Alayne and I just got inside about an hour ago from finishing morning chores on a bright, beautiful Christmas Eve day. I took the photo above before we settled in for a second cup of coffee and a slice of apple pie. It's a cold day — 6°F (-14°C) when we got up — but…

Shirley L. in Portland, Oregon, who adopted our wobbler boy Mink from us a few months ago, sent us this photo of him under the family Christmas tree.  Shirley wrote, "Truly my best Christmas present ever ever ever ever!" I bet that's exactly what Mink is thinking about Shirley and her husband James, too! —…

The holiday spirit around here seems to involve ripping the stuffing out of any Christmas-related toy. Alayne took these photos the other day of Daisy going to work. Not satisfied with the candy cane in the photo above, she retrieved Santa from the box and started in on him: Watching Daisy go after these toys…

Ever since we put in this new septic tank cover a few months ago, it has become a favorite place for blind Allie to hang out on. Because of the residual heat from the tank down below, the cover stays snow-free much of the time — making it a nice, warm perch for a girl…

Alright, everyone, here's one for you. We are one of 12 charities picked by various celebrities to participate in the $25,000 Firefox Challenge that just started yesterday on the Crowdrise site. The actor Paul Rudd selected us because we were his late father's favorite charity. This is what the folks at Crowdrise emailed me about…

Yes, just in time for Christmas, little one-eyed Irene has been adopted. I took the photo of Irene with Alayne last week, a few moments before she left in a TLC Pet Transport van for her new home in Washington, D.C. Ironically, the same TLC Pet Transport driver who brought her out to us from…

Last Wednesday on a rainy afternoon, Kate and I hitched up Billy Bob to the wagon for the first time and took them up the road and back a few times. The wagon had come with Pete and Paint, but was in pretty rough shape, so a friend and neighbor of ours in Montana had…

In the past couple of weeks, Widget has implemented a new service standard that we are apparently expected to fulfill. It seems she is no longer interested in leaving her comfy chair to come over and sit behind the doggie gate with the other dogs while we eat lunch. No. Now she simply sits up…

Yes, that's Alayne and me driving our two Belgian draft horses, Bill and Bob. As many long-time blog readers know, one of the main reasons we moved to this new location in New Hampshire was because of rising fuel prices, which made the remote ranch in Montana an increasingly expensive place to operate from (taking…