I was out scooping poop in the Widget’s House dog paddocks this morning when I looked over and saw Travis — a.k.a. "Perch" — surveying his domain from on top the big wooden reel.  The reel is left over from last year’s construction project, building Beauty’s Barn, when we had to lay in more power…

I walked out into the living room tonight and saw Bailey the miniature Dachshund asleep with his face buried inside his stuffed bear.  Well, it once WAS a stuffed bear — and a big one at that, twice Bailey’s size — but over the past several months he’s happily ripped out all the stuffing.  ("I’ll…

One of our wonderful volunteers, Laura B. from Helena, brought Willie the blind Beagle and Spirit the paralyzed Yorkie back to the ranch from the vet clinic this weekend.  I took this photo tonight of Willie in our living room, enjoying the wood stove.  And making yet another appearance, over on the right is the…

I had to take little old Ricky, who came to us this past June, to the vet today to be put to sleep.  I took this photo of Alayne holding Ricky in happier days.  Already ancient when he arrived, stone deaf and with no teeth, we knew Ricky wouldn’t be with us for that long. …

Yes, when we got up this morning, it was 10 below zero.  I took this photo from our front door, looking west towards Widget’s House, about 7:30 a.m.  There wasn’t a peep coming from over there … the dogs were totally sacked out. On summer mornings by this time you can hear them all barking,…

We had a fierce winter storm blow in last night, although more wind than snow, and the temperature plunged.  This morning when we got up it was 11 degrees.  All three-legged Cody had to do was look out his cottage door this morning and decide he was NOT going out there.  "No way," he seemed…

We’re now successfully weaned our little blind foal, Brynn, and it went without a hitch.  Regular blog readers may recall that baby Brynn has several medical problems, including a hole in her heart, an ectopic ureter (one kidney is sending urine to her uterus and not her bladder), and malformed vertebrae in her neck.  But…

I spent most of today spreading the final windrow of compost on one of our south pastures, making multiple trips with the tractor and manure spreader from the compost "yard" behind Lena’s Barn to the pasture.  On each trip I would drive through the pasture where two of our old guys, blind Blue and blind…

Here are two of our Dachshunds, Callie who is blind and Bailey who has orthopedic and neurological issues, hanging out by the dinner table.  I thought this was an interesting photo because of the way the flash reflected straight back from Callie’s retinas.  Hmm.  A bit early for Halloween, perhaps. Callie’s blind from progressive retinal…

Alayne took blind Willie the Beagle and paralyzed Spirit the Yorkie to our vets in Helena today.  Willie is dripping blood from his urinary tract, and he also has heartworms, so we need to have his heart function assessed before we can begin treating him for the heartworms.  Spirit has developed an ulcer of some…