Fence complete, back to the pasture

The fencing job was completed on Monday, finishing up a completely new fence across the front of the pasture where it faces the road. Tuesday afternoon I took the two Danes, Max, Hugo, Rufus, and Melly out to test it out.

Max with orange ball.

Hugo will play with a ball if there's no disc.

Hugo, Serena, and Della

Serena looking goofy with a ball in her mouth.

Melly and Max

Hugo making a catch.

Rufus and Melly making their way back up the hill.

Della and Hugo at the brush pile.

Rufus 

Rufus actually ran around a bit.

New fencing is always pretty.

Melly posing with the new fence.

I was happy to see the two new shepherds moving around the pasture at their own pace.

This is a Google Earth view of our property. The blue line represents where the new fence

was built, along the frontage of our property on George's Mill Road. 

The red line is the rest of our property line. 

It was all fenced before but the front fence was needing to be replaced. 

Puppy days, coming to a close

This summer of puppies is coming to a close. Four of them will be going to their new homes on Sunday. It's time. Puppies are a lot of work, feeding, cleaning, entertaining, and challenging them with new things. Lexie and I are ready for their new owners to take over from this point. We got them to be very people-oriented, friendly, and well-socialized. They have been exposed to a vacuum monster and no longer fear it. They've even been exposed to a lawn mower when outdoors, although a healthy dose of fear for that is a good thing. We've taught them to climb, to slide, to walk on weird surfaces. They can play without fighting and without hurting themselves of another pup. At least some of them have already been in water. We packed quite a bit into the five weeks that we've had them and I think they are off to a good start. 

I took down the divider and let the pups have their last day as a litter all together. The boys who got neutered yesterday seemed fine and I hated to keep them apart from the others on their last day together. I limited their outdoor time, but no one really objected to that. When they were outdoors I dumped the water tank so no one would go swimming because four of them had glue holding their skin together after surgery. Our friends Jan and Paul came over this afternoon for a final play session with the group of six.

We did some clean up work from the fencing project, mowed grass, and generally puttered around. The heat and humidity were oppressive so it felt like more work than it actually was. The fat shepherds (that's not a good way to refer to them, but it's difficult to avoid) spent quite a bit of time outdoors and they seemed to enjoy it, albeit with a moderate activity level. Melly is eating about a half cup of dry food twice a day. Rufus is still on hunger strike. We hit Walmart this evening for big cans of green beans that will account for most of the volume of food that they'll be eating from here on out. I may not be able to control my own eating, but I can and will control what my dogs eat. 

Rufus and Melly in the yard. He is very attached to and dependent upon her.

He may not come when called, but put a leash on Melly and he will follow her in.

I saw Rufus walking around outdoors covered with duckweed. 

Then I saw him here soaking in my small pond. I haven't planted anything in the pond

this year and that's probably a good thing as it's now a soaking tub.

Here's Rufus emerging from the pond.

Della sitting by the new front gate. 

Athena has been getting more and more comfortable at our house. 

Today she assumed ownership of Clay's chair in the front room.

She goes back home tomorrow.

There's been no adoption interest in Lexie yet, but she's been playing with Maya, Hugo, and even Athena. 

Lexie and Maya playing

For the evening feeding and outing I let Lexie spend time with them to impart any final words of wisdom that she may have had. They have a wide world of new adventures ahead. There are no guarantees in any dog's life, but to be a puppy placed in a carefully chosen home gives them the best chance at a good life.

Lexie and pups

That's lightning illuminating that cloud after dark. We saw this storm approach.

So far it's been mostly wind. I wish we'd get some wind during the day instead.

We have closure!

Thanks to Cody and his crew from The Virginia Fence Company we have fence along the front of the road in front of the house now, and a gate that we can close. The pasture part of the fence won't be finished until next week, but at least I'm able to let Della, Serena, and new shepherds, Max, and Arby out to run in the yard. It's nicely done too. It's costing an arm and a leg. I think they mostly do large agricultural properties probably owned by rich folk in Orange County, so they are expensive but they do good work. I don't know that they are more expensive than fence companies that do similar work, but they were the only ones I found to contact who responded and took the job. I'm very happy that they have this much done in three days and all the posts are already up for the part across the pasture as well. They worked longer today to get the yard area complete, which I really appreciated, especially in this heat.

Della understood the significance of this stage of completion. She came out with me to inspect the fence. Serena was happy to get out to play again but I don't think she understood why. I took the new shepherds out too, because they need some time even walking around the big open space as we begin their weight loss program and their new lives. They seemed to enjoy it too. They had a nice big yard in their former home but didn't get to spend a lot of time outside from what I was told. 

The male puppies got neutered today. The four that are now fixed will go to their new homes on Sunday. Athena will go back to her home on Sunday. So we will be back to nine dogs (single digits, Clay), plus just two pups. The final two get spayed on Monday and will go home next Wednesday, I believe. By that time all the new fencing should be complete. 

