Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary

Getting The Hay In The Barn

Because of our climate here in the Northern Rockies, we have to feed hay to our horses from November until June ... and given the number of horses we have (about 30), that means we buy a lot of hay -- 125 tons this year.  Like everyone else with large animals, our hay costs have skyrocketed ... from $95 a ton a couple of years ago to $140 a ton last year to ... ouch! ... $210 a ton this year.  Fuel and fertilizer costs are the main culprits.

Our next-door neighbor grows the hay we buy, and bales it in small square bales weighing about 75 pounds each.  Until we built our own hay barn last year, we had to store our hay purchase in our neighbor's barn and make weekly trips to pick up hay.  This meant stacking two or three tons at a time by hand on a flat-bed trailer and driving the load back over to the ranch.  Then we'd unload it and stack it in the various horse barns.  Needless to say, that was a very time-consuming and labor-intensive task every week, and although it made for great muscles, it was a chore we could do without.

Building the hay barn last year meant we could store the entire purchase right here at the ranch.  These past two days our neighbor has been bringing over this year's hay crop, and by this evening, all 125 tons -- that's about 3,300 bales -- should be in the barn.  And thank heavens, we don't have to stack them by hand!  He uses an automated hay wagon that scoops the bales right up out of the field, shuffles them onto the bed of the vehicle, and builds a 6-ton load that can be mechanically raised to a vertical position until it forms a 14' high wall of hay bales ... no human muscle applied.  (Unless, of course, a wall collapses, as it did yesterday on us -- and then human muscle is again pressed into service!)

I thought you might be interested to see how this works, so I shot a video of one of the wagon loads being stacked in the barn yesterday evening about 7 p.m.  I edited down the video into a short clip of the highlights:

There's Got To Be Another Way Out Of Here

This is blind Herbie, who I photographed this morning climbing in the cat house's outdoor enclosure.  Herbie is the original lovebug, but he is also one intrepid little guy.  There is much in the American Kennel Club's description of the breed standard for Dachshunds (of all things!) which would apply to Herbie the cat, including "courageous to the point of rashness" and "any display of shyness is a serious fault."  (For those of you who have met Herbie, you know what I mean about that second attribute.)

As for the courageous part, well, we discovered that not only does Herbie love to climb up the sides of the enclosure, but he also figured out how to get out of the enclosure!  Do you see the mesh wire that goes across the top of the enclosure?  Until recently, there was a two-inch gap between the edge of the mesh and the wall, and for years no cat had ever figured out how to work his or her way through it.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, we found blind Herbie wandering in the yard around our house one day.  He didn't have a care in the world.  It's not like he doesn't know there are 24 dogs milling around out there -- it just doesn't occur to him that he should be afraid of them or anything else.  (The other dogs are over at Widget's House.)  In truth, we don't have any dogs who would ever harm him or any other cat, but still! (Does the expression "courageous to the point of rashness" come to mind?)

No one had seen him get out, so our first thought was that someone had accidentally left the cat house door open.  But, we have some visual cats who would have been out exploring, too, so that didn't seem to make much sense.  Then, a day later, he was out again.  Finally, on his third escape, it was our employee Cindy who saw how he was doing it.  He simply climbed up the enclosure fence, worked his way over to the wall, and then squeezed through that narrow gap at the top ... and climbed all the way down to the ground.  Off he went to explore again. 

Not bad for a cat with no eyes in his head, huh?

Of course, at that point we 're-engineered' the top mesh and moved it over to be flush with the wall.  No more escapes since then ... but he still loves to climb.

And here he is after his climbing expedition this morning:

One Suture At A Time. Or, Minion In The Making?

Alayne took this photo of me removing the sutures from Carmel's eyes this morning.  Carmel had gone blind from a corneal dystrophy that destroyed the corneas in both eyes.  The condition was extremely painful.  After consulting with a number of veterinary ophthalmologists, our vet Dr. Brenda Culver learned there was nothing we could do to eliminate the pain but remove her eyes.  The operation was a couple of weeks ago.

After coming home from the hospital, she's become a different dog.  She is playful, carefree, and clearly enjoying being pain-free for the first time in a long time.  Before, she would walk around the house, blinking and cringing because she was afraid she was going to bump into something with her throbbing eyes.  Now she bounces up and down and twirls, and she doesn't worry about it any longer!

There's something else that's different about her, too.  Our suspicions are growing that she has decided to become my minion -- my second one, after Ellie May!  She has started following me around everywhere, and hanging out in my office when I'm in here -- often curled up right next to Ellie May on a dog bed.  Alayne reports that Carmel now gets upset when I leave the house and she's left behind inside.  (Carmel must have realized early on that the minion-quota for Alayne was already way oversubscribed by Dachshunds and other assorted camp-followers and now exceeded safe levels.)

