Dancing with the Stars, here we come!

When Zeus and Thor play with Heidi, it's usually a no holds barred kind of play where anything goes and hits below the belt are common. Sometimes Heidi is on the bottom of the pile, but usually it's one of the boys. When it comes to playing with Brie, the matriarch of the pack, the rules are a little different. Brie never allows herself to be put down by the boys and there will be NO biting, chewing, or otherwise chomping of her body parts. There will be no chasing her around the couch. You WILL wag your tail at all times to insure play does not turn into fight, and Brie has the final word. Always.

So instead of a rollicking good time, you end up with a doggie jig.

I had the perfect jig music to go with the video, but youtube only wants to play the first second for some reason. Maybe eventually I will become one with the greatness that is youtube.

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A healthy portion of Big Dumb Dog now comes in a family sized bucket for your convenience.




Glenn and I were just sitting down after dinner when we heard a thump on the door. Glenn opened the door and this is what we found. The handle of the bucket was behind his ears and he couldn't even see. He just stood there wagging his tail and waiting patiently for someone to remove the bucket from his head. Of course we had to take a few pictures and laugh hysterically at BDD's expense first.

Who needs TV?

Random Lunch 10/10/08

One of the things that I majorly suck at is keeping track of the camera. I haven't seen it since downloading auction pictures last Saturday. The pictures of the trail ride were taken with Anne's camera. I've torn up the house from one end to the other looking for the darned thing, and I know where I had it last but it's not there. Do they make those clapper things for cameras? Heeeere camera! CLAP CLAP!

I do have a question for those dog people out there that are way smarter than me (Lena, this means you). Recently the BDD has become aggressive when being disciplined. And I don't mean discipline like smack him around or beat him with a rubber chicken. I just mean raising my voice and pointing a finger at him. And if I'm really mad, I get up in his face about it. Cause I'm just SO trusting like that. In the past month or so he has started growling and barking at me when I'm mad at him. I haven't backed down, but maybe I should? Yesterday I was yelling at him and Thor because the two were having a growl fest out on the porch. They haven't growled at each other in a long time and even seem to be friends these days. When I heard them carrying on yesterday I thought I'd go out and break it up before it became a physical fight, as has happened before when Thor first arrived.

I sent Thor to his corner, then turned to Zeus. I pointed my arm off the porch, stomped my foot, and told him to "go lay down". That's when he started barking and growling at me. That's when I saw a big black blur fly past my right shoulder and land squarely on Zeus. Thor had him pinned to the ground with his jaw around BDD's throat. But Zeus was up quickly and the battle was on. I grabbed the closest thing I could find, which was a walking stick left here by the previous owners. A couple of quick whacks with the stick to both of them and they broke it up. Neither one was hurt, except maybe in the pride department.

What am I doing wrong with BDD? Not enough time spent teaching him things like COME, HEEL, DOWN? Granted, he's the only one of my dogs that doesn't know these things. He can't even shake. I've tried teaching him, but run out of time because it takes him forever to pick something up. I'm used to brainiac dogs, but BDD is as dense as a rock. Any ideas? Should I break out the rubber chicken?

On another note, the TB trainer that brought the boys called me yesterday "just to check on them". Imagine that... a racetrack trainer who gives a damn about where her horses end up!! And two of the boys weren't even her personal horses. But Joma's previous owner called the trainer up crying because she was so worried about him and wondered if he was in a good home and being cared for. I guess there's hope after all if there are breeders and trainers like them!

BDD Jr.

Yes, we got another dog. Before I introduce you, please don't think that this is Rocky's replacement. If Rocky is ever found, we will still take him and give him a home. He just won't be going out in the truck with Glenn. His hands are still sore and swollen from all the bite marks and he's not such a big fan of little dogs anymore.

Now let me tell you Thor's story. Maybe I should start by proclaiming yahoo groups are dangerous! Or maybe it's just my inability to say NO to an animal in need that's dangerous. No, that can't be it.

