Rolling Dog Farm Blog

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  • Patti Died Tonight

    Patti for blog

    Our beautiful blind girl Patti died tonight, just a few minutes before 7 p.m. She passed away here at home peacefully, lying on a big soft fleece bed in the dog room, covered with a fleece blanket. It was three weeks since she was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma. She was one of our stars, a favorite of volunteers, employees, visitors and media over the years. Only four dogs have been with us as long as Patti — Widget, Goldie, Cedar and Libby. So she was a fixture not only of the sanctuary, but of our hearts as well.

  • Enjoying It

    Horses grazing Nov 17

    I took this photo of our blind horses grazing this morning — though there's really not much to graze any longer, and turn-out these days is mostly for exercise rather than nutrition.  As you can see, the leaves are all gone, the apples have (mostly) all dropped, and it's getting that "winter-ish" look out there. But back at the ranch in Montana, it was 8° below zero (-22° C) Tuesday night, and when I spoke Wednesday morning with our friend Cindy J. from Ovando, she told me they already had 8 to 10 inches of snow. She sighed and said, "we won't see bare ground again until spring." The forecast for Friday night in Ovando is 3°(-16° C) and for Saturday night is 0°(-18° C). Now that's "fall" weather we don't miss much — nor do the animals!

    —

    600x120_ShelterChallenge_2011_Jan

    $1,000 Weekly Winner Again — Thank You!

    Because of all of your votes, we were the weekly winner for week 3 again in the Shelter Challenge — and that brought in another $1,000 gift for the animals here!  Thank you so much!

    The new Shelter Challenge started October 3rd and ends at midnight on December 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

    And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

    You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

    Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

    Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

  • Still Trying

    Irene with Fuzzy ear 1

    Here is another set of shots of Irene trying to win over Fuzzy … though as usual, she didn't get anywhere. More sweet nothings in his ear, starting in the photo above.

    Maybe she thought he was hard of hearing and she needed to get closer, so she lifts up his ear:

    Irene with Fuzzy ear 2

    She wondered if perhaps he's the kind of guy who's more interested in deeds and not words, so maybe a little ear cleaning will earn his affections:

    Irene with Fuzzy ear 3

    But she apparently got more than she bargained for, given the reaction on her face:

    Irene with Fuzzy ear 4

    Click on the photo for a larger image and you'll see quite the expression!

    All of which left Fuzzy imploring us to … please … make her go away:

    Irene with Fuzzy ear 5

    —

    600x120_ShelterChallenge_2011_Jan

    $1,000 Weekly Winner Again — Thank You!

    Because of all of your votes, we were the weekly winner for week 3 again in the Shelter Challenge — and that brought in another $1,000 gift for the animals here!  Thank you so much!

    The new Shelter Challenge started October 3rd and ends at midnight on December 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

    And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

    You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

    Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

    Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

  • And Now For Something Completely Different

    Pigeons in crate

    Pigeons.

    No, we're not taking in pigeons. We're trying to make them go away.

    At some point this past summer, a pair of pigeons arrived at the farm and promptly made their home in the cattle shed. A nest above one of the doors soon followed, and then two new little pigeons. Since pigeons poo a lot, and everywhere, plenty of poo followed. And since pigeons attract more pigeons, family and friends soon began arriving from far and wide, all making their home in the now pigeon-poo encrusted cattle shed. They became comfortable enough with us that they began flying into the ground floor of the barn to help themselves to grain or anything else they could find … of course, leaving poo behind. We'd chase them out, but as soon as we disappeared, they'd swoop back in.

    When the flock grew to seven birds, and we grew tired of chasing them out and cleaning up poo, we realized it was time to do something. This fall we started trying to catch them inside the barn — Kate, Alayne and me equipped with various implements, running around after them — but after managing to get three this way, the rest got smart and never ventured inside the barn again. But they didn't leave, either, so they continued to make a mess in the cattle shed, in the livestock feeders, on the corral panels, and anywhere else they decided to land — like the balconies on the house.

    We knew we had captured two juveniles and one adult female (we think their mom), and we kept them safe in a dog crate while we pondered what to do next. Because at least some of the pigeons were a family unit, we wanted to get the young ones with both parents and relocate them together somewhere. Yet how would we get the now very wary rest of the flock?

