With the help of sweet Jewel

I got to about 40 feet from the Sand Hill Crane. It was hunkered down sunbathing in the middle of the field again, only it's head sticking up.

It wasn't comfortable enough with us to stay lying down, but it didn't take flight.
It was AWESOME! We got to about 40 feet and I felt like that was close enough. We walked along side by side for a while, then it turned around and we walked side by side the other direction. It wasn't worried. It ate, drank from a wet area, didn't seem concerned by Jewel at all. It must know the horse isn't a predator?

Just a magnificent bird!

I sure wish I had a better camera!

I think if you click on the photos they will come up full size for you. Very, very cool creature and I feel so thrilled to be in it's presence. :D

Enjoy!

The day the crane came to visit

I think if you click on the photos they come up larger and you can see the bird closer. This is a Sand Hill Crane that has been on the farm lately. Just the COOLEST bird!! It is out of it's range, but A LOT! It honks or trumpets and makes the strangest sound. It is larger than a Great Blue Heron. It hangs with the crows, eats tons of the old corn and yesterday was spotted in the middle of the hay field, laying down, preening and sunbathing. I am going to try for more photos.

It, or one like it, came last year, too. I kind of think it must be the same one.

Spidie-Man? And the launch of my website, YIKES!

Poor Roscoe. My friend Cindy says that should cause him enough anxiety! Yeah, he looks pretty miserable, however,............. he couldn't WAIT to be the only one trying on costumes and posing for me! Charlee Bears all the way! Roscoe says......"Show me the money".........and he will dress up as a Spider! Spur and Colby were whining and barking outside the door wanting their turn to dress up. Besides, Roscoe puts me through enough hell, he can take 10 minutes to dress up as a spider!!! Roscoe has entered the Fetch Howlaween costume contest every year. Kathy Palmer at Fetch is a good person and I like to help promote her business. Fetch is such a cool store!

Now you tell me, which one should I submit?...........

So, yesterday I launched my website. www.amysanimalcare.com NO critiques, thank you very much, it is still work in progress. I can't figure out how to get it to change pages without opening a NEW page and that is making me NUTS!! The contact page opens just fine, but all the other pages end up with a new page. Rich said he would help me later. My computer is such a dinosaur and SO PAINFULLY, DREADFULLY, TORTUROUSLY slow it takes me FOREVER to do anything with the website, so I am kind of proud I got done what I got done and frustrated that I can't figure it out better. I think Rich is hesitating helping me because he knows my limited patience with this sort of thing. I am trying to be chipper, really I am. It will be tweaked and tweaked some more. Kind of like Cindy setting up our agility classes..........adjusting the course, and adjusting and adjusting and ADJUSTING. OCD? Maybe.

Four blind mice and the day it was all about poo!

First, the mice. Rich was bringing in our wood and uncovered a mouse nest. I was just finishing up working the dogs in the agility field and bringing them past the pile heading inside. They always "work" the wood pile, Colby mostly hunting grasshoppers, but mice and whatever else might be there. She once found a snake skin - a VERY coveted item and carried it around for hours!!! Today, it was baby mice and Roscoe ate every one. :O Ewwwwwwwwwww!!!!!! Rich ran from the pile, hands to his head going...."Ohhhhhhhh, ickkkkkkkkkk!!!!". I thought about Nate and George and what would Nate do. Stand there, silent, curious, watching, I am sure. George might not kill blind baby mice. Not enough challenge when he has tasted ground hogs before. I'll have to ask George, next time I see him.

In the morning we walked with Nate and George. Kathy is still "under the weather" after having wring surgery. It has wrecked her, really. Down and OUT!!! So, Nate had George tied out in the sun while he cut wood. It's all about wood these days. When he saw us he removed his hard hat and gloves and let George loose to join us. It seemed like the path was littered with poo. All kinds of different poo and Nate and I had to stop and check it out. Fall brings out all the critters, busy stocking up for winter, and their poo is everywhere. Lots of poo. Different poo. Of course, there were also the deer guts from the kill the bow hunter had the night before, but I didn't photograph those. Just poo. It was all about poo on this late morning farm walk.

