Rolling Dog Farm Blog

There's nothing like a holiday to get those cardboard-shredding jaws working.  As I've reported before, blind Goldie has an incredible nose for detecting when a box has soft squeaky toys in it, and she's not about to wait for us to open it.  How else to ensure that you get the first toys if you don't open the box yourself?  Except that in this case, Alayne had started to open it … but apparently not fast enough for an impatient Goldie.  So she began helping herself.

That's blind Callie on the left, hoping that something will miraculously fall out of the box and land on the floor in front of her.  (This is what she does when I'm cooking dinner … she hangs out in the kitchen, waiting to see if anything edible falls off the counter.)  Blind Widget has sauntered up on the right, ready to see what Goldie is after.

This shot has "Score!" written all over it:

After Goldie takes her new toy and hides it in the living room, she comes back to find Widget has figured out her technique.  Here's Widget trying her paw at it:

Although Widget was grateful for the shipment of toys, she was a bit miffed at the size of the box.  It makes it quite difficult for the height-challenged to pilfer the goods.  She's hoping that next time they'll send at least one box that is no more than 8 inches high.

I know this looks like an empty chair.  Sure it does.  There's even a nice fleece blanket you can pull around yourself after you sit down.  Except in this house — as in most homes outfitted with Dachshunds as accessory items — you stand a very good chance of having a very small dog burrowed underneath all that bedding.

Our other dogs — sighted ones, too — haven't quite figured this out and still need to learn it's worth checking before hopping into the chair.  If they hop first, they are likely to be met by a growling Dachshund that suddenly materializes … seemingly out of nowhere … with a bristly warning:  "Back off!  I got here first!"

The offending dogs are usually quite startled, because — well, it looks like an empty chair to them, too.

But buried down deep inside is something that looks like this:

That's Daisy, the smallest of our Dachshunds, and the ultimate, deep-dive burrower!

—

Blogging holiday alert!  I'm going to take a blogging break from now until New Year's, so best wishes to everyone and happy holidays!

I walked into the cat house yesterday evening and saw this interesting configuration on the floor — three cats tightly packed together like, well, sardines in a can.  And they actually stayed this way long enough for me to go to my office and retrieve the camera!  That's Tibby facing backwards, sandwiched between her brother Fibby and the top and wobbly Mink at the bottom.  Apparently there wasn't enough room for all three to face the same direction — pointed at the heater, they're favorite position! — so Tibby compromised and fit herself into the mix in reverse.  Whatever works!

Blind-and-deaf Spinner has been with us for several years, and has always lived in our own house.  She's one of the few dogs who also has 'overnight privileges,' i.e., getting to sleep in the house at night.  (Too many dogs = not enough sleep.)  Even Widget sleeps in one of the cottages at night because, well, she's a party Beagle who loves to woo-woo-woo at our bedroom door at 3 a.m.  (When you sleep all day, 3 a.m. is as good a time as any to start a party.) 

But Spinner has always been a quiet girl with impeccable house-training habits, and she will sleep right through the night in the living room and never stir. 

So even though she is in the house all the time, she had never … until last week … been a "table dog" — the kind who hangs out at the lunch and dinner table, waiting for us to offer a morsel.  (Or, in Widget's case, simply doing her best to steal food off the table.)  Thus we were surprised when she suddenly appeared at the table one lunch-time several days ago, sitting quietly next to me with an expectant look on her face. 

How she figured out what the routine was at the table I don't know.  Being blind and deaf and relying totally on smell to know what's going on, I'm not sure how she realized that some other dogs were getting treats from the table.  But she did figure it out, and now she never misses a mealtime! 

I took that photo above of her at lunch yesterday.  Oddly, what you don't see in the photo are the other dogs milling around the table or underneath the table … Widget, Callie, Goldie, Bailey and at least a couple more in the mix somewhere.  I think most of them were to the right of Alayne, who was sitting in the chair that the coat is on, while Widget was on my left.

Spinner also doesn't feel the need to be competitive for food … even when she can tell someone next to her is getting something and she hasn't yet, she patiently waits for her turn.  Unlike the others, she doesn't paw at us or howl at us for our food, let alone try to steal it.  (Widget:  Please note.)  In short, she has wonderful table manners and is the kind of guest you'd like to invite back for another meal.  Except, of course, she invites herself.

