I would love to be thinking about a hundred other things this morning that blood-sucking, disease-spreading arthropods. But we keep pulling tiny grazers off our own hides, and extracting deeply-embedded ticks off the dog. And it promises to be a…
â–¶ First day to not start a fire first thing in the morning, with the hope that by noon, it will be COOLER inside than out. â–¶ First day to notice the highest maple branches—just a few–are showing red leaf…
I only have a few minutes before the day officially begins with the opening of the chicken house. The new hen (yet to be named, but with her only companion named Pearl, Buck and Jam have been suggested) seems to…
It promises to be a beautiful snow, briefly, after the sun rises and before temps do the same and the winds pick up. We got something like 8″ of powdery snow after expecting WET, and there is a big difference.…
By Thursday, hopefully and maybe with a little help from my dog-toting friends, I’ll come up with a solution on how to best carry a pet in the car for their safety and the driver’s and passengers’. The full size…
I apologize to those who have heard enough about our trials and tribulations, our thrills of victory, or the more-common agonies of defeat in the attempt to rear this not-a-labrador-retriever puppy into a beast we want to have with us for…
One of the less wonderful parts of Ann’s work is “on-call”, this coming after she’s already worked a 12 to 14 hour day. Often, the night passes without an interruption, though she has her pharmacy resources and calculator piled near…
I am relieved to be able to say that we are now thinking we can keep Gandy after all. She has shown considerably better behavior in the past few days–not entirely free of snarky or otherwise obnoxious behavior, but stopping…
What’s Good for Gandy is the operative question this morning. We are approaching the painful conclusion that she is not the dog for us. It’s the painful part that is of concern: she has not been able to restrain her…
Hydrogen peroxide. I’d never heard of this “remedy” until my wife came home from a church meeting last week telling me the terrible tale (outcome then unknown) about Tsuga’s best and only playmate, 120# golden retriever, Jesse. It seems his…
Our dog was in a litter being handed out for free from the back of a truck at WalMart in Galax. A kind young girl suspected that, given away indiscriminately like this, some of the young “Shepherd-Lab mix” pups might…
Gandy’s puppyhood under our roof had a certain beginning exactly one month ago. But when that life stage will have an end is anybody’s guess. It won’t be soon enough, if you know what I mean. Yesterday, the walls of…
…everything looks like a nail. I’ve appreciated that truism (source UNK) as it applies to certain myopic political and behavioral stances one encounters far too often these days. But I digress. In the current use, it is the dog to…
The smallest gestures of affection and connection are welcomed when they come, at last, after suffering pain repeatedly at another’s expense. You know who I’m talking about. Even though they may be small victories, these moments let us know that…