Katie: That is such a sad story.
What's a Cottage Garden Without a Dog?
Honey Bunny, who was out with Willow at the time she was caught, is very cautious now. She loves to come out with us and wander around with her dog-protectors, but she'll come right back in when we do.
It is a sad story. And the sad part is that I had warning. But I just underestimated the willingness of coyotes to try anything once. I think that's why they frustrated so many people - they don't obey any rules like wolves do.
drivenbonkers, congrats at conditioning your cats. I just can't take that risk anymore. Early last summer my large black male, Allegro, got on top of the garage door when it was open, dislodged it and caught his back foot in between the garage door and the top of the opening. I heard him screaming and ran outside, climbed on the riding lawn mower, pushed all my body weight against the door (thank goodness I'm not a tiny girl) and got him loose. He jumped onto the rafters, but couldn't keep his footing because his foot was smashed, so feel to the top of the mower. I got him to the vet and, miraculously, there was no broken bone. Just debridement and crushing.
He's an indoor cat now. He still limps on that foot, but at least he can use it. It's tough to be a cat.
Sorry to take up your thread, Wrightie. But does it count if my cats thing they're dogs? LOL
well, Katie, we don't have coyotes to deal with, so I've got it real easy in that department....
Not to say there aren't any dangers though. Last weekend, our one dog, Lacy (part sighthound, feeling springtime exhuberance) chased a deer off our yard, and ended up falling through one of the ponds in the swamp...... we heard her screaming, and our other two dogs (and our youngest son) went to her rescue. Her adventure could have ended so differently.....
It is such a tough call. Where is the line between keeping them safe yet allowing the freedom to be cats..... that line is different for everyone owned by cats as there are cats out there.
We do the best we can!
I'm so sorry for your loss of Willow.
I still miss those we've lost over the years...
LOL, my cats think they're lions! Expecially Matilda Kitty, she who weighs 5 lbs and gets silly on catnip.
Driven - so well put. Thank goodness everybody was there when Lacy fell through. I lost Bug to a tide "hole" in the midst of an outcropping of rocks one year at the Oregon Coast. It was only about 2 1/2 feet around, but went straight down four feet. He couldn't get any purchase to get out. I reached down and hauled him out by his collar.
Tried to warn the other people wandering around with smaller dogs, but nobody seemed too worried . . .
I said to my SIL that I hoped he had learned a lesson. And she said, "He has learned a lesson, and that is that if he gets into trouble, you'll bail him out." I still laugh at that one. A lot like parenthood.
lol, life with pets is never boring!
I taught our dogs (when they were pups and too small to jump onto the bed, or into the truck, lol) to brace themselves against my hand on the back of their necks, and use that as leverage to 'pull their butts up' Works until they get too heavy.... they don't wear collars at home and they don't (normally) leave the property without us.
LOL, Katie, 'a lot like parenthood', yup! except furkids are forever toddlers!
wrightie, every time I see this topic heading asking the question, 'what's a cottage garden without a dog?', my answer has been: 'empty'........
happy gardening!
Yes, back to those pups!!
I'm having a gathering of dogs in my yard this weekend and am desperately trying to figure out how to protect my emerging solomon seal. I think I'll actually "build" a box around it. LOL
Or maybe pop a milk crate over top of it? The dollar store here has plastic storage/organizing containers with holes in the sides & bottom that are like flimsy milk crates... probably sturdy enough to protect plant crowns or to use as bulbs baskets.
They might be a little too high for that - but that's definitely where I'm heading.
I've also been cutting back a stand of salmon berry and was fighting nightfall last night trying to get them cut close to the ground - the cut roots stand up like cut bamboo. I managed to get most of them cut safely to ground or covered up. Eeek!! So much preparation for a doggie play date. I have a fenced acre that is grass in the middle, but you know how they forget about the beds when they are in full-out peekaboo before they start to run.
