Brilliant Sunrise

Rain is in the forecast for the next several days. But what a beautiful sunrise this morning. Again the swans were calling. I also heard some geese and ducks. And a songbird of some sort.

Then the ewes saw me step around the corner of the house and they started in with their breakfast demands. :)

Back to the Sheep

My shearing date is set for next week if the weather holds. Clancy and I hand-sheared Bombarde & Arvada before they left for the processor. We also hand-sheared LRO January because it looked like she may lamb before next week. She is filling out nicely, but still a few days away.

My new Rocky Sheep Coats came in the mail yesterday. January is the only one I have coated so far. She is wearing a size C. I measured the sheep in full fleece, then went down two sizes to arrive at their "shorn" size.

And I got it completely wrong.

I ordered many coats that are just too small-unless I want to coat a lamb. So I will be sending quite a few back to trade in for the right sizes. But before I do that, I'm going to outfit all the sheep NOW in their full fleeces so I know exactly how big they really are capable of getting next year.

Doxi Moxi

I wish I could get a good photo of the doxies at full zoom. The blurry shots will have to suffice. You get the idea.

For Puggles' Secret Admirer

I would never have guessed it...but my own mother thinks the pug is cute. She even said she "thought" about adopting her. She claims she isn't ready to have a dog yet, though. But since my mom rarely expresses even the slightest interest in any animal, I decided to post a bit more Puggles for her entertainment. All photos were taken 3/27/10.

Here ya go, Mom.

Puggles at Boston Lake.

A focused Puggles.

A Puggles pause.

Speedy Puggles.

A slimmer, trimmer Puggles.

Puggles' first bone.

Discovery!

Puggles

(Geisha)

will eat regular kibble if she is fed by hand!

It took the doxies two days of sniffing kibble to realize I would not be breaking open a can of soft dog food anytime soon. Now they hop and wiggle for their dry dog food.

But Puggles would not eat anything. Granted, she seriously needed to loose weight. And she was getting more active by the day during her outdoor time. She was also drinking plenty of water. So I figured she would eat when she was ready.

But she never wanted to even come near the food dish. Then Saturday we had beef steak, and Clancy cut off all the gristle, bone, and fat after it was broiled. I decided to feed Puggles by hand, a small amount of gristly meat cut into tiny pieces, just to see if she would take it. She loved it. But she wouldn't come out of her kennel for it. Three of the pieces sat in a dog dish only six inches in front of her crate, and it took her all afternoon to work up the courage to surreptitiously nab them one at a time.

So I have decided that working on Puggle's fear of being out of her crate is more important than her eating out of a dish like the other dogs. This morning I used a bit more meat to tempt her out. She leaned out of her crate door quite a ways to take the meat from my fingers. Good start. And just to see if she would, I offered her the weight-watcher's kibble...and she took that from my hand as well!

I guess I will be hand feeding the pug for a while. But at least she will eat something. It is sad to see her so fearful of being in the house. There are only three places in which she is at ease: outdoors, in her crate, or installed on someones lap on the sofa. All transitions between these places cause her great anxiety. But we are working on it. And she has already made quite a bit of progress. I believe she will one day be a well-adjusted dog if her new family can have compassion for her issues and continue to work with her on them.

Katie Pie

Katie has the most delicate features I've ever seen on a dog.

She loves to race into my arms.

Sniffing a delectable scent carried on the breeze.

Undaunted by this big world.

Facing the sun.

Wishing she had found Sandy Anne's scrap of deer hoof first.

"Why won't she share with me?"

The hoof material was taken away from Sandy Anne after a brief game of catch-me-if-you-can.

See Sandy Anne Run.

It is impossible not to laugh with delight while watching a mini-doxi run.

Sandy Anne spends most of her outdoor time in the air.

It hardly seems possible that such short little legs can propel her with such speed.

Perhaps it is the ears that keep her aloft?