I suspected something was going on because of what Carmel had started doing these past few evenings.  After dinner I often sit down in a comfortable chair in the living room with my laptop to get some more work done.  Carmel has started coming over, standing up on her hind legs with her front feet on the chair, and tries to climb into my lap.  Now, there just isn't enough room for both laptop and Beagle on one lap, so I had to choose: computer or dog.  Carmel thought the choice was a clear and simple one.  So yes, I'd set the laptop aside and scoop up the Beagle for some loving.

Speaking of blind Beagles, look who was sleeping on the couch next to us while I was removing Carmel's sutures (do you think Widget looks comfortable enough?):

We've Been Groomed

Our two blind Poodle sisters, Molly and Priscilla, were due for a trip to the groomers, and I took them to Missoula today for an appointment I had scheduled a while back.  (Do you know it's easier to get in to see a doctor or dentist or mechanic these days than it is a pet groomer?)  After I dropped Molly and Priscilla at the groomers -- it takes up to four hours before the girls are ready -- I raced around Missoula, running errands on our once-weekly trip to town.  We're trying to stretch these out to once-every two weeks (and I grocery shop accordingly), but it seems an unexpected veterinary issue inevitably makes for weekly trips to either Missoula or Helena.

The groomers called just as I was making my last stop to say Molly and Priscilla were all done and could be picked up.  I wished I had taken a "before" photo, but suffice to say they looked very much like ranch dogs (well, as much as a Poodle can look like a ranch dog) before their new hair-do.  Given the heat and the kind of coats they have, we decided to get them closely cropped this time and let their hair grow out over the summer.  Alayne took the photo above this afternoon, right after I got home.  That's Molly on the left and Priscilla on the right.

After our little photo session, we walked the girls over to the Widget's House yard and led them through the gate.  Of course, who leaped to his feet back on the porch and raced out to meet them but our local hound-about-town, Trooper. 

Here he is checking out his girlfriend Priscilla ... notice that hound dog tail sticking straight up in the air:

Is that a "Whoa, what happened to you, honey?" expression or a "Darling, you look absolutely stunning!" reaction?

And here's Trooper checking out Molly's hair-do (and apparently something else, too):

Back From His Stroke

A wonderful friend of the animals at the ranch, Anne G. from Seattle, emailed me this morning to ask about Dusty.  Her note reminded me that I was overdue on an update on how blind Dusty was doing after his spinal stroke a few weeks ago.  Well, recovered he has -- completely!  We were nothing less than incredulous at how fast he bounced back from the blood clot in his spinal cord that left his rear legs almost paralyzed.

I took this photo of Dusty in the Widget's House front yard this afternoon, and you can see he's fully upright on all four legs.  In fact, getting the photo was a bit difficult because Dusty kept trying to walk away from me and the camera.  He had no problem loping off to avoid getting his photo taken!

The spinal stroke is called fibrocartilaginous embolism, or FCE for short, and we know others have not been as fortunate to see their dogs recover from this condition as well as Dusty has.  So we are very, very thankful for his happy outcome.

Can You Find The Dog In This Photo?

Last Saturday night about 9:30 p.m., Alayne and I were putting the dogs up in the various cottages. This is quite the process, since there are 44 dogs, multiple buildings, and each dog needs to "do their business" before bedtime.  Typically we empty out our house first, then the smaller cottages next to the house, making sure that everyone has adequate potty time outside.  (This is strictly a notional exercise for the incontinent ones!)  While Alayne is riding herd on the gang over here, I head over to Widget's House to start putting those guys up.

I was finished at Widget's House and moving on to the horse barns when I heard Alayne calling for blind Austin the Beagle.  Austin loves his doggy buddies and is always at their side, so he follows along at night when Alayne calls everyone to the cottage for bedtime.  Not this night.  He was nowhere to be seen.  I hurried over and started searching with Alayne.  By now it was getting dark and we were getting nervous.  This was totally unlike Austin to not be with the other dogs.  He also isn't an explorer, and with sheep fencing layered with chicken fencing and topped with electric fencing, it was most improbable he could have -- or would have -- gotten out of the yards and wandered off. 

We searched and searched the dog yards, our house, and the other buildings.  There was no sign of this small blind Beagle.  By now we were increasingly frantic, and the light was fading fast.  I jumped on our utility vehicle and raced out into the pastures to start looking there while Alayne kept looking for him around the cottages.  Up and down the pastures I drove, flashlight in hand, calling for Austin.  Finally I gave up.  It just didn't make sense that he would take off.

Moments after I returned, Alayne glanced over and saw Austin slinking around the corner of our house, headed towards Kelly's Cottage and her.  He looked sheepish.  Alayne raced over and scooped him up in her arms.  She was so relieved to be holding him I thought she was going to squeeze him to death!

We walked around the front of the house to see where he could have come from but found nothing to indicate where he might have been.  Perplexed but happy to have found him, we tucked him in for the night. 

