Dog Distribution

After Thursday's success walking three dogs, I
did it again on Friday. First it was three miles
with Diesel, Maya, and Trooper.

We have 12 dogs at the house now between our own and our fosters. Number 13 arrived today when Toquima came for another visit. Clay left town yesterday for a week in England, and I'm taking care of the neighbors' two dogs as well (in their own home) starting Tuesday. I needed a plan, and mostly I needed a new distribution of dogs.

My second walk on Friday was with
Scooby, Daisy, and Maya.

The four mile walk was enough for Maya, more
than enough for Daisy, and was just a warm up
for Scooby.

Everyone gets along, pretty much, but Groot is a bit of a bully and his aggressive play with Barkley has been upsetting some of the other dogs. I am now keeping those two in the kennel adjacent to the dog yard and shed during the day, leaving the dog yard to the calmer group of Scooby, Daisy, Charlie, Trooper, sometimes Max, and now Toquima. When the dog yard group comes indoors in the evening, Barkley and Groot can have the dog yard to themselves and they stay in the shed at night.

I think Daisy and Trooper would be a good match;
neither cares about going too far or too fast.

Saturday, I only had time for one hike,
so it was Maya and Sparky.

Gigi, Vince, Diesel, and Maya are indoors most of the time, which works fine as long as I take Diesel and Maya out for a hike every day. Sparky has his own kennel and shed during the day and he comes inside to a big crate in the kitchen at night. 

I owed Sparky a good hike and we
did a fast five miles.

At night, there's five dogs in the crates in the kitchen (Charlie, Scooby, Daisy, Max, and Sparky), and five who usually hang out with me in the office and then go into the bedroom at night (Vince, Gigi, Trooper, Maya, and Diesel). Toquima will probably be joining the upstairs gang for the time he's here.

It sounds like a madhouse, but there's a plan underlying it all and a system to feeding, exercising, moving, and containing everyone. Of course, I'm the only one who knows the plan, except maybe Maya. 

Toquima slipped back into the pack
as if he had never left.

Scooby. Have I mentioned
lately what a great dog he is?

It was a busy weekend. A family came out to meet dogs on Saturday. Much to my delight, they are interested in Charlie! I've allowed that boy to be pushed aside and overlooked for far too long so I was very happy that they saw him as the great dog that he is.

Scooby has a possible prospect for two as well. I'm not worried about him, I'm quite confident he will be adopted soon. 

Charlie and Toquima

Although I've avoided speaking of it until now, I've also selected a new home for Diesel. In spite of what many thought, I had no intention of keeping him myself. He's a great dog and I love him, but he's too nice of a dog to end up here permanently. We tend to keep the more problematic ones for ourselves. Diesel had several interested applicants so I had a nice lot to choose from. He's being adopted locally, which I'm preferring more and more these days, and to a friend, so I know he'll have a great home and good care. We did a home visit today to see how Diesel would interact with the other animals in the household, and he was good. I'll have him here for a little while yet, about two more weeks, and I'm happy about that.

Toquima meeting Daisy, Mad Max in the back.

Here's a few pictures spanning Friday through Sunday evening.

Maya and Diesel on our Sunday walk.
These two are great together on the trails.

Barkley, with fresh straw in the kennel.

Groot. He may be a bully, but I still love him.