This poo was some sort of "claim", I think. It was in the middle of a bunch of feathers, obviously from some bird kill. Like the animals was saying........."Hey, look, this was mine, all mine." Why would they do that? The body was gone, it was just feathers? But, it was obviously some marking territory or some sort. It has seeds and corn and I think eggshells and bones in it. Raccoon? Skunk?

We think this poo was raccoon. It is nearly dark purple, probably from berries and on top of the plastic culvert. Raccoons are known for leaving their scat on top of things. Roscoe likes to do that. Another marking of sorts. Scat. What constitutes scat? Shit, crap, dung, poo, poop, feces, waste, manure, bowel movement, dump, what other names are there? I think they do have differences.

Like this is a bird poo. I can't call that dung, or manure. I am pretty sure those terms are only for cloved hoofed animals?

This is definitely scat!! It is full of hair and bones. Coyote, fox?

This is probably from skunk, possom or raccoon. I suppose it could be from fox or coyote, they are omnivours. It is full of corn.

This we weren't sure if it was even from a wild animal. I mean, it does look a little like my dogs poo after they got into some corn.

Wasn't this the most interesting post evah???

Visit with Dr. Dodman

OK, so Roscoe has not seemed quite right this year. More on edge, more reactive, sometimes really shut down at trials (Xanax is no longer helping in that department), has marked a couple of times in my house......... :O .............it has seemed to me his Buspirone isn't taking the edge off him any more. Like he is menopausal or something. Seriously, the occasional outbursts of rage seem to fit that sort of thing. And the mood swings. Of course, last weekend he was AWESOME and PERFECT and no sign of such "issues". Isn't that always the case?

I decided it was time to check in with his trusted behavior medicine vet, Nick Dodman at Tufts. It was a good appointment because Roscoe had a MAJOR meltdown. The waiting room is pretty intense at Tufts. Often dogs at the end of their lives, there for last chance help, or treatment. We walk in and sit next to a HUGE golden retriever with an ENORMOUS growth on her nose, making her mouth all deformed, her nostrils all strange looking. Poor thing looked absolutely miserable and was there for some radiation treatment or something. Stress, stress, stress...........the room oozed stress. There were some small dogs, but mostly HUGE dogs. I sit in a corner seat, facing him away from everything and basically shove Charlee Bears into his mouth to keep him from stress barking. Next in comes a HUGE Spinone/Doodle/Irish Wolfhound type dog and plops down next to us and I have to tell the owner "He IS NOT friendly", so she pulls the dog away from sniffing Roscoe's ass. Roscoe just about implodes. I shove more Charlee Bears in him, trying to break them up into tiny bits so he doesn't get STUFFED/FAT! I thought I was going to implode.

FINALLY, they come get me. We enter the room, Dodman's office, and Roscoe is a shaking mass of nervous energy, woofing under his breath, reacting to every sound outside the door. I try to get him to sit and focus. Lasts about a second each time. Dodman says something about Roscoe being pushy and demanding his cookies from me. Hah, he is always demanding cookies, but this wasn't about the cookies, I explain. This is about the sounds outside the door and how intense the situation was in the waiting room. I explain our meltdown in the waiting room and how uptight he is. Not sure he agrees with me, he is of the mindset of these types of dogs being dominant and pushy, no matter how much shaking the dog is doing sitting in front of him "demanding his cookies". I have to just work through that with him.

We chat about what's been going on. He explains I should make sure to let Roscoe know he is top dog over Spur and to remind him of that often. Letting Roscoe get resources first, etc. Elders rule, he is very firm on that deal. Yeah, I have probably been praising Spur more in front of Roscoe a bit too much, which doesn't help my relationship with Roscoe. I will be more mindful of that. He thinks if we increase the buspirone the marking may go away and some of the anxiety may diminish. We will try it for a month or so and re-evaluate. He gave me a script for Clonidine, a blood pressure med. I WISH I had that yesterday for the waiting room! It can be giving regularly or situational. Situational, say for trial stress, I have to give 1-2 hours to take effect, but can give 3-4 times/day. Sounds good and I can do a test of that next weekend at Sunday's trial, if he melts down in the first class I can give it and see how he does the next class.