On Sunday night, this time about 9 p.m., we started the bedtime process again, and just like the night before, Austin did not show up.  Alayne was walking around the house again and lo and behold, she found him.  She called me over to see where he'd been. 

Deep in this hole by a small pine tree, right in the front yard, was Austin ... and he was sound asleep.  I went back into the house to get the camera.  In the photo at the top of this post, you can see why he'd be almost impossible to notice unless you walked right on top of him ... especially in the late evening light!

He didn't even wake up until I got close enough to get this photo:

At that point we explained to Austin that rabbits are supposed to be in holes, not Beagles!

Stoney's Creek

In our recent blog post about Wendy M. adopting Stoney and Baron, I had mentioned how Wendy said blind Stoney loved to jump in a nearby creek on their evening walks.  Well, Wendy emailed me these photos today, and I figured you'd enjoy seeing them.  Wendy wrote:

"Here are a couple of pictures I took this afternoon of Stoney in her creek.  Every day we walk a 1/2 mile to the creek where we follow our little routine: I let her off her leash, she follows her little path down to the water's edge, jumps in, drinks half of it, jumps out, walks right back to me and stands by my side while I put her leash back on. I think she likes the comfort of feeling me at the end of the leash and knowing that I'm with her."

The next one in the sequence was:

And finally, happy water dog:

Are We Going Boating?

Blind Helen looks as if she's prepared for some holiday boating, doesn't she?  The blue thing around her neck is an inflatable ring that serves as a "soft" alternative to the hard plastic cones for post-operative wound protection.  A wonderful supporter of the sanctuary, Sue R. in Colorado, sent us an entire collection of these neck rings, ranging from Dachshund-size up to a Helen-size Rottie. 

Helen just had her right rear leg removed because of a fibrosarcoma, and unfortunately the only way to eliminate the cancer and make sure it didn't spread was to take off her entire leg.  We brought her home last week, and I took the photo over the weekend.  This has been a more difficult transition for her than the typical dog who loses a leg, mostly because she's totally blind.  Helen is also a big girl, about 100 pounds, so there's a lot of exertion required in moving that body around on three legs.  She's getting the hang of it, but it's been slow going. 

The ramp leading up to the front door of our house is ideal for a dog like Helen coping on three legs, as well as for the Dachshunds with bad backs (like Daisy, who you see partially hidden behind Helen), or for the old ones who struggle with steps.  That's new arrival blind Austin the Beagle on the ramp, and blind Callie waiting at the door.

As for Helen's tongue ... one of the funny things about this sweet girl is that she often falls asleep with her tongue sticking out, and after she wakes up, she doesn't seem to realize it's still sticking out.  We like to say that Helen is one of those really dangerous Rotties who will lick you to death if she gets a chance, so maybe she just likes to have her tongue out and ready in case you happen to be walking by!

Blind Creighton And His New Pals

You probably remember that our adorable blind Lab puppy from Mississippi, Creighton, was adopted in early May by a wonderful couple in Olympia, Washington, Peggy and Matt M.  They already have two blind chocolate Labs and thought Creighton would make a great addition to the family.  Peggy reports that Creighton -- who they renamed Emmitt Creighton III -- is enjoying his new life and new companions.  She just sent us these photos, which I thought you'd like to see.

In the photo above are Creighton and Bobby Lee, who Peggy calls "my two 'no-eye dears.'"  Peggy wrote, "This photo looks like Bobby Lee is the dad - but maybe more grandfather-like.  There is an amazing resemblance in the ears and the head.  I've often thought that Emmitt, with his little white soul patch, could have been named Dizzy Gillespie.  He is prone to crooning (maybe more like baying) like I hear him doing right now outside."

And in this next photo, Emmitt Creighton III is playing tug-of-war with Peggy and Matt's other blind chocolate Lab, Danni Rae:

Peggy wrote, "And yes, that's Emmitt's donut.  He loves that thing.  He's torn it open and pulled out the stuffing at least half-a-dozen times, and I keep restuffing it and sewing it back up.  It's kind of like a kid and his favorite 'binky'."

Thank you Peggy and Matt for giving this little boy such a fabulous home!

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With the July 4th holiday coming up, I won't be posting any new entries until Monday morning.  That's it for this week!

Video: I'll Just Drink My Way Out

This past Sunday it was blistering hot here ... in the 90s ... and so we pulled out the doggie swimming pools and set them up in the various dog yards.  At one point I came back out and saw blind Callie in the pool by the house, just lapping and lapping at the water.  It's not unusual to see a dog take a drink from a pool, but Callie kept on drinking like she was trying to lower the water level.  (Yes, there were two water bowls just 10 feet from the pool.)  I finally went inside to get the video camera and when I returned, she was still drinking.  What you see in this clip is just the last 20 seconds of what must have been almost two minutes of constant lapping. 

Which brings to mind the question -- just how many laps did she do in the pool?