Long Dog

While going through some old pictures I found this one. It's definitely old as my daughter in the pic is now 23 yrs old. But I always thought this must be the longest dog in the world! Actually the front half is Rottweiler and the back half is my Great Dane puppy, Ruger. It always made me laugh to look at this picture. I hope it does you too.

Dogs in my life

Life would be so much easier without dogs. I would have a job, get up shower, eat breakfast, drop my daughter by school and go to my job. I would work for 8 hours, collect a paycheck here and there then go home. I would play on the computer, maybe watch some tv, eat dinner then go to bed.

My life is not like that.

I get up (early) I go let the dogs out to run and potty. I hose down kennels and fill water buckets. If its below freezing I do what I can, which means going into the house to get water for the dogs. I stand out in the elements and let them finish their business, then I put them back in their kennels. I go in, shower, eat breakfast, get dressed. Then I go out, let the dogs out of the kennel and put them in the back of the truck. I drive to my shop, go in turn off the alarm, go back out let the dogs out of the truck and into the shop, making sure I get in there fast enough myself to keep Meg out of the biscuit tub. Then I go down to the basement and put Seth, Mike, Meg, Reign and Torka into their crates. I go upstairs and put Crue into his, then I get back into the truck and drive my daughter to school. I get back to the shop and let all the dogs out back to run and potty. I bring them all back in, yelling at Mike for harrassing Kitty, then I put them all back into their crates. I open the shop, groom dogs and sell stuff all day. In the afternoon if I haven't already I let the dogs all out back again. Then I put them all back up and go pick up my daughter from school. I come back to the shop, groom at least 1 more dog and by then its almost closing time. I feed the dogs their dinner, let them all out again then bring them upstairs to run around while we get everything ready to leave. I back the truck up again and open the tailgate (I have a shell) and make them all lie down and wait till I call them to jump into the truck. I drive home, let the dogs out and clean the kennels if I didn't in the morning, fill the waters and put them away. I go out again in a few hours and let them out for a longer run and then put them up for the night. Oh and sometime during the time at home I walk the yard picking up all the poop, which goes in a bag to be taken to the trash at the shop during the week. I haul bags of dog food home, I kick the ball, throw the sticks and take them out for walks. If I didn't have dogs my life would be so much easier!

But it would be empty.

Mayberry

My daughter (Jillian) and I took Seth and Crue and went to the Rural Hill Trial in NC over the weekend. It was fun and a nice site for a trial. Seth watched all the runs and I'm sure he had a good time. Crue was really good and wasn't nervous about any of the stuff going on nor the many many dogs there. We looked around at all the interesting sites and had a good time over all. We spent the night as the drive was too long for a 1 day trip.

When we drove home we decided to stop in Mt Airy, which is where Andy Griffith grew up and based the town of Mayberry on in the Andy Griffith show. We had a really good time there. Here is Jillian wondering what is taking me so long.

We went for a tour in a mule drawn wagon and met some really nice people.

They had these mock up sets of the Mayberry jail in a store. We took pictures of each other in jail.

When we got back out to the truck to give the dogs some fries (Seth's favorite food in the world) I snapped this pic of the dogs in jail in Mayberry.

Then I took a break and relaxed in a swing on Aunt Bee's porch.

And of course no trip to Mayberry would be complete without seeing Floyd's Barber shop

This was the statue of Andy and Opie going fishing that is in front of the Andy Griffith Playhouse which I guess used to be a school that Andy went to when he was young.

All in all we had a very good weekend. If you ever go to Mt Airy be sure to go to Opies candy store. They have zillions of big jars full of every kind of candy imaginable and you can mix up anything you want in bags. I made a mixture of all kinds of licorice and Jill made a huge bag full off all types of chocolates. It was too good and I ate too much of it!

Oh and one other milestone note. Crue lifted his leg and marked a bush for the first time. I was very glad because it makes it so much easier to take dogs out when you are staying in a hotel if they'll pee on a bush. He's a big boy now!

Kitty scare

Had a bad scare this morning when I got to the shop. I went to the basement to let the dogs out then was getting some breakfast and I noticed Kitty (Captain Jack Sparrow) was nowhere to be found. I called and called and he always comes when he's called, or at least answers you. I got Meg out and asked her to find Kitty. She went to all his usual places, but no Kitty. We got Kitty when he was too young to be taken from his Mom, but there were three litters of kittens and only one surviving Mother (coyotes). My son brought him home because there were too many kittens for only one Mom. He had very gunky infected eyes and I did my best to clean them and they did heal, but he was left with little sight. The third eyelid comes up partway but he just doesn't see well anyway. He runs into walls and stuff all the time. He has the run of the shop and has always been an indoor cat. He will venture out onto the little porch area when I let the dogs out to run, but he never goes farther than that. Well I figure maybe he went out and nobody saw him and when we brought the dogs in he was left out. I went outside a couple times and called but heard nothing. I took Meg out there but when I said find Kitty, she ran back in and checked out his usual places inside. I couldn't stand just sitting here so I went back outside and this time walked around beside the building where there are some boxes and assorted junk to be taken to the landfill. I again asked Meg to find Kitty. She did start sniffing around among the boxes and I noticed an old piece of ducting that had been thrown there. I called Kitty again and lo and behold he answered! He had obviously hidden in the ducting all night. He came out and I brought him back in all safe and sound. But now he won't eat the really great food I gave him thinking he must be hungry, he is just sitting by the back door and wants back out!!!!!

good boy Crue

I've always said Crue is a very good dog. Well today he really proved me right. He's not perfect, but he's young and mistakes are going to be made. But for the most part he's a very good boy.

I took the dogs out back of the shop to run and decided to work putting up some more fencing. The back property behind my shop was not fenced for the most part, which is why Mike took off one night right under my nose, in the pitch black. We got fencing and t-posts after that and ran it up one side. The side with the poison oak. We just sat the rest of the roll of fencing up against the chainlink that runs alongside the road. Today I went out and cut the fencing from the roll and wired it to the chainlink.

Its still open on the otherside however.

I started walking over towards that spot to see how long a piece of fencing it would take to start blocking at least the way to the road and I had Crue and Reign with me. Crue is now 8 mos old, never been on sheep and only knows a few things like sit, down and shake. I do make him wait at the door before loading up in the truck and again getting out. He's good but its all he can do to keep from jumping before I say to. Well as I was walking over to the open side of the fence with Crue with me a rabbit jumped up out of the brush right under us. Crue immediately gave chase. I yelled Crue, that'll do!! And he actually stopped and started to come to me. He really didn't have his attention on me and didn't come all the way back to me but kept looking off where the rabbit had gone. But he did stop and he did come back and after a little bit he came to me and wagged his tail. He got lots of praise for that! So I know now I can call him off a rabbit..LOL

I went back down later with all the dogs and Mike found a big tree branch and started dragging it around.

Pretty soon everyone got involved and it turned into a big tug o war.