Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary

Let's Share. No, Let's Not.

I walked into the cat house this morning to clean and found this sight waiting for me:  Wobbly Mink and one-eyed Lulu rather awkwardly sharing a bed.  Clearly there was only room for one cat in the bed, and that was Mink.  That didn't stop Lulu from wanting to share the bed, though.  And since she couldn't fit IN the bed, she apparently decided the next best thing was to lie ON it.  In doing so, however, she kind of locked Mink in the bed.  I guess she delivered her point.  Sort of.

In the upper right corner of the photo you can see just the nose and mouth of wobbly Claire, who had an entire bed to herself and was quite happy about it.

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Blind Pansy Comes To The Ranch

I drove to Spokane today to meet a volunteer from the Columbia Basin Equine Rescue group, Megan V., who was bringing a blind mare to us from the Tri-cities area of Washington.  Megan's group works to save feedlot horses that are headed to slaughter, and they buy the ones they think they can adopt out to new homes.  They call us when they find a blind horse at the feedlot. 

One of Megan's friends took the photo of Megan and me with Pansy the mare, who is blind from glaucoma.  We had just moved Pansy from Megan's trailer into our trailer.  You can tell that Pansy isn't so bothered by the stress of travel that she won't enjoy a good meal! 

I got home around 7 p.m. this evening, and Alayne had an isolation pen already set up and stocked with hay and water.  I unloaded this tall blind mare, introduced her to her pen, and before we could say "have a nice evening," down went her head into the pile of hay.  Somehow I don't think she'll have any trouble adjusting to her new environment.

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Cody's Cancer Recheck

I took three-legged Cody in to see our internal medicine specialist in Missoula, Dr. Dave Bostwick, today for a recheck on his cancer.  Cody completed his chemotherapy course about three weeks ago, but there were still a few very small remaining lesions at the base of his, um, penis.  Yes, it was a transmissible venereal tumor, folks, which Cody got when he was in Miami.  (See our original post on his cancer diagnosis here.)

We've since heard from a veterinary student in North Carolina who had studied at a vet school in the Caribbean, and she said this type of tumor was quite common among dogs in the islands.  In fact, her roommate's dog had a TVT, and was successfully treated.

At the recheck Dave found a couple of lesions were still present, though they hadn't grown at all, and the entire formerly cancerous area remained very "quiet."  We'll have to recheck again in three weeks, and then probably every few months for a year to make sure the tumor is completely eradicated.

Cody, needless to say, did not like the examination at all, but was very stoic and tolerated it just fine.

Up Against The Wall

I was over at Widget's House, our main dog building, taking photos for our winter newsletter when deaf Tyler suddenly sprang to life, hopped on a dog cot, and pressed his nose against the wall.  And then he just stood there, motionless.  He must have remained like this for a full minute, which is a long time to have your nose plastered against a wall.

When he finally unhitched himself, I couldn't see anything on the wall that got his attention.  Maybe it was a tiny bug he ate.  But Tyler is known to have a vivid imagination, so who knows?

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Big Feet Get A Makeover

Our farrier, Rich Boyle, came out today to trim the horses' hooves.  Rich comes every 6 to 8 weeks, and it takes about five and a half hours to do the Rolling Dog Ranch herd of 24 blind horses and 6 sighted ones.  In this photo Rich is working on our Belgian draft horse Rooster.  This enormous (2000 pounds!) sweet fellow came to us from the National Park Service, which could no longer use him because of a degenerative back problem.

We took regular horse halters out to the pasture by mistake, and they won't fit these big boys, so Alayne simply looped the lead rope around Rooster's neck.  Rooster and his brother Beaver are so gentle and well-trained that we hardly need to use restraint on them.  When I took this photo Alayne seemed to be looking "under the hood," for what I'm not sure!

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Dog Houses Are For ... Perching

There's something about heights that Travis, our dog with a fused jaw, just loves.  I took this photo yesterday in the paddock on the east side of Widget's House.  Travis would much rather be ON something than IN it.  Like dog houses, for instance. 

We'll look over from the main house and see Travis sitting just like this, perched on top of a dog house.  Never in it, mind you, only on top of it.  He'll stay perched for quite a while, sunning himself and taking in the view.

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Brrr! This Must Not Be Atlanta

Here's blind Willie, a Beagle who came to us a week ago from an Atlanta, Georgia, Beagle rescue group.  When we woke up today it was 13 degrees, far below the forecasted low for the night.  So when Alayne let Willie out of the isolation cottage this morning, she put a fleece doggie shirt on our little Southern boy to keep him warm.

Ironically, our high temperature for today -- 54 degrees -- turned out to be the low for Atlanta last night.  Willie was probably thinking, "Where did they send me -- the Arctic?"

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A Fine Day For Spreading It Was

Alayne took this photo of me spreading compost with our manure spreader this afternoon.  It's that time of year, when the compost windrows have finished cooking and curing and can be spread on the pastures.  We have several days worth of spreading to do.  Then we'll start dragging the fields with the chain harrow.  Fall is another way of saying "pasture maintenance."

The compost I was working with today started out as all the manure, bedding and hay we mucked out of the horse stalls last winter and spring.  By now it's a wonderfully earthy, black, crumbly mixture that looks like soil ... and it's ready to be returned to the land.

That's Widget's House on the far left, then Beauty's Barn, and in front of the tractor is Scout's Barn.  Lena's Barn is off to the right, along with some of our run-in sheds.  You can see our cottonwoods have started to lose their fall colors, and we're already bracing for the next blast of cold -- a low of 16 degrees forecast for Wednesday night! 

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Lunch Guests

I took this photo while Alayne and I were having lunch yesterday and being crowded by some uninvited guests.  That's blind Evelyn on the left and blind Helen on the right.  Helen is Alayne's office mate ... she basically lives in Alayne's office, and would rather be there than anywhere else.  But when she heard us at the lunch table yesterday, she quietly made her way down the hall, through the kitchen and up to the table -- all without making a sound.  Evelyn is more vocal and demonstrative, and there's nothing quiet about her when she wants something.   She'll woof and dance and woof some more.

Now, the truth is that I am not very fond of being surrounded by expectant dogs at mealtime, all wanting a bite of whatever it is I'm eating.  With as many dogs as we have in the house at any one time, it can feel like you're eating on stage in front of a very demanding audience.  So I don't exactly encourage this, although I have (hmm) been known to have my weak moments.  Alayne is much more accommodating, and has never been known to discourage these guests from showing up.  Nor has she been known to ever resist giving in to these charming faces.  It might be that because she majored in Theater in college (that was B.L.S., 'before law school'), she actually enjoys dining in front of an audience.  Who knows?

But in case you're wondering, yes, both Evelyn and Helen got what they wanted.  Again.

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Today's Theme: Black & White

I was cleaning the cat house this morning when wobbly Mink climbed into the basket bed with deaf Snowball, presenting a perfect picture of the all-black cat next to the all-white cat.  I went to the house to get the camera, came back, and took this photo.

Once finished with the cats, I scooped poop in the dog yards, and when I returned ... here was this sight outside our back door:  Claude the blind Great Dane puppy and three-legged Cody, snoozing side by side on their cots.  Another black & white moment.  I went and got the camera again. 

(Click on photo for larger image.)