Category Archives: Country Life

A Snow Day

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After being a substitute teacher for a room full of second graders yesterday, I decided that I needed a day off. So I stayed home and hung out with dogs. Shelby demonstrated relaxation techniques.

It snowed throughout the day, so in the afternoon, the dogs and I went outside to play and enjoy nature. Even 12 year old Nikki likes to lay down in the snow.

Zekie, foster dog Claire, and Baxter (rear).

Shelby stayed indoors to watch the house, but all the other dogs went outside to play. The preferred game is frisbee.

Cassius prefers a rousing game of jolly ball.

Zekie is a snow dog and will play anything you want to play.

I am recharged. Spending time with dogs always reenergizes me. Next week will bring more subbing adventures and I will be ready!

Recycling: New Dog Bed

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Morty enjoying the new bed

Here’s one project I can check off my list. New dog bed is ready to use!

As our old, decrepit arm chair got disassembled to put in the trash, we noticed the seat cushion was one large piece, so we saved it to make into a new bed for the dogs. I covered it with my daughter’s old blanket that I found in the hall closet. The twin blanket was a perfect fit.

I found directions for a dog bed on-line and altered it slightly since my cushion was an odd shape. Basically, you cut fleece fabric 4-6 inches bigger than your bed and cut strips about five inches long around the edges. Then tie them all together with doubles knots. Done! You can even untie and launder the cover if you need to.

I am very proud of this bed because all parts of it are recycled keeping waste out of a landfill. The animals seem to be rather fond of it too.

Shelby napping on the new bed

Photo Shoot

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Baxter, Shelby, Zekie, & Cassius

The Sanctuary Acres dogs (minus Nikki) posing for a photo during their walk.

It was a beautiful 46 degree December day. I estimate the average temperature for this time of year would usually be about 30 degrees.

Post Christmas Hike

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Can you believe this photo was taken yesterday, December 26th? It was 66 degrees in northeastern Ohio, the day after Christmas.

So of course, we took this fine opportunity to go hiking with dogs. This most of the pack, sans Nikki. She is 12 and no longer up to going on walks. Zekie, Shelby, Cassius, and Baxter thought hiking was a grand idea.

Zekie, my reactive dog, even did very well. He was fine with the other people we encountered. We only met one other dog whose owners had him on the side of the trail. I told Zekie that he was being a good dog, and to keep going with the “on by” command. He looked at the other dog a few times but did not bark or react until the other dog, who appeared to also be reactive, barked. But after Zekie barked in response a couple times, he continued walking at my command. It was a proud moment for me!

Good boy, Zekie, good boy!

Christmas Gone to the Dogs!

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Merry Christmas dear Readers.

Our dogs had an enjoyable day as well. The Sheltie girls got treats. Nikki’s are soft for her old teeth. Shelby got chews. Zekie got a nylabone chew toy.

Cassius got a new coat of his very own! No more hand me downs from previous greyhounds.

And Santa brought Baxter two frisbees!

Cassius tried to make off with one of the frisbees.

Cassius, Baxter, and Shelby even got to join in for Christmas at grandma’s!

I hope all of you got to spend the holiday with your loved ones as well.

Training and Walking

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I have heard it said that racing greyhounds can’t or don’t sit. They are even exempt from the sit during Therapy Dog testing. Our retired racers have always learned to sit, some better than others. So I have started working on teaching Cassius the sit command. I put him into the position and praise like crazy. We will have to wait and see if he catches on like the others have.

In my renewed effort to walk dogs regularly, we have been walking this week. I always take Zekie because he has so much to learn to be a “normal” dog. He is doing excellent on his sits, downs, and stays. It will soon be time to work on these commands with distractions at a distance. But when it’s just us, he does great.

See how well Zekie holds his sit-stay. I couldn’t keep Cassius in a sit, but he did do a stand-stay. I’ll take it for now. He at least stays still enough for a picture.

