When It Rains

Had a sick dog yesterday. My 9 year old Goldendoodle, Keogh. Over the weekend, she started walking into things and by Sunday night, she was unwilling to move around on her own. I cleaned her eyes and examined them but couldn't see anything... she has one eye with a lot of scaring from dry eye, but neither was matted or mucousy. Could NOT get into my vet Monday... couldn't even get through on the phone until just before noon. The next appointment was for the 17th. So yesterday morning, once I got everyone situated, I took Keogh over as a "walk-in." Usually that means you sit and wait for a couple hours, longer if you want to see a specific vet. But, to my surprise, the parking lot was practically empty which stopped being a surprise when I walked in the door to a very dark waiting room. Our early morning severe storms had left them without power. They vets were taking care of whatever they could in just natural daylight, with no electrical equipment. So we got in right away. Jane couldn't see much wrong with Ke's eyes except for a slight infection in the eye itself. Usually she's really upbeat and just gives me a general list of possible bad to worse scenarios. But yesterday she was really not encouraging. She ruled out lepto because I put the dogs back on the vaccine a couple years ago. Her real concern was a fungus we have IN the ground in this area which is deadly and hard to diagnose. Keogh is a digger... she goes after the groundhogs and moles with a vengeance. A friend of mine lost a dog to this fungus a few years ago and it was a long, painful process before they even figured out what was wrong with him and put him down. I've been depressed ever since hearing one of the symptoms is eye infections. So, we're treating the eyes for the infection and Keogh is back to going outside without bumping into the door, but it's a waiting game to see if the treatments produce a long lasting effect or just help the symptoms.

So now, Keogh is being treated with 3 different meds...one three times a day and the other two, twice a day. Add that to what I'm doing with the pups and I feel like I'm Nurse Betty!

Speaking of rain

In less than 24 hours we made up most of our nearly 5 inch shortfall for the year. And it has continued to rain off and on all yesterday and today. Much of it came down in buckets. Luckily for me, I'm part way up the hill which is part way up another hill so I don't worry about flash flooding. Most of my immediate area is hills on hills and the drainage always (knock on wood!) seems to spread out before reaching bottom. I've never heard of anyone around here having a flood problem. HOWEVER! My car is one of those with automatic locks once the transmission is in drive and the wheels start rolling. I don't know how fast you have to be moving before the doors lock... no more than a couple miles at most. And yet, my road is so bad... and I'm not just whistling Dixie here... I am down my drive and off the hill, almost to the blacktop before the locks click. What's that? ONE mile an hour? Two? And even then, I'm still banging the undercarriage. Besides the enormous ruts, there are bricks and half bricks scattered all over along with small chunks of old pavement. At one time, the road was brick all the way to the top and at another it was paved. The hill is so steep, none of that has lasted and it has all washed down. It gets covered over with dirt and gravel over time, until heavy downpours wash it away and expose the rest. The road hasn't been graded in a while... my "neighbor" at the top of the hill who has a tractor and used to grade it occasionally has either moved or... I don't know what. It is so bad right now the teenagers who live above me have slowed to what THEY consider a crawl!

The good thing about the rain, besides ending the drought (at least temporarily,) is temps are down to normal... mid 80s... at least until the weekend. I can function again!

Two Days of Rain

HEAVY rain. 2 inches in less than 48 hours. And more to come.
And I'm fine with it (so far.)
The only problem is the thunder which is disturbing the dogs and, quite frankly, has been a little scary for me at times. It is the LOUDEST, WEIRDEST thunder I've ever hear... like a bomb going off. No warning (ie: no lightning preceding it, no lead in thunder, just a huge [HUGE] BOOM!) And then there is the more common, easy to take rolling thunder which starts in the distance, approaches like a freight train and then rolls on by until you can't hear it any more, all one continuous sound. The dogs aren't having any problem with that. Yesterday afternoon and this afternoon, the storms were over and the dogs got to go outside and STAY out there for a while. And even though the mornings have been really stormy, no one has "gone" in the house... well, except Keogh's pups but that's to be expected and she is still cleaning up after them. Don't know how long THAT is going to last!

