I think I have to euthanize Ten.
A month ago he went after an 18-pound male cocker that got snotty with him. He got hold of the little guy and shook him and would not let go. I don't know how the cocker came out of that encounter alive, but he did. Friday night he went after Lumi. They've tussled in the past but it's never been serious - nobody's ever gotten hurt worse than a tooth scrape or bloody lip - and they've either been easy to separate or they've stopped on their own after a minute or so. And then they've been fine together again. But Friday night, as they were coming in from their bedtime 'out', they got into it and this time it was serious. I'm really not quite sure what set it off, whether Lumi made a warning face at Ten or whether he might have even gotten into his "come another inch closer and I'll beat the crap out of you" stance and Ten was just fed up, or what. Whatever it was, Ten attacked him and this time it turned into an all-out fight for dominance. I couldn't separate them, after trying for a couple of minutes with no success (and having pulled muscles in my back trying) I had to step out and let them fight until they started to tire. Only then was I able to get a good grip on Ten's collar to twist it and cut off his air, and get my back up against a wall where I was able to use my foot/leg to keep Lumi from coming back at Ten once Ten let go. Lumi got beat up pretty good, it wasn't just spit and toothscrapes, there was torn skin on his flank from where Ten grabbed him and shook, and a pretty good gash on his thigh.
Ten's been on NILIF ever since. I moved his crate out of my bedroom and out to the family room. I've kept him and Lumi away from each other, giving Lumi time in the yard first and then putting Ten out in the yard only when Lumi's back inside and back in his crate. He's been spending time out in the yard with Blizzard, Spot, and Nellie, and sometimes Tansy. Every once in a while Nellie gets a bug in her ear and takes a couple of chomps at Tansy. I holler at her, she quits, and that's that.
Some of my friends from the volunteer thing I do maintain a 2-mile stretch of highway, picking up trash a couple of times a year. I live right in the middle of that 2-mile stretch. I saw these friends in front of the house this morning and went out to say hi. Blizzard, Ten, Spot, Nellie, and Tansy were in the yard. The friends wanted to see the dogs, and came up to the fence. Tansy's got a bad habit of pushing past/over other dogs to get to people. It's very rude, from a canine point of view, and any dog with any sense of canine manners just doesn't do it. But Tansy has no canine manners, is frequently very rude with other big dogs, and often gets scolded by them as a result.
(I had another foster dog a long time ago with the same insensibility of canine manners that Tansy has. Like her, he was a great dog. Very sweet, very people-oriented, and just a little too needy. He used to bump other dogs out of the way to get to me, or walk on them if they were on the floor between him and me. He used to get smacked for his rudeness on a regular basis, too. And, also like Tansy, he never learned the lesson.)
Anyway, Tansy wanted to see the people, and pushed Nellie. Nellie objected with her teeth. I yelled at her, she quit, but just that little bit of tension was like a flash in a powder keg. Blizzard saw her opportunity to take a swipe at Tansy, too. Blizz hates rude dogs in general, and dislikes Tansy in particular, but doesn't mess with her beyond a warning because she knows she'll be in trouble if she does. (She has learned self-restraint over the years. It took a long time, though.) Blizz jumped into the fray and it probably would have ended there pretty quick, but Ten jumped in on Blizzard. By the time I got out to them, only Ten and Blizzard were involved and Ten was winning. I finally got him to let go of her, and kept her from coming back at him immediately by pushing her away once with my foot on her shoulder.
Ten has gotten too big for his britches. He doesn't have much impulse control to start with, and he's gained a new sense of power from the altercations of the last few weeks. He's gone from the somewhat submissive boy who takes a scolding, backs off and says "hey, I didn't mean anything by it" to being king of the hill with no idea how to handle the power he's recently discovered he has. I don't know if I can fix it, or if he'll grow out of it (like Blizzard did), or even if I should try/wait. After Friday's fight with Lumi, I said "that's two strikes, one more and I'm going to have a hard decision to make." I can't decide if this qualifies as the third strike or not.
I know exactly what provoked this morning's fight, and the circumstances were unusual. I can absolutely prevent the occurrence of a similar trigger, and I can keep Ten apart from everyone but Spot and Nellie while I put him on an intense program of exercise and discipline. They've always been submissive to him, and he's always known it. He has nothing to prove with them, and they're not interested in provoking him. They're good friends, it's safe to put them out together.
When Ten and Lumi fought, only a physical barrier would have prevented either of them from trying to get to the other one again. Even if I'd been able to get them apart, a dirty look would have been all it took to get it started again. This morning, once I got Ten and Blizzard separated and pushed her away when she made her one attempt to come back at him and teach him a lesson, he did not try to re-engage even though she was glaring at him, but stood vigilant yet calm by my side. (I had my hand through the loop in his martingale collar so I could stop him if he tried to re-engage, but he's 105 pounds and if he really wanted to go back at her he'd have dragged me along with him.) I don't know whether that's because she doesn't make him as angry as Lumi does, if once he took a step back he remembered that she's higher in the pack order than he is, or if it's because he's beginning to learn how to regain his self-control after he loses it.
On the other hand, I don't know if I can fix him. And while I will do my very best to be as vigilant as possible to keep him apart from dogs other than Spot and Nellie - and Tansy, who is so far beneath his radar that she basically doesn't exist in his world - and I'm better set up here to keep dogs separated than I was before, I'm not perfect and I can't be sure I won't screw up. I have before, when I've had to keep dogs separated. It's not fair to Blizzard or Lumi for me to keep a dog that's aggressive toward them. I'm not sure I'm physically capable of handling him; I could have ten years ago, but handling him when he's not complying is a lot tougher now and I hurt more and longer afterward. Shoot, I was sore for a week after wrestling him into the bathtub a while back. My wrists still hurt this morning from Friday's incident; they hurt worse now, and after a couple of hours my forearms still feel like jelly. I can feel the muscles in my back and my hamstrings tightening, and I know I'm going to be stiff and sore tomorrow.
I don't know what to do. I know what I should do, I just don't know that I'm ready to. I don't know if I can unless I know I did my best to try to fix him, and I don't know if I could forgive myself if someone else gets hurt while I tried. If I thought, by any stretch of the imagination, that Ten was aggressive toward humans, the decision would be simple and inarguable. It's not so clear cut when a dog is safe with humans but not with other dogs.
(No, I will not re-home him if I can't fix him.)
