Alayne and I were letting the dogs out at Widget’s House this morning, and as Travis — our boy with a fused jaw — headed to the door, I looked over and realized his stomach tube was hanging out.  Oh, no!  Now, this isn’t essential to his feeding anymore, since we learned early on he…

Yesterday we noticed our blind horse Domino kicking at his belly and swishing his tail constantly, as if he were being pestered by flies.  But it’s not fly season (yet), and no other horses were doing this.  He also wasn’t acting like he had colic, which is one major reason a horse will kick at…

At the risk of "overexposing" Widget on the blog, I thought this one was worth sharing.  Regular blog readers know Widget is the professional sleeping hound, and a master of finding unique and odd ways to catch a few zzzz’s.  (Well, many zzzz’s.) So yesterday afternoon, there she was in the living room, asleep in…

Every horse care book you can buy will tell you, "Don’t feed your horses their hay on the ground."  This is to avoid getting sand colic and picking up parasites from eating on manure-covered ground.  Well, after seven years at this and having tried every type of feeder imaginable, we have yet to find a…

Our blind foal Brynn, now 11 months old, has been experiencing dramatic temperature spikes in the past few weeks.  Ever since she came back from urinary tract surgery at Washington State University’s veterinary teaching hospital in early March, I had taken her temperature every morning as an early warning indicator of potential infection. Because she…

Alayne got this interesting shot this afternoon of Daisy the miniature Dachshund checking out a dead-to-the- world blind Joey.  We had a sunny, very warm 70-degree day — that’s unseasonably warm for us, where the average high temperature for April is only 54 degrees — and the dogs were finding the shady spots to sack…

Here’s blind baby Nevada on the left, meeting wobbly Soba for the first time.  This is about as stable as we’ve ever seen Soba, although what the camera doesn’t capture is the slight bob-and-weave as she tries to stand still.  Nevada was initially very submissive with Soba and all the other dogs she greeted for…

A wonderful friend and supporter of the sanctuary, Randi S. in northern Virginia, just sent us a big box of peanut butter dog cookies.  Blind Goldie did her instant sniff test and determined there were no soft chew toys inside, so there was no need to start shredding the cardboard with her teeth.  Her nose…

Every afternoon, between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., this is what rises up from underneath my desk.  Blind Widget has a daily routine, which is to wander into my office, mill around my desk chair, then stand up on her little short legs and put her front paws on my lap.  Her expression is inevitably,…

It’s a good thing these two sisters have different markings, because it would be hard to tell them apart sometimes!  It’s like they’re programmed to give us the same looks.  These girls are the cerebellar hypoplasia pups who came to us from an Iowa shelter a few weeks ago.  That’s Noodle on the left and…