I have seen the first harbinger of spring, seed catalogs, and it reminds me that there is still much to do to be ready for the next few months.
I have had quite a lot going on in the past few weeks. A computer crash that rid me of the windows operating system. The six-million (one hundred and eighty-two) dollar dog contracted kennel-cough. An official USDA Agriculture survey to fill out, since I’m now a farmer! And of course the stray dog episode.
The vet told us that our dog had kennel cough and could not be around other dogs for at least 2 weeks while the antibiotics took care of the infection. Therefore no daycare for Roo for 2 weeks and I normally use that daycare day to get specific jobs done. When she is at daycare I don’t have to make sure she gets outside or fed or taken for a walk because we pay a very reasonable $12/day to have other people do that. besides she gets to socialize with other dogs and I think that has helped to calm her quite a bit. So this week when she finally got to go back, I over did the heavy labor trying to “catch up” on outside chores I want to get done. I may learn someday to take it easier on my back.
A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon I had just finished watering the goats and turned out the shop lights (thus putting the chickens to bed), when I looked out the window and there I saw a large black lab looking dog running around the garden and driveway. He looked like he was chasing the cats. Now, it’s not like I have a shortage of cats, or would miss one or two if they wandered off, but I don’t like stray dogs killing them. That has happened before and the only thing that makes me more angry than a stray dog is the kind of people who would drop off animals simply because this is a farm and they can’t follow through on the commitment of owning a pet.
I ran outside and yelled at the dog to “go home”! and he just turned around and looked at me like “aren’t I”? I came back inside and got my air rifle. Most of the time if I fire the air rifle into the air without a pellet it sounds more like a gunshot and most strays will run off because they know what comes next. I fired into the air and the dog froze in his tracks and looked all around and then back at me as if to say “did you get it?”. He was ready to fetch whatever I had just shot and I knew that he had been trained to hunt. This just made me more angry with the S.O.B. who dropped him off. I went back inside to find the pellets for my air rifle with the intention of giving him physical motivation to move on. I don’t know where I put the pellets, but I could not find them anywhere.
I feel I should explain something. I really like dogs, but I have had strays come through and kill cats for the simple pleasure they apparently find in doing so. I had no intention of letting this dog harass my goats or chickens. Or get it in his head that it would be fun to do so. With that in mind I was determined that the dog would move on or feel the pain of staying.
Anyway…. being unable to find the pellets, I went and got a leash. I approached the dog and commanded him to SIT! By golly he sat! I clipped the leash to his collar (no tags attached) and dropped the handle end over the top of a fence post so he wouldn’t run away and we started calling everyone we could think of to see if they had lost a dog. I even had him jump up in the bed of the truck and we took him to several places up and down the road to see if they would claim him. No luck! we then called the sheriff to ask about animal control picking him up that night. Not on a Sunday night! AAARRRRRGGGGH!
I was told I would have to take him to the shelter the next morning when it opened. Now I was really mad! Here was a very well trained puppy (I thought) and someone had just dropped him off and now I would have to take him to the shelter where he would probably be euthanized. So I had to also find him a place to be for the night. I can’t put him in the shop with the chickens, nor can I put him where he could get at the goats. I finally put him on a cable tie-out in the old chicken pen with access to get inside the coop for the night since the temperatures were dropping to the single digits overnight.
I just got him fed and watered and was back inside posting a rant on FaceBook when his family showed up. It turned out that “Ace” had wandered off when the daughter left the gate open and if we had just gone 2 houses further in our search we would have found his home. As it was the family had also called the Sheriff and they were told about OUR call and they knew exactly where to look.
I have never been so happy to be wrong in all my life! The dog had been here before when the Dad was here pheasant hunting. So maybe he just knew we would take care of him.
In other animal related news, I found a lump on Rosie when I was feeding the girls the other day. It is located just under the ear and behind the jaw. I don’t know what it is, but the Vet will be here tomorrow to take a look. I pray it is something simple and non-life threatening.
And that brings me back to the original thought. Spring is coming! and with it the need to plan for baby goats and planting gardens. I need to get the “birthing kit” packed and ready and have the Vet back out for exams and blood tests for the other mama goats. I will need to clean out the shelter, probably next month, and just generally make sure everything is ready.
For the garden, I have already dumped the compost and need to spread it out before I can rototill. I can’t do that until the soil is thawed enough. I need to go through the seed I have left and saved from last season and see what I need to purchase or replace. The advantage I have this year is that I now have a greenhouse to start the seeds in. I plan to get an early start this year.
I will try to get the rest of the site updated, but in the aforementioned computer crash I lost all of the pictures I had on this hard drive. I think they all came from a CD. I have to find it though.