We nearly lost blind Widget over the Thanksgiving holiday.  That she survived was one part luck and four parts state-of-the-art, round-the-clock veterinary care.  I took the photo this afternoon of our vet, Dr. Jennifer Rockwell of Montana Veterinary Specialists in Helena, with Widget.  Jennifer spent her holiday saving Widget's life. And it was something so…

I got this photo of our blind Dachshund Callie on a cot in our living room the other afternoon.  Callie has been on a diet ever since she arrived here as an overly plump girl, and even though we've reduced her weight, she's still rather … well, expansive.  (Yes, we've tested her for thyroid and…

We've just started bringing the horses in from pasture in the past few days.  Typically we bring them in on November 1st because by then both the condition of the grasses and the weather mean grazing season is over.  But we had phenomenal forage conditions this year (lots of moisture plus fertilizer), and so far…

Cristene J., who adopted Shep — our blind German Shepherd from Afghanistan — last month, emailed us these photos last week.  Cristene and her husband Duane have renamed Shep "Little Joe," which we thought was a perfect name for our "pocket Shepherd." We all kind of figured Cristene and Duane's other Rolling Dog Ranch adoptee,…

Alayne got this shot a few minutes ago this afternoon.  That's blind-and-deaf Granny (Duchess) doing her sun worshipper thing.  I've mentioned before that Granny loves to be outside, more so than nearly all of our other dogs, as long as the sun is out.  Today was a fairly brisk fall day, and contrary to the…

Alayne got this shot of Oliver and Twist the Dachshunds roughhousing with blind Austin the Beagle.  These threesomes are an ever-changing loop of chaos, with the role of who's-on-top shifting constantly.  In this case, Oliver is getting it from both ends in what might seem to be a coordinated flanking assault — but in reality…

I headed into Missoula today for the weekly errand run to town, but the "main event" was taking blind Goldie to see our internal medicine specialist, Dr. Dave Bostwick, for her last chemo treatment.  After surgery to remove a mast cell tumor back in August, Goldie started a long course of chemotherapy that required a…

A week ago, I wrote a blog post about Margaret's ambitions to become the Obama family's new First Pet.  Well, Margaret's campaign for the White House made it all the way to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., today. Roll Call, a newspaper that covers the innerworkings of the U.S. Congress and is widely read by…

Last Thursday I drove to our vet clinic in Helena to get Buddy and Jake, the two blind dogs who arrived from Nashville on November 6th.  After picking them up at the airport in Bozeman that day, I had taken them to our vets for medical checks, eye exams, and blood panels.  After a week…

Alayne and I had just gotten up from the dinner table the other evening when we saw blind Callie start climbing into the toy box in the living room.  Now, this was something we had never seen a dog do before.  And for good reason.  For starters, it's hard to climb into, with high metal…