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  • Golden Oldies

    Madison and Cedar sleeping

    I walked into the dog room late yesterday morning and saw this pair of "golden oldies" sleeping side by side.  That's blind Madison on the left and blind Cedar on the right.  We don't know their exact ages — we rarely do in this business — but we think both are at least 12 or older.  Madison was already very much a senior when she came to us a couple of years ago; Cedar has been with us for seven or eight years, and he was no spring chicken when he arrived. 

    Both are in that geriatric "daffy" stage, where they get easily confused by their surroundings and aren't always sure what they should do. Cedar is almost completely deaf now.  Madison can hear at close range, but she can't get a fix on the sound … so she spins in circles trying to figure out where the sound is coming from.  Thus there's no sense in calling these two when they're outside — you have to go get them! 

    But they are still healthy, happy and continue to get very excited at mealtime — all good signs for a few more golden years, we hope!

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    600x120_ShelterChallenge_2011_Jan

    The current Shelter Challenge started on Monday, April 4th, and ends at midnight on Sunday, June 19th.  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.

    Because of your votes, we won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the Shelter Challenge that ended in March.  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! 

  • Morning Gathering

    Ducks and Geese April 5

    This morning when we got up and looked out the bedroom window, we could see two ducks cruising in the pond.  By the time we got to the kitchen to make coffee and start breakfast, the ducks had been joined by a group … er, gaggle … of geese, which you see in a nice formation of four on the right.  Then, a few minutes later, a great blue heron dropped by to say hello.  The heron is on the ground just to the right of the thick brush on the bank of the pond in the center of the photo.  (I made the photo extra large, so click on it and you'll get a much bigger image.) 

    Alayne keeps binoculars and a copy of the "Pocket Naturalist Guide to New Hampshire Birds" on the window sill in the kitchen just for these kinds of sightings.  I stepped out on the back deck to get these photos, at which point the geese broke formation and started honking the alarm at my presence up above.  Photos in hand, I retreated inside, and the geese went back to quietly paddling about the pond.  Before long, though — while we were eating breakfast — all the birds had flown off and the pond was quiet and still again.

    —

    600x120_ShelterChallenge_2011_Jan

    The current Shelter Challenge started on Monday, April 4th, and ends at midnight on Sunday, June 19th.  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.

    Because of your votes, we won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the Shelter Challenge that ended in March.  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!

  • Molly and Priscilla

    Molly and Priscilla for Web 2

    Here are the next two we are listing for adoption on PetFinder — our adorable Poodle sisters, Molly and Priscilla.  (Alayne, though she is adorable too, is not included in the adoption package.)  We are going to adopt them out together because of how bonded they are with each other.  Plus, their antics playing and roughhousing together are priceless.  As much as we would love to keep these two blind girls, we realize there's a wonderful family for them out there somewhere, and it's time to try again.

    I say "try again" because we had Molly and Priscilla on PetFinder for nearly a year, stretching from 2009 into 2010.  Over the course of that time we had four separate inquiries on them — and oddly, in their initial set of questions each person asked specifically 1) how much do they weigh? and 2) what is their height?   These were in their very first "Top 4" questions — in fact, a couple of people made them their No. 1 and No. 2 questions!  It seemed odder still because Molly and Priscilla's PetFinder page showed a photo of them with Alayne (the same one above), making clear how big they were. 

    We have been adopting out animals for over a decade, and we can't recall someone asking about an animal's height and weight.  Certainly never as their very first questions.  Moreover, these weren't the typical "Oh, I think I'm in love with these two girls, how do I go about adopting them?" kind of adoption emails we normally get.  Instead, they were rather clinical in their tone and the kinds of questions they were asking.  We reacted to the focus on weight and height the same way we do if someone asks us about a dog up for adoption, "Does he shed?"  It's a signal that this isn't the right kind of person to adopt one of our animals.

    After getting four in a row with these same weight and height questions, I finally asked the fourth person, "excuse me, but why would it matter?"  She told me that since standard Poodles vary in size, it was important to know Molly and Priscilla's specific dimensions.  (Other breeds don't vary in size?  Well, whatever.)

    Like I said, it was a red flag for us.  With four of these inquiries, all asking the same thing — and these being the only ones we received — it just felt a little too weird.  We decided to take the girls off PetFinder for a while and make another run at it later.

    So … here they are!  Adorable, lovable, playful — and beautiful!

    P.S.  Someone's bound to ask about Trooper.  I've said this elsewhere in earlier posts, but the Poodle sisters are long over their "thing" with Trooper and he is in a separate play yard these days.  They don't miss that no-good two-timing hound dog.

  • Lots of Contests in April!