    A few weeks ago, not long after we picked up the third pigeon, I was outside about 9:00 p.m., making the last rounds for the night — checking on the horses, closing up the chicken coop, and making sure all was well. (I use a headlamp so I can see in the dark and keep my hands free.) We'd had a problem with some of our young chickens "learning" to go into the coop at night — they'd end up roosting in tree branches, on hay bales, just about anywhere but in the safety of the chicken coop. The best way to catch a chicken — better than chasing it around with a catch pole or net — is to simply wait for nightfall, when they go into a semi-slumber. Even though they are still awake and their eyes are open, their reflexes slow down so much that you can walk over to them and pick them up. That's what I had been doing on previous evenings, walking around and grabbing slumbering chickens to put back in the chicken coop. (After a couple of nights inside, they learn the drill.)

    That night as I made the last round, I noticed in the light of my headlamp another chicken roosting on a hay bale next to the cattle shed. I walked up, grabbed it, and tucked it under my arm. That's when the other — proverbial — light went on. I looked up at the remaining four pigeons roosting high inside the cattle shed. It occurred to me that if chickens go into a slumber when it gets dark, maybe pigeons would too?

    After putting the chicken back in the coop, I returned to the barn, grabbed a ladder, and positioned it under the shed door. I climbed up, reached out … and grabbed a pigeon. It squawked, sending the others flying off … yet when I came back after putting it into the dog crate, they were back roosting … and I managed to get one more.  Two nights later, I had them all.

    Kate drove the group of seven pigeons to an abandoned barn about 5 miles away and released them. We took the photo at the top just before she left. Two hours later, one was already back. Then another. By the end of the day, a third had returned. But it appeared that the original family unit must have stayed at the new site. Progress, of sorts.

    I resumed my nightly pigeon-picking until I had all three back in the dog crate. This time I took them with me on a trip to Vermont and released them about 30 miles away.

    So far, so good. It's been a couple of weeks, and no more pigeons.

    —

    600x120_ShelterChallenge_2011_Jan

    $1,000 Weekly Winner Again — Thank You!

    Because of all of your votes, we were the weekly winner for week 3 again in the Shelter Challenge — and that brought in another $1,000 gift for the animals here!  Thank you so much!

    The new Shelter Challenge started October 3rd and ends at midnight on December 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

    And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

    You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

    Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

    Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

  • Pink Princess

    Lucy in pink coat

    Vicky L. from Connecticut, who adopted blind Lucy from us earlier this year, has been wonderful about sending us updates ever since on the little dog we've called her "Pink Princess." With all the pink beds, toys, leashes and collars Lucy is now endowed with, it seemed like an appropriate name. Well, Vicky just sent us a couple of new photos, including the one above showing Lucy in her new pink winter coat.  It has … yes … this on the back:

    Lucy's pink coat

    —

    600x120_ShelterChallenge_2011_Jan

    $1,000 Weekly Winner Again — Thank You!

    Because of all of your votes, we were the weekly winner for week 3 again in the Shelter Challenge — and that brought in another $1,000 gift for the animals here!  Thank you so much!

    The new Shelter Challenge started October 3rd and ends at midnight on December 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

    And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

    You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

    Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

    Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

  • Maybe This Will Work

    Sophie behind gate

    After a year of carrying the "table-hounds" down the hall to the dog room so Alayne and I could eat our own meals in peace, I finally found the doggie barrier we had used in Montana to keep the dogs out of the dining room and kitchen. A few weeks ago I put it back together and set it up, much to the consternation of the table-hounds. (Now I know why we say things like, "Stop hounding me!")

    Blind Sophie, whose begging antics I have chronicled before here and here, immediately thought that this was simply another opportunity to see if sitting up and begging worked. It didn't. Food did not fall from the sky. No hand magically appeared, thrusting food towards her through the gate. In Sophie's world, "food happens." Except when it doesn't.

    Alayne and I continued to enjoy our meal uninterrupted.

    —

    600x120_ShelterChallenge_2011_Jan

    $1,000 Weekly Winner Again — Thank You!

