Maggie’s First Hike

Last week Robin–Boss–Whoever decided to that we’d all go on a hike. (Read this for her version of it.) That meant a car ride first. I’m not crazy about going in the car, but I usually sleep. Maggie was kind of nervous. In fact she threw up her breakfast which Boss didn’t notice until we got to Matt’s house. Disgusting, but at least it was on the floor of the truck. Then we all got into Matt’s truck.

Here is how Sam and Kirin ride. Maybe I have to introduce Kirin. It used to be Sam and Guinness. Guinness is still around but he has very bad arthritis and is not supposed to go hiking a lot. So he lives with Kaleena’s mom and gets to swim and sleep on nice cushions. Kirin is a Puppy. He doesn’t look like a puppy because he is huge. He is bigger than Sam. They don’t bother me too much anymore, but they still don’t play the way I want to play. It’s OK to go hiking with them.

We started walking on a trail in the woods. As usual the people all had their cameras out. I know that means shadows and sparkles and, hey, I’m there. The people think something is wrong with me, but I know what I see. Sam and Kirin spend a lot of time in the water, but for me it’s all about those shadows.

Even Maggie got in the water which surprised me. She won’t get in the canal when we go walking Across The Road. Maybe she won’t be scared of water anymore.

See what I mean about the cameras? They are everywhere. Robin wouldn’t let me get close to this one though because she thought I’d fall off the rock.

Kaleena was taking pictures too.

Matt took this photo, but Maggie and I thought it was kind of dumb to expect us to just stand on this wet rock and look at the camera.

At least this rock was dry. This is all of us in front of Bassi Falls. Robin had to trick Maggie into staying there while Matt took the picture. She kept giving Maggie treats.

You know how Sam and Kirin ride in that big space in the back of the truck? This is where Maggie and I had to ride. There should have been enough room, but Maggie couldn’t figure out how to fit herself into the extra space around me.  I guess it was OK because we were pretty tired and we slept all the way home.

Trip to the Doctor with the BOSS

Robin has been trying to assert a little more Authority over the dog population–I think it’s Maggie’s fault. Maggie seems to need a lot more Direction and Authority than I do. That’s OK, I’ll go along with it. She (Robin) thinks that if we (Maggie and I) call her Boss it will somehow make a difference. Every time Robin the Boss goes through a gate, Maggie is behind her. Every time that The Boss grabs a sheep, Maggie runs around like a crazy dog and barks. I know that its best to just relax and wait for something to happen, and there is no point to going through a gate when you’re just going to have to come out again. So RoBoss thinks that this will make a difference. Semantics, I say. But I don’t care. I know that ROBIN realizes that we are equals and this is all for Maggie’s benefit.

This post is about something else though. Boss (I may laugh every time I say that) took me to the doctor last week. She noticed that I’ve been pretty stiff and sore when getting up after lying down. It got even worse after chasing down some wayward lambs last week.  The last time I went to the doctor (when Maggie came) they discussed this and Boss was told to give me some Very Expensive dog food with some special stuff in it. It didn’t seem to make a difference. So this time the doctor took funny pictures that show my insides. Boss had said that she thought the problem was in the hips and the doctor said she was right.

The first one shows that where the leg bones meet the hip bones there are problems. I think she said arthritis.For the second one I had to lie on my back–how undiginified. The doctor says that the top of the leg bone where it meets the round part is supposed to be skinnier and instead it’s thick. So all these things are causing pain. The doctor said that it is kind of unusual because I’m only 7 years old. She said that my conformation isn’t that good. EXCUSE ME?

Boss is supposed to give me special pills every day and shots twice a week for awhile. Then they’ll decide what to do. I don’t know if there is a difference yet. I’m so used to being sore that I’ve forgotten what it is like not to be.

Fortunately the doctor said that I can still do everything I want to. (My cousin, Guinness, is not supposed to go hiking anymore because he has bad arthritis and he is younger than me.) Ro..Boss said that when Dan takes me running I don’t go all the way with him. I lie down and wait for him at one place. Why would I run a mile or two in the heat just to come back the same way? Who is the smarter one here? When Boss takes me I go with her the whole way because she is walking and I have time to get in the water and dig for ground squirrels.

