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Here's another great shot that Kathy K., who adopted the blind Poodle sisters from us a couple of months ago, sent me this weekend. That's Priscilla on the left, Molly, and Franky. Kathy wrote, "They are like the three musketeers, always together playing and following each other. :)"
Who said a tug of war can't have three participants, eh?
Here are some wonderful photos that Cassie B. in Montana, who adopted blind Bindi (then Nevada) from us back in 2007, just sent me. Bindi already has a big, handsome boyfriend, a Great Dane named Dirk, at Cassie's home, but now she has a girlfriend, too -- Stella the Lab puppy. One of the many things that is so endearing about dogs is how they accept one another (as well as their human companions) "as is" -- and they never let something like being born without eyes affect how they look at or feel about their friend. "I don't care whether you're blind, deaf or missing a limb, you're still good enough for me" seems to be their common view of each other.
In this case, here's perfectly "able-bodied" Stella with her friend Bindi, who's great for napping with:
Or playing with:
Or just goofing around with:
Vicky L. from Connecticut, who adopted blind Lucy from us earlier this year, just sent us this wonderful photo of her daughter Kendall taking Lucy for a bike ride. (Please note pink carrier for Lucy, who also has a pink collar, leash, bed and toys!) Vicky wrote, "Lucy sends great big hugs and kisses. She is doing wonderfully! When I say she is part of the family...I mean she is truly part of the family. She goes everywhere with us and still people are shocked to find out she is blind. Her new favorite place is going for bike rides with us. On our really long rides she curls up in the basket and takes a little nap. That's when neighbors along our bike ride are not stopping us to see our little beauty!"
I told Vicky, "That was such a heartwarming photo — it’s hard to explain how much it means to us to see the kind of life Lucy is having after being given up on. Wow. Thank you."
I got this shot the other afternoon of little Dexter at the top of the stairs that lead to our offices on the second floor. We installed this gate to control access, both to keep certain Dachshunds from racing up and down the steps at will (to minimize the risk of Doxie back problems occurring) as well as to keep certain Dachshunds from using the carpet at the top of the stairs for a ... how to put this nicely ... a potty place. Besides our bedroom -- a dog-free zone -- the second floor is one of only three places in the house that has carpet. You know, nice, soft, absorbent carpet, perfect for those moments when you don't want to be bothered to go outside. It's so handy.
Dexter follows Alayne everywhere (don't they all?), but on this afternoon he had fallen asleep in her office and didn't realize she had left ... and she didn't realize he was still up there. He woke up, heard us downstairs, and went to the gate, only to find it closed. (Okay, so at least we remembered to close it behind us.) I came around the bottom of the stairs, heard some whining from up above, and there he was.
P.S. Happy Summer Solstice! It's a beautiful first day of summer here in the Great North Woods of New Hampshire -- sunny, 78°(25°C), gentle breeze. Perfect.
Our first calf of the season was born on Thursday to Sage, a first-time momma cow. Kate was the first person to see her, so she won "naming rights" and decided to call her Annabelle. I took these photos Thursday afternoon, just a few hours after she was born. (For background, see our post from February on humanely raised pet food.)
Here's Sage, nudging her along on the way back to the herd ... she was communicating to Annabelle with a low, quiet moo as they slowly moved forward:
This is Susanna on the left, who was born last year, greeting the new-born little girl:
We have three more cows due to deliver -- two any day now, and the third one in August. We had a couple of cows not get pregnant last fall, so to make up for the shortfall, we are now also raising four Holstein male calves we got from a local dairy down the road from us when they were a week old.
Typically male dairy calves get shipped off to veal "farms" (really, factories) a few days after birth, where they spend a short, miserable several months confined in veal crates and on restricted diets before being slaughtered. This is the "dark side" to the dairy industry that many people, even many well intentioned vegetarians, don't know about. But if you're drinking milk -- or eating cheese, yoghurt or other milk products -- it's because a calf didn't get that milk. Instead of going to a veal farm, our Holstein steers (now about three months old) will have a natural life outdoors.
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Speaking of humanely raised pet food, the newest issue of Bark magazine has a feature article by me on that subject. It's in the June/July/August issue -- this is the cover -- but they also just posted it online. You can read it on the Bark website here.
The article is adapted from, and expands on, the blog post I wrote back in February.
I took this photo of Widget as we were leaving Vermont Veterinary Internal Medicine on Monday afternoon. That's the "nest" that Alayne fixes up for her in the front seat of the truck. As if the seat isn't big enough already, Alayne puts a box on the floor, adds a few beds to raise it to seat level, covers the now lengthy expanse with a big dog bed, and then tops it with a fleece blanket ... for one very big bed. It's how Widget expects to travel. In spacious, comfortable style.
Our internal medicine specialist, Dr. Bryan Harnett, was waiting on Widget's other lab test results to come in before deciding on what to do for heart medications. During his echocardiogram of Widget's heart on Monday, he noticed enough changes in the valves that he thought it was probably time to start her on some meds. Dr. Harnett wasn't alarmed by what he saw, because the changes were the type you might expect in an older dog, but he thought it was time to put Widget on medication to help her overall heart function. We think she's about 10 or 11 years old.
The results came in on Tuesday, and both her blood work and urinanalysis were terrific -- presenting no obstacles to the heart medication he wanted to begin prescribing, which is Enalapril. (That's a drug we have seen a lot of over the years!)