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Home Improvement
I got started on my flooring project this weekend. I decided to start with the kitchen rather than the family room, simply because my sis came Saturday afternoon and I had her help to move the two large cabinets in the kitchen that I can't move myself. The paint I bought last Monday actually works well in the kitchen, being a deeper shade of the pale peach highlights in the kitchen panelling. I really wanted a deep blue in the family room anyway but had settled for the "Tile Red" (which is actually a brownish-coral color) because the paint guy at Lowe's hadn't been able to figure out how to tint the paint the color I originally picked. (I'm going be checking elsewhere when I'm ready to get paint for the family room, I'd really like blue in there. If I can't get the deep blue, I know I can get a light sage green color in this paint and that would be my second choice for the family room.)
I knew the kitchen flooring under the carpet was probably not perfect. Nothing in this house is. The young couple who lived here before me did a lot of "renovations" here themselves. He was a whiz with car restoration and building custom hot rods, but really had no idea what he was doing when it came to home construction/repairs. He had replaced the plywood sheet in front of the sink and set it in a little crooked, so there's gap on one side that tapers from just 1/8" at one end to almost half an inch at the other. And next to that there are a couple of small pieces that had replaced a small section of a bigger piece of plywood. None of the edges are flush, the edge of one piece is either higher or lower than the piece next to it. I did some research today, and I think I should be able to fix the problem for less than $10 in materials - some acrylic wood filler and sandpaper. I'm sure that someday, someone will look at my "fix" and say "geez, she did really sloppy work...." but as long as I can get it fairly level I don't much care what posterity thinks of my techniques. I'll stop at Lowe's on my way to class (if I get going early enough) or on the way home and pick up the wood filler and see what I can do about getting that down tonight, and sanded tomorrow when it's dry. I need to remember to pick up a craft knife, too, to cut the carpet along the edge of the cabinets, and a small foam paint brush for priming/painting along there, too.
I got a 3-foot strip along one wall primed and painted this weekend, and got the cabinet and microwave cart back into place there. I also got a 3-foot strip done along another wall, and got the refrigerator and floor-to-ceiling cabinet back into place over it. My sis helped out by duct-taping the carpet and padding I pulled up into easily lifted/handled bundles and piled them up in a corner of the kitchen where I wasn't working. Unfortunately, it was in front of the coffee maker and while I managed to lean over the pile yesterday morning to make coffee, my poor aching muscles started screaming this morning when I tried to do it, so before I even got my coffee started I removed that pile of carpet and padding, putting some of it in my trash cart and some of it out in the garage to go into the trash cart over the next couple of weeks. Then I got the coffee brewing and ripped up another big piece of carpet and padding. Just one more big piece to go, then all that's left is a strip of carpet along the front of the cabinets (they put the cabinets down over the carpet, I'm not pulling out the cabinets to get to it!), the patch under the stove, and a small patch in the corner where I have to crawl under the kneehole of a small built-in "desk". Oh yeah, I have to pull everything on the floor of my pantry out, and get the carpet in there up too.
I need to get at least the perimeter primed and painted as quickly as possible, before anycat decides to pee on the plywood. I don't have anything scheduled for tomorrow, so I should be able to get the primer down early in the day when the dogs are all outside, and then I'll paint those areas before bedtime tomorrow. I've got some sections of a plastic exercise pen that I can use to block the areas off so they can dry overnight without getting kitty footprints in them. When I'm ready to put down a second coat of paint with a roller, I'm going to lure as many cats into the family room as I can and close the door so they're shut in there overnight, and use a baby gate with a wire crate panel on top of it to block the doorway from the dining room to the kitchen so anycat who's not closed up in the family room won't be able to get into the kitchen. If I keep working at it and don't have any setbacks, I should have the kitchen floor finished by the end of next weekend.
I did the home visit last Monday for the Low Riders. Very, very nice people whose last Dachsie lived to be 19. I'd taken Roux along with me, and I left him there. The other two will be joining him in that home a week from Friday, the day after they're neutered.
I did a home visit on Saturday for Parchesi the boggle puppy. Lovely family, they're going to love her to pieces and I think she's a great fit for them. They have three children, and Parchesi's got a sweet, gentle nature so I think this is a very good match. The Cheesy-puppy is scheduled to be spayed 2 weeks from today, and I'll keep her until 2 weeks from Friday. Max the Shih Tzu is going in the same day as the Low Riders, so he'll be ready to go after that. I've gotten one application for him, but I'm going up to my mom's on Thursday and taking him along to see if he'd be a good match for her and Daisy. I'm taking Ruby the Cavalier to the vet on Thursday morning; I'm pretty sure she's got a perineal hernia. If that needs to be repaired it should be done when she's spayed, but that's beyond the scope of the s/n clinic, so it'll have to be done by the local vet. We'll see what she says about whether or not it needs to be repaired, and how much it's going to cost. It'll be at least $120 (for the spay) and the repair will be extra. I've gotten a couple of donations from some Cavalier people, and I've got a good home lined up that's willing to kick in for it up to double the adoption fee, so that should cover it. We'll see.
I made the mistake of putting Rose the Cavalier up on Petfinder already, at the same time I had a cute baby puppy listed. I've spent hours and hours answering e-mails about the two of them the last week, sometimes not being able to get away from the computer for 6 hours straight. I've gotten at least a couple dozen inquiries on Rose, and from all over the country. I had to amend her description to read that we're only considering homes within a 4 hour drive of us right now. I've gotten half a dozen applications back, but only two of them are worth considering. One of them is almost exactly what I was looking for, but they have a 3-year old Cavalier that's not spayed - though they're supposedly planning on having her spayed soon - and I won't place a dog in a home where there are intact pets. I have to question their judgement, too. If they weren't planning on breeding her, why would they wait until she's 3 years old to have her spayed? Nevermind the annoyance of dealing with twice-yearly heat cycles, what about the risk of mammary cancer? (Besides, I already denied another otherwise-good home because there's an intact Lab mix there.) The other home feeds Beneful, and needs a little updating on their discipline techniques. *sigh* It's a good home otherwise, though, and they're close to Costco, so getting them to switch to the Kirkland food shouldn't be a problem. I think I'll schedule a home visit, and see how I feel once I meet them and have a chance to talk with them a little.
The day I'm taking the Low Rider and Max to be neutered, the blade sharpener guy is scheduled to come to the groomer south of me. I'll drop my clipper blades off there in the morning on my way to the s/n clinic, and pick them up that afternoon. Then I'll be able to get Ernie the Shih Tzu groomed, and get The Chooch cleaned up a little. I'm also going to talk to the woman who told me about the puppymiller close to me, and find out for sure if I spoke to the right people. Later that afternoon I'm doing the homevisit for Ruby. If I don't get it done before then I'll do Rose's HV that day too, since they're all in the same geographical area. In 2 and a half weeks I should have gotten at least 4 little dogs placed, and maybe 5 or 6. For the rest of the summer I'm going to stick to taking in only one or two at a time so I'll have more time to work on getting the house done and working in the garden.
