Injured...Injured Bad

Miss Lola hurt her leg. And, okay, she isn't "injured bad" but whenever I hear the word "injured" I can't help but think of the commercial with the little boy...

Did you watch it? It is one of my favorites...



Moving on... Lola hurt herself romping around like a maniacal maniac so, poor girl, she has been sequestered to the indoors which means.... to the couch.



She is really having a hard time adjusting to this and I hope it doesn't cause her any long-term psychological damage.

The real problem? How we are ever going to get our couch back once she has recovered 100%.




You think I'm giving this back?! Pffffffffft!

Puppy Love

I don't think I tell you enough how much I love our puppy dogs...

I know what you are thinking... that I tell you too much. But, trust me, it isn't enough!!



This dog? Well, I can't help but be utterly smitten. He pretends to be aloof and independent. But he's not. It's all a show. He pretends that he doesn't care if I'm around. But he does. He might not be constantly at my heels like the others but even though he will let me out of his sight for a few minutes he will undoubtedly follow me to wherever my final destination is. And I sort of think that is his MO... to make sure that I am in my final destination before he drags himself out of whatever his current sleeping position may be and lumbers to my new location to, of course, find a new sleeping position.

Something Scary

Well, here is something utterly disturbing that I thought I should share. This is what I've managed to do to my office today... and it is noon. Send help.

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.

Holiday Idea

I just thought I would share this.

A couple of days ago, we received a very sweet baby gift from some friends in Texas. It came wrapped in Christmas decor (yikes...it is just around the corner!) and I must admit, there was something about the wrapping that I loved.

This little guy! The little felt Santa that you can turn into an ornament. I've used ornaments as wrapping accouterments many times before so perhaps I am a little biased... but nevertheless I thought it was very cute!

And, it can be something you try out this holiday season!

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

New Water Line!

A few weeks ago, we embarked upon an epic DIY project.

Okay. Epic is definitely not the right word. Boring is probably a better description.

Anyway, we put in a new water line to the horse pasture.




Check out this baby up close. It is a ditch digger and it makes me feel like a real man. Except that a) I'm not a man and b) I didn't use it at all. Really, I did very little for this except go "Hey, we need to go ahead and put that water line in....blah blah blah... yada yada yada" and then DM went and found the necessary parts and equipment and went about the project. I did, however, help fill in the ditch once the water line was in place. OH! And I held the spigot in place while he filled the dirt in around it. So, yeah, I was pretty indispensable to this project if I do say so myself.



The pipe had to go in the ground below the frost level which is why it was necessary to employ the services of the handy dandy ditch digger. I mean, you could try to dig a ditch 2 feet in the ground by hand, which would be great, and when you finished you would look like a magnificent god-like specimen with rippling muscles and all that jazz but.... who wants to do that? No one. Because it hadn't rained in weeks and the ground (which is already full of rocks) was like concrete.



One thing I find exceptionally annoying:

We have fifty bazillion dogs. Many of whom like to dig. So, why won't they use their digging powers for good instead of evil? Sure, they can dig a hole right in my typical walking path across the yard so that when I'm going to my car with stuff piled in my arms up to my eyeballs I don't see it, step in it, and fall down twisting my ankle, soiling my clothes, and dropping all of my stuff all over the place. They think that is hysterical. But will they help us dig a line for something useful? Nooooooo.Sheesh!

Side Note: Once the line has been put in and we have filled in the ditch will said dogs then go behind us and dig it up? Yes.



Progress made! The line goes in!



Look at him go! Have I ever told you how much he likes DIY projects? The answer is NOT AT ALL. He deplores them. Sorry, DM!

But, the good news is that we now finally have an actual spigot out by the horses' water trough!

And everyone lived happily ever after! (Except for B who will probably fall down in one of the holes the dogs left for her on the way to the pasture after they re-dug the ditch...)

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! :)

Zzzzzzzzzzz

The weather the last few days has been beautiful!! Blue skies and much cooler temperatures. Which means that I have a lot of pictures on my phone like this one... dogs (in this case Mama Annabelle and daughter Winnie) snoozing in the yard soaking up the sun. I've tried to talk to Miss Winnie about being a little more lady-like but she just doesn't listen and who am I to thwart such a free spirit?!?

Proof

Remember the other day when I told you that Baxter is the laziest dog ever and spends his entire life snoozing on the couch yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah???

Well....



I rest my case. Matlock style.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

This is what this dog does virtually every moment of every day. It is amazing. I bet even his dreams are filled with couches, heavenly slumber and snoring. But I love him all the same! Even though sometimes I have to stop what I am doing upstairs because I hear a strange noise coming from the lower level only to realize that it is the loud snores emitting from his smooshy, wrinkled face!

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...

Playing Favorites

This is Baxter. Do you remember him?



This is Baxter with his favorite toy. We gave it to him less than a week ago and as you can see he was so taken with it we couldn't even get the plastic hangy piece off quickly enough. You see, Baxter has a severe weakness for stuffed toys. And I mean severe.



Since the moment we gave him this teddy bear he doesn't want to spend a second away from it. He carries it everywhere with him. I use the term "carries" loosely since he spends most of his time snoozing. But when he sleeps, he typically sleeps like this.... toy in mouth.... face perpendicular to the floor. He's very odd.



And because he barely drops it from his jowls to eat.... the thing smells. I don't know what he has done to it in such a short amount of time but poor teddy was suffering from some severe body odor. So, I swiped it and stuck it in the wash. Why do you care? You don't. Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to suffer with me. Because right now as I type, as all of the other wonderful puppies are literally snoozing on the front porch on this glorious morning, one Mr. Baxter is standing at the top of the stairs barking incessantly for me to give him his teddy back. And I am not using the word incessantly lightly. Literally incessantly. Joke's on him! I had to sanitize that sucker so it will be another two hours before it is ready to see his droopy lips again!

February Already??

"Hey, Baxter!! Can you believe it is already February??"

"Huh? Oh, umm, no."



"But can I ask you one thing?"


"Sure! What?!"

"Would you get off of me??"

A Worthy Cause

There are so many save-the-animal worthy causes our there. I'm so very grateful that people work together to end the animal abuse that comes in so many shapes and sizes. At the same time I'm so disheartened that these groups need to be in existence....

While in college I was in an equine management class. We had to choose an equine-related project which we spent the better part of the semester on. I chose equine slaughter. It is a topic that is not common knowledge for many people- even in the "horse world" and I thought that these equine-friendly students needed to know about it. So, I dove into the project head first with great passion and, although I was already familiar with the topic, I finished broken and downtrodden.

Anyway, the point of this depressing post is this: The Humane Society has an article up about equine slaughter and at the end of the article is a link to write your congressman and ask him/her to support this cause. I suggest you read the article and watch the video as I think it will best help you to understand. (Quite frankly, I did not watch the video. I have too many memories and I am fairly well-versed in the whole process.) But, the most important thing is writing your Congressman.

Obviously this is not mandatory! And, I struggled with deciding whether or not to post this as I try very hard to stay away from polarizing topics. But, I decided that we are all animal lovers here!!! If you choose to do this, I appreciate your help greatly!

Click link to tell Congress
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/horse_slaughter/facts/grisly_end_for_horses.html