Blind Avery, by the way, is doing great, too. He's now completed his heartworm treatment. In a couple of more months, he'll get a different kind of "treatment" -- neutering! The delay is to allow all the dead heartworms to exit his body before putting him through anesthesia again.
Just before writing this post, I was downstairs having lunch ... where Widget was, as usual, relentless in pestering me for some of my meal. She was, as usual, successful. Widget says, "There's no need to teach an old dog new tricks when the old tricks work so well!"
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The current Shelter Challenge started on Monday, April 4th, and ends at midnight on Sunday, June 19th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories ... please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.
And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.
You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.
Please note: Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.
Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this current Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!
I drove to Burlington, Vermont yesterday -- about two hours from here -- for vet appointments at our internal medicine specialist and for a run to Costco to stock up on supplies. Blind Widget was in for an abdominal ultrasound screening and echocardiogram, part of her routine check-up now that she's an older girl, and blind Avery was in for a second round of his heartworm treatment. While they were at the clinic, I headed over to Costco -- this is the nearest one to us, the next closest is three hours away in southern New Hampshire on the Massachusetts line.
On my list was, yes, the pallet of paper towels you see there in the back of the truck. We go through paper towels like crazy here, and the cheapest and most effective way to always have them on hand is to buy them by the pallet. After I took that photo, I threw a tarp over the stack and then tied the whole thing down with ratchet straps. When I get pallet loads of supplies like this, I purchase them first because we have to get them loaded at the receiving dock out back, so it's easier to get that done and out of the way before doing the rest of the shopping.
After tarping and securing the pallet, I went back inside for my next load -- 500 pounds of rice for the dogs' home-cooked meals. (I mentioned in an earlier post that our local supplier is out of potatoes, so until the next harvest comes in this fall, we've switched to rice.) The rice came in 50 pound bags, so that was one very, very heavy cart I pushed through the store and all the way out the parking lot to where the truck was. Believe it or not, all 500 pounds fit comfortably in the back seat of the truck, with room for Avery's crate, too.
Finally, truck packed, I started to pull out when I noticed this sign on the wall by the loading docks:
Okay, now you have to stop and think about that for a second. Apparently enough truck drivers were driving off with Costco forklift operators still inside their trucks that the company decided they needed to post a big sign like this. So either the truck drivers were a) closing the trailer door with the forklift operator still inside -- how do you miss someone on a forklift in the back of your truck? -- or, worse, b) driving off with the door still open and a forklift operator in the back of your truck. Either way, it makes you wonder, doesn't it?
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The current Shelter Challenge started on Monday, April 4th, and ends at midnight on Sunday, June 19th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories ... please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.
And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.
You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.
Please note: Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.
Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this current Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!
I took these photos of Daisy the other day, after I had finished getting shots of the horses when we first put them out on pasture. I was walking into the house with the camera and looked over to see Daisy rolling and rolling, back and forth, enjoying the warm sunshine and green grass. Our biggest challenge this time of year is just keeping the grass mowed in the dog yards before it gets away from us. I had mowed the grass in the front yard the previous evening, so it was freshly clipped and smelling even greener for Daisy's rolling pleasure.
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The current Shelter Challenge started on Monday, April 4th, and ends at midnight on Sunday, June 19th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories ... please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.
And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.
You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.
Please note: Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.
Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this current Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!
Like many across the country this week, we're seeing unseasonably (soon to become normal?) warm temperatures here in New Hampshire. One of our sighted horses, Blueberry, has taken to enjoying the pond as a way to cool off. We've had Blueberry for a decade now -- I think we introduced her in our very first newsletter way back when as a "staff member," whose job was to be the seeing eye horse leading our (then) few blind horses around. Pretty soon we had enough blind horses that we began pairing them off, and Blueberry preferred not being a nanny anyway. Now over 30 years old, she's retired from doing anything except whatever she wants to do ... which on hot days means going for a swim in the pond. (No, she's not going to drown or get into trouble -- don't worry! And that pond is in full view of the house just above.)
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The current Shelter Challenge started on Monday, April 4th, and ends at midnight on Sunday, June 19th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories ... please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.
And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.
You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.
Please note: Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.
Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this current Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!
For the sixth year in a row (!), quiltmaker Barbara Edwards from Seeley Lake, Montana, has made another gorgeous quilt to raffle off as a benefit for the animals here. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to the farm. Barbara emailed us photos of the 2011 quilt last week.
As you can see, this year she incorporated photos of some of our special animals in the quilt. Starting in the top row, that's Patti, Widget, Katie, Madison, Ella, Samantha, Cedar and Moose. Barbara's daughter Candace has named this year's quilt "PUPARAZZI." The size is approximately 85 inches by 101 inches.
The raffle details are:
-- Tickets available for $5 each ... and there's no limit to the number of tickets!
-- Make your check payable to Barbara Edwards
-- Please send your check directly to Barbara Edwards, P.O. Box 104, Seeley Lake, Montana, 59868
-- Barbara will fill out the raffle ticket stub with the information you send with your check ... please make sure she has your full name, address and phone number
-- If you want your portion of the ticket(s) mailed back to you, please send Barbara a stamped, self-addressed envelope
-- All tickets must be purchased by Tuesday, August 9, 2011
-- In addition to posting the raffle on the blog, Barbara will be displaying the quilt and selling tickets at a few venues in nearby communities
-- The drawing will be held shortly after August 9 and the winner will be announced on the blog as well as notified personally
Note that Alayne and I are not handling the raffle, so please don't send any money for tickets to the farm.
Thank you so much, Barbara!