Bye for now.

Keeping Track of Shadows and Lights

I haven’t written for quite awhile. I guess I should say something about Maggie.  She tried to bite off my ear while ago but maybe it’s because I growled at her. She’s OK now. She still doesn’t play with me, but she’s kind of fun to have around.

I wanted to write about yesterday though. Yesterday was exhausting. Lights, sparkles, shadows everywhere. You know, every time I hear a camera click I know that there will be something that I should be watching.

Robin had a bunch of people here yesterday (see her blog) and it seemed that there were cameras everywhere. Maybe it was just the lady on the ladder with the fancy camera and Robin, but still there was a lot to keep track of.

Shadows

 The lady with the fancy camera wanted to go in the ram pen so Robin wanted me to help.

If I wasn’t there those rams would be in the way.

More shadows and sparkles.

Marc held this big white thing over his head a lot during the day. Sometimes it created more interesting shadows to look at. 

Robin says that sometimes I make my own shadows.

 

I think it was rather rude to take this photo, but Robin doesn’t seem to care about manners when she has a camera in her hands. Like I said, the day was exhausting.

 

 

My new BFF

Hey Everyone,

I’m going to let Maggie write something here. She doesn’t really know what it’s all about but I’ll help her. She’s OK after all (even though I was skeptical at first). She still hasn’t learned to play, but she likes to lie in the sun with me. Robin’s friend, Jackie, has been bringing treats to try out on Maggie and she doesn’t like any of them…so I get to eat them. I thought the salmon treats were the best and then yesterday Jackie brought dried catfish skins. Wow! So here is Maggie:

Ummm…I don’t really know what to say here. But Rusty told me to just say things about the pictures that Robin took.

I really hate that camera and that other little thing that Robin talks into and then holds up and clicks. I am afraid of the clicking sounds they make.  Robin expects me to sit still and let that thing click at me and I really can’t do it. I don’t know why Rusty lets her do that. OK, I didn’t know that Robin took these pictures. She took me and Rusty (Rusty just said that I should say Rusty and I–he knows more about this than I do) across the road and she was riding her bike. Robin doesn’t let me go anywhere except in the backyard without a leash, but she says that I act really good on the leash. I’ve never run beside a bike before. It wasn’t scary though and I think I’ve been needing some exercise. It was fun to see Across the Road but it’s hard to stop and smell things when you are on a Leash keeping up with a bike.

We stopped a few times though and I see that Robin snuck in some photos when I didn’t know it.  She tried to get photos of Rusty and me but she was too obvious with the camera and I didn’t like that.

If you walk way down this steep slope there is water. That was weird because it looked solid where I was walking but my feet sunk in. 

 

Rusty keeps looking at things like shadows and lights. I don’t know why–it seems silly to me.

That’s all the pictures. Rusty said to keep talking. I’ve been here a week and I’m not scared of the people that live here anymore. But there are sure a lot of other people that show up and they are scary. I don’t mind being around them too much if they just leave me alone. I like Rusty. He growled at me at first but now he’s OK. He will  eat all those weird snacks that everyone keeps expecting me to eat. I prefer cheese.

Robin has been taking me to the barn when she and Rusty go out. But like I said, she puts the leash on me and then she expects me to be tied to something while we are there. (She tried to get a picture of me in the barn, but I hid behind the thing she tied me to.) She got mad at me when I tried to grab a chicken. What did she expect? The chicken just walked right past me. Robin is in the barn a lot right now and sometimes she walks to where I can’t see her. I chewed through the first leash she tied me with. Robin is not very smart because then she tied me with another leash. It was thicker, but I was able to chew that one too. So then she tied me with that funny colored string that she cuts off bales of hay. Did she really think that would work? Then she bought a chain.

This writing stuff is a lot of work when you’re not used to it. I might just tell Rusty what to say for me if I feel like talking.  Bye.

The 2nd day with a new dog around.