At last count, there were going to be about 14 dogs and some puppies. What am I thinking?
what a party!
Katie, I'm so sorry about Willow! That is gut-wrenching!!!
As for the upcoming Puppy Party, we had a "play date" with a little Mastiff pup a couple weeks back and boy oh boy did my plants ever take a beating from just two puppies! Larry the Mastiff has an affinity for lying in shrubbery, so he would repeatedly run to my Korean Boxwood and hurl himself right into it. LOL, while I thought that the thing was indestructible, it did get hammered a little bit. Thankfully, only the daffodils were the other casualties of their romping good time.
My Solomon's Seal must be about a foot high right now, so I'm not sure how I would protect it other than fencing it off somehow. Otherwise, I'd have thought that the crates would be great for your smaller plants. Please take photos of the puppy party and share them with us!
Thanks, wrightie. She was such an easy and lovable cat - and beautiful, to boot. Sigh.
Those are some cute kids - pounds and pounds of 'em. I can imagine you've have more than a few squooshed plants. So I've decided to surround the solomon seal with a few pots and rocks around either side of some panels I made for a cat cage when I was rescuing kittens. I knew they'd come in handy some day!!! If I have time tomorrow, I may be able to get them anchored in the ground.
And yes, if I get any good pictures, I'll post them. It's so hard to get them to be still for the camera. These are the puppies that are coming. http://tangaloor.net/javapups-week6.html
And then there will be the "grown-ups" Ha.
They are adorable! ... and doing free stacks at week 6, Holy Cannoli!
Wah? Free Stacks?
Standing "square" without a lead and without a person present to hold the wriggling puppy -- AMAZING!
Geez, no kidding...
I didn't know the term for it, but I recognized the "show dog" stance and was impressed!
Mercy...now that's incredible!! Our Bullmastiff (that we showed briefly) would at an early age but surely wasn't at 6 weeks....geez!!
Alison's awesome with dogs. All her dogs have their CGC and she conducts showing and obedience classes.
We photgraphed the puppies again this weekend and they were so easy to stack, since they've been doing it since day one. My dogs, on the other hand, just couldn't relax. Clearly, I need to do a little more work on stacking.
There are a few updated pictures of the puppies from the weekend:
http://tangaloor.net/javapups-week10.html
I still have to learn/teach Z to stack. This will be my first time in the breed rings. Yikes.
I got these tips for stacking
1. Lift the front end up slightly (hand in between the front legs and lift and set it down gently) and set it down so that the front feet are in line with one another. Then position the back legs from their underside pushing outward with the back of your hand. It's less intrusive and less likely to make them tighten up than actually grabbing the foot.
2. Position them with the edge of the table where you think their back feet should be, so they can put their toes on the edge. It tends to keep them there.
3. If they are tightening up (of course, you can only do this in the first couple of weeks with large breeds), pick them up and stretch them from head to tail by pulling on their bodies from end-to-end (if you have a good method of getting ahold of them) or, it they're older, putting your arms under their legs and arms as they stand and pushing them outward. Once they've gotten used to this, they don't tend to object - actually like it. And then you can try stacking them again.
This message was edited May 1, 2008 12:27 PM
I am now picturing Wrightie trying to stretch Zeb like that... isn't he over 50 pounds now? ;-)
I'm thinkin' wrightie might take up yoga or pilates or some type of stretching exercise...her arms might need lengthened.
I wonder how he'd feel about if Wrightie following the advice: "pick them up and stretch them from head to tail by pulling on their bodies from end-to-end."
I’ll tell you that these puppies loved the stretch – there was absolutely no resistance. It’d just take a giant person to do it for a giant dog!!
LOL! Yes, Zeb's breeders used that lift & stretch method when they were just bittybitty munchkins in the whelping box, but he is at least 50lbs right now, so yes, you are right, Critter.
Happy got to meet him in person last weekend and can attest to the fact that I wouldn't be able to stretch him anymore. I'm working on "Stand" but haven't truly started "Stay" yet. That will likely begin within the next week or so though.
