Franklin, Anna, Sparky

I haven't had much going on this week.  I only worked Monday through Wednesday.  I've done some clean up mowing, but haven't been out on the trails until today.  The first part of the week was unseasonably warm, dry, and beautiful.  Today was wet but better than the next couple of days are forecasted to be.

I'm taking Franklin, Ochie, and Anna to an adoption event up in Purcellville, VA on Saturday, but I needed to get Franklin to the vet today to get his vaccines updated.  I haven't written much about Franklin.  He's a nice dog, part husky, ridgeback, and Am Staff, not a drop of shepherd blood in him according to the DNA test that was done.  He's good with other dogs but is kind of a solitary sort, doesn't really play with them.  He's hell on cats.  And he's a fence climber.  He stayed in the dog yard for several weeks, but he saw Maya climb out and he figured that he could do the same.  He comes back, but he stays away longer than she does even when they are out together.  One time he came back with a back cut on the back of a leg that I think he got when going over the fence.  He limped for a couple days, but I put him on antibiotics and pain killers and he went over the fence again.  The vet looked at it today and said it seemed to be healing nicely.  I'm now keeping him in a 10'x20' kennel and he hasn't climbed out.  Ochie is with him most of the time and they go into the shed with Max at night.  He was good at the vet today and tested negative for everything except a slight positive result for Erlichia.


I took Anna along to the vet to check her weight.  She had put on a couple pounds and was up to about 64 today.  She would be great at 70 but to get there I think she needs to be in a home of her own, where she's the only dog and can relax.  She is getting so possessive of me that Maya is going to kick her ass before long.

Anna had a better result on the scales than I did.  I haven't lost any since I was there two weeks ago, in spite of a lot of hiking and exercise.  Very discouraging.


When we got home I took Sparky out for a hike.  The rain had slowed or stopped and things were very wet but it wasn't bad.  We did about 4.5 miles in just over an hour.  He was very energetic and we moved along pretty fast today.  The bad weather kept everyone else at home, so we had the trails to ourselves, which we didn't mind.

We went to town this evening for a holiday party.
This is the lawn at UVA lit up in white lights for christmas.