Our usual routine in the afternoon is that Alayne and I feed the horses and do the other barn chores first, then we come in to feed the dogs.  A couple of weeks ago, as Alayne was standing at our dining table dishing out the food into the dog bowls, she felt this small object…

We had one of those Sundays where an animal's health prompted a flurry of calls to our vet in Helena.  Wobbly, blind Briggs had started showing slight tremors in the morning, so we took his temperature and found he was running a fever of 103°.  Not very high, yet still a fever.  But the tremors…

May is a particularly hectic month for us because we have multiple pasture and grounds maintenance chores to do in the brief interim between the snow melting (and the ground drying out enough to drive tractors over) and the beginning of grazing season on Memorial Day weekend.  We're cleaning out all the corrals, building the…

For the fourth year in a row, Barbara Edwards, a quiltmaker from Seeley Lake, Montana, has generously offered to make another beautiful quilt for us and raffle it off, with 100% of the proceeds going to the animals at the ranch. Barbara and her husband Scott came by yesterday afternoon to show us her latest…

We had a light snowfall overnight (yes, I know it's May 13th but what the heck) and because we've had bare ground for a few weeks now, the snow was just enough to get the dogs feeling frisky this morning.  Alayne got this shot of blind Austin and deaf Stuart playing with each other soon…

Last night we learned the ranch had won $1,000 as the "weekly winner" in the Animal Rescue Site's Shelter Challenge contest, and this morning we had moved up to No. 3 nationwide!  Fabulous!  Thank you for all your daily voting for the animals here — it is clearly adding up and making a difference!  If…

Here's a little guy you haven't seen in a while — blind Austin, a Beagle who arrived from Georgia last year.  Alayne got this photo of Austin on Sunday, while he was out exploring in the yard.  (Look how that grass is starting to grow!)  Austin is like everybody’s kid brother, always tagging along behind…

It took Callie a little while on Friday evening to re-orient herself after coming home … when you're blind, have been away for three weeks in the hospital, and have some new vestibular problems that keep you off-balance, well, it can take a bit to figure out where everything is again.  So she kind of…

I picked up blind Callie at the WSU teaching hospital on Friday morning and brought her back to the ranch.  I took these photos just before we left the hospital.  In the photo above, Callie is being held by Sarah P., the 4th year vet student who was Callie's case manager for the past couple…

I'm in Pullman, Washington, tonight, and will be picking up blind Callie from Washington State University's veterinary teaching hospital tomorrow morning and taking her back to the ranch.  Callie will have her last — and 18th — radiation treatment at 8 a.m. Friday, and she'll be ready to be discharged an hour later.  We can't…