Archive for the ‘Bella’ Category
Killers Among Us
We live with killers. Did you know that? Likely all of you reading this are sharing your home and possibly your beds with a known assassin. Even the sweetest among them are lethal and don’t you forget it for a second.
Today I saw first hand, the violence in action. My sweetest of all dogs, Bella is ruthless when her prey drive is in 5th gear. She has been hunting a nest of bunnies in our big yard for a week now. Well, actually, she hunted for a day and then has spent the rest of the week inside. I had hoped that the bunnies would be old enough by now to get away, but I was wrong. I heard the squeaking while I was moving large rocks. I started running while holding a rock, didn’t get far, stopped to drop the rock carefully and ran to her, the whole time yelling at the top of my lungs “LEAVE IT!!!” (which didn’t work, even for me, by the way). I thought I had saved it, it looked unharmed and wiggled in my hand, but then slowly, I saw it’s neck moving strangely and, well, I’ll save you the details. The bunny just slowly died. I stood there for some time, marveling at the beauty that goes so largely unnoticed by us – those velvety ears, the tiny nose, the beautiful fur, the perfect little face. It made me so sad, so very very sad, the waste of it, the loss of such a young life. I walked with it to the edge of the yard and gently slid it to the other side of the fence. Maybe some wild thing will eat a meal today. Maybe the life won’t be lost for nothing.
But then I realized the hypocrisy in me – I nearly rejoice when they kill chipmunks – the critters that ruin my gardens and my morning sleep – why do I have such an arbitrary view on the value of life? And as I turned to walk back to the house, Hermes joined me with a low head, sweeping tail and a smile that said clearly, “wasn’t that COOL? Dude, SO cool!” And I saw Bella in the distance, looking for more. They do what they do without all the stories in mind – they just do what they know to do – chase little furry things that move fast, but not fast enough.
An insight on hiking with your dogs
While we were camping recently I had an insight – the “rules” for walking correctly don’t always apply. For instance, we were hiking and two of my dogs wear backpacks. They carry all the water for the group (for us and for them) and carry our lunch. They have a heavy load on their backs and need a bit of room to sway from side to side. It is frustrating and difficult to keep them close, like I usually do, because the packs keep banging into my legs, knocking both of us off balance. I tried for a spell, to keep them behind me but that was also unpleasant as they tended to drip their saliva down the backs of my legs (which is as gross as it sounds.) The solution? I hooked the leash onto the clip on the back pack (we use wonderful packs from RuffWear) and let them walk in front of me. In my opinion this is the perfect solution. They get to have all the room then need to do their “work” and I am free to walk unencumbered.
As you see, they are both working so hard they are staying pretty close by. It was a great solution to this problem. In addition, you’ll see my dog, Bella, on one of those extension leashes. Ordinarily I HATE those leashes as they are used in city walking and the dogs are usually out in front, extending the leashes to their maximum length. This is just a recipe for a whole host of problems, in my opinion. But on a hike, these leashes provide the dog with more room to explore while still being under your control. After a good long hike, you can see, they don’t really want to go that far in front anyway and if they are primarily walked close at hand, that’s where they’ll end up. So, with all things dog training, remember that rules usually need to be broken from time to time.
The important thing is to always ask yourself this question: Who is the leader here, and who is the follower?
Pups at play video
Spring is here and the pups got to play in the BIG kids yard with my dogs, Hermes and Bella and our friend Abby (who is Willow‘s daughter). They had a blast and were tearing around for nearly an hour.
Basket of dog & puppy toys from Kong
I am done!! All my foster dogs are out to their new families!! Hooray!
I can’t describe the level of contentment that swept over me after last Friday when all the puppies and Willow moved to their new homes. The past week has been a breeze with just my dogs and Chloe. Unfortunately, Chloe still hasn’t found her forever home but she has fully recovered from her last experience. She is back to her sweet, very smart self. Today she left for her permanent foster home. I’ll still see her at The Water Bowl when I work there. I’m 
planning on doing some training with her and working with her shyness around some men. It will be good to have contact with her. And it is VERY good to have her out of my house.