This was a big home improvement project that has been needing to be done for years. The front fence had broken boards, holes, and any dog who wanted to could get through or over it without much effort. We have had a couple fosters in the past few months who have done so. It's now as high as the fence around the rest of the pasture, hopefully tall enough to keep in even Della. 

Melly and Rufus enjoying the shade in the fenced front yard.

Della the farm dog inspecting the new fence.

Rufus

The view from our driveway.

The view from the driveway facing the opposite direction, towards the pasture.

Escaping fosters aside, I've been worrying that Della would go through the fence or over it

when she spots deer or anything interesting. When I was out of town so long last fall she

started wandering on occasion. 

There are still boards to trim, and the tops of the posts will be cut off,

but they got it securely enclosed today and installed the new gate so

we'd have a usable yard this weekend. I was very happy about that.

Della was very happy about it too.

The things I do for this girl.

Rufus and Melly seem more relaxed today. Rufus is becoming rather friendly,

Melly always has been. I will try feeding them tonight.

Della eating apples fallen from the apple tree.

I know I can't ask too much from her in terms of exercise, because I'm afraid

she will hurt herself. We will work the diet and exercise plans simultaneously.

Ten plus

This post is going to be a bit haphazard because that's the way this week is going. I knew it would be this way and I was not wrong. We are back to 10 dogs in the house, plus the six puppies. That's more than we've had for a while.

This is the old fence line from in front of our house, along the road.

Work has started on the fencing, yay!, but that means that I can't let Della and Serena outside off leash. Aside from the inconvenience, that makes for a very unhappy farm dog who sees things happening outside but can't go out to supervise or help. I've got to say that she's handling it pretty well, so far. 

Della in her crate, right next to my desk, looking out the window and watching, 

unhappy that she's not out there supervising.

When we had fencing done 20 years ago all they used was a Bobcat with an auger.

This machine drives the 6" round fence posts three feet into the ground. No digging.

Our houseguest, Athena, is settling in, coming to us for attention and affection. She's been great with everything around here, but as she's becoming more comfortable I've had a couple glimpses of her bitchy side. She should go back to home on Sunday where she can resume her role as the queen. 

Athena and Lexie have almost played together.

Athena is getting more comfortable here and coming up to us for attention now.

Two of the female pups were spayed on Thursday and the two males went in Friday morning to be neutered. I divided up the space in the puppy shed so the post-op pups could sleep and recover last night. This morning they seem ready to rejoin the others but I haven't let them do so yet. I'll probably move them back with the two unspayed females this evening and give the boys the post-op ward when they come from from the vet. The four puppies who have been fixed will be going to their new homes on Sunday. The remaining two girls get spayed on Monday and should go to their homes on Wednesday. The best thing about pediatric spays and neuters is how quickly they recover. For the boys it's like nothing ever happened. It's a bit more for the girls, but so much easier on them than doing it when they are older.

Lexie is enjoying life around here now as only a part time mother.

The four non-blond pups have grown to look very much alike, only the dark face masks

on two of them are distinguishing features now. I've also noticed that those four have black tips

on their tails and this second black spot on the tail, all in the same position. 

The post-op side is against the back wall of the shed. The other side has access to the yard.

One removed her bandage overnight, I took the second one off this morning.

They were feeling well enough to play at bit last night

 and seemed pretty much normal the next morning.

And then there's the addition of almost three hundred pounds of German Shepherd Dog that arrived yesterday. Back in 2015 I took in an 8 month old sable male shepherd pup named Roo. He was underweight but very pretty. I adopted him out through Promises to a woman I knew through VGSR who lived in Crozet. The woman aged, her health declined, and I heard from her a year or two ago when she was planning to move into Westminster-Canterbury in an independent living situation where she could keep her dogs. It didn't work having her dogs there so she moved back home and I heard nothing more until getting a call a few months ago from the woman's caretaker. They were looking to possibly move Rufus (formerly Roo) because his protectiveness was interfering with people attempting to care for the woman. That settled down again, but eventually the woman needed to move to someplace with full time care. So yesterday I picked up Rufus and a later-adopted female shepherd named Mellie (short for Melanie, I believe). 

Rufus is fully grown now and he's still a very good looking dog but he's probably 15 pounds overweight. Mellie is the fattest dog I've ever seen and needs to drop a good 40 pounds or more. Mellie is quite friendly, Rufus is a bit suspicious but is coming around. They will be getting the green bean diet when I pick some up. I offered them food this morning but they didn't want it, probably because it didn't come with the canned food and human food they were used to getting along with it. Fine, this is one hunger strike that I will wait out for their own good.

Rufus is still a good looking dog, but he needs to drop some weight.

He moves nicely.

It's amazing this girl can even stand.

Mellie has a nice looking head and will be very pretty when she has the body to go with it.

Rufus seems to rely on her a lot for everything.

My plan is do give them more outdoor time than they've had, 

a little walking, and a lot less food.