Fabulous Fall

For as much as I whined and complained about the cold weather the other day (sorry... thanks for listening!) I must admit.... it is a beautiful autumn day today.

I'm loving the warmer weather and the fall foliage :) If the weather could stay warm I would be in heaven!

And I know what you are thinking and the answer is no. I have not been diagnosed with multiple personalities. Key word: Diagnosed.

The Perils of Fall...

(First of all, before I get started, let me just say that I chose this picture because, for whatever reason, I like it a lot. Some random lady shot it of us when we were in the mountains a couple of years ago. I have another version- probably a better version so I don't know why I didn't choose that- and yes, I could go back and change it, but quite frankly it takes a long time to upload pictures on this site and I'm too lazy awesome. Now that I think about it- the other version is way better. We look better and you can see more of the mountains and the fall colors. I really should have chosen that one. So, just pretend it is a better picture. Looking at this one I don't even like it. So, yeah, pretend it is a better picture. Secondly, at the moment, it just seems pretty cool that at some point in my life I was able to fit in a pair of jeans that didn't have a gigantic elastic waistband that came up to my shoulders... Now on to the post!!)




Sooooo.... I do it every year.

Every single year.


In the midst of summer I yearn for fall. As I'm out sweating buckets while dealing with the animals, or trying to peel my melted skin off the scorching hot seats of my car I think of the cooler days autumn will bring and I smile. And I must admit, I was exceptionally nostalgic for cooler weather this year as my body is pumping an inordinate amount of blood through my veins thereby increasing my internal temperatures to that of the sun. Plus or minus a few degrees, of course. Anyway, in reality I've never really been able to fully appreciate fall. Because, as beautiful as it is, it means that winter will soon come screaming like a madman from around the corner and knock us all out. I do not love gray days with naked trees. I do not like bundling up in layer upon layer of clothes until I am scarcely able to move my arms and they just hang from my body at a 45 degree angle... I just do not like it. But, during the heat of the summer I think to myself "You know what? Fall won't be so bad. It will be great to have cooler weather!" Then I go on about my merry way reveling in my optimism that the changing season will bring me great happiness and comfort.

And then it happens.

Fall arrives.

And I curse it.

Because, the truth is, we will have a few days of pretty, cooler weather and then the North Carolina weather patterns start kicking in. Which means reasonably nice days with absolutely frigid nights. Which means layering clothing less you want to turn into an icicle in the morning while walking to your car or, in my case, going to fend off 1000+ pound animals as they try to steal their buckets of food from me before I've had a chance to even walk through the gate. Which means constantly putting blankets on said large animals and then taking them off, and putting them on, and taking them off, and putting them on, and taking them off. I think you get the idea. Or, as the past couple days have been, it does not mean reasonably nice days with frigid nights, it means frigid days with frigid nights. And today it means frigid and rainy with a frigid night.

And so I sit here and yearn for summer. For the hot air that is so thick it is hard to breathe. For the bugs and the buckets of sweat, and the melted skin on the seats of my car.

HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEN!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

Love,
All of us at THREE DOGS ANIMAL SANCTUARY
xoxo

Snooooooze

We were hit with an absolutely torrential thunderstorm last night. Usually I sleep through storms of all kinds without incident but even this one woke me from my slumber. Absolutely massive thunder and lightning... I don't think anyone in the area could have slept through it. Unless you live in a bomb shelter.... but even then....



Big thunderstorm last night mixed with a gray and rainy day today means a lot of this is going on in our house.



And this.



And this. I feel sorry for this poor creatures who must endure such a difficult existence!

Rainy Day...

It's gray and rainy out there....

Which don't get me wrong- living in the middle of nowhere I really appreciate the rain that falls from the sky. It nourishes the plants and grass which feed our ponies and it provides all of us with water to nourish our bodies. While most people complain about the rain- I revel in it because I know how necessary it is not only for us but for all of the farmers with crops and livestock.

