Nice picture of your sweet girls.
Karen
Northeast forum Pets 7
How cute! Look how much they've grown!!
they are all so pretty Louise!!
Thanks, you guys! They are pretty happy little ladies, and yes - they are now pretty much full grown, I think. Roxie is tallest, then Carli and then little Bailey (the runt). We still need to get some more of her weight back on her since the poisoning episode. She is doing well, but needs a bit more meat on her hips and shoulders. Thankfully, the little lizards (chameleons, really) that they love to chase aren't poison if they happen to win the race. :( Bailey does better on our walks about not scooping up everything we pass on the street or in the grass, but she still likes to dig up and eat the roots of the grass if we aren't careful.
Mr. G is awesome!!
Very cute photo of the girls! I took Suey onto the Appy Trail on Sun. for a few hours....dogs don't have to be leashed...no hunting on Sun.....she had a great time. We met labs, border collies, & a springer.....unhappily, a handful of birds. When I got home I took Robs for his walk behind the dam, & there was a multitude of birds....my binocs were home.
Sounds like you had fun, Marilyn. I would like to take Patches to P-Town this weekend, actually probably on Monday.
Karen
How cool for Suey, Marilyn! Sounds like a fun outing!
Yes, thanks, Louise it was fun....love that stretch of the Appy because it follows the Housatonic River, & it's flat!
Love flat!
Adorable!
Karen
funny!
Cute shots, Sherrie. Does anyone have a dog who gets mad at you if you do any number of things? Carli wasn't happy with me yesterday because I was in a hurry with her as she was refusing to pee before I took her for a 4-hour groomer session. She hadn't gone for awhile and I paid the price for rushing her. You can tell she's not a happy puppy here.........LOL
Oh, oh....yes, Louise, she's giving you a message for sure! My Suey gives me dirty looks all the time, but I think it's a German short hair thing. Sherrie, such a cute pose.
LOL... all the photos make me giggle... Louise I have several photos like that of Lily
Glad I'm not the only puppy parent out of favor. She seems to have recovered her judgmental view of me, especially around dinner time. lol
And now an unsettling update to my mentioning that we have a young Indigo Snake residing on the premises. To be honest, the snake's behavior is appropriately non-aggressive, and seems to want to skidaddle asap when humans (me thankfully) let it be known that they are anywhere near. Well, Hank had not seen Ms. Indigo until yesterday while I was gone to get a haircut. It seems he took the girls out into their puppy yard and there was slim and sveldt Ms. Indigo slowly making her way along the fence line INSIDE the fence. Well, the girls caught sight of her and decided with enthusiasm that they would run closer and check her out up close and personally. She slithered on down the line and through the lattice to the safety of the grapefruit tree. But what is NOT GOOD is that we have many poisonous snakes down here, and at least 3 varieties that could appear in our yard (rattlesnake, coral snake and water moccasin at the very least). Now, they aren't commonly seen in a neighborhood like ours, but I have seen all 3 kindshere in my years in this 'hood. The fact that the girls do not know any better than to charge a moving snake is not at all a good thing. We make sure we are always out there with them keeping an eye on them, but they are mega-fast, and I would be a useless lump out there if a not-so-polite reptile showed up on my watch. So now, we have to filter them from endless varieties of poisonous vegetation, along with refereeing a snake adventure with any number of vipers. Now, what is it I like about coming down here???? Can any of you remind me? It's not the 90 degree heat and humidity today, nor is it the apprehension of the many "Louise freak out" scenes that are feasible here, so please do remind me..........
The electoral process???
Hahaha!
LOL! In that POd picture of Carli, you can see Bailey in the background on top of the back of the couch. She looks like she is barfing....what a house we live in. The dogs are clearly running the show here! We just pay their taxes and insurance......
Perhaps is there is not vegetation in the puppy yard the snakes will avoid it as no cover?
Wow, that's just too scary....Mr. Indigo must have moved in while you were in NH, & now he feels it's his home...I have no idea what would repel a snake, & not harm the girls. There was an article in today's paper that a bear was eating neighborhood pumpkins in Waterbury.....good grief, you can't leave anything out anymore!
Waterbury ? That's pretty urban for a bear unless they are on the outskirts. We used to live in Cheshire & would not expect bears there, I bet it is pretty more built up over 30 yrs.
Lucy - there is very little vegetation out there since we tamed it. Everything at ground level is visible just for that reason. We have a small island bed in the center, but we got rid of everything that would make it difficult to see the girls on the other side of it, or to see what is present in the bed. Up around the house, there are only bougainvillea standards that have no vegetation until about 3 feet off the ground. I agree with your thinking and we have tried to act on it.
