Rolling Dog Farm

I'll Wait

Alayne took this shot right after lunch, just moments after I had started mowing the dog yard in the front of the house (I was "off camera" to the right). Blind Widget was in the living room and wanted to go out to potty, so Alayne opened the door and off she went to the top of the ramp ... and no further.  She was joined by Dexter, who you see on the left.

Alayne watched her for a bit, and told me later it was as if Widget was waiting for me to mow the grass down before she sauntered out to do her business. You see, Widget does not like tall grass because her legs are so short, and thus a freshly mowed lawn is much more to her liking.

Alas, she waited for probably five to ten minutes, listening to me go around and around with the mower, before finally giving up and heading out to pee.  I hadn't noticed her lying at the top of the ramp the whole time, nor did I apparently get her ESP message directing me to mow a strip straight out from the ramp to the middle of the yard, where she usually does her thing. So, yes, the poor thing had to wade through the four-inch high grass to get to her favorite spot. Oh, well. That was no doubt the most difficult and challenging part of her day.

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Still No. 3 Nationwide!

The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. 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.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the last 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!

Upcoming TV Story

Today we hosted a wonderful crew from WMUR, the big TV station in Manchester, New Hampshire that is an ABC affiliate. They were here to do a feature story for WMUR's popular magazine show, New Hampshire Chronicle.  We spent several hours introducing the producer, Mary-Paige, and the videographer, Jason, to our "pampered guests," and then towards the end we did a sit-down interview in the front yard. Kate (who was also interviewed for the story!) was kind enough to take some photos so I could post one on the blog.

The animals in the photo above are blind Sophie on the left (who had just had a tummy rub from Mary-Paige in the chair), Daisy next to Alayne, blind Widget sitting between Alayne's legs, and blind Fuzzy with me.

We don't have an air-date yet for the story, but they will let us know well ahead of time and we'll get it announced on the blog. They also post the stories for viewing on the Chronicle's webpage I linked to above, so it should be available online the day after it airs on TV. 

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Still No. 3 Nationwide!

The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. 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.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the last 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!

A Hole With A View

Well, this morning -- cooler, cloudy, and damp from rain overnight -- Travis was back under his dog house in his hole, but in an entirely new way: face first, looking out. This hole is obviously bigger than I first thought (maybe I should get in there myself?) because he can fit his entire body in it. Today he clearly isn't shade-seeking ... this is simply denning. But at least he's got a better view of the world this way.

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Up To No. 3 Nationwide!

The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. 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.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the last 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!

Subterranean Dog

I was scooping poop on Saturday morning when I saw Travis lying underneath the dog house in his yard. Now, to be honest, my first reaction was, "Well, at least you're finally using that @#%&! hole you dug!" Last year, soon after we moved here, Travis went to work excavating under the corner of his dog house; I was forever filling the hole back in so the house wouldn't become unstable and wobbly in that corner.  Eventually, reason prevailed; no, he didn't stop digging, I just quit trying to fill it in. The odd thing was, I never saw him ever get in the hole. He seemed to be digging for digging's sake. (It's a dog's life, after all.)

Until yesterday, that is, when it was a hot, sunny morning and he was looking for a cooler spot. Nevertheless, I would like to point out that the entire interior of the dog house is shaded, and with the front and back both open, breezy as well. It's hard to think his tight, airless hole in the ground would be cooler or more comfortable, but since I haven't actually tried it myself, I can't say for sure. 

Blind Patti, on the other hand, had a different idea on how to stay cool:

Because Travis has a fused jaw and can't pant to cool off, we always have to keep an eye on him on hot summer days to make sure he doesn't overheat. But yesterday morning, he was obviously taking matters into his own paws, and at least his confounded hole was getting some use. But me, I would have been with Patti, lying in the shade on the cool grass.

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Up To No. 3 Nationwide!

The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. 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.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the last 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!

House Privileges

When I snuck quietly into the dog room this morning about 6:15 to take these photos, I was hoping to find blind Madison and blind and deaf Spinner sleeping "stacked," one on the dog bed below and one on the big bed above. That's the way they were yesterday morning when I walked in ... without the camera, of course. With the camera this morning, they were sleeping on opposite sides of the room:

I'd wanted to photograph them together because they are the only two dogs who enjoy "house privileges" in the dog wing, i.e., get to sleep anywhere they want at night and not in crates. We've found over the years that the more dogs left loose in a room unsupervised, the greater the likelihood someone is going to pee overnight. It's like the more dogs there are, the more discipline and self-control break down ... I'm not sure why that is, but I suspect the same is true with humans, too. And some dogs just can't or won't hold it overnight. In any case, through a process of elimination (no pun intended! honest!), we ended up with these two older girls with "house privileges" for the dog wing. (Holly and blind Goldie are the only two who get to stay out all night in the people wing.)

Getting -- and keeping -- house privileges is not soley a function of good potty habits, though. The late-night party animals, like blind Widget, quickly lose their privileges because of their frat-house behavior at 3 a.m. The looking-for-food-in-all-the-wrong-places types -- like blind Cedar, who will upend any trash can searching for anything edible -- also lose privileges.

Thus the last two standing ... er, sleeping ... are Madison and Spinner.

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Up To No. 3 Nationwide!

The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. 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.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the last 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!

It's Me Again

I took this shot through the back door to the deck just before breakfast this morning. That's Skitter, one of our barn cats who moved out with us from Montana last year. Every morning she comes up to the deck when she hears us in the kitchen, then climbs up on to the railing to peer into the kitchen window to see what we're doing.  ("Having breakfast. What do you think we're doing?")