    April seems to be a contest crazy month, so here's a separate post devoted to the ones we know about:

    —

    The Animal Rescue Site's Shelter Challenge

    Yes, it's starting again on Monday, April 4th.  As I write this on Sunday afternoon, there is no web page up for the new contest and so I don't know what the details are for this round.  I hope the usual link will work:

    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.

     — 


    ASPCA new_voting_button The ASPCA $100,000 Challenge

    Our friends at the New Hampshire SPCA "downstate" (as they say here) in Stratham have made it into the qualifying round of the ASPCA's $100,000 Challenge to Save More Lives contest.  They are competing to be one of the 50 shelters eligible to participate in the final round of the challenge.  This is not a contest for us — you need to care for a minimum of 1,000 animals during the year to enter.  The NHSPCA has made it past the first stage and into the qualifying round, and now they need as many votes as possible to get one of the final 50 spots in the contest.  On their behalf, we'd like to ask you to vote for them — they do wonderful work and we'd like to support their efforts.

    The qualifying round of the contest starts Monday, April 4 and runs until April 15 — and you can vote EVERY DAY in this challenge, too!  Please vote for the NHSPCA here.

    If you have questions or want to know more about this Challenge, please go to this page.  My standard disclaimer:  I cannot help with voting issues, troubleshoot, or provide any other assistance for this contest.

    —

    Chill'n for Kuranda Kuranda's Dog of the Month

    One of our terrific supporters, Cathy S., entered her dog Casey as "Chill'n" in Kuranda's Dog of the Month contest for April.  If he wins, Kuranda will send us five free dog cots — and as I think long-time blog readers know, the Kuranda cots are very popular around here!  Please vote for Chill'n here.  You can cast one vote every day throughout the month of April.

    Thank you, Cathy!

  • A Very Lucky Blind Horse

    Cash with Hawk

    When we get an email about a blind horse, most of the time — as in 99 out of 100 — the owner is asking us to take it.  Usually we get a long list of reasons why he or she can't keep their newly blind horse, even in many cases when the person has other horses … and of course, keeping those horses isn't an issue.  We do recognize the challenges a newly blind horse presents — that's why we launched our BlindHorses.org website many years ago as an educational resource — but it is really heartbreaking to know how few people are willing to keep, let alone make any effort at all to keep, their blind horse. When you see how much our blind horses enjoy life, like Cash and Hawk in the photo above, it's sad that most blind horses never get the chance.

    But on occasion we do hear from that rare person, and with her permission, I wanted to share an email we just received from a lady named Dawn:

    Dear Steve & Alayne – I just want to say thanks for the encouragement found on your website.  My mare, who just turned 21 yesterday, has cataracts in both eyes.  It has been so upsetting for both of us.  As her owner, my mind has been flooded with questions and concerns.  I am glad for information and inspiration gleaned from your website.  Emmy Lou is my first mare and the "equine love of my life," if you will.  With God's grace, we will rise to the challenges and still have a good life together.
     
    Thanks again, Dawn

    Dawn, thank you for being there for Emmy Lou!

  • What’s Cookin’?

    Goldie and Dexter in kitchen

    Whenever Alayne is in the kitchen cooking up the big batches of home-cooked food for the dogs, she always has an audience of fans waiting — just hoping! — for bits of potatoes or hamburger to fall off the counter as she's mixing the food together.  She took these photos on Sunday of blind Goldie and Dexter standing patiently by as the mixer worked away.  Holly was behind her and Fuzzy was just off to the left.  Please note Dexter's flickering tongue.  As I write this, I can hear the mixer going in the kitchen downstairs, and I know she is surrounded by a similar scene.

    When Goldie's patience wears thin, she adopts a more direct approach — she presses her nose into Alayne's leg ("this will get her attention!") and holds this position until a morsel if forthcoming:

    Goldie and Dexter in kitchen 2

    Goldie actually is applying what she learned overhearing us talk about the "pressure and release" method of training horses.  Seems to work with people, too.

  • Spencer and Katie

    Helen new 2

    This is something we haven't done before, and I don't know why — but from now on when we post any of our animals on PetFinder for adoption, we're also going to post them on the blog so our long-time readers will know they're available for adoption.  The blog has helped "arrange" many wonderful adoptions in recent years, so it only makes sense to mention here when we have made new additions to our PetFinder page. 

    So … this weekend we officially listed Spencer and Katie on PetFinder.  They are our impossibly cute, blind-and-deaf Dachshund pair, a brother and sister who are intensely bonded with each other.  Yes, we want to adopt them out together.

    You'd never think they are blind and deaf when you watch them running around, playing with each other, roughhousing with other dogs, and generally having the time of their lives.  Because they were born blind and deaf, they have no idea they are disabled — they just assume the world is a quiet and dark place, and we're all navigating around in it just like they are.  That makes them pretty fearless and inquisitive — Katie in particular is quite the explorer.

