Vyxxan's Virtual Venture

Archive for the ‘Pet News’ Category

Not a whole lot of typing to do, this is just gonna be photos. Warning: some pictures are full size, so if you click them they will be VERY large.

Unfortunately, it’s too wet to do anything outside yard-wise. We’ve had rain, then over a foot of snow, and then even more rain.

The ground is squishy, seriously squishy. We can’t even park our cars in the normal places because it’s too muddy. I made the mistake of letting my little dog jump into the car this morning BEFORE putting a towel down. Mud all over my seats. Blargh!

Other than a few errands, I haven’t done much of anything today. Went around looking at plants. It’s a bit breezy so it’s kinda sorta chilly outside. I tried to fly my newest kite, but while it’s breezy… it’s not a steady breeze so my kite kept crashing. Boo hoo.

One of the errands I went on this morning was taking two of the dogs to the vet for shots and check ups. I decided that Rita and BuddyMack would be good to go, since I didn’t have Ron to help me. Rita has always ridden in the car well, although she really misses my big car with the big armrest she could perch on. I always keep meaning to buy her a booster seat, but never remember to look at yard sales, lol! BuddyMack I hooked up with a short leash and ran the seatbelt through the handle, that kept him in the back seat for the most part. He had just enough reach to put his paws up on the armrest and try to give me smooches!

Dr. Durham was still in surgery when I got to his office, but he finished up pretty quick. He asked if I had any concerns with their health, and no, not really… except we were working on BuddyMack at the time and when it was Rita’s turn I totally forgot what I wanted to ask. I did remember to ask if 1/2 her dosage was okay, because she seems more active and healthier when she only gets the 1/2 a pill a day (instead of 1/2 a pill twice a day). He said that was fine, that sometimes the dosage needs to be adjusted and me doing on my own was probably a good idea. Rita is taking Lasix for congestive heart failure, and has been pretty chipper since she’s been on just the 1/2 pill a day.

Other than lifting his leg on the base of the exam table, BuddyMack was a VERY good boy at the vet. He whined a bit while we were waiting, but held still while the doctor looked at him and gave him shots. Leaving the vet he didn’t want to get back in the car, so I had to lift him in, lol! Too many interesting smells!

Rita was a little lady up until it was her turn on the table. When we got into the exam room she jumped in a chair and sat there waiting. Along with her shots she also got her nails trimmed and there was a small growl at the second shot and some small noises at the nail trimming. She didn’t get trimmed to the quick, it was more about leave my paws alone noises.

We got home and we all came in the house for treats. I thought about going back with the other two dogs, but I decided that the beagle girls are more than I can handle. We will probably take them in the morning if the vet is available, two beagles are easier to handle if I have Ron to help. They aren’t actually due for their rabies shots until July, but while it’s on my mind is better than me forgetting. I just know Dr. Durham is going to tell me to put Sadie on a diet, too. She’s turned into more of a chow hound than a beagle these days… if she can get away with it she will eat all her food and as much of BunBun’s that she can steal. BunBun has learned a trick for that, though… she picks up her food dish and carries it away.

After we were home from the vet I had to look through photos on my computer. I had been talking about BuddyMack as a puppy… so I went and found some of the puppy pictures. Awww… they were all so cute! Sure look a lot different now, though! If my photos were more organized I’d post some of those old puppy pictures… along with more recent ones. Maybe later… I need to go walk the dogs now!

Hugs,
Vyx

One of the peonies that I bought a while back, and planted (bareroot, from Lowes) is growing! Notice the lack of mulch or anything… just a bare hole in the lawn. We have a really old peony in the lawn that doesn’t seem to care about the grass, and Ron usually mows it down when it’s finished blooming. Crazy! I will probably go out and mulch it tomorrow. We are expecting anywhere from no snow to maybe 10 inches of the stuff over the weekend. Sheesh!

It was an absolutely fantastic day outside today. Nicer than yesterday, where I spent a bunch of time getting ready for going into work at noon and then got there to find out that I wasn’t needed after all. They did call me and leave me a voicemail on my cell phone. Thing is… I never look at my cell phone unless I need it… and usually that is to check the time or something, not to talk on it! LOL! I was a bit annoyed, it’s quite a drive and a waste of gas… not to mention I couldn’t even pick up my paycheck as the boss had just left and hadn’t signed them yet. So I went shopping, then came home and puttered around. Planted my latest addition to my new vineyard.

This morning I went to Lowe’s with the truck. Twenty bags of mulch for my grapes. I over-estimated, I’ve got 5 bags more than I needed at this point. I put down landscape fabric, then about 4 or 5 inches of mulch. When we get a calm and dry day I’ll go out and use RoundUp around the edges of that. Have to stop the bermuda grass and weeds so that the grape roots won’t have to struggle. Oh, and besides my Muscadine grapes, I also picked up a seedless table grape locally last week. Vanessa, which is a red seedless. I was VERY impressed with the roots when I planted it… they were HUGE! The Muscadines I bought online had very wimpy tiny roots. Lots of em, but tiny. The Vanessa grape had long fat roots winding around in the pot. I unwound them planting, of course.

