House guests

We are doing a fair amount of summer vacation boarding for former fosters over the next couple of months. It's nice to see them again and maintain some contact, and it will also help pay for the boarding or house sitter that we will need for our next trip to England in October. The first time summer campers arrived today.

Rocket was one of the fine wine litter of pups that we had back in May, 2022. He recently turned two years old. His puppy name was Merlot and he was the only male pup of that litter. They weren't born here, they arrived without a mother at about five weeks of age. We didn't get the mother, but they did come with an adult male dog, Kilo, who we think was the father. Whether he was or not is hard to say but he had lived with the puppies and he was sure good with them. Go back to "Days of wine and puppies" from May 18, 2022 and ensuing posts in the blog if you want to see them again.

Rocket is here for just a week and I think he's going to enjoy himself. It was hot this afternoon and he's a mostly husky mix so I kept him inside. He met Della, Elvis, Paisley, and Candace and was fine with all of them. The play group in Daneland really wanted to meet him but I put that off until evening. When the temperature finally dipped below 90 this evening I put Rocket out in the dog yard and brought in Ford. The two of them started to run and play immediately. Later I brought those two over to the a/c yard to add Bailey to the mix. She really wanted to play with him but she won't stay in the dog yard. One of these days I need to raise its fence to 6 feet.

I put a harness on him and walked him around the gardens while I watered this morning.

Meeting Paisley and Elvis

Exploring the dog yard

Ford and Rocket

Rocket is a pretty chill dog.

Rocket and Bailey

Playing with Ford

Early afternoon Bette arrived. She's smaller, older, and has been an only dog ever since she was adopted. She's very friendly with me and Clay but she's not sure about the dogs. We are taking it very slow with her, just trying to make her feel safe so she can settle in. She spent the afternoon in a crate in my office, but this evening I broke down and put a dog bed back under my desk in Maya's spot. That's going to be Bette's spot for the next month. Frankly, I'm happy to have a dog back under my feet while I work. Ever since Maya's been gone I feel like we're missing a dog. This may help. 

I can't remember Bette's backstory and it's driving me crazy. I'm thinking that maybe she came from either The HOWS Project or Dogs Deserve Better. I'm hoping that someone from one of those organizations will remember and clue me in. It's been several years ago, which could be quite a few years ago based on my sense of time.

She's a sweet girl but this is a big adjustment for her. Once she realizes she's safe and learns to handle all the dogs, I'm sure she'll be fine. I think she will be sticking close to me for now and that's fine by me.

There was more than the usual amount of dog shuffling this evening, especially at dinner time. I hung out in the kitchen and moved dogs in and out and updated everyone's collars with new county tags, ID tags, and bling from my trip to Montana, plus some that Clay brought back from Belgium.