One of our soldiers was headed overseas and couldn't take Thor with her. She was heartbroken and tried for a month to find him a good home. When the day came that she had to leave, her husband took matters into his own hands and took Thor to the all ready overflowing county shelter where they euthanize surrendered dogs before strays (this would have been grounds for divorce in my book!). Fortunately for Thor, the woman at the shelter knew him and his owners, since that's where they adopted him from in the first place. She decided to give Thor a stay of execution for a day or two in the hopes that someone would want to take him home. That's when someone on this yahoo horse riding forum that I subscribe to cross posted about Thor. I contacted the rescue that was trying to place him and Glenn picked him up yesterday. And that's a bit of a funny story as well... Glenn went to get him in my Wrangler and had the top down. On the way home he stopped at Taco Bell for some lunch and while cruising down the highway afterwards he gets pulled over by a state trooper. The cop walks up to the door and tells Glenn he pulled him over for littering. Then he noticed Thor in the passenger seat with a big wad of taco bell paper hanging from his mouth. The cop smiled, shook his head, and said "Nevermind, I understand".

I call him BDD Jr. for now because he's going to be huge. He weighs in at probably 65-70 lbs now and isn't even a year old. He may not make it to BDD size, but he'll be awfully close. The previous owners think he's black lab and mastiff. I don't see much mastiff, but maybe pitbull? What do yawl think?

And of course I can't have a post entitled BDD Jr. without pictures of the original BDD. I actually noticed some smidgen of intelligence in that stare tonight.

No matter how dumb, he sure is purdy.

Thor and the BDD are both in love with Brie. Who wouldn't be? Especially with groundhog intestine breath? That's right, she found the dried up intestines from the dumbest groundhog in the world and chewed them right up. Mmmmm, groundhog jerky. That dog is not licking me in the face for a month.

The herd has been spending most evenings in the top field, so it's been a rare treat that they all come down towards the house. Tonight was one of those nights. This is Junior, Stride, Dolly, Willow, Classy, Meghan, and Semi. Kita and Indy weren't far, but just outside the picture. Manny the wonder horse and his little buddy, Chief were far to the right, by themselves as usual.

Megalia and Tabby up on the ridge. Their sister has found a place in the herd, but these two prefer to stay apart. Which is probably a good thing, because they are beating the hell out of Stride and Dolly. When Manny isn't picking on the poor old fogies, the girls are. Junior and Semi have taken the ancient ones under their wing, so they usually defend against the two Troublets. But both Stride and Dolly have scrapes and bite marks all over their butts. I've started locking them in the barn in the morning so they can eat in peace and stay out of the sun and away from the bugs. Hopefully, that will help keep the girls off of them.

Have a great weekend. And if anyone is bored this weekend, come on over. I have plenty of things for you to do! :)

What Happened to Spring??

We've had a few nice weeks here of 60's and 70's weather during the day, but still pretty chilly at night. The past few nights it hasn't gotten below 60 and today's temp got into the 90's. What the heck? I thought I'd at least have another couple of weeks before I'd need to trudge off to Lowes to get a window AC unit for the bedroom. The animals spent the day on the porch with me while I worked as usual, but they laid about like a bunch of wet dish rags and didn't budge all day. It was even too hot to go inside to get a drink. I had to bring them a bowl of water (with ice cubes) -- which they promptly drained in a matter of minutes. I know it's hot when the hairless Ho is panting. I guess it's time to warm up the clippers and clip the hairy huskies.



On 5/13 I posted about a rabbit chomping on my garden and wondered why Zeus wasn't chomping on the rabbits. Since that post I haven't seen any evidence of wasically wabbits and I thought maybe Zeus figured out his job and took care of business. Now I think maybe I was giving the BDD (Big Dumb Dog) a little too much credit. I'm pretty sure I should be feeding kibble to the black snake that left this 6' skin in our back yard.