All nice and mulched…. but you can’t see the vines in all that mulch. I did try a few photos, but decided they weren’t worth uploading. Basically, aside from the trips to post office and Lowe’s… my day was spent mulching the grapes.

I dumped out the dirt in the “window” boxes a while back, and used the potting soil I’d bought end of season last year to fill them back up about a month ago. Planted radish seeds in one, then forgot to water it! It was too cold right then, so after about a week I remembered about watering and watered them, and now I have baby radish plants, growing VERY slowly. Radishes are pretty much the fastest and earliest veggie you can get out of a garden… and I love em. Here is a photo of them… I had a duh moment today and moved them to where they get full sun all day today.

Because I had a second box that didn’t get full from that bag of potting soil, I finished filling that up with potting soil out of one of my tomato buckets… and planted more yesterday. The baby chicken wire and hardware cloth on top of the boxes is to keep the darn cats from digging and using them as toilets. I watered both of em yesterday, too.

I tried to get photos of buds of lilac, but my camera wouldn’t focus that closely… it has macro mode and I couldn’t get it to work. Can’t see the screen in bright sunlight, can’t read it anyhow without glasses sometimes. Oh well. The lilac needs some major pruning… sections of it are dead. We will wait until it’s done blooming, but the Althea might get lopped down this weekend. Needs it even more than the lilac. The floribunda rose in the yard needs dead wood cut out, too.

More signs of spring… Our neighbor Brent came up with his tractor and disced our garden area… and then came back a few days later with his tiller attachment and tilled it. It’s WONDERFUL! But Ron thought I should have asked/told him to do more of the garden area… even though what is done is fine for what we usually grow. So, being Ron, he decided that he would get his own tractor out and do it himself.

I don’t know how long he’s had this tractor, but it hasn’t been used in the 4 years I’ve known him. He got a new rototiller since I’ve met him… but never bothered with his old tractor. He said all it needed was a battery. But it ended up needing filters cleaned and gas put into it… the gas had evaporated! Gaskets had to be made… New terminals for a battery… and finally today he had to go get hydraulic oil for the transmission and lift.

The tractor is running, but the lift is not working, and that makes it pretty useless as a tractor. You need the lift to keep the discs out of the ground while you are driving, turning, etc. Or whatever you are pulling behind. You can’t just be dragging it all the time. Have to lift it up.

Anyhow, I took a photo of it today, parked in front of the garage. Then, before I started this post I looked up just how old the darn thing is. Shocker! It’s older than I am! It looks it, too, lol… but figure those are probably the original tires on it… dang!

That’s an 800 series Ford tractor and they were built from 1954 to 1957 in Dearborn, MI. This one looks like it still has original paint, too… what’s left of it. I hope Ron can figure out what’s wrong with the lift, he spent most of last weekend messing around with it and it looks like he’ll be spending this weekend messing with it, too. I’d rather have him help me with other stuff! LOL!

Finally, because this is also a sign of spring around here… kittens! There are only 3, and I only did close ups of two of them. They have different mothers, but the mother in the first picture decided to take em over when we moved the other 2 out of the cold. She’s not a very good mother, let 2 of her own die… I guess her mothering instinct is just slow working and she’s taking good care of all of them now. Big size difference… they are only a week apart! Kittens grow fast, the tiny ones are already getting their eyes open, not a week old yet.

This is Patches III….

And finally, a sort of tortoiseshell kitten…

Too cute! They didn’t even yowl at me when I picked them up to take their pictures! Itty bitty babies usually howl and holler… and are super hard for me to photograph, they wiggle too much. I just lucked out, I guess!

hugs,
Vyx

I forgot to mention…. I’d rather use newspaper or cardboard under my mulch, rather than landscape fabric… but it’s almost ALWAYS horribly windy here and I just can’t see how to lay that stuff down. The fabric stuff is on a roll, and held down by the roll…. and then I dump mulch on it. Can’t see doing that with a good layer of newspaper… the paper would blow away before I could do anything. So… landscape fabric it is.

BuddyBoy ain’t too fond of cats. He wants to chase them, at the same time he’s afraid of them. Most of our cats are smart enough not to run, some actually run at HIM, lol!

Just an example, but if all the cats are on the porch and in front of the door then I almost have to drag Buddy into the house. Ditto if he’s in and there is that cat gauntlet to go through to get out.

It’s been bitterly cold here. 16F for the low, maybe up to 30′s for the highs. That’s darn cold for here.

I walk the dogs anyhow… and yesterday when we got back from walkies there were 3 cats in BuddyMack’s house! One came out as we came up to Buddy’s house, but the other two looked like they were going to stay for a while, lol!