Haven't had to water Tommy Tomato... my sole tomato plant... seems to have grown at least a foot since Saturday. There are a number of little yellow blooms, which I think is pretty good for a plant that is only about a month old. Going to have some really nice tomatoes very soon!

Surprise!

So, the pups quickly got used to going outside every 2-3 or 4 hours... it took all of one day and they think they've got me trained to their schedule. They use the newspaper in between times and at night and don't yet have a working relationship with the "put all this stuff outside" concept, but they like it out there. This evening I let in the last group of adults and noticed that it had begun to rain. The pups and I eyeballed each other while I debated letting them go out. They won. Or so they thought. I opened the pen. I open the front door. They went running out. They slid to a halt on the wet surface. I shut the door. Then I went about filling up all the food and water bowls from one end of the house to the other and picking up the used paper in the big puppy pen. And then I heard it... an absolute down pour. Followed very shortly by the sound of unhappy puppies. A LOT of unhappy puppies. Now the debate became let soaking wet pups in BEFORE putting down fresh newspaper. Or put down the paper before letting in the pups. How much wetter could they get in those few minutes? I'll tell you... they got a lot more unhappy in that time and when I opened the door, they came busting through in one tsunami tidal wave, washing straight into their pen. They did not pass "go," they did not collect $100, they did not stop until they were clumped in the very back of the corner and then, en masse, they whirled around and glared at me. Of course, all the fresh newspaper was soaked through to the floor. And I hate to tell you how fast 6 drenched long haired pups can
smell up a whole house. But I thought it was fun. They need to get a sense of humor.

The New Guys
Good thing I got everyone microchipped last weekend. I'd never be able to distinguish one from all the rest if I hadn't. Right now, the two groups are separated, but in a couple days I'll let them go outside together to work out the kinks and then put them all in one pen. The new pups are very quiet... still in shock... which won't last long. They have each other for moral support and after only 24 hours, are already showing interest in their new neighbors. Jennifer forwarded all the mail she'd gotten... a TON... and said she would email everyone to tell them how to get in touch with me. A couple people did so right away. Of course everyone wants pictures and when (and if) I ever get the time, I'll oblige. As hard as it is getting decent shots when pups are little, it's a hundred times worse at this age when everything is much more interesting and worth looking at than the person with the camera. Guess I could drug them into sitting still.... (That's a joke, folks.)

Snow Dog


9 months old Beckett in Salt Lake.
According to his main man, Beckett loves snow more than anything else in his world. Tony is convinced the pup is part Malamute.

Another Rainy Day

This area has been in an extreme drought situation for 2 years, so rain has been welcome and we've had a lot of it this Winter. Not much snow, but plenty of rain. Days of it in a row.... It's not pouring but it IS overcast and dripping and really gloomy looking. The dogs have been content to stay indoors and seem to be feeling the gloom as much as I am... they're lying around, mostly sleeping, definitely not up for any tussling. Even the puppies.

Yesterday, Patch left. Poor guy. He knew something was up for him... they ALL seem to realize it's their turn to leave once I single them out from the "herd" and start taking them places and this last litter has been exceptionally intuitive about it. We, Patch and I, spent about an hour with the family and he was starting to relax a little until we put him in their car. He'll do fine, I have no doubt. The kids were nice... smart and well behaved and apparently they listen well to their folks because none of them rushed him. The funny thing, from my point of view, was Shadow's reaction. He's my guard dog and goes with me everywhere and is terrifically protective without being obnoxious or uncontrollable. Since he's Patch's dad, I took him to the meeting so the family could see him. (Mom... Emy... was soaking wet having decided to stay out in the yard and she doesn't like car rides anyway, so she stayed home.) Usually, I can just open the car door and ask Shadow to get out but yesterday, after he sat there for a while watching ALL THOSE PEOPLE (ESPECIALLY THE FOUR CHILDREN,) he REFUSED to get out. Even after I tugged rather seriously on the lead. It took me some time to convince him I was serious about wanting him out of the car... talk about embarassing! Some guard dog! He was more than willing to hop back in as soon as I let him. Don't know when he got so opinionated!