Flowers beat fireworks

I submit that flowers are better than fireworks. They provide an explosion of color that lasts far longer than a few seconds, and they don't scare the dogs.

The Grand Re-Opening

Della's Beer Garden has re-opened, temporarily under new management. Della has sub-let the place to Luna for a few weeks as a German Shepherd Pop-up Haus, after which it will revert to Della and rejoin the rest of Daneland.

The mini-Troopers received their first vaccines on Monday and were de-wormed for the second time on Tuesday. They had their first outdoor experience Thursday morning, which they repeated that afternoon and again in the evening and on Friday morning. Three puppies don't fill the place up like Della's dozen did, but are enjoying it just as much.

Like the Danes, they were a little hesitant at first, but they soon began exploring the space and some of the things I had put out there for them. The bigger female Trooper has emerged as the most adventurous of the three. She was the first to scale the wall inside the shed and she was the first up the ramp outside, and the first (and only) one to climb into the big water tank.

The puppies all have adopters lined up already, mostly other Promises volunteers and fosters. I have them for just a few more weeks. This is the fun phase of fostering puppies.

The larger female Trooper has scaled the wall
several times into the Luna-only space.

They weren't certain that they wanted to leave the air-conditioned
comfort of the shed for the outdoor space.

Luna's feeding station was popular with the pups too.

Like the Danes, these pups have happy tails that are stiff and
twitching with excitement when they eat or drink.

Water is seen as a recreational activity as well as a drink.

It is not considered impolite to tip the bowl to get the last of it.

Notice the wet fur on this girl.

Luna keeps an eye on them outside too.

The one who climbed into the big water tank
was also able to climb out again. I think she
is going to be wet more often than dry.

This old tire proved to be a popular hangout.

Early mornings, late evenings

Theo

The great thing about getting up really early in the morning is that you can get all 10 dogs out and fed, clean up after the foster who shit and pissed in her crate overnight and then tracked it across the floor all the way downstairs, walk the foster dog who can't be put outside in the dog yard and then clean up his poop in the kitchen because he didn't poop on the walk but waited until he got back inside, clean up overnight puppy poop, including one who walked right towards you and stepped in a big mushy pile on the way, and still be sitting at your desk with a cup of coffee writing a blog post by 8:00 a.m. 

The nice thing about late evenings, the hour or so before it gets dark, is that the heat has finally abated enough that it's not bad being outside to mow in the pasture while the dogs romp and play. I've been pasture mowing for the past few evenings and it's really nice. The grass is still dry, no morning dew, and it gets the dogs a good run before bedtime. The pictures aren't great, most are rather fuzzy due to low light conditions. After it gets too dark to see, I switch to the new mower that has headlights and continue on for a little longer. It's not a bad way to end the day.

Max, with Della in the far background.

Serena, with ball, and Theo, wanting ball.

I don't see much of Della while I'm mowing. She's usually busy hunting rabbits.

If there's no ball playing happening, Theo just picks
a spot to hang out and watch as I mow.

It's best if he picks an already mowed spot.

Max, looking through the brush pile for a stick. This one was a bad choice.

I don't see a lot of Serena while mowing either. She's either hanging with Della or just
keeping her distance from the dreaded mower monster.

Della, Max, Serena, Kismet

Kismet has been on restriction because she had
recently had surgery, but she's free to run once
again and we are all happy about that.

Front to Back: Kismet, Theo, Max