I think I'm going to try something new for tomatoes this year. I have a dozen varieties of heirloom tomatoes I want to plant, and I think I'm going to get 18- or 22-gallon totes, put those together in the sunny part of my back yard that's outside the fence, and grow one plant of each variety in each tote. I'll put either a piece of rebar or a t-post into the ground at the end of each 3-tote row and use that to anchor the "Florida Weave" trellis system I'd like to try. I'm going to see what it'll cost me to get a half-yard of topsoil delivered, and then amend that with manure compost and peat to go into the totes. It's got to be cheaper than buying 40-pound bags of potting mix. I'll still put some plants in hanging baskets, and a few in the garden proper too, but the fewer plants I put into the garden, the more room there will be for peppers, zuccini, watermelon, cukes, pumpkins, and beans. I'm going to do pole beans this year, I saved some seeds from last year and I can easily make a couple of trellises for them, so I'll get a larger harvest out of fewer plants and a smaller space than I did last year with bush beans. I need to get out to the garden and get it ready for planting, but it's not going to be warm enough to do that until at least the end of the week. My sis brought me a peony plant, and yesterday we prepared a place for that to go in this coming weekend, when it'll be a little warmer. I bought myself a Concord grape plant; I know where I want to put it, I've just got to get that place prepared too. (Won't have grapes for jelly this year, but should have them by next summer!)
Time to get back to work. I'm tired, and I didn't sleep well last night, and I'd really like to have a little nap instead, but I'm going to practice self-discipline and get some work done.
I knew the kitchen flooring under the carpet was probably not perfect. Nothing in this house is. The young couple who lived here before me did a lot of "renovations" here themselves. He was a whiz with car restoration and building custom hot rods, but really had no idea what he was doing when it came to home construction/repairs. He had replaced the plywood sheet in front of the sink and set it in a little crooked, so there's gap on one side that tapers from just 1/8" at one end to almost half an inch at the other. And next to that there are a couple of small pieces that had replaced a small section of a bigger piece of plywood. None of the edges are flush, the edge of one piece is either higher or lower than the piece next to it. I did some research today, and I think I should be able to fix the problem for less than $10 in materials - some acrylic wood filler and sandpaper. I'm sure that someday, someone will look at my "fix" and say "geez, she did really sloppy work...." but as long as I can get it fairly level I don't much care what posterity thinks of my techniques. I'll stop at Lowe's on my way to class (if I get going early enough) or on the way home and pick up the wood filler and see what I can do about getting that down tonight, and sanded tomorrow when it's dry. I need to remember to pick up a craft knife, too, to cut the carpet along the edge of the cabinets, and a small foam paint brush for priming/painting along there, too.
I got a 3-foot strip along one wall primed and painted this weekend, and got the cabinet and microwave cart back into place there. I also got a 3-foot strip done along another wall, and got the refrigerator and floor-to-ceiling cabinet back into place over it. My sis helped out by duct-taping the carpet and padding I pulled up into easily lifted/handled bundles and piled them up in a corner of the kitchen where I wasn't working. Unfortunately, it was in front of the coffee maker and while I managed to lean over the pile yesterday morning to make coffee, my poor aching muscles started screaming this morning when I tried to do it, so before I even got my coffee started I removed that pile of carpet and padding, putting some of it in my trash cart and some of it out in the garage to go into the trash cart over the next couple of weeks. Then I got the coffee brewing and ripped up another big piece of carpet and padding. Just one more big piece to go, then all that's left is a strip of carpet along the front of the cabinets (they put the cabinets down over the carpet, I'm not pulling out the cabinets to get to it!), the patch under the stove, and a small patch in the corner where I have to crawl under the kneehole of a small built-in "desk". Oh yeah, I have to pull everything on the floor of my pantry out, and get the carpet in there up too.
I need to get at least the perimeter primed and painted as quickly as possible, before anycat decides to pee on the plywood. I don't have anything scheduled for tomorrow, so I should be able to get the primer down early in the day when the dogs are all outside, and then I'll paint those areas before bedtime tomorrow. I've got some sections of a plastic exercise pen that I can use to block the areas off so they can dry overnight without getting kitty footprints in them. When I'm ready to put down a second coat of paint with a roller, I'm going to lure as many cats into the family room as I can and close the door so they're shut in there overnight, and use a baby gate with a wire crate panel on top of it to block the doorway from the dining room to the kitchen so anycat who's not closed up in the family room won't be able to get into the kitchen. If I keep working at it and don't have any setbacks, I should have the kitchen floor finished by the end of next weekend.
I did the home visit last Monday for the Low Riders. Very, very nice people whose last Dachsie lived to be 19. I'd taken Roux along with me, and I left him there. The other two will be joining him in that home a week from Friday, the day after they're neutered.
I did a home visit on Saturday for Parchesi the boggle puppy. Lovely family, they're going to love her to pieces and I think she's a great fit for them. They have three children, and Parchesi's got a sweet, gentle nature so I think this is a very good match. The Cheesy-puppy is scheduled to be spayed 2 weeks from today, and I'll keep her until 2 weeks from Friday. Max the Shih Tzu is going in the same day as the Low Riders, so he'll be ready to go after that. I've gotten one application for him, but I'm going up to my mom's on Thursday and taking him along to see if he'd be a good match for her and Daisy. I'm taking Ruby the Cavalier to the vet on Thursday morning; I'm pretty sure she's got a perineal hernia. If that needs to be repaired it should be done when she's spayed, but that's beyond the scope of the s/n clinic, so it'll have to be done by the local vet. We'll see what she says about whether or not it needs to be repaired, and how much it's going to cost. It'll be at least $120 (for the spay) and the repair will be extra. I've gotten a couple of donations from some Cavalier people, and I've got a good home lined up that's willing to kick in for it up to double the adoption fee, so that should cover it. We'll see.
I made the mistake of putting Rose the Cavalier up on Petfinder already, at the same time I had a cute baby puppy listed. I've spent hours and hours answering e-mails about the two of them the last week, sometimes not being able to get away from the computer for 6 hours straight. I've gotten at least a couple dozen inquiries on Rose, and from all over the country. I had to amend her description to read that we're only considering homes within a 4 hour drive of us right now. I've gotten half a dozen applications back, but only two of them are worth considering. One of them is almost exactly what I was looking for, but they have a 3-year old Cavalier that's not spayed - though they're supposedly planning on having her spayed soon - and I won't place a dog in a home where there are intact pets. I have to question their judgement, too. If they weren't planning on breeding her, why would they wait until she's 3 years old to have her spayed? Nevermind the annoyance of dealing with twice-yearly heat cycles, what about the risk of mammary cancer? (Besides, I already denied another otherwise-good home because there's an intact Lab mix there.) The other home feeds Beneful, and needs a little updating on their discipline techniques. *sigh* It's a good home otherwise, though, and they're close to Costco, so getting them to switch to the Kirkland food shouldn't be a problem. I think I'll schedule a home visit, and see how I feel once I meet them and have a chance to talk with them a little.