    Because of all of your votes, we were the weekly winner for week 3 again in the Shelter Challenge — and that brought in another $1,000 gift for the animals here!  Thank you so much!

    The new Shelter Challenge started October 3rd and ends at midnight on December 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

    And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

    You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

    Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

    Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

  • My Predicament

    Dexter under Goldie 1

    Alayne took these photos this afternoon, after walking by the laundry basket bed and seeing blind Goldie lying completely on top of Dexter, with only his head sticking out. He was one stuck Dachshund. This was an even tighter fit than it might appear in the photo above …here's a top-down view:

    Dexter under Goldie 2

    At this point he wasn't so concerned about his predicament that he couldn't manage to yawn:

    Dexter under Goldie 3

    I know it may look like a plea for help, but he really was just yawning.

    Nevertheless, after Alayne finished taking photos, Dexter tried to get out from underneath Goldie but couldn't. No matter how much he wriggled and squirmed, she didn't budge and thus neither could he. Alayne finally had to intervene and pull him out. Whether he was embarrassed by any of this was not immediately clear.

    —

    600x120_ShelterChallenge_2011_Jan

    $1,000 Weekly Winner Again — Thank You!

    Because of all of your votes, we were the weekly winner for week 3 again in the Shelter Challenge — and that brought in another $1,000 gift for the animals here!  Thank you so much!

    The new Shelter Challenge started October 3rd and ends at midnight on December 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

    And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

    You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

    Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

    Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

  • Snowcones. Yum.

    Irene snowcone 1

    We were fortunate to only get a few inches of snow during the monster storm that wreaked such havoc across the Northeast last weekend. It quickly began to melt, but then would freeze overnight again. Yesterday morning after we let the dogs out, I noticed little Irene madly chomping on the crunchy snow. She'd put her face down, grab a mouthful, go crunch-crunch-crunch — then run over to a new spot and do it all over again. A new taste and/or texture sensation, apparently. I finally got her to look at me with her now-dripping face:

    Irene snowcone 2

    —

    A big 'thank you' to everyone who posted such kind thoughts and best wishes for Patti. Alayne and I really appreciate it.  Patti is doing fine this week — from watching her, you'd never know what was going on inside her. She's getting lots of extra love and attention, that you can be sure of! We're grateful for every extra minute we get with this lovely girl.

    —

    600x120_ShelterChallenge_2011_Jan

    $1,000 Weekly Winner Again — Thank You!

    Because of all of your votes, we were the weekly winner for week 3 again in the Shelter Challenge — and that brought in another $1,000 gift for the animals here!  Thank you so much!

    The new Shelter Challenge started October 3rd and ends at midnight on December 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

    And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

    You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

    Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

     Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this round of the Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

  • Patti’s Diagnosis

    Patti with Dr Harnett

    It was just over a week ago that Alayne and I had been talking about blind Patti's remarkable health — since her initial eye surgery after coming to us way back in 2003, we couldn't remember another trip she made to the vet clinic other than for routine care like dentals.

    Maybe we shouldn't have said anything.

    Last Sunday evening, as I was bringing Patti into the house for dinner from her yard, I noticed she wasn't her usual bouncy, springy self — she usually bounds through the gate and twirls, happy to be going in for supper. But she almost meekly went through the gate, as if she didn't have any energy. I had to take her by the collar and guide her up the ramp to the back door. A few minutes later it was clear she wasn't interested in eating. The next day she seemed better; her temperature remained normal, there was never any vomiting or diarrhea, and no outward signs of anything wrong. Just not her usual energy. The only other odd thing we noticed on Monday was that she wasn't lying in her favorite spots in her yard, but was picking some unusual locations. Something wasn't right.

    I called our vet clinic in Whitefield for an appointment; they didn't have any openings until Wednesday, but we could drop her off on Tuesday morning and our vet, Dr. Chris Plumley, would take a look at her in between other appointments. Only a few hours after Alayne left her at the clinic, Chris called. He had already managed to do an abdominal ultrasound and found a large mass on Patti's spleen. He could operate to remove her spleen, but he cautioned that he couldn't tell from his ultrasound whether the mass had spread elsewhere. If it had, we might be putting her through surgery unnecessarily. The mass could be benign and limited to the spleen, or it could be cancer and might have spread throughout her abdomen. 

