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.