The day I'm taking the Low Rider and Max to be neutered, the blade sharpener guy is scheduled to come to the groomer south of me. I'll drop my clipper blades off there in the morning on my way to the s/n clinic, and pick them up that afternoon. Then I'll be able to get Ernie the Shih Tzu groomed, and get The Chooch cleaned up a little. I'm also going to talk to the woman who told me about the puppymiller close to me, and find out for sure if I spoke to the right people. Later that afternoon I'm doing the homevisit for Ruby. If I don't get it done before then I'll do Rose's HV that day too, since they're all in the same geographical area. In 2 and a half weeks I should have gotten at least 4 little dogs placed, and maybe 5 or 6. For the rest of the summer I'm going to stick to taking in only one or two at a time so I'll have more time to work on getting the house done and working in the garden.
I think I'm going to try something new for tomatoes this year. I have a dozen varieties of heirloom tomatoes I want to plant, and I think I'm going to get 18- or 22-gallon totes, put those together in the sunny part of my back yard that's outside the fence, and grow one plant of each variety in each tote. I'll put either a piece of rebar or a t-post into the ground at the end of each 3-tote row and use that to anchor the "Florida Weave" trellis system I'd like to try. I'm going to see what it'll cost me to get a half-yard of topsoil delivered, and then amend that with manure compost and peat to go into the totes. It's got to be cheaper than buying 40-pound bags of potting mix. I'll still put some plants in hanging baskets, and a few in the garden proper too, but the fewer plants I put into the garden, the more room there will be for peppers, zuccini, watermelon, cukes, pumpkins, and beans. I'm going to do pole beans this year, I saved some seeds from last year and I can easily make a couple of trellises for them, so I'll get a larger harvest out of fewer plants and a smaller space than I did last year with bush beans. I need to get out to the garden and get it ready for planting, but it's not going to be warm enough to do that until at least the end of the week. My sis brought me a peony plant, and yesterday we prepared a place for that to go in this coming weekend, when it'll be a little warmer. I bought myself a Concord grape plant; I know where I want to put it, I've just got to get that place prepared too. (Won't have grapes for jelly this year, but should have them by next summer!)
Time to get back to work. I'm tired, and I didn't sleep well last night, and I'd really like to have a little nap instead, but I'm going to practice self-discipline and get some work done.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Busy Week Ahead
I got an inquiry on the Low Riders from someone who wants all three of them. She's a little technologically challenged and has had trouble returning the application I e-mailed her. But she gave me quite a bit of information in her initial inquiry, including contact info for her vet. Her husband built ramps in their house for her old Dachsie, so he could go everywhere they did. She says "it's only two steps, but that's a lot when you're only four inches tall!" She's had Dachsies for 40 years. I spoke with her on the phone today, and I'm sure she's going to provide a great home for the boys. I'll check the vet ref in the morning, and then I'm going to do her home visit tomorrow afternoon. She's an hour the other side of where I go to teach my Monday class, about 2 hours from here, so as long as I have to go into class I might as well go the extra hour and get the home visit done. Roux is ready to go now, since he's already neutered. I'll take him along tomorrow when I do the home visit, and if everything's OK and they want to have him tomorrow, I'll leave him there. The other two can't go until they're neutered on May 8.
I put Parchesi the Boggle puppy up on petfinder last week and have been deluged with applications, most of them either bad or just mediocre. But I got a good one tonight, so I'll check the vet ref on that one tomorrow and maybe get the home visit done next weekend. My sis is coming out next weekend, I think, maybe I can get her to do the driving if I pay for the gas. Parchesi's scheduled to be spayed May 12, which is a Monday, so she'll probably be with me until Friday that week.
I got a great application for George. I struggled with the decision to make him available for adoption, because I love him dearly and he adores Dudley. But I feel strongly that he belongs with someone else, and when I got this application I knew I'd found the right home. I'm even more sure after talking to his potential adopter today. They're in southeastern Pennsylvania, and though I'm usually reluctant to place an animal so far away, they're going to love George and he's going to be just fine there. They'd be willing to drive all the way here to get him, but shoot - it's 11 hours one way, so coming to get him would take the entire weekend. (Not to mention cost them a fortune in gas.) I'm trying to figure out a way to get him transported part of the way, somewhere close enough to them that they could get there to get him and get back in one day. Eastern OH or western PA would be good, I've just got to find a ride for him that far. The other option would be to try one of my flight attendant contacts, and if I can't find overland transport for him I might have to do that. But I'd have to wait until I could afford to get a health cert ($40) and buy a Sherpa carrier (George is too big to fit into an 11" tall hard carrier), and then it might still run $75 for him to ride in the cabin with the flight attendant.
I got the floor in my half bath primed this afternoon, and spent a sweaty, frustrating hour and a half getting 2/3 of the floor - just 12 square feet - covered in self-stick tile. That was the "easy" part, the only place I couldn't put down a whole tile is where the heat duct comes up through the floor. And I had a hard time even cutting that opening out because, of course, the rectangle wasn't square at the corners and the sides weren't straight. This house.... there isn't a straight line, square corner, or level foot of flooring anywhere in the place. I'm having a helluva time trying to get the tiles down so there are no gaps between them. I managed to get them nice and snug in most places, but there are a couple that have small gaps. They're not easy to see when I'm standing up, but there's enough of a gap there that any liquid that hits the floor is going to seep down through. I'm going to have to fill those gaps with something, maybe a little tub caulk applied with a toothpick? The tough part is left to do, cutting to fit around the commode, the water line, and the threshold. I'm so disgusted right now I'm not even going to think about touching it again until Tuesday or Wednesday.
I did some research into paint for the cement floor in the family room, and I think I've found a paint that will give me the durability I'm looking for but not run me an arm and a leg (about $22/gallon, and $12 for a gallon of sealer/primer). An oil-based paint would be even more durable, but it's got a long drying time - not even light foot traffic for 24 hours. That's just not practical, as the sliding door in the family room is how the dogs get out into the yard and they have to go through the room to get to it. The latex-based "porch and floor" paint is OK for light foot traffic after just 6 hours, so if I put everyone to bed and paint the floor, it'll be dry enough in the morning for dogs to walk on, though I might put down some cardboard for the big dogs to walk on just to be on the safe side. I haven't decided on a color yet.
