Around the house

This is just a selection of dog pictures from around the house today.

Marvel is very soft and shiny after her bath on Saturday.

Marvel and Bailey playing in the kitchen this morning.

Bailey with a Benebone in a crate

Marvel is really good about going into her crate.

Bear and Marvel

Bear seems to have hurt a leg so I kept him inside today.

Marvel stole a sandwich off the counter this evening, while Clay was still making it!

Candace gets up to see what's going on when there's a lot of activity,

Elvis has started going to the top of the stairs and barking when he wants me to come up there.

I think he learned this from Maya who always wanted me up at my desk, but she didn't bark.

Paisley is crazier than usual tonight. She will not come in the house.

Bailey and I did another four mile hike late this afternoon. 

It was dark enough during the last half mile that I couldn't always see the trail.

But she knew the way and I just let her lead.

Norman in the kitchen

Norman behind my chair in the office this evening.

First puppy adoption

I can't say it was a great weekend, but one great thing happened. Thor became the first of his litter to be adopted. I will have him until next weekend, giving him one more week with his littermates, but then he'll move in with a nice couple who came to meet him today. They stayed for a while and played with Thor and all the puppies. I invited them to come back any time during the week to do so again. They will have the week to work on puppy proofing their house and get things ready.

I did a four mile hike with Bailey on Saturday and another four miles on Sunday, with Elvis. 

Thor

Rogue

Wakanda

Fall colors are Bailey's camoflauge.

Elvis likes to stop and sniff more than I care for on a hike, but he's a good walker. 

Marvel's day out

Yesterday I gave Marvel a good brushing. She loved it and I removed a ton of dead hair from her. It made her feel better, I know, because she was so cooperative about me doing it. I figured that if she enjoyed the brushing that much, a bath would make her feel even better. Clay and I took her up to Natural Pet Essentials Saturday afternoon for a bath. Their self-wash facilities are the best and Marvel was just as cooperative with the bath as she had been for the brushing. 

We washed away a lot of dirt and grime as well as a lot more fur. She even tolerated the blow dryer. This was clearly not her first rodeo at the dog wash. I'll give her another brushing tomorrow and will remove more fur, she's a shepherd after all, it never stops, but her coat already has a nice clean shine to it and she sure smells much better. 

After it was over, we went to Decipher for a beer, where we ran into two former foster shepherds. The folks who adopted Rocco several years ago just recently adopted Woody. He's now called Rudy. Both dogs looked great and they are learning to live together pretty well it seems. 

Marvel is pretty reactive to other dogs, she barks at them but it's not really aggressive. She's a female shepherd and wants everyone to know that she's there. She's extremely outgoing, friendly, and affectionate with people. Marvel will be spayed next Wednesday so it was nice to get her cleaned up in advance of that. I hope we can find her a new home soon after that. She's ready.

Oana Moore's photograph of Marvel

Former foster Rocco

Recent former foster Woody, now called Rudy

Puppy speuter day

Today started ridiculously early because I had to get the puppies up to Gordonsville by 6:30 a.m. to meet a transporter who took them to a clinic over near Fredericksburg for spay/neuter surgeries. They were eight weeks old on Thursday and this was an available slot to get them all done at the same time. It all worked out and they came home this evening as active and lively as they have ever been. That's the great thing about early spay/neuter, even the females recover quickly. 

I had been over feeding them, I think, resulting in some diarrhea the day or two before, so I stopped feeding them yesterday at noon. Their systems calmed down, everyone pooped normally overnight and they should have been pretty much empty for the travel and surgery today. But they were sure hungry tonight.

I fed them all individually at first to get their meds in them with the food, but they clearly wanted more. I gave them all a bit more, but still less than a normal meal. We'll resume fattening them up tomorrow. Applications are coming in and one of them has a meet and greet on Sunday morning, but I think we'll wait another week before sending anyone home.

Thor

Elektra

Storm

Rogue

Wakanda

Feeding frenzy

A lot of food gets pushed out by the frenetic feeding action, 

so there's always some scavenging afterwards.

Meanwhile:

Marvel has begun blowing her coat so I took a brush to her today.

She was very cooperative with the brushing and really enjoyed it.

Bear now sees Marvel as either his mother or big sister.

He wants to be with her all the time.

She even stood up with her feet on the railing to give me the best possible brushing postion.

I think we'll take her for a bath tomorrow.

She gets spayed next week.

And here's Norman being a good boy and a kitchen helper.