Thursday 29th March
I am going to digress from the puppies today as I want to record the series of events that I am sure, in time, will make me smile, but not today.
It started with me trying to persuade my pot bellied pig Angela to move into the paddock as her rooting was making the garden even more untidy. She has hung out with chickens all winter and is free to go wherever she chooses, so It was always going to be a tall order. Behind the electric fence is around 10 acres of pasture with access to the barn and this is where my 3 cows and Wilbur a small black pig who we rescued last year live. Wilbur is a huge character who we love dearly and he and Angela tolerate each other pretty well when they are together. As I was tempting Angela thru the gate a UPS van came up the driveway which arracted the attention of the dogs so I left what I was doing to call the dogs. Then I heard the phone ring , so I answered that and then a couple of hours later as I am on the phone to my friend Linda, something in the corner of my eye forces me to turn round and I see Lela chasing my 3 cows around the house.They were literally doing a circuit going round and round and round tearing my bewildered garden up as they went. I immediately ran into the garage and put some corn into bucket and set about the job of trying to catch the cows. Well, they were having so much fun It was obvious the corn was not going to tempt them. They ran up the side of the field and disappeared into the woods and before I could blink they were back out again and sprinting back towards the chicken shed. To say they moved like grease lightening is an undersatement,boy could they move and Of course my fear was that they would eventually find their way to the road. They seemed to be relishing being free, enjoying noseying around the places they can only see from their pasture. One even popped her head into the mudroom .
I was eventually able to coax the black one (Josie) thru the gates and about 20 minutes later had the other 2 safely back in the paddock.
Meanwhile, Wilbur looks very busy behind my car which I had cleaned out a couple of hours earlier. I had lifted some sacks of dogfood out and left them by them car. He had managed to rip the bag open and was happily tucking into the contents which were, by now ,scattered all over the driveway. So I cleaned that up and then went into the house for a well desreved cup of tea.
I am also a falconer and in the new year I was lucky enough to receive a captured young Redtail who I called Syracuse. Just before the bad weather set in Syracuse, who was slow in his training to begin with was flying and hunting independantly. The recent bad weather had prevented me from going out with him. This week I have been in the progress of training him once more, reducing his weight and preparing him for free flight .
During training sessions I attach him to a line called a creance and as he was doing so well I was intending this session to be the last one on the line.
I was flying him from the fence when all of a sudden he decided to fly to the trees and that is when disaster struck. I had the line longer than It needed to be and he got caught in the trees , he then decided to fly higher up the tree and the line got even more tangled and I knew That I was going to have to climb the tree to release him, but this was easier said than done. My tree climbing days were Long gone and when I got halfway up to him on very thin branches I realised I was putting myself in real danger. I decided to go and fetch the ladders from the barn and a pair of scizzors from the house to cut the line, all the time worrying that I had put my bird in real peril. I tried the ladders but they only reached a third to where I needed to be. Meanwhile, Wilbur decided to investigate what was happeing and true to form he started to get frisky and started humping my leg. He was very persistant and I could not get him to clear off. He also started to writhe and rub his body against the ladders while I was going up them. Not very calming, I can assure you.
In desperation I ran to the house and rang my son Alex who was in town with his friends. Fortunately I was able to get hold of him and he arrived about 15 minutes later.
Syracuse was flapping his wings and getting even more distressed and I was just beside myself but I knew I had to stay calm. Alex climbed the tree much more ably than me and in time, was able to cut the line and secure him by his jesses.
I went up the ladder as far as It would let me go and managed to get Syracuse from Alex. He was stressed but quickly calmed down and in no time I had him sitting on the glove. . I think he realised the danger was over. They say Redtails are unforgiving and It is the falconer who will suffer by his own mistakes. I hope this not the case with Syracuse and me, but only time will tell. He will be released in the spring once the hunting season is over and I just hope he will overlook my mistake today as I am looking forward to working and hunting with him over the next month or so. He took his food readily from the glove and seemed content when I returned him to his weathering.
I eventually managed to get Wilbur behind the fence and will try with Angela again tomorrow.
A casualty of the cows getting out was one of my chickens, who I found dead in the grass.
Fortunately, the puppies were safely in the utility room and I think they slept thru the whole drama and a drama is what this afternoon was.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Kasidi's puppies
Wednesday 28th March
My memory is not too great these day,s but I am sure, with previous litters, lots of food has been wasted, especially in the ealy days when the pups are learning to lap and use their baby teeth. Not so with this litter. I can honestly say that right from the word go, these puppies have eaten everything put in front of them. The amount of pooh they are producing and the fact they are all rather rotund makes me think I should cut back a little on their intake.