Robin - I think you are right that the Indigo made itself at home and now is not really wanting to be ousted. We had no issue with them last year. Hank thinks that the cold weather will make it go elsewhere to hibernate. I am hoping that the persistent presence of the dogs will also dissuade it from keeping a presence. I have cleaned out all of the weeds from my garden areas so I can easily see who is lurking. Hank will "make it go away" if it gets too chummy. Oh My!!
oohh would that frighten me... not a fan of any snake
I was pulling a weed in FL and a coral snake almost ran over my hand. I had a palmetto bug get in my hair and flap its wings. I watched a guy step on a scorpion at a gas station. I saw a dead copperhead snake. I was using the ladies room and a spider the size of a baseball came out of no where right next to me and I ran out pulling up my pants!
There is things to do in FL where you will never run out of seeing or experienceing the good, the bad and the right down scary stuff!
Sherrie, I'm still laughing....great description!
You captured it all pretty well, Sherrie! And our girls are so friendly with everyone - including non-friends, that we really have to keep a close eye on them. They do not discriminate at all!! Not good!
oh - theres more. Riots.National Gurards were hunkered down in the park near where I lived. I think it was Rodney King got who killed by a police? Anyways some guy was trying to pull out in front of me and I gave him the #1 sign. Umm I shouldnt of done that as he chased me with his car.
He wasnt friendly, had me stopped in traffic, was coming towards me with his fist pulled back ready to wack me (yeah I was driving with window down). Good thing I was in a VW Jetta that went from 0-55 MPH in like 5 seconds. I popped the clutch and stepped on the gas. His forearm hit the window post. He didnt chase me no more. I have so many stories that one was plain ugly.
Sherrie, you did capture that well.
I don't really believe dogs get mad at their owners. Their minds work completely different than ours. And this is why they get over horrible things (like losing a leg, becoming paralyzed, or going blind) much easier than people. They don't obsess over what happened to them or worry about what their life will be now that they no longer have what they previously had (i.e. eyesight, use of their leg or legs, good looks before becoming burned or scarred or whatever). All they think about is what's going on with them now. All they do is whatever they need to to overcome whatever problem they currently need to overcome. People think about the past and the future. Dogs dwell in the present.
Louise, I'm assuming you like going down there to escape the cold winters in NH and to have a year-round gardening season. There are pros and cons to everything, my friend. I often wish to move back to Arizona. If I did, and I took my dog hiking with me, which I love to do, then I would have to constantly be on the alert to keep her from going after rattlesnakes, scorpions, etc. Same if I moved to Texas to be near my sister. My dog only knows of the harmless garter snakes here. She's never encountered a dangerous snake, so she is not afraid of them. Here is an article you can look at on snake proofing your dog without using a shock collar (e-collar). Most of the articles I looked at (and I checked a bunch) recommended using shock collars.
http://www.ehow.com/way_5164403_rattle-snake-training-dogs.html
Karen
I don't think dogs get mad either, it's cats that get vindictive.
Karen - thanks for posting that very interesting article about snake training. The "leave it" commands are also worth exploring. We say "drop it" in a firm tone when the dogs pick up something (like mulch) they shouldn't have, and this takes it a step further. Thoughtful of you to provide that!
And yes, there are definitely good things about living in Florida, especially in the dead of winter. Today is actually beautiful here, and that is the case most of the time. I just get homesick for the North now and then, and I miss the people a lot, especially around the holidays. Funny that I'm a Florida native and miss New England so much, I guess! :)
Carli wasn't really mad at me.......I was just kidding about that, but that photo sure looked like she was!
My step mom in law's son in law said "he doesn't want to live anywher where he can go in his backyard and be killed by something" LOL
My sil and bil aare planning on moving to AZ, while looking at model homes in the 1 bathrooom there was a scorpion in the toilet, the realtor apoligized and said that was pretty rare, the next bathrrom they went in same thing...he's all embarrassed and said "ooooo, guess we have to get an exterminator in here" My comment.... " I don't want to live somewhere where somethings going to bite my butt while using the facilities!!!"
I love that, Jenn! LOL! On the news here this morning, there was a 10-foot alligator at the front door of a house in a community near us. The cops were beating on the window of the bedroom at 2:00 a.m. telling them not to open their front door. Yikes. We are so close to the River, but I've never seen one in the River. Apparently some did get washed into the River from Lake Okeechobee after Hurricane Charlie. A couple were caught about 3 and a half miles up the River from us. One was 12 feet long. I repeat, Yikes.
I was surprised to see gators in the retention ponds in the Villages....too close!