I'm so tired of looking at these plain light beige walls. Dull, dull, dull. I played around with the color painter at the Behr website, and I've got some ideas now about what colors I want. I found an interior paint that has Scotchguard in it. It's called Sensations, and it's available only at Ace Hardware. I'll have to go to Home Depot to pick up the Behr color chips and have Ace match them. (I want the paint with Scotchguard, it'll make cleaning so much easier. Not just on the windowsills, either (dirty little cat feet), but on the walls themselves, particularly on the corners that tend to get dirtiest.) I'm going for some bright-ish colors, a light robin's egg/sky blue for the living room and 2 dining room walls, with a rich rose for trim and the other two dining room walls, and the palest tinge of pink for the ceiling. It's not as garish as it sounds, I think it'll be pretty when it's done. At least it won't be boring any more. For the bedroom I think a pale dusty pink, with a rosy-taupe for the trim. For the half-bath, pale blue on the walls with a delft blue for the trim. It's going to take me all summer to get it done, but I will get it done. I need to finish getting pet screening in the rest of the screens and the sliding screen door, too.
I checked the ruby-throated hummingbird 2008 migration map the other day and the first hummers were seen south of me early last week, so I made nectar today and got the feeders filled and hung out. I can't wait for my little friends to return.
I put Parchesi the Boggle puppy up on petfinder last week and have been deluged with applications, most of them either bad or just mediocre. But I got a good one tonight, so I'll check the vet ref on that one tomorrow and maybe get the home visit done next weekend. My sis is coming out next weekend, I think, maybe I can get her to do the driving if I pay for the gas. Parchesi's scheduled to be spayed May 12, which is a Monday, so she'll probably be with me until Friday that week.
I got a great application for George. I struggled with the decision to make him available for adoption, because I love him dearly and he adores Dudley. But I feel strongly that he belongs with someone else, and when I got this application I knew I'd found the right home. I'm even more sure after talking to his potential adopter today. They're in southeastern Pennsylvania, and though I'm usually reluctant to place an animal so far away, they're going to love George and he's going to be just fine there. They'd be willing to drive all the way here to get him, but shoot - it's 11 hours one way, so coming to get him would take the entire weekend. (Not to mention cost them a fortune in gas.) I'm trying to figure out a way to get him transported part of the way, somewhere close enough to them that they could get there to get him and get back in one day. Eastern OH or western PA would be good, I've just got to find a ride for him that far. The other option would be to try one of my flight attendant contacts, and if I can't find overland transport for him I might have to do that. But I'd have to wait until I could afford to get a health cert ($40) and buy a Sherpa carrier (George is too big to fit into an 11" tall hard carrier), and then it might still run $75 for him to ride in the cabin with the flight attendant.
I got the floor in my half bath primed this afternoon, and spent a sweaty, frustrating hour and a half getting 2/3 of the floor - just 12 square feet - covered in self-stick tile. That was the "easy" part, the only place I couldn't put down a whole tile is where the heat duct comes up through the floor. And I had a hard time even cutting that opening out because, of course, the rectangle wasn't square at the corners and the sides weren't straight. This house.... there isn't a straight line, square corner, or level foot of flooring anywhere in the place. I'm having a helluva time trying to get the tiles down so there are no gaps between them. I managed to get them nice and snug in most places, but there are a couple that have small gaps. They're not easy to see when I'm standing up, but there's enough of a gap there that any liquid that hits the floor is going to seep down through. I'm going to have to fill those gaps with something, maybe a little tub caulk applied with a toothpick? The tough part is left to do, cutting to fit around the commode, the water line, and the threshold. I'm so disgusted right now I'm not even going to think about touching it again until Tuesday or Wednesday.
I did some research into paint for the cement floor in the family room, and I think I've found a paint that will give me the durability I'm looking for but not run me an arm and a leg (about $22/gallon, and $12 for a gallon of sealer/primer). An oil-based paint would be even more durable, but it's got a long drying time - not even light foot traffic for 24 hours. That's just not practical, as the sliding door in the family room is how the dogs get out into the yard and they have to go through the room to get to it. The latex-based "porch and floor" paint is OK for light foot traffic after just 6 hours, so if I put everyone to bed and paint the floor, it'll be dry enough in the morning for dogs to walk on, though I might put down some cardboard for the big dogs to walk on just to be on the safe side. I haven't decided on a color yet.
I'm so tired of looking at these plain light beige walls. Dull, dull, dull. I played around with the color painter at the Behr website, and I've got some ideas now about what colors I want. I found an interior paint that has Scotchguard in it. It's called Sensations, and it's available only at Ace Hardware. I'll have to go to Home Depot to pick up the Behr color chips and have Ace match them. (I want the paint with Scotchguard, it'll make cleaning so much easier. Not just on the windowsills, either (dirty little cat feet), but on the walls themselves, particularly on the corners that tend to get dirtiest.) I'm going for some bright-ish colors, a light robin's egg/sky blue for the living room and 2 dining room walls, with a rich rose for trim and the other two dining room walls, and the palest tinge of pink for the ceiling. It's not as garish as it sounds, I think it'll be pretty when it's done. At least it won't be boring any more. For the bedroom I think a pale dusty pink, with a rosy-taupe for the trim. For the half-bath, pale blue on the walls with a delft blue for the trim. It's going to take me all summer to get it done, but I will get it done. I need to finish getting pet screening in the rest of the screens and the sliding screen door, too.
I checked the ruby-throated hummingbird 2008 migration map the other day and the first hummers were seen south of me early last week, so I made nectar today and got the feeders filled and hung out. I can't wait for my little friends to return.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Contact, I Think
I drove down the road where I was told the commercial breeder was. I saw two places that looked like they might be the right place. At the first one a couple was sitting outside, and I figured they'd be a good place to start. I went onto another road and found a good place to park for a minute while I thought through what I wanted to say. I got my wallet out to get a business card for the rescue, so I could write my name and number on it to give to them. Then inspiration struck - Monday night I'd stopped at Chris's to drop something off; she wasn't home, but had left some stuff there for me, including 3 coupons for a free 20-pound bag of Pedigree. Although I'd never feed it, I thought the coupons (no expiration date) might come in handy, maybe to give to someone who was considering giving up a dog because they couldn't afford to feed it. When I saw those coupons in my wallet, I knew I could use them to break the ice.