They were introduced to the chickens today. It is a cold but beautiful sunny day and perfect for them to discover a little of the big world outside. The chickens, who are normally very chilled with the dogs got their feathers ruffled and soon disappeared from their favourite sun spot outside of the utility room door. On the other hand the puppies were greatly entertained by seeing the effect their chasing had on the chickens and had great fun. I did not intervene as I knew the chickens could look after themselves.
I managed a long walk with the dogs today and noticed that Kasidi has lost some of the muscle in her back legs, bless her, It will not take long to build her back up as long energetic walks are a daly occurence in this house.
I took some lovely photos which hopefully will find their way to my website tomorrow.
We still bring the puppies into the living room with us at night and although It is messy It brings enormous rewards as they are joy to watch and relish being part of the family. They have started crying again at night and I am convinced It is because they realise there is another world beyond the utility room and they want to belong in It. 3am was the time they woke me this morning and when I checked in on them It was clear there was nothing wrong, they just wanted out of there.
I must register the litter with the kennel club today. I am terrible at organising myself when It comes to paperwork. I will find any number of things to do other than the job at hand.
My memory is not too great these day,s but I am sure, with previous litters, lots of food has been wasted, especially in the ealy days when the pups are learning to lap and use their baby teeth. Not so with this litter. I can honestly say that right from the word go, these puppies have eaten everything put in front of them. The amount of pooh they are producing and the fact they are all rather rotund makes me think I should cut back a little on their intake.
They were introduced to the chickens today. It is a cold but beautiful sunny day and perfect for them to discover a little of the big world outside. The chickens, who are normally very chilled with the dogs got their feathers ruffled and soon disappeared from their favourite sun spot outside of the utility room door. On the other hand the puppies were greatly entertained by seeing the effect their chasing had on the chickens and had great fun. I did not intervene as I knew the chickens could look after themselves.
I managed a long walk with the dogs today and noticed that Kasidi has lost some of the muscle in her back legs, bless her, It will not take long to build her back up as long energetic walks are a daly occurence in this house.
I took some lovely photos which hopefully will find their way to my website tomorrow.
We still bring the puppies into the living room with us at night and although It is messy It brings enormous rewards as they are joy to watch and relish being part of the family. They have started crying again at night and I am convinced It is because they realise there is another world beyond the utility room and they want to belong in It. 3am was the time they woke me this morning and when I checked in on them It was clear there was nothing wrong, they just wanted out of there.
I must register the litter with the kennel club today. I am terrible at organising myself when It comes to paperwork. I will find any number of things to do other than the job at hand.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Kasidi's puppies
Sunday 25th March
On my walk throught the woods this morning, Lela disappeared for a while, as this is quite normal for all of the dogs, I was not unduly concerned. Then, in the distance, I noticed her coming towards me with something dangling from her mouth. At first I thought It was a stick, then I noticed It was moving in a strange way. As she approached I realised that she had the foreleg of a deer in her mouth and mighty proud she was too. I decided to abandon the walk as I did not want to come accross a dead deer in the path.
As the other dogs approached, they went to great effort to steal her prized possession and for some time she ran them ragged as they chased after her. Eventually, her dad, Brewster managed to steal It from her and to my knowlege he devoured the whole leg. Now I have to watch out to see if he is able to digest It, but somehow I think he will be ok.
The puppies are too adorable but I learned a lesson on Friday. When I went into them on Friday morning, six of them were minus their collars. Normally, I would be fairly confident at identifying them at this stage of their little lives but the collars have clearly made me lazy as I have to admit that I really struggled to work out who was who. I re-newed them to the best of my ability and had to rely on Olivia, my daughter,coming home from school later that day to see If I had got It right. I didn't do too bad, getting Macbeth and Puck mixed up.
I have asked Mark If he can alter the blog so discussion can take place openly. At the moment all comments can only be seen by me and this seems to defeat the obect of having a blog. It would have been very useful to have been able to discuss the dog food re-call and maybe discuss the pro's and cons of the BARF diet. So fingers crossed, we will have to wait and see what he comes up with as this, is, after all, new to us both.
I was reminded by a local farmer the other day that there are infact five seasons in Upstate New York. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and the mud season and boy, are we in the mud season. On top of all of the melting snow, we are having to put up with rain as well. I do wonder(only sometimes) why we chose New York and not somwhere nice and dry like Arizona.
We are going to take new pictures of the puppies now but might have to wait until DSL arrives tomorrow before we can use them.
