Frozen world

Thursday morning - my first time out with the dogs (yes, 6:30 am) - the world is frozen! The dogs hurried back in and so did I. Now for coffee and geting warm! When the sun came up, it was brilliant. didn't warm up anything but was brilliant.
I have 3 large bird baths on the ground and two small ones on top of feeders. I went and got warm water and filled them all up. Minutes later dozens of birds of all kinds of species were drinking. It was as if they had been waiting for me. Makes sense when you think about it, all the water is frozen, we don't have a stream nearby, so maybe they were waiting for me! The ground around the feeding stations was constantly moving. Doves, Junkos, Sparrows, Finches, Cardinals, Blue Jays, my red headed woodpecker, titmice, nuthatches, you name it, they were here. I have lived here for 15 years and started feeding the birds soon after moving in. I guess it does make a difference. When I open the backdoor and the dogs are with me, Junior runs barking at the top of his lungs to the fence where the feeding station is. He chases all the birds away, at least for the time being. Beyond the fence is a very old rambling rose, the bush is old and impenetratable. It is taller then I am and all the little birds go in ther for cover. Even if he could get out of the fencing, he would be sorry quickly - those thorns are sharp and he has basically no hair! But I think it is all in good fun, he has never made a real attempt to catch anything. I think he just enjoys making all the birds fly. And sometimes there are as many as 50 birds taking wing. It is rather impressive to see and hear. All those wings make a pretty loud noise.
I feed two feral cats in the garage and the little female (yes, I trapped them and had them fixed and their shots given) loves to catch birds. She also loves to drink from the birdbath, not the big one, but the large round one on the ground. I can see her from the kitchen window. She is a torty and really very pretty. All 3 of her siblings have died one way or another and on day I found her mother dead in the field. No sign of injury, no blood. That little mother was so beautiful, steel grey, sleek, and smart. I never could trap her, no matter what I tried. And try I did! I call the little Torty Smudges and the other cat is Oscar. He is a yellow tiger and shows all the signs of having been a house cat at one time. He is way relaxed around people. Just when you think that you can finally touch him, he gets up ever so slow and walks away just in the nick of time. I seldom see him hunting, he is getting on in years and he had an accident 2 years ago that left him with a limp. He was already neutered when I trapped him. People do strange things. Not that that was the first or only time I ever found an already spayed or neutered animal. That's for another day, though.

Sleeping Arrangements

Junior, Sparky and Daisy sleep in the bed, under the covers, with me. Lissa jumps on or off as she pleases. Sheria sleeps with her Daddy in the other room. Dibbs has always slept beside me on the floor on the right side of the bed. Now that Molly has moved into the actual living space of the house, somehow, Dibbs has been pushed to the foot end of the bed. So I thought that wasn't fair, she has always had her little blanket (not really little) by the side of the bed and Molly done took it over. I found a nice, fluffy comforter and put it (in my way) at the foot end of the bed on the floor for her. All dogs tried it out through the day and everyone approved. When I got up this morning Dibbs was laying on it. After I was awake enough it was time to go outside. The little dogs all were racing to the door and yet, I kept hearing these strange scrabbling sounds. Upon investigation I found Dibbs UNDER the bed trying her darndest to get out - no way. In her sleep, laying on her side she had slid under there, but now, sitting up, she could not fit. Supermom to the rescue! Of course I can lift a queen sized bed 10 minutes after I woke up - who couldn't? So I lifted and a very relieved Dibbs came out of there as fast as her aging bones would let her. I have seen her on the comforter several times through the day, but she hasn't been kidnapped by the bed again!
I forgot to mention that 19 year old Joy sleeps in a baby-bed. She has always hated being in a crate, but the baby-bed is big enough and soft enough and she looks like she feels secure in it. She settles right down once put in there. It makes my life much easier because I don't have to worry about the other dogs running her over or growling at her. So I sleep better and so does she!

Dibbs's story

11 years ago - a long time ago, come to think of it. I was in the front yard with Collie Buddy and Shaggy-Dog. Suddenly I heard all this honking going on. Looked out on the road and there she was, a little puppy in the middle of the road. The drivers would honk their horns and she would turn one way and then another. "You twits, like the puppy would know what the horns mean?"was my thought. I ran out and the puppy came right to me. All sorts of drivers were smiling at me. The second vehicle was a sheriffs car. As I passed him, I motioned to him and told him to let animal control know, "this is not my puppy." I never heard from them, I guess I wasn't too believable. My dogs were very friendly and took the little stranger right in. Dibbs had "Dibbs" on everything. Most of all me. But the other dogs made the best of it and Shaggy-Dog proved to be a very patient foster mom. Dibbs would pester her and pester her, Shaggy would growl at her, but she never did anything.
The puppy was advertised etc, several people came to look at her, but nobody ever wanted her for themselves. So, of course, she stayed here - and a good thing it is!

Monday morning, how was my weekend?