About the same time every morning this summer, on the other side of the house, we have an obnoxious crow that flies in, lands on the ramp railing by the front door, caws loudly, and -- this is special -- pecks madly at the windows. (Oh, and leaves a nice gooey mess on the railing.)

Naturally, we're trying to convince Skitter that while she's occupied being a busybody at the kitchen window, she's missing all the action at the front of the house ... where this b-i-r-d is waiting for her.

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Up To No. 3 Nationwide!

The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. 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.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the last 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!

Wanted: Dishwashers, Part-Time

I took these photos this morning, when Dexter and blind Goldie realized Alayne was loading the dishwasher and that meant, "time to help!" In other words, "time to see if there's anything edible/lickable still left on the dishes!" They head over to the kitchen whenever one of us is loading the dishwasher, whether it's our own dishes or the dog dishes. There's always a possibility food may be available, and if not food, at least some interesting flavors to be savored. 

To their dismay, they can't reach the upper rack in the dishwasher, nor can they get inside the blender on the lower rack, which has the drippings left over from making up Travis' liquid diet. But anything else on the lower rack is fair game for them.

Dexter and Goldie are quite a team, working both the front and back of the dishes. The first time I saw them cleaning the back of the plates I wondered why, but then I realized ... since we stacked the plates on top of each other when clearing off the table, that would leave some tasty "lickables" on the back of the plates. 

Here's Dexter, deciding the front of the plates demanded his attention now:

Of course, this isn't the only dishwashing assistance we get -- I've reported before on how Holly likes to do the "pre-wash" of the dog dishes. Nice to have the help, eh?

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Up To No. 3 Nationwide!

The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. 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.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the last 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!

Please Feed Me

This is our new arrival, blind Sophie, who has this adorable way of sitting up on her hindquarters to beg for food from the table. Given her plump, oblong shape, this is not an easy thing to do. Gravity is not her friend, so she often wobbles around on her rear legs before coming back down to earth. Nevertheless, she loves doing this, and truth be told, it is hard to resist. She is also relentless -- one morsel from the table convinces her that this is a surefire way to get more treats, and she'll keep hopping up and begging as long as we're at the table. She kind of reminds me of prairie dogs popping up out of their holes, although the prairie dogs are, I admit, more elegant in their movements than Miss Sophie. She often looks like she's going to tumble over at any moment.

There are times I end up putting her out on the front porch or in the dog wing while we eat, so as not to end up either a) giving away my entire lunch or b) feeling guilty that I'm not giving away my entire lunch to the bouncing beggar.

Now, while I was taking these photos of her at lunch yesterday, blind Widget made her usual appearance at the table, and had a lesson for Sophie. Widget thinks begging is really kind of pathetic. She's shown us that she thinks stealing food is better than begging for it. I imagined the conversation went something like this:

"Look, you overfed, long-haired Dachshund, have some self-respect. Stop begging. Start demanding. You have a right to their food. Act like it. Watch how I do it."

"See, I get in their face. Climb right up, put a paw on their legs, and stare at 'em. I got short legs too so I know you can do this. Then, start howling. It annoys the hell out of them, especially him. They feed me just to shut me up. I get fed and keep my dignity intact. If it works for me, it'll work for you."

Not having quite absorbed the how-to, Sophie wandered down the table and tried all over again:

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The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. 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.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the last 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!

Annual Horse Health Day

Our equine vet, Dr. Steve Levine, came out today to do the annual vaccinations, dentals, and other routine medical work on our horse herd. The day had started out raining, but by the time Steve arrived, it had simply become a hot and humid summer afternoon. It was a nice change to have a day actually scheduled in advance with Steve, rather than the after-hours and weekend calls we usually have been seeing him for.

In the photo above, Steve is giving blind Nikki one of her vaccinations while Kate holds her; that's blind Bridger in the background, who shares the paddock with Nikki. Oddly, Nikki and Bridger didn't really get along back in Montana, but here in New Hampshire they've become quite the pair.

Here's Kate with Nikki right after Steve got done with the vaccinations and deworming:

Here's Kate right after she realized the other Steve really was taking her photo for the blog:

Actually, I didn't do much except take photos during the entire thing. Well, I did carry the two buckets with the syringes and dewormers, but pretty much I just took photos while Kate and Steve did all the work.

Here they are with blind Cash:

And, last but certainly never least, here's the Queen Bee, blind Lena:

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Tonya asked about the previous post, "why are there seven closets in one hallway?" The way we heard the story, the previous owners had a large family and the father wanted everyone -- children and adults -- to have his or her own closet to put their stuff in. He didn't want to see their stuff lying around the house. And, as other people have pointed out, who ever has enough closets in their house anyway? Needless to say, we sure have found ways to use every one of them!

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The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. 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.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the last 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!

Cool Spot

When the weather's hot, the coolest spot in the house is the floor in the "hall of seven closets" that connects the dog wing with the people wing. It's a simulated "tile" flooring, and that along with the twelve windows in the hallway combine to turn it into a cool, breezy spot to sleep. I took this photo of blind Madison this morning enjoying a nap. Even though it was probably more comfortable outside in the grass in the shade of the oak tree that hangs over the front yard, Madison prefers to come inside -- and this is where she often ends up.

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The current Shelter Challenge started on July 4th and ends at midnight on September 18th. 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.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the last 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!