    Why list them now?  No specific reason — but with spring here (well, in most places), it seemed a pretty good time.  Our sense is that adoptions increase when the weather warms up.  We'll be adding a couple more in the coming week. 

    Of course, as we say on our website's Adoptions page, we only have a handful of our animals listed on PetFinder at any one time, but that doesn't mean others here aren't necessarily available.  Just email me if you're interested in an animal who isn't on PetFinder.  Whether they are or aren't available depends on a lot of variables, and sometimes changes.  For example, we've had blind Samantha on PetFinder for a couple of years now without a single inquiry; I just took her off this weekend because of her advancing age and declining health.

    Spencer and Katie will fill a special someone's home with love and joy, so if you'd like to bring them into your family, please let me know.  Serious inquiries only, and you'll have to travel to New Hampshire to meet us and them (unless we already know you).

    Here they are from last summer … hopefully those days will be back again soon!

    Spencer sleeping on Katie

  • I Guess Sharing Might Be Okay

    Widget and Dexter on bed

    Something odd is coming over Widget:  she's beginning to snuggle up with Dexter.  This has never been her style; usually she'd get quite grumpy if another dog tried to encroach on her personal space and curl up with her.  But in recent weeks we've noticed her like this with Dexter more and more.  Sharing was never her thing.  Although she was always big on you sharing your food with her (whether you were a human or another dog, it didn't matter), she was always a growly bear when it came to her food or her personal space.  Widget seemed to have a bit of the cartoon character Yosemite Sam in her, brandishing pistols and yelling, "back off!" when someone tried to climb onto her bed or approach within 100 feet of her food bowl.

    So now, to see her so content sleeping right next to Dexter, is quite a surprise.  It's the "new" Widge … a kinder, gentler Widge.  This is the Widge who gives up when the loom doesn't work. 

    And as far as Dexter is concerned, he'd much rather have Widget sleeping next to him than on top of him.  This, he is certain, is an improvement.

    —

    Shelter Challenge Update:  Since the Animal Rescue Site changed the rules for this last round, we did not get the $1,000 state prize for being No. 1 in New Hampshire (I think we were six times ahead of the runner-up, who ended up with the state prize), so our total was limited to the $1,000 from being a weekly winner.  Still, that's $1,000 for the animals!  Thank you so much to everyone for all your votes!

  • Island In The Sun

    Willie and Spencer in Dog House

    Alayne took this photo on Saturday, when it was nice and warm and sunny — and we had managed to convince at least a few of the dogs that it really was okay to be outside again … at least briefly.  Weather-wussitis was rampant this winter, and we're still scraping them off the front and back doors most days, usually just minutes after putting them outside.  So to have a few lounging in the dog house was a good sign. 

    You can see how the snow's been melting around the edges of the dog house over the past couple of weeks.  It was toasty warm inside it on Saturday.  That's blind Willie the Beagle with blind and deaf Spencer in the front, with his sister blind and deaf Katie curled up behind him in the corner.

    —

    Annual Report Now Online

    Annual Report cover We've just posted our 2010 annual report on our website's In The News page.  It's a 3-page PDF document, just over 2 MB.  You can download it directly here. 

  • Just In Time For Spring, It’s Ice-Free

    Pond March 19

    We noticed around lunchtime yesterday that the last ice on the pond had finally melted, leaving it ice-free for the first time since winter began.  With spring (oh where are you?) officially arriving today, the timing was perfect.  As you can see, we still have quite a bit of snow left, but it is melting some almost every day and we are down to only several inches now.  (Though 2 to 4 inches are forecast for tomorrow … sigh.)

    The bare ground in the right of the photo is where the spring runs down to the pond, and it keeps going all winter long, no matter how cold it gets.  You can even hear the water running under a thick blanket of snow and ice.  A well that serves the house captures a lot of the spring water, but there is still plenty left over to feed the pond and then flow out of the pond and into a wetland down below.  The path the spring takes to the pond is thus the first patch of ground to lose all its snow cover.

    Alayne and I tramped around the pond this morning to welcome the first day of spring, and it was amazing to see how clear the water was.  We could see the entire bottom of the pond except for the very center.  Hopefully within a month we will have the fish people here stocking it with trout.  The cats have been waiting all winter.

    —

    600x120_ShelterChallenge_2011_Jan

    Last Day To Vote!

    The new Shelter Challenge started on Monday, January 10th, and ends at midnight on March 20th.  Grand prize in this round is $5,000.  There are no second- and third-place prizes this time, but new 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.

    Because of your votes, we came in 2nd nationwide and won $5,000 in the Shelter Challenge that ended in December 2010.  Please help us win this round of the contest by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too.  Thank you!