The only thing I don't love about it is the smell of wet dog x9 and 36 wet, muddy paws! :)

Beautiful Day!

Today is an incredibly beautiful day!



The skies are the bluest of blue, the temperature is magnificent, and Ilove it!

The horses are munching on grass, the puppies are snoozing on the front porch, the husband is mowing the grass... all is right on this homestead.



Now, if my laundry would somehow just magically fold and put itself away...

Escape

When I was a little girl, my mom used to recite a poem to me- insinuating that I was the girl for whom the poem was written. It went like this:

There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good
She was very, very good
But when she was bad
She was horrid.

Well, if you would now please swap our "girl" with "dog" and "she" with "he" then you will understand my current sentiments on our dog Kohana.

This weekend was a quite rough. First of all, we moved all of our furniture, etc. from our old house to the new one. And, honestly, moving is terrible. I don't like it one bit. Saturday was a terrible day (which I will explain at a later date) but we had a moving truck and we had to get it done. Sunday we had more miscellaneous things to transfer over. It was a long day. By Sunday evening we were exhausted. At 6:00 I was so ready for bed I could hardly see straight.

In addition, we were hit with torrential rains. Flood worthy rain that our county is still dealing with flooding 2 days later... It was serious.

So, in the midst of all of this, our wonderful husky Kohana decided that it was time for him to play a little game he likes to call "escape." And that he did.

Side note: On a regular day, I suspect I do a dog head count approximately one billion times. You see, I am a paranoid freak. I am constantly checking on them and making sure that everyone is present and accounted for. And on the occasion when something isn't right, I usually know about it quickly.

But, as I mentioned, we were moving. Because of this I'm not sure how long he was gone though I don't think it was more than 10 minutes. And off we went. DM took the car, I stayed on foot. But the rain! The rain was terrible!! First of all, I don't think he could hear me calling for him as he would have been able to under normal circumstances. Secondly, I couldn't hear the jingle of his collar in case he was near me. It was pitch black. We don't have street lights and we have woods all around. Visibility was extraordinarily limited. We searched and searched and searched. Typically I am an optimist and under control in situations like these. This night, however, I was extremely worried. I thought the weather conditions might ruin any chances we had of finding him. But, someone was looking out for us because DM did find him and although Mr. Mischievous Kohana did try his best to elude him he was temporarily distracted by another dog and we were able to get him home.

So, this ending is a happy one. We have our precious pup home and my car smells like dirty, stinky, wet dog and has muddy footprints all over it. Well, at least one of those things is good. :)

A few weeks in the life...

We have been super busy around here! Let me give a super quick summary.

Weather very very very cold. As in, coldest it has been in 20 years. Water troughs freeze. Must use axe to break up the ice. Feel like manly lumberjack in a woman's body.
Water line to the horse's trough breaks. Must carry water from the house to the horses one 5 gallon bucket at a time. Feel like very sad and sore lumberjack in a woman's body.

Snow on the ground increases the amount of hay we have to feed the horses. Hay supplies dwindle. Must replenish.

Dogs have to spend much more time inside due to the weather. Dog hair army rises up and tries to take control. Vacuum cries. Dogs decide that carpets are meant to be the color of red mud and try their best to cover all carpeted surfaces with as many dog prints as possible. Carpet cleaning man celebrates at the continued business we give him. I decide that putting in hardwoods on said carpeted surfaces may have to happen sooner rather than later.

Weather warms. I sing from the rooftops!!

Our old house is under contract meaning that we can finally move our furniture!! YAY! But that means moving the masses of boxes we have neglected so that furniture may move to its new home. BOO!

Baxter decides that he would like to sleep all day (which is not a change for him at all) but would like to stay awake at night. Thinks we should do this as well. Barks incessantly during the night to ensure we abide by his schedule. I argue with him that I need a good solid 9 hours of sleep a night. He disagrees. He wins. We do not sleep through night for weeks. I cry.