—

I wrote a post back in August reporting that Spinner had developed seizures.  She had been doing very well in recent months, but last night she had her first seizure in several weeks.  She was on a cot in the living room when we heard her begin clawing at the bed, and we knew exactly what was starting.  We got her on the floor and I sat there and cradled her until it passed. 

I saw this scene in the living room yesterday … little Bailey using blind Austin for a chin rest.  As I've posted before, Bailey often dozes with his face propped up on a soft squeaky toy … usually with part of the toy inside his mouth.  But this was the first time I'd seen him using another dog for a chin rest.  Alas, although Austin is a very small Beagle, his back proved to be too high for comfortable long-term dozing for Bailey, and after a few minutes, he laid his head down on the bed and went to sleep.  Sometimes you just have to work with what you've got!

Wendy M., who adopted blind Stoney and blind-and-deaf Baron from us this past summer, just sent us some photos of her two special 'holiday dogs.'  Wendy took these photos at her parents' house, where they were decorating the Christmas tree this weekend.

Wendy wrote, "Baron spent most of his time laying by Ms. Mouse and the heater, while Stoney stayed in the living room and begged for Christmas cookies. Finally I got both of them together to pose in front of the Christmas tree. Stoney led the family in a delightful rendition of "O Come All Ye Faithful" (you can tell she's really getting into it) but Baron refused to sing and just closed his eyes."

For my part, I think it's amazing Wendy got that side-by-side, look-at-the-camera photo of them — that never happens for me!

I'm delighted to report that in the Animal Rescue Site's Shelter Challenge contest, we came in first in Montana and won the $1,000 state prize!  Thank you to everyone who voted … and voted … and voted! 

I got this shot yesterday afternoon in our living room after adding some more wood to the fire.  I looked over and noticed this collection of Beagles, all snoozing and enjoying the warmth from the woodstove, which is just off to the right.  That's blind Widget in the chair, blind Briggs on the left and blind Austin on the right. 

And then, after hearing all the clicks of the shutter (I always take multiple photos, which gives even the blind camera hogs plenty of time to get to the action), Widget popped up from the chair.  Miss-It's-All-About-Me-Isn't-It? seemed to be saying, "Oh, you must be here to take my photo again.  How's this?"

The ISP that hosts our main Rolling Dog Ranch Web site had a power outage this morning that knocked many of their servers offline … and now, many hours later, our site is still down.  We have email access but not Web site access.  (This blog is hosted separately by TypePad.)  For folks who are trying to access our Web site to make an online donation, you can find our secure online donations page here. 

Sorry for the inconvenience!

It may not look that cold, but when I took this photo at 8:30 this morning of Widget's House it was 15 degrees below zero (-26 C) and the wind was blowing 12 miles per hour (19 kph).  When you're sub-zero, that kind of wind is just a killer.  I had just let the dogs out for a few minutes while I re-started the wood stove, then put the dogs back up.  You can see the smoke is coming straight out sideways from the chimney because of the wind.

We usually run an electric heater in Widget's House and heat our own house with a wood stove, but when it gets this cold, it's time to fire up the wood stove in Widget's House, too.  I had it going all last night, and even though the fire was out by this morning, the building was still nice and toasty inside.  Wood stoves put out a wonderful residual heat that soaks into the walls.

So in two-wood stove weather, I spend a lot of time splitting wood and keeping both fires going.

The biggest challenge in this extreme weather is just convincing the dogs they need to go outside … and then keeping them outside long enough to do their business!  They'd rather run right back inside the house, and then of course a short while later … "oops, I had to go!"

The horses are blanketed and in stalls, and we feed them as much hay as they can eat to keep them warm.

While it's not unusual at all for us to be subzero, it is unusual to have this kind of wind — and it's been blowing nonstop since Saturday morning.  And we have a long way to go — here's the National Weather Service forecast for our location:

Tonight: A 20 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a
steady temperature around -17. Wind chill values as low as -45. East
southeast wind around 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.

Monday: Mostly
cloudy and cold, with a high near -10. Wind chill values as low as -43.
East southeast wind between 18 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 31
mph.

Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around
-23. Wind chill values as low as -44. East wind 8 to 17 mph becoming
south southwest. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph.

Time for Alayne and me to head outside for afternoon chores — it's minus 9 and the wind is blowing 11 mph.  Oh, well!  We move very, very fast when it's like this!