Hank the Cow Dog gets to go to the vet tomorrow, he keeps dribbling blood. He got antibiotics last week but they didn’t do much good. We’re afraid that he got something seriously wrong. Tomorrow he gets x-rays and what-not all. No food after 8 and no water after midnight. Poor baby.
That means both he and my sweetie-pie will be gone all day, Hank has to be there by 8 tomorrow morning and it’s a 2.5 hour drive. Guess who’s getting up early?
Peanut and Cookie
The arizona poodle rescue guys think they can place her, so we’ll try that.
I might even get approved to foster some of their pups once Cookie is gone. I don’t think I need anything special. If I do I am sure they have an equipment leasing arrangement.
Cookie always looks a little worried. She’s relaxing a little bit, but it’s slow work. She spends a lot of time in the closet, she has a nest arranged back there and her favorite pillow and woolie blanket. This morning on the walk she was feeling her oats! What a cutie! And I’ve discovered that she likes a sweater when it’s cold. I think her name might have been Cucaracha, Cuci for short. Or maybe I’m imagining things.
All of a sudden the holiday season seems extra long. Just a couple of days ago it was Christmas Eve and I went in to the studio as usual for at least an hour before I remembered that tomorrow was Xmas and it was a holiday. That’s probably why there wasn’t anybody else around, huh? I hadn’t realized it was that late in the season or something, I don’t know, I was confused there for a minute when it sank in that tomorrow was Christmas Day and I’d have a house full of people.
Today I am expecting my niece for a visit. She landed in Phx last night with a friend and they will drive here any time now, it seems like a lot of long minutes around here, waiting. She will probably be shopping for hiking backpacks and other gear in the big city, although I think Logan, UT has just about every store. Maybe they hit some bars, they’re young cops and Jo is a pretty frisky kid, and I think she has a friend in Phoenix, too, so…. What would you do if you were 35 and healthy and got away without the kids? I’m sure they found an adventure, she really likes the trails around Phoenix, maybe they just hiked somewhere.
My darling went to PHX today with the green truck and the trailer. He is going to finish up the house while I visit with Jo, isn’t that sweet? I was going with him to help and to drive the other truck back here, because tomorrow we get the 5th wheel over here in Ajo … who knows how now? .. we are up in the air about how to get all the cars here at once along with the 5th wheel. It reminds me of the fox, chicken, boat, riddle.
So far, the AZ Poodle Rescue people have the best and fastest info. They answered my email within minutes with a mobile spay/neuter clinic in Apache Junction next week. That might be a little too soon for us, since we don’t know how long Cookie was in heat before we found her, so we can’t predict when she will be done.
On another subject, my darling is making the chicken shed even more deluxe! He hasn’t got out the welding equipment yet, but he’s attaching hinges to their already great nest so we can open it and clean it. Those are some pretty lucky chickens! He made them a new ladder so far today already and he’s going to insulate their night box up at the roof so their heat will build up in case it gets really cold.
I think I already said that I found a poodle. She’s in heat and I just found out that it is not a good idea to spay a female dog in heat as they can bleed excessively. I did not know that.
found poodle
How is it possible to have too many poodles?
I found another one today. This little girl has been spotted out my window a couple of times lately, and it really made me think that Pnut was out once. I ran out the door and had to laugh when Pnut was right on my heels.
Well today I found her in the street and in heat. I think her people moved and left her or something, the way her hair is matted and how hungry she was makes me think she is on her own.
La Fea means the ugly one (feminine) in Spanish. I named Fay that when she was just a pocket-sized baby. I wasn’t meant to stick, that was just what we called that dog while I tried to find her a home, five or six years ago.
But look at her now! She’s so cute when she’s chasing varmints.
I think the lizards are asleep, so she must be after a rodent.
Jake’s mom is coming home today, it’s a good thing, he’s been acting out, rearranging his pen, knocking down the wood parts and such. He’s out of oats, but I have been taking carrots to him morning and night so he feels a little spoiled while his mom is gone. She will ride him all day tomorrow, I bet, and he will forgive her for being gone. He sure is a sweetheart. Maybe one day I will have his mom show me the ins and outs of actually riding him so next time he can get out a little. I was hesitant to even walk him on the halter for fear that I’d do something wrong, but I think I could handle him just fine with one lesson.
Jake
in his pen with cabin fever
My two dog clients will be going home today. I really enjoyed them, Foxy and Kiwi. Kiwi is the giant German Shepard and Foxy is something else. I can’t figure out what, but she’s so cute! They are real good girls, I had them for about 10 days and really fell in love with them.
But their mom is coming home today, all rested from her cruise, so the dogs will probably get real excited when they see her. Hope I get them again.