Hi Rosie. I've changed some things for the blog
On my walk throught the woods this morning, Lela disappeared for a while, as this is quite normal for all of the dogs, I was not unduly concerned. Then, in the distance, I noticed her coming towards me with something dangling from her mouth. At first I thought It was a stick, then I noticed It was moving in a strange way. As she approached I realised that she had the foreleg of a deer in her mouth and mighty proud she was too. I decided to abandon the walk as I did not want to come accross a dead deer in the path.
As the other dogs approached, they went to great effort to steal her prized possession and for some time she ran them ragged as they chased after her. Eventually, her dad, Brewster managed to steal It from her and to my knowlege he devoured the whole leg. Now I have to watch out to see if he is able to digest It, but somehow I think he will be ok.
The puppies are too adorable but I learned a lesson on Friday. When I went into them on Friday morning, six of them were minus their collars. Normally, I would be fairly confident at identifying them at this stage of their little lives but the collars have clearly made me lazy as I have to admit that I really struggled to work out who was who. I re-newed them to the best of my ability and had to rely on Olivia, my daughter,coming home from school later that day to see If I had got It right. I didn't do too bad, getting Macbeth and Puck mixed up.
I have asked Mark If he can alter the blog so discussion can take place openly. At the moment all comments can only be seen by me and this seems to defeat the obect of having a blog. It would have been very useful to have been able to discuss the dog food re-call and maybe discuss the pro's and cons of the BARF diet. So fingers crossed, we will have to wait and see what he comes up with as this, is, after all, new to us both.
I was reminded by a local farmer the other day that there are infact five seasons in Upstate New York. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and the mud season and boy, are we in the mud season. On top of all of the melting snow, we are having to put up with rain as well. I do wonder(only sometimes) why we chose New York and not somwhere nice and dry like Arizona.
We are going to take new pictures of the puppies now but might have to wait until DSL arrives tomorrow before we can use them.
Hi Rosie. I've changed some things for the blog
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Kasidi's puppies
Thursday 22nd March
I think we are all very concerned by the recall of dog food that we expect to be safe for our dogs. I tend to be very practical in my thinking at times such as these, but having a litter of puppies and seeing the names of brands that I use, in the recall list,made me very cautious and I made enquiries at the store where I purchase my dogfood..
I am using Hills Science diet (dry) as the mainstay of my puppies diet, but to that I add raw mince beef/turkey and canned puppy chicken on occasions and of course It is the tins/pouches that are suspect. My research indicates that I have nothing to worry about but thats not to say I am not worrying. What is annoying, is to discover that all of these premium dog foods come out of the same factory and that the recipes are basically the same. I feel I have been taken in by successful marketing campaigns believing that more expensive foods are better. Now I am not so sure. More disturbing though, is the company that manufactures these products still do not know the cause of the problem.
The puppies are currently running a riot in my living room while Brewster and Raiza have run for cover and are are up stairs with me as I type.
They continue to grow and change almost daily and Kasidi is in control of how much she wants them to suckle. She allows them to take off the pressure of her bulging teats and thats about It.
We got news yesterday that we are at long last getting DSL so with a bit of luck, up loading pictures of the puppies will be easier. We are experiencing problems with photos at the moment so apologies for not up dating the website.
Hopefully the snow will soon be gone and the ground dry enough for the puppies to venture outside and I can get back into the routine of walking my dogs through the woods.
I think we are all very concerned by the recall of dog food that we expect to be safe for our dogs. I tend to be very practical in my thinking at times such as these, but having a litter of puppies and seeing the names of brands that I use, in the recall list,made me very cautious and I made enquiries at the store where I purchase my dogfood..
I am using Hills Science diet (dry) as the mainstay of my puppies diet, but to that I add raw mince beef/turkey and canned puppy chicken on occasions and of course It is the tins/pouches that are suspect. My research indicates that I have nothing to worry about but thats not to say I am not worrying. What is annoying, is to discover that all of these premium dog foods come out of the same factory and that the recipes are basically the same. I feel I have been taken in by successful marketing campaigns believing that more expensive foods are better. Now I am not so sure. More disturbing though, is the company that manufactures these products still do not know the cause of the problem.
The puppies are currently running a riot in my living room while Brewster and Raiza have run for cover and are are up stairs with me as I type.
They continue to grow and change almost daily and Kasidi is in control of how much she wants them to suckle. She allows them to take off the pressure of her bulging teats and thats about It.
We got news yesterday that we are at long last getting DSL so with a bit of luck, up loading pictures of the puppies will be easier. We are experiencing problems with photos at the moment so apologies for not up dating the website.