Buddy has a heat lamp to keep him warm, operated by a thermostat so that I don’t have to turn it on for him. The girls have both a heater and a heat lamp, that was the original kitty house. The cats have a new house, with a heat lamp, but evidently they prefer Buddy’s house!

So Buddy hurries up and eats his food… he doesn’t want the cats getting it! Then he proceeds to just bark like a maniac until the other two cats left his house.

He should have just let them stay… they could all keep warm together. :)

I just thought it was the funniest thing…

hugs,
Vyx

I gotta remember to get the camera out, sigh. Even tho I don’t trust it to work right all the time.
That means… no photos, yet again.

Anyhow. I’ve been bringing the beagle kids in the house this week. Pretty soon it’s going to be winter and we won’t get walkies every day. Oh, we’ll go if I can walk without slip sliding away and it isn’t actually raining or something… the cold won’t stop me, just precipitation and it being dark before I get home from work.

The poor Beagle kids haven’t been in the house for much of the summer. Heck, WE aren’t in the house if we can help it for nice weather. And I love my dogs in the house… get to have lots more love and fun things like hunt the laser bug.

Sadie came in and immediately started looking at the floor… waiting for the laser bug! BunBun got her nummy bone and immediately ran around the whole house trying to find that perfect spot to hide it and save it for later. BuddyMack stole a partially chewed bone, got on the couch and just started having fun with it. Rita growled at everyone, and tried to be the boss. Hey, they were stealing her nummy bones, messing up her couch, stealing her toys… She hasn’t lived here that long but she’s known me for longer than the beagles ages combined. Far as she’s concerned she’s the top dog. Sadie doesn’t think so. Sadie is the Momma Dog and no 13 lb Brat terrier is gonna be HER boss!

I’d bet my money on the 35 lb Sadie against Rita. Yes, Sadie has gotten rather overweight… I could barely lift her to step on the scale and Ron had to read the scale for me. I think I’d better start buying some diet dog food and making Sadie’s dinner seperate. I think 35 lbs is kind of… well, Sadie is now built like a tank!

Other than a bit of growling here and there, everyone was on good behaviour. Dogkids got groomed and petted and treats and loved on… and I want a new fence and steps so that I can do this with less trouble!

Oh, at work this week, they asked me to stay late… and I said… but who will walk my dogs? Sorry, can’t stay late, my dogs depend on me. I have a narrow window of time when I get home now… if I stay late at work then it’s too dark to walk dogs. People that live in town don’t understand this… I can’t walk dogs down by the pond in the pitch black night. A flashlight is not quite good enough. When it’s dark, it’s DARK out in the country. And I’ve seen a bear only a mile from the house here… heck, in the dark I wouldn’t want to surprise even deer drinking from the pond.

Pretty soon walkies will either be real fast or not happen… thankfully the short days don’t last all that long. I need the exercise, too, lol! I used my new Nano to count steps… Dog walking is averaging 960 steps, and about 40 calories burned, lol! I don’t rein Sadie in like Ron does, tho…. if she pulls, I go faster. Ron stops her and tells her to quit pulling like a plow horse. Me, I want the exercise…. I’d go around again if the dogs would mind as well first time, but they don’t… and we are running out of daylight.

Oh, and the fun with terriers… I almost forgot. Twice this week Rita has gone out behind the house on her morning potty outing when Ron gets home and she’s found something dead to roll in. She came in the first time and had eaten some of it, burped right at us… ewwww. And then I noticed her smell… she got a bath. She hates baths… too bad. So she does it again yesterday, I get home and Ewww dog. Bath time. Two baths in one week… if I say the word she is hiding under the couch. She TRIED to hide last night, but I caught her. I’ve gone out to see if I could find what she’s rolling in to remove it… or rather have Ron remove it… but couldn’t find anything. Ron took Rita out on leash this morning for potty, he wants to avoid the smell, too, lol! Rita wouldn’t potty, just sat at his feet. No treat for sitting there, he can’t stay out all day… and then she was mad at him. I’m not, tho… I’m glad I didn’t come home to stinky dog needing another bath again. :)

One more thing before I get ready for chat time… I don’t know if I mentioned it on this blog or not. My right across the hiway neighbor adopted 2 of our kittens. Her sister lived in the next house over… and was the one that took BuddyMack and then abandoned him, moved away and left him last January. Well, anyhow… the near gal adopted 2 kittens this summer… and her sister was visiting last weekend and took one of the kittens home with her. Stole a kitten from her sisters kids. Well, probably it was her kids that hid it in the car, but still. Grrr. It was the cutest kitten and the one they liked the best. But they still have Cocoa Puff, so that’s okay. Kids will just have to share the one kitten more. Cocoa Puff is more special… he’s an unusual color for a cat.

Time to get ready for chat….

hugs,
Vyx