I asked if they were the folks who bred dogs and they said no, of course. "I don't know anyone around here who breeds dogs." But there was a dog pen with a plastic tarp roof over half of it right there, and it had clearly been used by small dogs. And I heard several small dogs barking in the back, and had caught a glimpse of some rabbit cages, so I'm pretty sure I got the right place. Besides, the road is only half a mile long - if he wasn't the breeder, he darn well knows who is. I told the guy "maybe you can use these, I feed something else," and gave him the coupons. He asked me if I was interested in a little dog. (Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!) I told him that no, I wasn't interested in a little dog right now, handed him my card, and explained that I do dog rescue and I'd be interested in taking unwanted breeding dogs and/or unsaleable puppies, or any dog that a commercial breeder couldn't sell for one reason or another. I explained that I'm not an animal rights activist and I'm not looking to cause any trouble for anyone, I was just interested in the dogs. Explained that I run on a pretty tight budget so I couldn't afford to pay much, but would be willing to pay a nominal amount for dogs. I told him I live close by and could pick up dogs almost immediately after I was called. He never acknowledged that he was the guy I was looking for, but if that wasn't the right place I'll eat dog food for a week.
Now, we wait and see if I scored a hit. The next time I'm down past the place where the woman told me about "some guy on XXXXX Rd. with 100 dogs in rabbit cages", I'll stop and ask if she knows for sure which place it is. If I got the right guy but haven't heard from him in a month or so, I'll stop back again.
I asked if they were the folks who bred dogs and they said no, of course. "I don't know anyone around here who breeds dogs." But there was a dog pen with a plastic tarp roof over half of it right there, and it had clearly been used by small dogs. And I heard several small dogs barking in the back, and had caught a glimpse of some rabbit cages, so I'm pretty sure I got the right place. Besides, the road is only half a mile long - if he wasn't the breeder, he darn well knows who is. I told the guy "maybe you can use these, I feed something else," and gave him the coupons. He asked me if I was interested in a little dog. (Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!) I told him that no, I wasn't interested in a little dog right now, handed him my card, and explained that I do dog rescue and I'd be interested in taking unwanted breeding dogs and/or unsaleable puppies, or any dog that a commercial breeder couldn't sell for one reason or another. I explained that I'm not an animal rights activist and I'm not looking to cause any trouble for anyone, I was just interested in the dogs. Explained that I run on a pretty tight budget so I couldn't afford to pay much, but would be willing to pay a nominal amount for dogs. I told him I live close by and could pick up dogs almost immediately after I was called. He never acknowledged that he was the guy I was looking for, but if that wasn't the right place I'll eat dog food for a week.
Now, we wait and see if I scored a hit. The next time I'm down past the place where the woman told me about "some guy on XXXXX Rd. with 100 dogs in rabbit cages", I'll stop and ask if she knows for sure which place it is. If I got the right guy but haven't heard from him in a month or so, I'll stop back again.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
As the Revolving Door Turns
Duke, Duchess, and Olivia all went to their new homes over the weekend. And 6 more little puppymill survivors arrived Friday night - two male Shih Tzus (age 1 and 3), two Cavalier King Charles Spaniel girls (both 4, I think one might be pregnant), a very scared little Papillon girl, and an 8-week old, deliberately-bred Boston Terrier/Beagle mix puppy. (It's one of the newer "designer mixes" - a Boggle.) They're at various levels of socialization, from Max the little Shih Tzu boy who's as outgoing and snuggly as they come, to the little Papillon (as yet unnamed, because I have no clue what her personality is going to be like) who's absolutely terrified and tries to dig herself a hole in the corner of my bathroom to hide in when I open the door.
I'm sure she'll come around, though. Chu-Chu was almost as scared when she got here 5 weeks ago, and she has absolutely blossomed. She loves going for rides in the car, so I take her along whenever it's feasible. She still isn't much on being a lap dog, but she loves her skritches, pets, and kisses. At bedtime, she comes into the bedroom and waits for me to pick her up and put her on the bed. (And in the morning, she stands there and waits for me to lift her down.) When I lie down, she comes up for a goodnight kiss, then settles in somewhere about halfway down the bed, snuggled up to whoever's close. When I'm doing morning cuddles/pets, she gets right in with the rest of the gang demanding her share. When I went to teach my class last night I took Chu-Chu, Sparky, and Penny with me, intending to use Sparky as my demo dog and bring the Chooch in just to hang out. Sparky wasn't in the mood to be compliant so I ended up putting him back in the car and bringing Penny in to demo with.
As I was waiting for my students to arrive I got out my baggie of bait - tiny pieces of hot dog - and started a little warm-up with Penny, but I was also treating the Chooch. Just for the heck of it, I thought "she probably won't do it, but let's see if I can teach her to 'sit'." Much to my surprise, she got it almost immediately! And then she got "watch me" just as fast. She was eager, focused, and more than happy to do what I was asking (as long as I was rewarding her with "food! food! give me food!") I ended up using her to show my students how to teach their dogs "watch me" and "sit". I'm going to work with her this week, see if she can learn "down" and "come". I'm betting she'll catch onto those just as quickly.
What a little doll-baby she is, and such a little character. She insists on going out in the big yard with the big dogs when she needs to poop. She'll pee in the patio, but wants the wide open space of the big yard for her bowel movement. Actually, she's got a favorite potty place out there. The big dogs race around, she just does her little Shih Tzu bounce around the yard and doesn't pay them any attention. And they don't bother her. I was standing out there watching her this morning, and I was laughing out loud. (She makes me laugh out loud half a dozen times a day.) And now she's an obedience dog. What a hoot! It's going to be very, very hard to let her go. Maybe nobody will want a tiny, nearly-toothless little girl?
I've got Max the littler Shih Tzu boy scheduled for his neuter on May 8, along with the two intact Low Riders, Beau and Bailey. 4 days later, I've got Parchesi the Boston/Beagle puppy, Rose the littler Cavalier girl, and the grizzly grey Shih Tzu boy going in. I'm going to hold off scheduling Ruby the Cav (in case I'm right and she's pregnant) and the little Papillon (to give her time to start coming around) for a couple of weeks. I'll need to get one or two of the others adopted out first, anyway, so the adoption fees can be used to pay for the surgeries. The spay/neuter clinic is offering rabies vaccines for $10 now, which is both convenient and a budget saver - I don' t have to make the 18-mile drive in to the vet for just the rabies vaccine, which is administered by a tech, not preceded by an exam first, and costs $23.
I received some very disturbing information last week. It seems there's a puppymill practically right around the corner from me. Less than a couple of miles from my house there's someone who (supposedly) has over 100 dogs in rabbit hutches. I'm going to take a drive down that road in the next couple of days and see if I can figure out where it is. Then I'll work on a plan to insinuate myself with this person, to see if he'll let me have his discards (or sell them to me cheap) - breeding stock that's not producing any more, unsaleable puppies, etc. Maybe I can help clean up my own backyard.
