All good Animals

 SHSHSH! Could it be the Redding Brothers are maturing? Or am I just accommodating their activities? They have not done anything bad for ages!!! I should be glad right?? Maybe we are just all getting used to each other and have a more solid life together? That sounds all right. Some mornings I can even have them back in the house out of their porch aka playpen early! I had two large dogs staying here on the weekend and no problems at all with the cats and the dogs. Am proud of the boys. However Otis the Bold, had to tempt the fates and I saw him hooking each dog as they went by the couch he was on. He got some sharp looks but because he wasn't really serious about hooking them hard, he got away with it. The first poor dog was a lab cross that was totally intimidated to b e brought into the house and met at the door by two dogs and two cats. She got over it in no time but kept a wary eye on the cats-think she must have been swatted by a cat at some point in her life.

I am surprised but pleased to still have some clients needing me to care for their dogs at this time of year. It is nice too to have built up a bit of a clientele that return often. Its nice for all of us to have ole “friends” come back. Maddie the black Lab is coming today and then on the weekend Jiggs is returning but just for a night and a day. Those two get on very well and I wish Jiggs was going to be here longer for Maddie to play with. My two geriatrics are not interested in play and indeed Keeper has enough to do to stand up with four on the floor. If she sleeps too long she really has a hard time standing and walking again and I suppose our time together is shortening but as everyone says “you will know when it is time” and for the moment I am pretty sure she is okay. Don't like to think on that.

Well I have let the Reddings in and not much action yet, but that could change. Once again I am happy to say all is well at Miracle House, or should we change that to The Animal House???  

First Time!

 A Red-Letter first time, day, for the Redding Brothers!! They caught their first mouse!! Hurrah! I have no idea if they got it in the porch or the house but they got it and deposited beside my bed on the floor right where I could not miss it. I found it this a.m. First thing and it looked rather flat and I wonder if I hadn't stepped on it last night with my slippers on and didn't notice? Ugg! Kudos also to the “boys” for not eating the dang thing. A friend just did a number cleaning my house and maybe there was no longer anywhere for the little rodent to hide! But most likely the meeese are looking for a warm place to winter and it is nice to know the boys are on duty and know what they are supposed to do! Yahoo for Otis and Opus- very good cats!

My whole furry family is doing not too badly at all.  Otis continues to upchuck his food and when I get to Nelson I will try and find something else for him. He hasn't lost any weight but did not need this third "P" added to the "assidents" and 'pissidents" already happening around here. Early morning clean-up does nothing for my outlook on a day at all. I have made a "pee-tray" for Keeper and she does seem to use it at times.  its a boot tree with a mat on it and I can wash the mat easier than the floor. Teko has used it on occasion as well. Not a solution at all but it helps a bit. The wooden floor got stained when I had a carpet in here and will one day have to be redone but not until the elderly dogs are not around any more.The cleaning of Miracle House was only hampered at times when the Redding Brothers were inside but they happily go to the porch for treats and play about in there and it is so good to have that as a playpen.

The wet weather has been hard on me and my aching joints but Keeper doesn't seem any worse for it. I am so glad to be able to have that old dog inside where it is warm and to be able to give her soft beds to sleep on.  She has been such a great dog for so very long that she deserves good treatment in these her last years?

If I could I would certainly turn back the clock for her but she is still "in there" and although I am sure she would prefer to still have her hearing and good eyesight, she seems to accept her lot in life much better than we people do.

Stray Dogs

I wonder if people think about what their dogs get up to when they wander? Most of your neighbors would probably prefer that your dogs stay at home. Some dogs their owners say “don't go far-just down the street”>Yeah right to do what? Poop somewhere else most likely, rather than their own yard. Not fair at all people, ….that home owners without dogs have to pick up after yours. Or worse step in it!

There are probably many reasons why a dog doesn't stay home after the owners leave for the day. |They get bored and possibly are not getting near enough exercise. If the dogs have not bonded big time with the owners they may be quick to leave and also if they are not fixed. Male dogs will go a long ways to find a female in heat and so will the female. If they have already been allowed to tramp the neighborhood they will go even farther! I would think the whole point of having a dog is that it is at home......isn't that the whole idea??
Surely people notice when their dogs are not home. In the words of my ex....”Ya gotta be smarter than the dog.”You have to do whatever possible to keep your animals at home

Many dogs are simply not going to honor the honor system and that’s a fact! This is proven to me nearly every weekend as dogs are turned into me and my phone keeps ringing with more calls. Of course I have asked for it by keeping my S.P.C.A .status in order to help these animals out and get them off the street. Sometimes I even get a nice thank-you and it seems I am appreciated. However, this is not a job and I wonder how long I want to continue to stick my neck out and ruin my weekend? But I do it for the dogs and have certainly wandered away from what I wanted to say.