    I told Chris I wanted to take Patti to our internal medicine specialist in Burlington, Vermont, Dr. Bryan Harnett, for more detailed diagnostic imaging. My hunch was that we weren't looking at a benign mass limited only to the spleen. I didn't want to have her opened up, only to get a call while she's on the operating table, saying they had found other organs were involved and we probably shouldn't wake her up from anesthesia. (We've been in that terrible situation before.)

    In the meantime, I asked Chris to go ahead and run a full blood panel on Patti, so I could have it ready for Bryan's consultation. I called his clinic for an appointment, and Bryan's first opening was Thursday morning. When Alayne went to pick up Patti and brought home her blood work, I took one look at the results and thought, "uh oh." Several values were off-the-chart low.

    I scanned the blood work in on Tuesday evening and emailed it to Bryan. I told him that I had an appointment with him for Thursday but thought he should see the lab results in case he decided we should do anything different before then. At 8 p.m., he emailed back, asking us to bring in Patti as soon as we could on Wednesday and he'd fit her into the schedule.

    So on Wednesday morning, we bundled Patti into the back seat of the truck and Alayne headed to Burlington with her. Alayne took the photo above of Bryan doing a physical exam on Patti.

    With his advanced imaging, Bryan was able to determine that the mass had spread throughout Patti's abdomen — to her liver and intestines, including the mesentery, the tissue that connects parts of the small intestine to the back wall of the abdomen. She was, in fact, riddled with multiple masses. He concluded that this was most likely hemangiosarcoma, a cancer that is so aggressive that she could have developed it only within the past two weeks … but certainly within the past two months. 

    There was, in short, nothing we could do for her at this point except keep her comfortable with pain meds. The episode of lethargy we saw on Sunday and Monday, Bryan said, was probably from one of the masses rupturing; as her body reabsorbed the blood and fluids, she began to feel better — and indeed, the rest of this week she's almost been her old self. She's eating, her tail is wagging, and she looks downright happy … just as she did right up until last Sunday.

    But this will be a repeating cycle, and we may only have a couple of weeks left before having to let her go.

    For the girl who's been the picture of pefect health for so many years, we were stunned at the sudden reversal of fortune. Long time blog readers know that she has been one of our "icons" here. She came to us after suffering unimaginable pain and abuse, but through her very sweetness and affectionate nature, she showed us how animals are immensely capable of forgiving — if not forgetting — what people have done to them. 

    —

    600x120_ShelterChallenge_2011_Jan

    Another Shelter Challenge begins — and No. 3 again already!

    The new Shelter Challenge started October 3rd and ends at midnight on December 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

    And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

    You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

    Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

     Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this round of the Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

  • Okay, So It’s Not A Cot

    Allie on septic hatch

    When we moved here last year we knew there was a septic tank and field out there "somewhere" under the dog yards, but there was no access to the tank — everything was totally buried, so we had no idea exactly where it was. I know this is fairly common, but given the fact that septic tanks need to be cleaned out every several years, I've never understood why they aren't all installed with a visible, easily accessible hatch. The alternative is to grab a shovel and start digging around, hoping to find it a foot or so underground. At the ranch in Montana, we had three septic tanks installed over the years (because the buildings were too spread out to share a single one), and our contractor who put them in always put in an above-ground hatch to make access and cleaning very easy.

    So when we finally found the one here and dug it up a couple of months ago to be cleaned, I had the septic contractor install a hatch cover so we wouldn't have to enjoy another treasure hunt a few years from now. The dogs have completely ignored this new object in the yard until a couple of days ago, when I saw blind Allie using it a bed and blind Louie curled up against it. I had worried that Allie, who loves to chew on things — the harder the better — might consider the hatch an oversized Kong, but so far this is the only engagement I've seen. We do try and keep her occupied with real Kongs at all times!

    —

    600x120_ShelterChallenge_2011_Jan

    Another Shelter Challenge begins — and No. 3 again already!

    The new Shelter Challenge started October 3rd and ends at midnight on December 18th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

    And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

    You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

    Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.  [Yes, we are still listed as Rolling Dog Ranch for the purposes of the contest, not Rolling Dog Farm.]

     Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this round of the Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!