Yesterday we went around fixing fence to make it able to hold dogs in; it held, but the dirt underneath it is too soft. Today was very sad when my roomie woke up to find our little girlie Dax missing. She got a call about an hour later from animal control saying that they found her, shot by one of the chicken farmers. She was not a 500 feet from the house and was on public property. It made me really mad, but I realize that the farmer is just protecting his flock, but a simple look at her tags (which is how animal control found us) would have gotten her home safely.

That meant that we have been fixing fence, reinforcing it with long logs to keep the dirt and fencing down, and posting signs around the property letting people know to actually shut the gate and let us know BEFORE they come in the yard. I miss our old pup (she was nearly 10) and now she is buried out in the back yard under a new tree. My roomie is taking it much harder, since she has been with the dog since they both were little. It is very sad to lose Dax, but at least I know that she died quickly and now we know that we REALLY need to keep the boys locked in tight. They both managed to get out this morning, but they are both home bodies and did not roam. Now there is no easy way of escape, short of someone opening the gate.

I may have blisters from shoveling and fencing, but it is worth it to prevent what happened to our little Dax from happening to the other two. Now it is a game of waiting for Bear to find a new spot to dig, scold him, and shore up the area.

(And as a side note I also got a lot of the thistle and sticker plants killed while taking out my frustrations on vile plants instead of people... it served to add to the blister but helped me mentally. Now my hands are torn up, and I am tired, but in a good way after a rather stressful morning.)

I guess that I never will be able to get that new photo of Dax. I will find one somewhere. I will.
****EDIT****

And I did:

Dax, born 1998, Died June 26th, 2009

Fun with Moving dogs

Well, it is much later (earlier?) than I thought it was. I was up playing World of Warcraft for a while and lost track of time. Anyway.

Today was an adventure in getting the yard ready for our three four-footed friends. The fence line was walked and adjusted as needed to keep the wigglebutts inside the property, the garden was locked off, food and water was trucked over. And then the dogs.

Now we are only going across town on this adventure, but all three dogs are old, and none of them can climb into the jeep on their own. The two small ones are easy to lift as they are only about 35 lbs... Bear is rather larger so he got some rear end help once he took the initiative to put his front end into the vehicle. Teamwork is good for travel, especially when everyone involved has creaky joints. (Bear occasionally reminds me of Creak from creakyjoints.org) Once everyone was inside, the trip was pretty uneventful but the three dogs each have a very different way of reacting to car rides:

1. hide and cower in a small corner and wait for it all to be over soon.

(Dax--our smaller corgi-like female mutt)

I just realized that I am lacking a photo of Dax... I will remedy that later on.

2. try to look out of every window at once while stepping on the other two dogs
(Worf--the sibling male to Dax)

3. And finally, lay down and hold on for the ride while attempting to not lose his spot to Worf's wanderings...

(Bear, the rescued newf mix)

All told, I think that some of the fence is not going to hold if any of them really want to get out, as some does not effectively hit the ground. As long as the chicken farmer next door does a good job of keeping his chickens in their pens, (which he usually does, even though they are free range) the dogs should have no real reason to try to escape. There are not any loose cats around here so the chickens are the only real stimulus that they have. And the trains. But they just try to hide from the train noises.

Once we got the dogs all settled in with their familiar blankets, we got out the brushes and combs and went at the fur that has been neglected while we were moving. It seems that all three had been hiding extra dogs in their fur that were just waiting to formed out of all the sheddings that we found. There was fur EVERYWHERE! I guess that it will make the nesting birds happy, even though it is a little late for that here. I also am finding out that Newfoundland dogs never really stop shedding... in fact, they just sort of hold onto their sheddings until you brush them and they explode. Luckily Bear really likes to be brushed as long as I let him sit or lay down (standing is as hard on him as it is on me some days!). He is a good dog, as soon as I picked up the collar he shoved his head at me to put it on. Then he just settled down and found a nice patch of warm sand to lay in and snoozed. I have no idea how that dog found his way to the pound, but someone took some time to be around him and train him. (though he can have his obstinate times just like anyone). The other two are nice, it is just that I am still finding out about the quirks of Bear, and enjoying most of what I am finding.

Now time to end this so that I can make a short post on food before sleep!