Tonight we received a box full of samples from Kong. We tried some of their toys I’ve never used before! I’ve talked about how much I love their products before but now I can describe how my dogs liked them:
We took a large bone and filled the ends with treats and Kong Stuff’n and gave it to Lollie. She immediately became VERY possessive of it and is still chewing it. We had to put her upstairs so 
the other dogs could enjoy their treats. If you have a dog who is at all dog aggressive or toy possessive, this treat will set them off…it is that good.
Hermes got the regular sized Kong bone, also filled with treats and stuffing. He is still working on his. He has also confiscated Bella‘s stuffed large sized puppy Kong and is currently chewing on that one while his lies nearby. Unfortunately, Bella preferred the cattle bones we have lying around, but hey, two out of three ain’t bad.
Lollie guards her kong
Franklin is very good at hide and seek
Tuesday night, after Chloe returned I went into my room to put Frank Frank to bed and he was NO WHERE TO BE FOUND! I panicked and immediately jumped to the thought, “Bella (our dog who is a firmly dedicated critter hunter) ate him” We started looking everywhere, deciding he must have gotten out under the 1.25 inch space under the door. But so much didn’t make sense…HOW did he get under the door and if Bella ate him, why wasn’t there a “crime scene?”
We looked for an hour and then cried and cried. Ryan was distraught, he said, “I wish magic were real so we could wish Frank Frank back” So sweet and so sad. Finally, at 9:40 Ryan said, “will someone please put me to bed?” and we did. I finally got to bed at midnight and as I was trying to calm down I heard the unmistakable sound of wings fluttering!! I opened the closet door and FOUND him standing in my laundry basket! He must have climbed up my pant legs and was hanging out in my clothes the whole time! What is amazing is that we were all crying and calling out to him and all the lights were on and we were literally tearing the room apart! He never made a sound! That stinker…he seemed very happy for all the attention in the middle of the night…I of course woke everyone up and we all celebrated. Franklin was warm and happy and just sat there chirruping and preening. What a night! Here’s a link to another post of a similar thing – apparently Quakers do this sort of disappearing act regularly if they get the chance.
Pippen is 4 years old now
Pippen in 2005
I received a set of photos from a puppy adopted nearly 4 years ago from our first pregnant mama dog (Bella) fostering experience in 2005. Bella was the mama and the puppy’s name is Pippin.
Notice the shared likeness to Hermes, Pippin’s brother and even to her mama, Bella. It is crazy how similar and how different puppies look from one another and from their mamas. Genetics…crazy.
It means so much to me to get pictures of and updates about my adopted puppies, thanks to Pippin’s family for emailing this to me!! Please send in your stories and photos and we will post them!
Feature Article
Elburn Herald photos by Sarah Rivers
There is a feature article in the current edition of the Elburn Herald, a local paper that has been publishing for more than 100 years. Susan O’Neill wrote the feature and Sarah Rivers took the photos. Fun!
Read Giving Puppies a Chance for Life
Update: The Elburn Herald is updating their website, so you can try this link also. Or just navigate from www.ElburnHerald.com
It’s a really good article, farily long too. We kind of weave through the story of our foster experiences as well as our own dogs. Enjoy – and submit your comments at the end of this post!
Good Books and What They Don’t Say
I love my books. I have used two to help me understand what things to expect as I work with my foster mamas. Neither of these books are the definitive, must-have reads that some of my books are to me. But they are sound books with good advice and they are books I happened to have around or were able to find on a quick run to the bookstore. They are:
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However, there are some things that they don’t tell you in books:
• Mama dogs have loose stools, like soft serve ice cream (sorry, sort of gross) especially if you’re feeding them a rich diet. Expect this and don’t assume there is anything wrong unless it is clear that the mama is lethargic or unwell, or if the poop stinks to the high heavens of if there is blood in the stool. All of these are signs of illness (likely parasites) and need to be addressed by the vet. A good rule of thumb is to get a stool sample tested by the vet right when the mama arrives and another a few weeks later. Don’t assume a clear sample is really clear. Some of these parasites take awhile to show up. And don’t assume that you can’t catch what the mama has. Many parasites are transmittable to humans. Something I learned all too well over the summer when I caught giardia from Sweetie. The treatment was effective and I’m fine now but the medication was so strong it literally took me months to feel normal in my gut again.
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