Edited for mixing up names ... I need caffeine. I held 10 horses for the farrier today - I'm tired and cold!
This message was edited May 1, 2008 5:45 PM
I liked the image of you stretching him, though!
Wrightie
All my life we had a garden, dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, geese and pigs all together and everything except the pigs roamed free. Oh I forgot our nannie goat and the sheep. In our front garden we had a typical English cottage garden (mummy was from England, war bride and all). The back garden was veggies and fruit trees with a stream at the bottom and the animals were mixed in. My Collie Bonnie herded the fowl and me. The pigs had their own enclosure and Nannie and the sheep were kept where ever Mummy needed the grass cut that day. We only had problems once with a chicken killing dog. Mummy got ahold of him tied the chicken around his neck and let it rot off. The other dogs wouldn't go near him for days and I'll tell you that dog wouldn't even touch a fried chicken leg after that. Mummy just made sure that all the puppies were trained right out of the womb and the mothers of course being well trained trained their babies.
Mummy's mantra--"Start as you intend to continue". Now she's gone its mine. Works for kids and dogs equally as well.
Dang I wish I'd dug up her peony before I left home.
How's good old DC. We moved here a couple years ago from there and how I miss it. I can't wait to go home
Ahhh to hear of the ole "tie it around their neck" technique....cant' even begin to recount all the times I've done that (shoes, bread bags - not while they were unattended, promise). Sometimes it works...other times not....but I felt better all the same....ROTFLOL
Yehudith - your youth on the "farm" sounds positively disney-like. Wonderful image.
I had to laugh; I read this initially as: "We only had problems once with a chicken killing A dog." Made me stop and go back very quickly. LOL
This message was edited May 21, 2008 9:32 PM
Glad I wasn't the only one who thought she read a chicken killed a dog. LOL
Sorry,I'm laughing so hard!.
I can just see this saber tooth chicken with blood dripping from his fangs standing with one foot on a dog carcass snarling at my Mum with an ax in her hands. "come on chicky chicky, nice chicky chicky, let me have the doggy before I chop your neck". Snarl Snap!!
Not enough cafene yet.
And I can see how a dog-killing chicken could be a problem . . . LOL
and to think I was considering getting some chickens.......
Yehudith, it sounds as though you were lucky enough to grow up with a true, traditional cottage garden. That's Groovy!
Here's a new photo of My Garden Help, a master of stick-picking-up.
Z & his shadow ...
Geez. He's so big and yet so puppy. Reminds me of my now 2 year old youngest pup, who, upon going outside, immediately heads for the rhododendrons to "play" with the bees there. When they don't cooperate he barks at them. Goofball.
When do his ear bandages come off?
Playing with bees - my last Dane did that throughout her entire life. So fun! =)
His ears stand really well now, but he's only 4 mos. old, so we may continue posting them for a little while longer just to be safe. They come down each week for a day or so, then get re-wrapped. The simple answer is that they'll come off whenever they stand permanently, so each dog is different there.
He's teething now and just beginning to enter his adolescent (eek!) phase... stand by for lots of FrankenPuppy stories in the coming months!
Ears can be so frustrating.
We prefer rose-like Whippet ears in Silkens. One of my girls has beautiful soft SIlken ears until she hears something or gets excited and then they're up like a German Shepherd. Not my choice . . .
Hi Everyone! I am a returning member after 8 years. I couldn't resist sending along a picture of the best dog in the world (Ha!). His name is Geddy and he follows me step for step in my gardening chores.
Best Dog, hmmph~! Of course, you'll get no competition from me. Last night one of my dogs dug through my new bed, taking with her established portulaca, some strawberries, a few wave petunias and a whole lot of zinnia seedlings.... grrrr....
But enough of that - welcome back, Trixi - lovely place and great dog! That rose is fantastic.