The weather was horrible over the weekend, but it was nice yesterday, it's nicer today, and it's supposed to keep right on getting nicer through the weekend. It was so nice to be able to stand outside to dump litterboxes this morning, and it sure makes life easier - anything that spills just gets hosed into the flower beds (I use wood pellets, it's fine to use it for mulch) so I don't have to do any sweeping, and I can wheel the trash cart right over to the bags of waste and not have to carry them through the back hall and garage to get to the cart. I'm going to get all of the dog crates out to the yard and scrubbed down this week, a couple a day. It's so much easier to do it outside than it is to do it in the tub! The 400 Varikennels fit through the doorways (but don't fit in the tub unless they're broken down) and only the 500's need to be broken down to get them outside, I can scrub them and then hose them off to rinse them, turn them door-down and let them air-dry, and there's no flooded dirty bathroom to clean afterward.
I've decided the only way I'm going to have my house the way I want it is to do it myself. I'm never going to get the help of my male relatives and I can't afford to hire someone else to do it, so I'm just going to do it myself. I pulled up the carpet, pad, and tack strips from the half-bath floor, and treated the plywood with a wash of Odormute. It's all ready for the latex primer (and I'm using Kilz latex sealer) and then I can put down self-stick tile. I couldn' figure out how I was going to make a pattern for cutting the tile to fit around the toilet, but then I realized I could use the carpet I removed, so I just rolled that up and stuck it in the garage for now. Once that's done, I'm going to tackle the family room. It used to be the garage, it's a square room and has a cement slab floor. I'll pull out the carpet and padding, wash the cement, seal it with Kilz, and paint it. Something bright and cheery, that room's a little dark. Once that's done I'll be able to use the family room for rescue purposes - crating, grooming, supplies storage, whelping area/nursery room when necessary, even training. I'll know in a few weeks if I'm going to be able to get vinyl in the rest of the house. If not, then I plan to pull up all the rest of the carpeting, sand the plywood floor, seal, and paint it, one room at a time. Might even do some stencilling on the floors if I get really ambitious. That can even be done in the winter, a little at a time.
I've sat long enough. Time to get up and get back to work.
I'm sure she'll come around, though. Chu-Chu was almost as scared when she got here 5 weeks ago, and she has absolutely blossomed. She loves going for rides in the car, so I take her along whenever it's feasible. She still isn't much on being a lap dog, but she loves her skritches, pets, and kisses. At bedtime, she comes into the bedroom and waits for me to pick her up and put her on the bed. (And in the morning, she stands there and waits for me to lift her down.) When I lie down, she comes up for a goodnight kiss, then settles in somewhere about halfway down the bed, snuggled up to whoever's close. When I'm doing morning cuddles/pets, she gets right in with the rest of the gang demanding her share. When I went to teach my class last night I took Chu-Chu, Sparky, and Penny with me, intending to use Sparky as my demo dog and bring the Chooch in just to hang out. Sparky wasn't in the mood to be compliant so I ended up putting him back in the car and bringing Penny in to demo with.
As I was waiting for my students to arrive I got out my baggie of bait - tiny pieces of hot dog - and started a little warm-up with Penny, but I was also treating the Chooch. Just for the heck of it, I thought "she probably won't do it, but let's see if I can teach her to 'sit'." Much to my surprise, she got it almost immediately! And then she got "watch me" just as fast. She was eager, focused, and more than happy to do what I was asking (as long as I was rewarding her with "food! food! give me food!") I ended up using her to show my students how to teach their dogs "watch me" and "sit". I'm going to work with her this week, see if she can learn "down" and "come". I'm betting she'll catch onto those just as quickly.
What a little doll-baby she is, and such a little character. She insists on going out in the big yard with the big dogs when she needs to poop. She'll pee in the patio, but wants the wide open space of the big yard for her bowel movement. Actually, she's got a favorite potty place out there. The big dogs race around, she just does her little Shih Tzu bounce around the yard and doesn't pay them any attention. And they don't bother her. I was standing out there watching her this morning, and I was laughing out loud. (She makes me laugh out loud half a dozen times a day.) And now she's an obedience dog. What a hoot! It's going to be very, very hard to let her go. Maybe nobody will want a tiny, nearly-toothless little girl?
I've got Max the littler Shih Tzu boy scheduled for his neuter on May 8, along with the two intact Low Riders, Beau and Bailey. 4 days later, I've got Parchesi the Boston/Beagle puppy, Rose the littler Cavalier girl, and the grizzly grey Shih Tzu boy going in. I'm going to hold off scheduling Ruby the Cav (in case I'm right and she's pregnant) and the little Papillon (to give her time to start coming around) for a couple of weeks. I'll need to get one or two of the others adopted out first, anyway, so the adoption fees can be used to pay for the surgeries. The spay/neuter clinic is offering rabies vaccines for $10 now, which is both convenient and a budget saver - I don' t have to make the 18-mile drive in to the vet for just the rabies vaccine, which is administered by a tech, not preceded by an exam first, and costs $23.
I received some very disturbing information last week. It seems there's a puppymill practically right around the corner from me. Less than a couple of miles from my house there's someone who (supposedly) has over 100 dogs in rabbit hutches. I'm going to take a drive down that road in the next couple of days and see if I can figure out where it is. Then I'll work on a plan to insinuate myself with this person, to see if he'll let me have his discards (or sell them to me cheap) - breeding stock that's not producing any more, unsaleable puppies, etc. Maybe I can help clean up my own backyard.
The weather was horrible over the weekend, but it was nice yesterday, it's nicer today, and it's supposed to keep right on getting nicer through the weekend. It was so nice to be able to stand outside to dump litterboxes this morning, and it sure makes life easier - anything that spills just gets hosed into the flower beds (I use wood pellets, it's fine to use it for mulch) so I don't have to do any sweeping, and I can wheel the trash cart right over to the bags of waste and not have to carry them through the back hall and garage to get to the cart. I'm going to get all of the dog crates out to the yard and scrubbed down this week, a couple a day. It's so much easier to do it outside than it is to do it in the tub! The 400 Varikennels fit through the doorways (but don't fit in the tub unless they're broken down) and only the 500's need to be broken down to get them outside, I can scrub them and then hose them off to rinse them, turn them door-down and let them air-dry, and there's no flooded dirty bathroom to clean afterward.
