Monday, March 18, 2024

Bailey at Patch

I got a couple of small pre-spring garden things done this weekend. I divided by lotus flower plant that was extremely pot bound, so now I have two pots in two separate ponds, giving both some new soil and room to grow. I'm hoping to have more vigorous plants and more blooms out of them this year. I also got all four of my pond pumps running and at least partially cleaned out the ponds. Thanks to the mild winter, some of the water plants that I didn't expect to winter over have done so and are spouting new growth. 

Sunday was St. Patrick's Day so I took Bailey up to Patch to try their new Irish red ale, Company 24. It was excellent, in fact I think it's my current favorite local brew. Sunday was a beautiful day and there was a big crowd at Patch, including quite a few friends. She was initially rather overwhelmed. There were dogs and people everywhere, balls and discs were flying around, the wind was blowing scents all over, but she handled it well and settled down nicely. 

She was great with all the dogs and people she met, but she also demonstrated her commitment to me. At one point she crawled under a table and I dropped her leash and took a couple of steps away. When she realized that I was no longer attached to her and had moved, she came scurrying back to be with me. I'm not too proud to admit that I'm emotionally needy enough that this makes me very happy. I suspect she knows this about me too. She frequently puts her paw on me and that just makes me melt into a big pile of mush. Gigi did that to me years ago when I had her at an adoption event. We left that event shortly thereafter and I never took her to another one. She was mine, or I was hers, whatever.

When Bailey is meeting new people I always hand them treats to hand to her to make sure they get off to a good start. One man walked by us later in the afternoon that Bailey immediately barked at, fur up and everything. I don't know what set it off. He may have been making eye contact with her as he approached. He was coming from behind me so I didn't see him but she did. He was an older man wearing a hat. I reined her in when she barked so nothing came of it, but it was a reminder that this dog has some protective instincts. I'm usually inclined to trust a dog's instinctive dislike for a particular human, but if she has a particular trigger, I need to figure it out.



Ah, the flexibility of youth.











Saturday, March 16, 2024

Fabulous Ford

I took Ford to a Green Dogs adoption event at Natural Pet Essentials today. He was fabulous. He likes all people, is good with children, loves other dogs and wants to meet everyone. We walked through the store and he sniffed but didn't try to shoplift anything. This dog continues to impress me. He's really too good, too easy for me to have as a foster, although having one without major issues is nice. 

Yes, he's deaf and his vision is probably not good out of one of his eyes, but he gets along fine, knows some hand signals, and even some ASL signs for certain words. He's a great all around dog. We haven't tested him with cats, but from what I've seen of his personality, I expect he'd be happy to have a cat friend as well as a dog friend.


He wanted to make friends with every dog he saw.

He wanted to be a lap dog too.


Happy face




He's still a nice size for picking up too.


Friday, March 15, 2024

Warm, wet day

It didn't rain enough to add much to the already excessive accumulated rainfall, but it made everything wet again and refreshed the mud. I was busy with work all day and waited until it had rained before taking Norman, Bailey, and Ford out to the pasture to run. The grass was wet so the dogs got wet but they didn't mind at all. It's time to get the pasture cut, but it's too wet to have anyone bring in a tractor and bushhog. 

Ford (front) and Norman

Ford, Norman, Bailey




Ford and Norman ran. Bailey immediately went into hunting mode.
However, she doesn't seem to make any effort to actually locate her prey.
She likes to pounce and she does that at random places without any reason to believe there's a mouse or rat where she is pouncing.




Ford is a pretty thing.






While Bailey and Norman blend into the tall winter grass, 
Ford's color and markings are a sharp contrast.


Soggy Ford


Suddenly Bailey turned up with what appeared to be a deer bone in her mouth.
I don't know where she found it, and when I looked at it most closely, I'm not sure it's real.


Real or not, she treated it like a very valuable find.


Thursday, March 14, 2024

Walking into spring

 Monday: It was my first day walking since I got back from Montana. I had to take the two who had missed it most, Della and Elvis. 




Tuesday: Della again, but with Paisley this time. Paisley was very happy to be included. I remembered back to when I first got Paisley and started walking with her. She was scared of me and would walk a full leash length away from me, far out to the side where she would keep an eye on any movement I made. She's still freaky weird, but she's also very devoted to me now and thinks she's my number one outdoor guardian dog. 






Wednesday: I didn't hike because we went to town in the evening and saw a film at the Paramount Theater, Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse. It was good and it was timely. Really got me thinking about this year's garden projects. I have lots to do and need to get started on it this weekend.



When I left for Montana there were just a few daffodils in bloom. When I returned, they all were. This is the best these daffodils have ever bloomed and I had planted 100 more inside the fence, but I haven't seen any of them yet this spring.



This saucer magnolia in the center of the driveway is having a good year too. Some years it gets nipped by frost, but there's been no threat of that this year. There's a certain time early in the morning when you can see the blue meteor lights that I hung in this tree and the pink flowers before the sun comes up enough to shut off the lights. I saw it this morning, very pretty. 

Thursday: Bailey and Ford. I have been neglecting my baby girl since I got back because she's been tasked with baby sitting the new foster, Ford, and both of them have been spending the days out in Daneland with Norman to keep him company. I need to start walking Norman but I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. Today I walked Bailey and Ford. I put rope harnesses on both and expected both to be out front pulling me like a team of horses. Bailey certainly did so, but Ford surprised me. The former owners must have done some work walking with him. He was out front with her part of the time, but he never really pulled me and he often dropped back and walked right next to me. He's really a nice dog. The first couple of nights he fussed and cried in the crate for a while at night, but he's over that now, and unlike Bailey he doesn't destroy the nice bed in his crate. 







2.4 miles