Zeus is as dumb as a box of rocks, but I did find one of his talents the other day. While out on the porch working our neighbor's cows made their daily escape and pilgrimage to our front yard. Usually I let them be because they stay up near the road and don't get too close to the house. But I looked up from my laptop the other day to find them about 20 yards from my garden and eyeing my maters! I called the neighbor's to let them know, then I yelled and waved at them like a fool. I was "on duty" at work so couldn't leave the phone to chase them out of the yard myself. This is when it hit me that I have four dogs and certainly one of them might be good for something. Had I let Cody off the porch he would have walked over to the tree to lay down in the shade. This is his job. Brie might have wondered over to the cows and sniffed them. Heidi has proven herself to be pretty bright about cows in the past. When at a friend's house visiting someone had left the gate open. We were in the house and heard Heidi barking up a storm. We looked out to find her in front of the gate barking at a cow that was meandering her way into the yard. The cow totally ignored Heidi because she lacks conviction (and large backup). I might as well send Jilly Bean out to chase the cows.

This left the BDD. Was he even smart enough to realize the cows were there? This is the dog that barks at EVERYTHING and here he was lying on the porch in a daze and not even looking at the cows. If he did chase the cows, where would he chase them to? Would they end up in my garden? Would he push them through the fence? Would they end up on the porch with me? The cows were getting closer to the garden and one of them was actually drooling. It was BDD or buh bye garden. I crossed my fingers, opened the porch gate, and watched him go. It was amazing. It was like he knew his job. It was like he actually had a brain. He chased the cows back up the driveway along the fence and out into the road. He stood there barking for a minute as if to say "Now don't come back!". Then he turned around and came back to the porch for a nap.

So even though I think he failed me in the rabbit department, he certainly proved himself with the cows. Maybe he's not a BDD after all. :)

Rain rain go away!

And don't come back until July! It's done nothing but rain since yesterday morning. It needs to stop soon because I don't think there's enough room for everyone on the bass boat. But, boy, is the grass ever growing and turning that really lush Spring green! It's almost time to dust off the muzzles for the fat girls. The above pic is our ancient Willow tree that's in the yard not far from the house. That "wet weather" stream hasn't dried up since we moved in. It heads behind the house and into our close-to-overflowing pond.



Last night we went out and got the fence up in front of the small barn for Whiskey. Catching him only took a couple of minutes (he's getting better!) and he was shivering quite a bit. Walking the few hundred yards from cattle pen to small barn wasn't too bad as long as Glenn walked behind him and clucked some encouragement now and then. He'd still rather back away than walk with me, and when we do have forward motion it's at the end of the 10' lead rope. But he doesn't buck or try very hard to escape and I didn't end up being drug thru the mud. These are all pluses in my book.

Once in the small barn he ran in to check it out and paw at his hay... and make sure he had water. Sometimes when we're standing there watching him he checks his water buckets every few minutes just to make sure he's still got water. I don't think he can believe that he gets hay AND water whenever he wants. Now if the demanding humans would just leave him alone and not insist on catching him and rubbing on him he'd be really happy. He does seem to enjoy our company though. Or maybe it's just the dogs that he likes. Brie and Zues both hang with the little guy, laying down in the hay and watching him eat. He likes them and tries to sniff them whenever possible.

Zues is a shelter dog that we've had for about a month now. He's a year and half and weighs about 110 lbs. The vet thinks he's part St. Bernard and part Golden Retriever. He's dumb as a box of rocks and as needy as a three day old kitten. I am NOT allowed to do anything around the house alone and his company is required for everything. I am finally getting into the habit of looking behind me before turning around because I grew tired of tripping over him.











I've had Brie since she was 5 weeks old. You could say she was another rescue since her ignorant owners said they were drowning the puppies if they didn't find homes before they were 6 weeks old. If they didn't want puppies maybe they should have kept their female Husky HOME instead of letting her roam the neighborhood. Brie's mom was full Husky and who knows what Dad was. I've heard guesses like german shepard, chow (???), black lab, malamute, and wolf. My mother seems to think Brie is the devil incarnate, but I think she's just misunderstood.