size, breed, or personality.

"Scared the shit out of me," he confessed as the dogs danced around energetically. He looked to Allison with a smile, then nervously reached a hand down to the dogs, battling his fear of being bit. He was licked excitedly instead, though, leading him to speak to them, "[i]Good[/i] dogs, [i]nice[/i] dogs."

They continued onward until they were nearly to the ranch style house, at which time Frank turned to once again ask about his departed traveling mate. Allison reassured him, "We'll go back and take care of Jennifer properly. Jennifer, right?"

"Jennifer Connors," he responded. "Thank you."

"We're not going to leave her like that. I promise," Allison told him.

"I understand why we left her there in the first place," Frank told her, "I really do. You don't know me. You didn't know her. I ... I appreciate what you did for us. You saved my life. You saved Robert's life." He hesitated a moment before adding, "There was nothing you could have done for Jennifer. She was hit as she got out of the car ... long before you involved yourself. I just ... I just thought you should know beyond a doubt that you couldn't have saved her."