We can also try stopping the buspirone, and starting just the clonidine. That's a possibility. Ultimately, the drug of choice would be prozac, but we tried that years ago and it diminished his play drive which is essential for his performance work. Something very important to both of us. It's what we do, and it helps him tremendously.

At one point we decided to test his urine, since I had not done that. I had a blood panel done, which was all good, but had not tested his urine. The attending student was going to take him out herself to get that. I was like..................."Uh......NO, I will be doing that", LOL!! I am not sure they fully understand the extent of his aggression. A stranger taking his leash, shoving a tray under him to collect urine would surely have been bitten!!! I do think Roscoe suffers some from little, cute dog syndrome. There was even a point when Roscoe was working on a stuffed toy we gave him to keep him occupied, that Dodman reached down as if to pat him. He didn't and I didn't say anything, but GOOD GRIEF PEOPLE!!!!! This is an AGGRESSION case!!! Oi! It can be a struggle working through these things with people and the cute factor is a big issue. I am always on edge in public, ready to blurt out "NOT FRIENDLY", but in an office with the country's top behavior medicine veterinarian I didn't think I had to. Sigh..................... I was exhausted by the time I got home. It was a long drive, during rush hour traffic, the waiting room scene drained me, the visit was difficult. I wish we had thought to give him the stuffed toy first thing. But, at least Dodman got to see the crazy, uptight version I talk about.

Started his increased buspirone this morning.

Spur is an AKC registered dog!

This is the certificate they sent me. I tried to register him as a papillon, but NO, too much black I was told by pap breeders. They kept my $35 bucks. Well..........they ended up using that money and automatically registering him as a mixed breed. "Trout Brook Spur of the Moment" is his registered name. Hah! Now I just need to see what clubs will offer mixed breeds to do agility or obedience. Right now when I go to the AKC site and search for trials offering mixed breeds in my area none come up. Snobs!! Such snobs!! I know, so many people think this is a horrible thing. The AKC promoting segregation. I am just not of the thinking. Especially if you are comparing it to segregation of blacks. Sorry.............nope.........NO SUCH comparison. It just isn't the same. We are talking DOG SPORTS here, not whether or not someone can ride a bus or enter a building or have a job. Sorry...........don't say that to me or you might get an earful. I am one who is thrilled for this opportunity. I am SO tired of bringing my mixed breed dog to trials and not getting to run him. The kicker will be how many clubs offer this. It doesn't start until next April, so time will tell.I love this shot of him after flushing the gathering geese out of the newly planted winter rye. He thinks he is a farm dog, working hard each morning! Good little man!

The seasons change quickly, and I found a funny!!

The sunflowers hang in there and produce seeds for the goldfinches, who took off when I came close with my camera, darnit! But, notice the grass??? I had to mow yesterday! I enjoy mowing, but this time of year I am kind of done with that. It's so 09 and we are moving ahead to 2010. Time to wash windows, bring in the wood, put away my shorts and haul out my sweaters. No MORE MOWING! Will it have to be 20-10? I mean, just saying 10 doesn't sound right. It sounds right to say 09, but the year 10? Just ain't right. It will be 20-10. Certainly 0-10 doesn't work like 09.

The frost quickly killed my beautiful impatiens. They are just too tender.

As I was organizing my photos this morning I found this one. It just cracks me up! Like, Spur and I totally got the joke, but the Pin Heads, well, they were not amused. They just didn't get it, did they? Colby looks like she is saying........"If you tell that stupid joke one more time I will barf!!".........and Roscoe................"You know, it is just not funny, let me go or I will BITE YOU!!!". But, Spur and I saw the humor in it, or so it seems!!!