In my personal boycott of life due to the cold weather I neglect the laundry. It continues to grow. As it turns out, neglecting it will not persuade laundry pile to stop growing. I almost drown in laundry and then scold myself for letting it get so bad.


That is the most concise summary I can do... Sure, I left out a bajillion things but who cares?! Till next time!

Who did this?

"Nothing to see here!! Just keep walkin' people.

What? This hole? I definitely did not dig this hole. Nope, this hole has been here for ages. Haven't you seen it? I had nothing to do with it. It was here before..."

"Yep, definitely here before."

Best. Life. Ever.

So, I was going through some old pictures of the dogs... the original Three Musketeers (Baxter, Kohana, and Franklin) (I will save you the disappointment-and myself the embarrassment- of saying something like the original Three Muttsketeers) and I realized that in almost every group of pictures I saw a similar photo. See if you can spot the trend...

Again... Best. Life. Ever.

Housekeeping Nightmare

The problem with huskies?

The hair.

It is everywhere. It encompasses my life. It is my nemesis.

"Maybe I should just hide over here... She won't be able to resist this adorable face"

"Besides, I need all of this fur for fabulous days like this!!"

k o h a n a

Kohana has been our most interesting and difficult rescue. Shortly after we adopted Baxter we decided we would go back to the shelter... again, just to play with the dogs.

We were in the process of moving me out of my university dorm. Bags were packed, the U-haul was full, all we needed was to get Baxter and the last few things and hit the road! But, we went to play with the dogs anyway. We took several of them out into the enclosed area to play. I had, of course, already fallen in love but DM was adamant that we were not getting another dog. He definitely had logic on his side given our current situation (young, had one puppy, moving back to our hometown to live with our parents for the summer... you get the idea).

While we were there we found a beautiful bundle of white and red fur to take outside. He paid me very little attention whatsoever but immediately ran and laid his head in DM's lap. DM was sold! We loaded him up with the rest of my stuff and made the trip back to our hometown (to the dismay of my parents).

The first nights were terrible. He screamed throughout the night. (For those of you that don't have much experience with Huskies, they literally scream. I remember when we moved into our first apartment in Raleigh I was always afraid people would hear him scream during his baths and call the police because it sounded like we were severely abusing small children!) He had to have surgery within the first month (unfortunately not his only surgery) to remove plastic shards and an intact half tennis ball that he had consumed before we adopted him. He had endured a difficult life prior to us and was very skittish and fearful and to say he was distrustful would be an extreme understatement. Let me just sum up and say he was very difficult. When we were filling out the adoption application we learned that he had been surrendered to the shelter due to his inability to obey and his propensity to escape so we knew that it wouldn't be the easiest. He was much worse than we had imagined. All of that being said, I would not trade him or our past experiences with him for the world. He has turned out to be a fabulous dog. We still have to be very cautious with him and he is not now nor will he ever be an easy dog but he is worth it! He has so much personality and I think that working with him has been unbelievably rewarding.

We absolutely adore Kohana. Through a lot of patient work he has become one of our sweetest and most loving dogs. That being said, I would feel irresponsible if I did not warn others about Siberian Huskies. They are beautiful and it can be very rewarding to have one as a part of the family but they are extremely difficult. Please do your research before you take one home to make sure you feel like they would be a good fit. Huskies are very independent (more like a cat than your ordinary dog). They don't have the need to please like many breeds (meaning training is difficult). They are absolute masters of escape and are extremely intelligent. If they are not entertained or if they are left alone it is likely you will come home to utter destruction. They LOVE to dig- whether it be random holes in the yard or to escape the fence. They are very athletic and fast! If your husky finds his freedom it is likely that you will never see him again. Obviously I don't need to mention the shedding. DM and I had no idea what kind of dog we were bringing home that day in May. Kohana has done more damage to himself and to our belongings than all of our other dogs combined. He has been one of the most expensive shelter dogs you can imagine. I have always been so happy that we were the ones that took him home that day because we were willing to deal with everything he threw our way and I'm not convinced he would have had the same outcome had he gone to another family.