Rain finally....

For those with arthritis, the past few days have been hell on earth. But for the lawns, lakes and forests, the rain has been a good thing. Fortunately, we have not had the terrible winds and driven rain that those further north of us have had; but enough to make things green and to replenish the shrinking ponds. The sun is shining now and it may prove to be a beautiful day...........

It's a jungle out there......

No, this is not the jungle of Borneo or El Junque Rain Florest in Puerto Rico. Just part of our backyard............and dead bamboo must be cut out at some point. Steve and I spent a good part of the day cutting out dead plants. Steve had control of the chain saw......and those of you that know me well are probably thinking that was a good thing !! We now have a large pile of cut up bamboo for the trash men. I really hate trashing the bamboo, but I couldn't think of anything to use it for.

Steve has been working in the yard with the pups, and they respond fairly well to him while they are on leads. It will be interesting to see how well they do off leash. They love foraging in the "jungle" and they trample the smaller plants. Tripper is a hunter and thinks that all the squirrels are fair game. Unfortunately, the squirrels run under the bird cages and during the pursuit, the birds get scared. If they take off in the cages too quickly, they can fly into the sides of the cages and break their necks. Don't want that to happen. So the pups are in a learning process.............

We went to the beach for the first time over the weekend and I will be sooooooo glad when all those out of state license plates are gone !! It was hard to find a place to park and beach umbrellas blocked the view for a couple of blocks. On the positive side, the water was not as cold as I anticipated for walking in and Steve and I found about 40 sharks teeth. Good day at the beach.........................

Larger home ???

Our small home has become smaller for the weekend with the visit of Abby, a brindle female mastiff. We are keeping her while her parents are out of town. She is smaller than the Boyz but manages to put them in their place. The schipperkes are not too happy about the arrangement as they have never been socialized and the addition of another dog throws them out of sorts. They all manage to play in the backyard without any conflicts but due to the smallness of the house interior, the schips have to be watched as they will be snippy towards Abby. They can be little devils and do live up to their name, Little Black Devil. Abby is a love and it would be extremely easy to become attached to her quickly. Good thing that her parents won't be away long!! What's one more dog in the mix..............

Continuing..........

It has been almost 3 months since my last posting. The two new schips have settled in nicely. Everything is a new experience for them, almost like having puppies around only on a larger scale. I have taken them to the bay on a couple of occasions and Trip seems to like to play in the water. Sammi is not so sure. Of course, they also did not stop quite soon enough when running through the yard and they both went off the end of the walkway into the large pond. No harm done, but it is rather funny watching a schipperke try and walk on water lilies.

I have had one more pet sitting job since August which lasted for 5 days. The dogs were great, especially the elder Rhodisian Ridgeback. I was filling in for the regular house/pet sitter who was out of town on vacation. Great place, back in the pine trees.

New happenings............

My pet sitting marathon comes to a close (with many hoorays from my husband) in two more days. Once again, as you can see from the picture, it has been very stressful. Hardship duty.... Sweet little yorkies that bark when you are in the pool. Doing their protective bit I think.

My son has closed on his new (and first ever owned) home in Englewood. It is a roomy 2 bed/2 bath home with a Florida room at the back of the house. Smallish back yard, but big enough for the pups. Move in should be next week. He is having a refrigerator delivered today and then we will be moving more of the smaller pieces of furniture. It will be great having the whole family closer together. It was becoming a drag driving back and forth to Sarasota to visit, see the pups and do anything with my cousin who shares the home with Ed.

We have adopted two schipperkes from rescue that are living with us at the Englewood home. I have also snagged the elder schipperke female from the Sarasota house and she is with us also. So now the animal family is complete with the mastiff Boyz (Dodger and Jack) and the schips, Bits the elder, Sammi the young female and her male companion Trip. The newbies were spayed and neutered on Monday and should be ready to be set loose with the pack by next week. Trip's hormones are still raging so we are keeping him separated from Sammi until they calm down.

Now, if the rain would just stop so we can go back to the beach it would be great..................

Pet Sitting...........

I'm on the second leg of my marathon pet sitting run and I guess if you have to do a job as tough as this one, it is always good to have great scenery. And, of course, suffer with an inground pool with a temp of 90 degrees!!!! And to think I gave up the graveyard shift of dispatching for this.......!!!!

The big furry loves of my life.......

I have always had pets in my life - the occasional stray dog or cat when I lived at home with my parents and many too numerous to list ever since. Most of the time the dogs were small to medium in size and at one time I actually considered my springer spaniel to be rather large. That, of course, was before I was introduced to Dodger and Jack......

Dodger is the larger of the two weight wise and is tan and black in color. Slightly overweight ( let's say portly to be nice), he weighs in around 240. Dodger is believed to be between 6 and 7 years old. Jack (short for Jackson) is a little over 2 and still a puppy. He weighs in around 180. Jack's favorite toy, which he plays with in the yard, is his bowling ball. He has become quite adept at picking it up and dropping it on my foot....

In my attempt to find something for Jack to play with in the house, and knowing a bowling ball was out of the question for obvious reasons, I opted for one of the milk bone toys with the knotted rope running through the center and hanging out on both sides lengthwise. My idea was great and Jack caught on right away to the fact that this was a fun thing to play with......however......

These toys are not made for a dog over 20 pounds !! Dodger got in on the action right away with no encouragement and the sound of ripping and tearing material could be heard throughout the house. After picking up handfuls of fiberfill stuffing that came from inside the bone part of the thing, I managed to salvage the rope. Not nearly as much fun I am sure, but much less mess to clean up. Someone out there needs to make a toy that the boys can have fun with in the house while not destroying the toy or the premises.............