Kiwi
Foxy
My baby chicks are already growing adult feathers on their thighs. They still use the light at night but they won’t need that much longer. Dave is already planning the rest of their run, as they will fast outgrow the box and the coop. They are already grazing on scraps. Soon I will have eggs. Maybe enough to sell, I won’t need barcode scanners quite yet, but I have seen some pretty amazing portable units lately.
baby chicks
Goodbye Boomer, RIP
I miss you, Fella
youthful play
I just got paid for sitting Jake and Jake’s mom reserved time in October, too. Yahoo, I’m a pet sitter!
Next month I get Gabby for a few days in Phoenix, which is a paid gig, then we get Lur (BoydLur) for a few days in Phoenix, too. That’s a freebie on our ‘lifetime babysitting guarantee’, because he’s one of our pups. He likes it better in Phoenix in the summer months because he’s used to air conditioning and it gets too hot for him in Ajo with only the swamp cooler. Heck, it’s too hot for me, too. Last time we had him in Ajo he tried to climb into Mom’s refrigerator, it was so funny.
Bill arrived from Minnesota yesterday and had trouble with our door locks, but finally got in. It will be real nice to see him again. He has been staying at Mom’s for something like fifteen winters, but this year she wants to move to Ajo permanently, so Bill will bunk with us until he finds something.
He has a new dog, a golden lab, and Mom said the dog was a rescue and had been so very skinny when Bill got her, but she looks good now. I guess she is a really nice dog and can’t hardly wait to meet her.
Welcome home, Bill.
Last year, March of 2007, when we were unwittingly poisoning our pets with Chinese gluten products, I studied dog food, and blogged, and chatted, and felt pretty up-to-date on dog nutrition. I thought I was current on the dangers of feeding commercial dog food to my babies. I thought I knew enough about dog nutrition and what’s available on the market to make informed decisions about my dogs’ diet. I felt confident that I could protect them with my great big smart brain by being informed.
Being a busy person, I soon forgot to stay in regular touch with my new online pals; people who were grieving because they had poisoned their pet when they thought they were giving them a treat. Or worse, when Fluffy and Rover didn’t want to eat the regular pet food they figured Fluffy and Rover were spoiled and left it down and encouraged them to eat it anyway.
How hard is it to deal with guilt like that? Bringing poison right into your home and encouraging your loved ones to eat it. Pretty damn hard to recover from that kind of thing. Folks were really tore up about it, as you can imagine, and we formed some pretty close alliances, trying to help each other understand the madness.
Today I went back on some of those feeds and rooms for old times’ sake, just to see what the haps, you know, and GEEZ, it’s not over, I guess. Today I discovered the pet food salmonella bacteria poisonings of March 2007 that were finally reported in August 2007, and revisited the euthanized pet rendering issue.
I didn’t know dogs could get salmonella, so I went online http://www.mountaindogfood.com/HealthCare/Salmonella.htm
and found that they cannot, because dogs are built to eat meats and greens.
The problem seems to have been humans contracting salmonella poisoning through contact with the kibble. All across the country, people who didn’t wash their hands after they fed their dogs got sick. There was one reported case (I read it on the internet, so it has to be true) of a child getting sick from being in the same room as an open bag of kibble. So the net was buzzing. Uproars of indignation for our horrible petfood industry safety standards.
Still a lot of nagative buzz around the salmonella thing. And it’s true that we shouldn’t have to worry that something we feed our pets is dangerous to handle, at least without warning labels. But who doesn’t wash their hands after feeding the pets?
Hand washing is the number one line of defense against food-borne illness. And then there is hand washing again, since it’s the most important! and finally washing the counter top, utensils, etc. Washing the dog dishes with soap and water was mentioned, but my dogs don’t get that kind of pampering every time. My hands do, they get soap and water after handling money, dirty dishes, dog food, the scummy tennis ball that happens to be today’s favorite in the back yard. Lucky hands.
looking back on this month i see that i have been giving out a lot of Reddy Kilowatt and not enough of Lur MacKenzie.
He is such a sweet baby. He has the prettiest face of all of them all. He’s got that two-tone cattle dog eye patch face.
okay, here’s another picture of him.
He’s starting to put on some weight. he’d lost some when he went to the home that didn’t work out. these things are hard on puppies. He came back skinny and spooked. He’s just now getting over the flinch when you put your hand to his face for a pet. it breaks my heart because he was the alpha pup when he left, and the broadest in the chest, starting to put on some chunkiness. now he’s the slender and small one.
I’m told i was too harsh on people who think i may be writing about them when i call someone stupid if they can’t figure out how to make their puppy comfortable. it’s not directed to anybody in particular, just in general, people who don’t think out how to make their dog happy to behave nicely are just one of those things i can’t abide by. dogs really try to make it easy. they just want to behave, all we gotta figure out is how to let them know what we want.
so, i admit i’m a little tough on people, and probably too soft on dogs. just the way i am.
go get yourself your own blog is what i say.