Hi, it is Tuesday now and I never got around to write something yesterday. Too busy trying to find a job. Right now, things are pretty bad all over and not even the big companies are hirering if they don't absolutely have to. I will survive and find a job sooner or later. Or the food will start taking off like it is supposed to.
Saturday morning I was caught in the backyard by my own dogs and could not go anywhere. The front yard girls had tried to make a break for it and Micky actually got out - not such a good thing - I live on a major road! I was outside the backdoor shaving Lissa. I heard Scooter nag and nag and then it was suddenly quiet and out of the corner of my eye I saw a big black dog disappear into the garage. Poor Lissa never knew what struck her, she was in the house so quick!
I ran back out and (thank God) Micky came right to me. But this meant I had to let the other two into the backyard as well. Now I was stuck there. It is fenced in, but the fencing is old and if one of them pushed against it too hard, it will break. Eventually I worked up the guts to go in to the house and get the phone. Called Kevin (isn't it always like that, stuff happens and you're alone on the property?), told him not to go to Lowe's first, come home! So he did and we worked on stringing the electric wire over top the fence and installing the box in the rain and cold. Both of us were freezing by the time (several hours later) we were done. At one point I had confined the house dogs inside the house and took the front yard dogs on the back porch, I just had to warm up. They like it in the house! So much excitement, so much sniffing and wagging and exploring. It was fun letting them explore. But I can't imagine how I can keep them there for good. Not if I have to work again. In a way I think it's mighty unfair, they are good dogs an should have had a chance to share somebodies life. But nobody ever wanted to adopt them, and they are used to being with each other. I had always thought I would like to take them into the house one at a time, but there was always another foster dog and then another and then another, it just never worked out. So we make do, we are good at that.
Sunday was "Bathe the Polly" day. I wished I could give her a bath and tape it at the same time, she is such a little actress. You have to vacuum when you want to bathe her. I take all the loose things out of her cage, put towels all around it and then use a spraybottle to make it rain. We whistle, sing and generally make a lot of noise and she stretches her wings and tries to hide her face under them and then hangs upside down from the cage and just has herself a good time. I have to do all the work - of course. She gets all new toys after I dry the cage and clean up the mess we made. Sometimes a new perch, but not very often. She is an old lady and likes her routine.

Pip's story

The backyard had not been fenced in yet and all the housedogs had to be leashwalked, one last time, before the humans could go to bed. So, we are out there at 10:30 at night with a bunch of dogs, waiting for them to do their business. I hear this NOISE. What is that? After a few more times I identified the noise as animal speech. And not happy. Take the dogs in the house, give out treats, find the flashlights, back out we go. Kevin to one side, I the other. Did not take long, I followed my ears and found a tiny black kitten in a neighbors drainpipe under the driveway. The kitten came right to me, he was cold and hungry. In the house we go, the dogs go crazy, the kitten hides in my hands - food!Food! Upstairs we go, find kitten food, introduce the kitten to the adult cats, no problem. They don't care, the little thing is barely moving, just looking for food. He ate like he was starving, then went in the litterbox, after that found a warm place and went to sleep.

The next morning he already acted like he had never been anywhere Else. I found several harnesses, most of them small. None fit the tiny kitten. I had to use a make-your-own-holes-leash to create a harness for him. That made him the kitten on a string. The dogs got used to him quickly. Dibbs, herself just found two weeks ago, loved the kitten. She would lick him and he would play with her tail - dogs and cats are not enemies!

My first Blog!!!!

Hi everybody,

I have been playing with this idea for a while and I'm going to try - nothing ventured, nothing gained!

It is a crisp, sunny day in Virginia, I have already done my out-side chores. The three girls in the front yard have been fed, petted and their blankets straightened. I do a round of pick-up-poop every morning. I think it gross if you don't dispose of the waste - with 11 dogs, I guess it would be - in just a little while.

You must understand, I own 11 dogs, 6 cats and 1 bird. Not so much by choice - yeah - I know - "crazy cat lady, hoarder" etc. - not really. I used to foster for the Humane Society and when an animals doesn't get adopted, I feel strongly that it still has value and deserves love and care. I will write about some of my sob stories here, at a later date. Anyway, having this many pets means being organized, cleaning and moving all the time. I don't want my house to smell bad, I don't want my yard to be a total wreck (OK, so it's nothing special, but at least it's clean). So, I clean, weed, cut - what ever it takes.

Right now I need to go and let poor Pip out of solitary confinement. Pip is an 11 year old cat with diabetes. I lock him up for a few hours in the morning and evening, so the other cats can eat regular cat food. His special food for diabetic cats is left out all the time, but they don't like it much. Also, after we first found out, I tried to feed only the special food . HA! Over half of the cats had (you guessed it) the poops like there was no tomorrow. What fun I had! So, we resort to making Pip a prisoner twice a day and giving real food to the others.

He is doing very well and doesn't run from me when he sees me coming with the syringe. I would never have guessed he would be so good, he can really get you with those extra sharp claws he has. But he doesn't, how lucky am I?