Poor Navi is on crate-rest today. Yesterday she went to the vet for her surgery to get ‘fixed’. Now I’m supposed to take this hyper-active little peski and somehow keep her from ‘running, jumping or climbing’ for 14 DAYS!!! That’s like FOREVER to a puppy! The vet must be nuts! Well, we’re trying. Keeping her on leash, trying to keep her from running and jumping, letting her and Barclay play a little without letting it turn into roughhousing. It’s going to be a long two weeks!
Today was hot, and I thought I’d pull out the sprinkler for the dogs to play in. Barclay thought that was a curious thing, and he sat just outside the wet zone. Navi, on the other hand…
This morning was exceptionally active, and much earlier than I’d have liked! Sorry, no pictures, for obvious reasons. It started off at 5am when I was woke up by the visiting roosters. The roosters are ones that were hatched out of eggs from my flock by a neighbor in town, and of course the roosters had to get out of town when they started crowing! Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find homes for them, and you can’t have that many roosters in one place without fighting, so they are scheduled to end up in the stewpot pretty soon, as soon as I can get the guy out to butcher them. They’ve had a good life so far at least, but their ultimate destiny is to be meat. This has been a terrible year for roosters, everyone is overrun with them. This lady got 4 roosters out of 6 eggs, our splash chicks appear to be 7 roos out of 10 chicks. It would be nice if it would have skewed towards hens instead!
So at 5am I got dressed and went out and caught the four of them from the pen I had left them in last night, put them in a dog crate, and put the crate in the chicken shed. Once they were in the dark shed they went back to sleep. Unfortunately when I walked over to the shed I spotted something else out of place – my four little splash chicks had escaped the chicken tractor and were running around the back field.
I spent the next 45 minutes trying to gently coax them back into the tractor, but ultimately ended up getting the net and catching two of them that way. The other two ran off and disappeared into the blackberry thicket. That was disappointing, because I am supposed to take them over Sunday to give to a friend who has their other 6 siblings, and I would like to take her all four. So I let the dogs out to play for a bit then went in and went back to bed.
A couple hours later I got up again and went outside and found the two stray chicks hanging out by the tractor, so I got the net and managed to get one of them, but the other one disappeared into the bushes again. Since I figured she’d be hiding for a couple hours after all that drama, I let the dogs out to play and got back to my morning chores.
A bit later I was in the kitchen preparing a crock pot full of carnitas, all chicken drama forgotten, when I heard squawking and fussing outside. I ran out to find Barclay had the chick pinned, and Navi was bounding around trying to help him. I’m sure he would have eaten the chick, he just hadn’t decided where to start! I ran over, telling the dogs how good they were for catching the chicken, and scooped her up and rushed her inside. Dave pushed the dogs out of the bathroom and we set her on the counter and had a look at her. Surprisingly, she seemed none the worse for wear, with just a little blood from a couple broken feathers. I put her back in the tractor and she seemed happy to see the other chicks, and when I checked on them an hour later they were all running around like they hadn’t had the adventure of their lives this morning!
After all that, I was happy to grab Barclay and go to work where it is peace and quiet!
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Navi & Barclay were wrestling and playing so hard yesterday, that today Barclay has been pooped out all day. This afternoon they were laying in the living room, gnawing on each other’s faces, because that seems to be all the energy they had left.
Yes, I complained, complained, complained about the rain – but now all that is in the past! Now it’s too hot! It has been ridiculously hot the last couple days. Because it was cold and rainy for so long the dogs haven’t shed their winter coats – Barclay looks like a big wooly bear. Then the cold wet spring went directly to temps hovering around 100, and there’s nothing to do but stay inside with the AC on all day and sneak out when it starts cooling off around 8PM.
Then the dogs can come out and play…
Sometimes he even gets the toy!
But then someone else spots it and races over to steal it (leaving behind the dog she was mauling)
What’s that? What have you got? Is it a toy? Can I have it?
What is it huh? Can I see it? Gimme!
Let me see it, let me see it..
Oh, give it to me, give it to me, give it to meeeeeeee
Jack: I’ll give it to you, you little punk!
*krnch*
You’ll never catch me, slo-pokes!
Ha ha! Got her!
When she’s had enough of being mauled, the chair is her safe time-out spot
Whew, break-time!
Into the water trough for a cool-off
Lay in the cool grass…
Just another afternoon hanging out with their buddies
Today I moved the chicken tractors out in the field next to the garden. I did that because Navi has been running laps around the chick’s tractor, and I thought that was cruel for the chicks, because they are surprised to see her every lap around – it’s like ‘she’s gone’ immediately followed by ‘aargh, she’s back’ – over and over and over.
While moving them the little roo who looks like he was made of spare parts snuck out and ran away, and before I could catch him he found a hole to get into the big chicken area. That was bad news for him, because I couldn’t get him back in the tall grass, and the big chickens were going to kick his little feathered butt, so there wasn’t anything I could do about it. So I went on about my chores, and an hour later I was out there with the dogs when suddenly I heard a commotion and here’s that little rooster back out of the chicken yard, and racing across the backyard with three dogs after him! I caught up just as Barclay and Navi pinned him and picked him up and snuggled him high against my chest – high, because Navi will jump high, springing up to snap at and try and grab him! I kept blocking her with my leg until she gave up and sat, but she could barely control herself. I finally was able to walk him to the tractor and reunite him with his flock.
She is still getting the hang of the cats as well. Sometimes she pounces on them and chases them if they run, sometimes the other two start it. I’m keeping a close eye on all of them.
She’s quite athletic, and can jump up on the crates. I put a piece of plywood on top of her big crate so I can put her food up there when the crate is open and she can jump up there and eat.
She’s an absolute doll! What a cutie 🙂 Yesterday she had a vet visit and the vet gave her a vaccination that upset her stomach all night. Poor pup puked and puked, and then collapsed on our bed. She was so pitiful we let her sleep there all night instead of in her crate. This morning she was feeling much better.
It’s taking some getting used to for everyone. Barclay is being such a good boy. He’s really tired from all the playing, and I’ve been trying to give him special attention as well. I felt like Barclay and I had a special one-on-one relationship before Navi showed up, and I’d like to keep that as much as possible. She’s got so much training to work on, it’s easy to forget there’s still more work to do with Barclay too. I don’t want his training to stall just because I have a new student who needs more work!
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Steff Does Stuff! 