Robin said that I was mean yesterday and that I should apologize to Maggie. And a bunch of people reading this weren’t very sympathetic to me either. Maybe I jumped to conclusions. I did spend a lot of the morning in the barn with Robin. At least she didn’t forget me when she went out to work. She had to match three rams up with three different ewes to breed them. While they were out of the ram pen Robin cleaned some of it. I kept the other two rams away while she was doing that.

Later in the morning Robin took Maggie on the leash to see what she knows about how to behave. She knows “sit” and she walks pretty well on the leash when she is reminded not to pull. Maggie also tried to run out the door on the leash but she knows to wait if Robin tells her to. She sure gets scared of things easily though.

This evening Robin took Maggie across the road to go on our walk. We didn’t go very far though and I didn’t get to do my usual running.

 This is me waiting for Robin to tell me it’s OK to run. She said OK, but I didn’t believe her because she didn’t come walking that way.

Robin kept trying to take pictures of us but Maggie definitely doesn’t like the camera. In fact she got really scared when Robin pointed it at us. She finally had to put it inside her sweatshirt so Maggie would  settle down.

Robin finally got a few pictures by using her phone. She had to turn the sound off though because even the clicking got Maggie upset.

Robin got the idea that maybe Maggie would want to play with me if she could run around. So Robin started jumping around and running back and forth with Maggie on the leash. It seemed like it might be fun and I was waiting for Maggie to get to really run. Robin wouldn’t unhook the leash though until we got back home. Then we tried a little bit of a chasing game but Maggie, finally off the leash, was too interested in smelling things.

Maybe Maggie will want to play tomorrow. About what I wrote yesterday, Maggie, Sorry.

Rusty

Displaced?

Things started out normal here this morning. Robin and I went to the barn and found more lambs. Like I said last time we spend a lot of time in the barn this time of year. Robin seemed to rush through work and then as soon as two more lambs were born we hurried off to the car.

When Robin got out she made me stay in the car for awhile. When I finally got out of the car I saw that we were at a big house with a huge lawn with about a billion dog smells. Every blade of grass has a different dog smell on it. Robin was talking to a lady who had a dog on a leash and there was another little hairy dog running around loose.  I couldn’t believe the smell cornucopia. (How’s that for a word? I think it describes what I mean.) Anyway, we visited for awhile and then when we got ready to go the other dog got into our car. Huh?

It turns out that the other dog is supposed to be my friend. I’m not too sure about that. Don’t I get to pick my own friends? I don’t know if I want a friend…at least not a dog friend.

 

 

 

Robin took Maggie (that’s her name) into the house and she just kept walking around and around. I guess it would be scary to go to somewhere brand new and not know anyone.

 

 

 

Then Robin took Maggie outside. She plans to keep Maggie on a leash for a long time so that she doesn’t run away if she gets scared. Robin told Dan that Maggie was in a group rescued a year ago from a Hoarder with over 200 dogs that were starving. I don’t really know what that means but I don’t think that I’d like to be around 200 dogs. In fact I don’t know that I want to be around any other dogs.

Hey, Maggie, this is my house…

 

 

…and I don’t really want any other dogs to come in.

Lambing Season

I don’t know how I feel about Lambing Season. On the one paw, Robin spends hours in the barn and that’s a good thing. If Robin is in the barn, then I’m in the barn. On the other paw, even though I’m in the barn, I don’t get to herd the sheep much. And on another paw, those sheep get even meaner. Look at this ewe that just lambed today.

She is mean even to Robin.

So I mostly hang out in the non-sheep area. Sometimes I find good things to eat when no one is looking. Today I got to help a little. Robin found a ewe that was in heat today and Robin says that if she breeds her now then that ewe can have her lambs at the State Fair Nursery. I don’t know what she is talking about, but it doesn’t matter. Robin needed me in the ram pen. I helped her catch Faulkner, who she brought over to where the ewe was. 

That is Jerry, Faulkner’s buddy, who goes everywhere with Faulkner.

After Faulkner was finished with his job I helped take him back to his pen.

Don’t bother me now. I see shadows.