When your dogs a are “tramping” there are many things that could happen to them. They could get hit by a car or worse cause an accident. How would you feel then? And although people are pretty good around here the dogs then become susceptible to getting rocks thrown at them or being shot or kicked or who knows what?? They aren't at home and cannot be responsible for their actions. Oh sure you figure you have supplied a nice home and they shouldn't leave in the first place?? Not so and you need to carry the “good home” factor up a notch. Dogs are wonderful beings and deserve to be treated as something “special” not just a decoration.

Diablo and his Tether

         Remember that first horse I got? Diablo the Jumper!? Well. he proved to love jumping all right and never seemed to stay where I put him. I was forced to tether him on a chain because he broke everything else. So he was extra work right from the get-go. He would get lonely if he couldn't see the other horses and so I would tether him not far away from them. This of course made the others think he had better grass and then they wanted out too! But electric fence worked well for me and mostly kept them in. One day when we went to get the horses in from the back road pastures, I found Diablo all wrapped up with his chain and a small tree. He must have been there a long time and his leg felt cold! That scared me and although he didn't seem lame the only thing I could think to do to help him was to dude him out on as many rides as possible and get the circulation going again. Fortunately, this worked well. In some ways he became a bit of a favorite among the kids and they once held a shovel behind him to collect the horse buns as they were made! Another time on a two hour ride they counted how many times he 'went” and I seem to remember something like thirteen.....plain to see what that brown horse was made of.

On another occasion I had quite a time one morning when Diablo was loose and dragging his tether. I used a peioce of sharpened drill steel for a tether pin and for the most, part this worked well. This time however. he had worked it loose. Who knows how long he wandered around dragging the chain and pin?

In the night, he managed to take down the electric fence and got the other horses out as well. Now I really had my hands full! Suddenly something spooked Diablo and he took off at a gallop down the road. He had that picket pin winging through the air and every so often it would leap up and jab him in the butt and he would take off even faster!! The rest of the herd joined in the running and I could only hope no car would be on the road coming up from town. Fay Thompson happened by just then and took the situation in at a glance and told me to hop in her Volkswagon. I was hoping the horses would not turn back but thought they would continue up the hill to the air strip. But once again I lucked out, the horses turned into the corrals they were familiar with and Diablo got himself wound around the outhouse and the excitement was over.

Many years later when I got interested in overnight horse-packing trips, I would come across Diablo once again. A guide/outfitter had bought him and found he could not be used for the hunters as he continued to jump anything he could but the guides could ride him. He was the only one of my string that I ever saw again after I sold the horses. I spent a few moments talking to him and took a photo for Bobbi as she had spent a lot of time riding him. But life goes on and when I mentioned him to her she had forgotten him. I guess I remember so well because he was so much Trouble but I already had a horse named Trouble so Diablo he stayed.

Quiet Days in Miracle House

 For a change, things have been reasonably quiet in Miracle House. No extra dogs and cats a little easier to live with as they go out in the porch first thing in the morning to use the porch kitty litter box and be fed and then back in after the “Redding Romp” has already taken place. Pretty peaceful way to start the morning then and dogs just have a snooze in peace. Once the dogs have been fed and I have eaten, the Redding Brothers seem much calmer and the day continues. I have discovered Otis can and will cuddle at times but Opus has hm beat paws down. I have also watched Otis creep up on Keepers' bed with her and lie ever so quietly and the old dog doesn't know he is there until she wakes up. Teko too sometimes loses his nice bed to Otis, but there you go you can train a dog but cats get you to take a number. Otis finds new toys every day and I gave him a wind-up pink lady-bug to see what he would do and in no time he was carrying it about the house in his mouth. Opus on the other hand could care less about it.

Otis seems to he a hard time tolerating dry cat food even though I bought him IAMS again(pretty expensive). But he seems to do fine with Grammas “slurry” which is all homemade. So I may have to take on making his food. There goes that nice chunk of fish I got for my B-day! But cannot cook it yet as my oven needs a new element. That kind of stuff falls under that dirty word Maintenance and will take a bit longer than most chores, as not sure I can change it myself........but maybe? We'll see, first off have to get serial numbers off stove and find somewhere to order new element. No first off get the numbers!

Soon too I must plastic the windows and then hope cats do not destroy my efforts. I put a board across the bottom of the window in my bedroom so that one should be OK. Then too must measure porch window and get that replaced. Oh boy don't want to do any of this but procrastinating will not get it done for sure. Other than those few things all is well here with me and my furry family and I am glad of it. Thassit for now folks!