Hopefully the snow will soon be gone and the ground dry enough for the puppies to venture outside and I can get back into the routine of walking my dogs through the woods.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Kasidi's puppies
Monday 19th March
Call me an old softie but we made a creche like enclosure in the living room this afternoon as I dont like the puppies being in the utility room. This way, they can be with us during the day and sleep in the utility room at night.
Its incredible to think that in 4 weeks time they will be settled in their new homes, so we must enjoy them while we can.
They have started playing with their toys, tug of war being their favourite pastime and biting each others ears until they get a response ie a loud scream of pain.
They still sleep a lot which is a blessing as they are like tornados when they are awake and I do know that the last 3 weeks are the hardest in terms of hard work, this is the lull before the storm.
Call me an old softie but we made a creche like enclosure in the living room this afternoon as I dont like the puppies being in the utility room. This way, they can be with us during the day and sleep in the utility room at night.
Its incredible to think that in 4 weeks time they will be settled in their new homes, so we must enjoy them while we can.
They have started playing with their toys, tug of war being their favourite pastime and biting each others ears until they get a response ie a loud scream of pain.
They still sleep a lot which is a blessing as they are like tornados when they are awake and I do know that the last 3 weeks are the hardest in terms of hard work, this is the lull before the storm.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Kasidi's puppies
Sunday 18th March
When we are not with the puppies I switch the radio on so they do not feel alone, this morning they are listening to the rock channel, and the newspapers that they are currently weeing on are The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. I wonder if this will have any bearing on their intelligence lol. My daughter thinks I am so hip as I use the computer lingo.
I am very annoyed today as we are now back to around a foot of snow outside and It is snowing as I type.It aslso makes hard work of caring for our other animals especially getting water to the cows as our outside water tap has a leak and had to be switched off some time ago.
The puppies are much more aware of their surroundings now and will wake up the moment we enter their room. They are pretty much eating 3 meals a day,plus milk and at least one drink from Kasidi.
We are having problems with our internet connection, we have one of those silly dishes and although we can send mail it is taking forever to upload photographs so apologies to everyone who I promised recent pics of the girls.
I will be consulting my technical expert in the UK when he gets off of the phone.
When we are not with the puppies I switch the radio on so they do not feel alone, this morning they are listening to the rock channel, and the newspapers that they are currently weeing on are The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. I wonder if this will have any bearing on their intelligence lol. My daughter thinks I am so hip as I use the computer lingo.
I am very annoyed today as we are now back to around a foot of snow outside and It is snowing as I type.It aslso makes hard work of caring for our other animals especially getting water to the cows as our outside water tap has a leak and had to be switched off some time ago.
The puppies are much more aware of their surroundings now and will wake up the moment we enter their room. They are pretty much eating 3 meals a day,plus milk and at least one drink from Kasidi.
We are having problems with our internet connection, we have one of those silly dishes and although we can send mail it is taking forever to upload photographs so apologies to everyone who I promised recent pics of the girls.
I will be consulting my technical expert in the UK when he gets off of the phone.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Kasidi's puppies
Friday 16th of March
What a difference a day makes.... The puppies have teeth, they bite , they are adorable and like all babies they have a routine of eat, play, pooh and sleep. They are also very demanding and when they want something, no matter where I am in the house, I hear them.
Kasidi has fed them just once today and tonight will be the first one that the puppies will have without their mum. Last night I was up to them twice as Kasidi seems reluctant to feed them on demand and they just get angry, so I will be led by kasidi and relieve her of her night time duties. They are, after all, eating and drinking freely so my main concern now is Kasidi as she has done a sterling job. These puppies are fat.
I will worm them again tomorrow, cut their nails and change their collars as some of the boys have a neck like Mike Tyson.
After dinner we will bring them into the living room on their duvet where they can hang out with the other dogs and us. My favourite time of the day. The mop, the chlorox and disinfectant wipes to the ready.
What a difference a day makes.... The puppies have teeth, they bite , they are adorable and like all babies they have a routine of eat, play, pooh and sleep. They are also very demanding and when they want something, no matter where I am in the house, I hear them.
Kasidi has fed them just once today and tonight will be the first one that the puppies will have without their mum. Last night I was up to them twice as Kasidi seems reluctant to feed them on demand and they just get angry, so I will be led by kasidi and relieve her of her night time duties. They are, after all, eating and drinking freely so my main concern now is Kasidi as she has done a sterling job. These puppies are fat.
I will worm them again tomorrow, cut their nails and change their collars as some of the boys have a neck like Mike Tyson.
After dinner we will bring them into the living room on their duvet where they can hang out with the other dogs and us. My favourite time of the day. The mop, the chlorox and disinfectant wipes to the ready.
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