I've decided the only way I'm going to have my house the way I want it is to do it myself. I'm never going to get the help of my male relatives and I can't afford to hire someone else to do it, so I'm just going to do it myself. I pulled up the carpet, pad, and tack strips from the half-bath floor, and treated the plywood with a wash of Odormute. It's all ready for the latex primer (and I'm using Kilz latex sealer) and then I can put down self-stick tile. I couldn' figure out how I was going to make a pattern for cutting the tile to fit around the toilet, but then I realized I could use the carpet I removed, so I just rolled that up and stuck it in the garage for now. Once that's done, I'm going to tackle the family room. It used to be the garage, it's a square room and has a cement slab floor. I'll pull out the carpet and padding, wash the cement, seal it with Kilz, and paint it. Something bright and cheery, that room's a little dark. Once that's done I'll be able to use the family room for rescue purposes - crating, grooming, supplies storage, whelping area/nursery room when necessary, even training. I'll know in a few weeks if I'm going to be able to get vinyl in the rest of the house. If not, then I plan to pull up all the rest of the carpeting, sand the plywood floor, seal, and paint it, one room at a time. Might even do some stencilling on the floors if I get really ambitious. That can even be done in the winter, a little at a time.
I've sat long enough. Time to get up and get back to work.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Geriatric Delinquent
OK, so I'm not the most regular blogger. It seems that whenever I have the inclination I don't have the time, and when I have the time, I don't have the inclination. Or I'm just too darn tired. I do want to post more often, though; things happen here every day that make me think "Gee, I'd like to share this with someone". If I blog, I do have someone(s) to share with. So I'm really going to try to blog more regularly.
It's been a long day. I was thinking earlier "man, the weather was gorgeous today and I didn't get anything done!" But then I realized that wasn't true. I broke down and scrubbed out three big varikennels and three large cat carriers (currently in use as small dog crates) this morning, washed dog bowls, got Que ready for her mom who came early this afternoon to get her, carted a big folding crate Que's mom gave me out to the pole barn, while I was there I searched through my stash of collars to see if I had anything that would fit the short boys, did 3 loads of laundry, emptied wastebaskets and gathered trash and took that all out to the cart, updated the folks about the Dachsies, got crates set up for them in the living room, paid bills, got the schedule info submitted for my summer obedience classes, and did the heel flap and turned the heel on the first sock of a pair in the Pembrokshire Pathways pattern (in a gorgeous hand-dyed yarn from Pagewood Farms in the colorway Turquoise). So it wasn't true that I hadn't gotten anything done.
Then I fixed myself a little dinner, repaired an extension cord, hooked up the clippers, and removed Duchess' beautiful feathers. Her new mom "doesn't do the cocker cut", and offered to pay me to groom her. She looks really good, weight wise, and you can see it even better without the feathering. She was pudgy and flabby when she got here, she's svelte and sleek and at a perfect weight, now. Duchess, Duke, and Olivia are going in to the spay/neuter clinic in the morning, so they all had to have baths tonight. I figured I might as well clip Duchess now instead of waiting until the end of the week, it would take less time to shampoo her and less time for her to dry. (Mrs. Parker, Chu-Chu, and Sparky are going to the clinic on Thursday. While I'm there tomorrow, I'll get the two intact Dachsies scheduled .)
Three baths given, three clean dogs tucked into clean crates with clean blankets. Three Dachsies taken out and supervised, then given their first lesson in crating (they got their dinner in their crates). Two more shifts of dogs out, then dinner for everyone. Then I decided it was time for a treat, so I sat down here with the last Leinie's Creamy Dark Lager to check e-mail. Too tired to get up and go to bed, here I sit.
I am having so much fun watching The Chooch find herself. Her most recent step into real doghood is to play, with Sparky. She has such a crush on him, it's the sweetest thing. She follows him everywhere, and takes every opportunity she can find to mount him - her idea of a play invitation. Sparky, bless his sweet, easy-going heart, isn't bothered by Chooch's crude approach, he just rolls onto his back so they're wrestling face to face. She's started to play growl, and if it weren't for her body language indicating clearly that she's playing, I'd interpret the sound as pre-attack aggressive. Sparky's not bothered by her vocalizations, either. (He really is the most easy-going, loving little dog in the world. I absolutely adore him.) She asks to be petted now, and actively seeks me out for attention. She's so funny, such an odd, determined little mite. I get such a tickle out of her.
Oh, it is so quiet here without Que. The energy level in here has dropped by half. Sure is nice.
It's been a long day. I was thinking earlier "man, the weather was gorgeous today and I didn't get anything done!" But then I realized that wasn't true. I broke down and scrubbed out three big varikennels and three large cat carriers (currently in use as small dog crates) this morning, washed dog bowls, got Que ready for her mom who came early this afternoon to get her, carted a big folding crate Que's mom gave me out to the pole barn, while I was there I searched through my stash of collars to see if I had anything that would fit the short boys, did 3 loads of laundry, emptied wastebaskets and gathered trash and took that all out to the cart, updated the folks about the Dachsies, got crates set up for them in the living room, paid bills, got the schedule info submitted for my summer obedience classes, and did the heel flap and turned the heel on the first sock of a pair in the Pembrokshire Pathways pattern (in a gorgeous hand-dyed yarn from Pagewood Farms in the colorway Turquoise). So it wasn't true that I hadn't gotten anything done.
Then I fixed myself a little dinner, repaired an extension cord, hooked up the clippers, and removed Duchess' beautiful feathers. Her new mom "doesn't do the cocker cut", and offered to pay me to groom her. She looks really good, weight wise, and you can see it even better without the feathering. She was pudgy and flabby when she got here, she's svelte and sleek and at a perfect weight, now. Duchess, Duke, and Olivia are going in to the spay/neuter clinic in the morning, so they all had to have baths tonight. I figured I might as well clip Duchess now instead of waiting until the end of the week, it would take less time to shampoo her and less time for her to dry. (Mrs. Parker, Chu-Chu, and Sparky are going to the clinic on Thursday. While I'm there tomorrow, I'll get the two intact Dachsies scheduled .)
Three baths given, three clean dogs tucked into clean crates with clean blankets. Three Dachsies taken out and supervised, then given their first lesson in crating (they got their dinner in their crates). Two more shifts of dogs out, then dinner for everyone. Then I decided it was time for a treat, so I sat down here with the last Leinie's Creamy Dark Lager to check e-mail. Too tired to get up and go to bed, here I sit.
I am having so much fun watching The Chooch find herself. Her most recent step into real doghood is to play, with Sparky. She has such a crush on him, it's the sweetest thing. She follows him everywhere, and takes every opportunity she can find to mount him - her idea of a play invitation. Sparky, bless his sweet, easy-going heart, isn't bothered by Chooch's crude approach, he just rolls onto his back so they're wrestling face to face. She's started to play growl, and if it weren't for her body language indicating clearly that she's playing, I'd interpret the sound as pre-attack aggressive. Sparky's not bothered by her vocalizations, either. (He really is the most easy-going, loving little dog in the world. I absolutely adore him.) She asks to be petted now, and actively seeks me out for attention. She's so funny, such an odd, determined little mite. I get such a tickle out of her.
Oh, it is so quiet here without Que. The energy level in here has dropped by half. Sure is nice.
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