Cassius was confused as to why were not going inside though. He thought since there was a door, that we should enter and see what there was to see. Zeke kept his sit but seemed puzzled as to what Cassius was doing. So was I, Zekie, so was I.

All these shenanigans were apparently very exhausting. Of course Cassius is originally from a racetrack in Florida so the cold may have played a part in wearing him out too. Cassius came home and felt the need to take a nap. A tired dog is a good dog. Good boy, Cassius.

New Adventures

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I am enjoying my first week of retirement. This morning I decided to take Zeke and Shelby for a walk down the road and back for some exercise and some training. We walked down to the township park which is about 3/4 of a mile away. On the way we stopped occasionally to practice sits, downs, and stays. The picture above was taken while practicing stays in front of the local church. They had this pretty garland up for Christmas and I thought it made for the perfect photo opportunity while we were working on holding a sit. The pups did very well, especially considering that the recycling truck was emptying dumpsters just a few houses away. Shelby was not a fan of the grinding and banging but she did hold her stay.

We live in a small, rural community and apparently people are active in the morning. I never knew this because I was at work. On our way home a lady opened her front door to greet us as we passed by on the street. When she first saw Shelby, she thought her dog got out because she has a sheltie too. Once she realized it wasn’t her dog, she opened the door anyway to introduce herself and say hello. We talked for several minutes and I’m sure we will talk again as we had lots to say.

The dogs and I walked a short distance farther and another lady driving by in a van stopped to say hello and introduce herself. She said she knew where we lived and that I had visited another nearby homebound neighbor with two of the shelties before. We visited for a couple minutes then went on our separate ways. I learned that she also lives nearby.

What a lovely morning getting to meet two neighbors that I had never encountered before. I think that I am going to like this different life outside of the work environment. It is foreign to me but that just means it is a new adventure.

This is Zeke shortly after we returned from our walk and training. When the lady stopped in the van, he wasn’t sure if this was ok or if he should protect me. I told him it was alright and as the lady and I talked, Zeke relaxed. He was a good boy. This was a relief because he can sometimes be reactive to people or dogs that he does not know. But his response this time was just right. All the activity and decision making apparently wore him out. He needed a nap, so crashed on the living room couch with his head on the pillow.

I can’t wait to see what adventures tomorrow brings!

Zekie’s New Adventures

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Zekie’s life just got immeasurably better. I am retired officially as of today. Zekie suffers from severe separation anxiety that we have never been successful in treating. We tried training, behavioral therapy, holistic medicine,  prescription drugs. None of them have made a difference. We have only been able to contain him, and that has not been without extreme challenges.

Now Zekie won’t have to deal with me leaving every morning and being gone all day. At least not unless I get a job sometime down the road. Any time that I go away should only be for relatively brief periods of time. I can also be here to work on more extensive training with him and see if I can get control of some of his other behaviors.

He is an extremely smart dog. This has not always been to his or our benefit. Yesterday I went out to the pasture to bring the dogs back inside. Zeke grabbed the frisbee and was taking it to the house. I asked him, what are you doing? He stopped and looked at me. I told him, leave that outside. He put the frisbee down. I told him, go put that back in the pasture. And so he did. He picked the frisbee up, ran out and put the frisbee down inside the pasture fence, then followed me back to the house.

If a dog is that smart, there must be some way that I can communicate to him that we will always come back, that he is not being abandoned. It is just up to me to be smart enough to figure it out. But while we are working on obedience training and emotional health for Zekie, I get the pleasure and joy of hanging out with him and the other animals everyday.

Life is good. Peace be with you.

 

A Quiet Weekend

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This is one of those weekends where I have no plans. Ha! Then why am I so tired?

After the obligatory bathroom cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, and dish washing, I decided to try making my garlic breadstick recipe into dinner rolls in preparation for the upcoming holidays. The rolls came out quite well. They will make a fine addition to this evening’s dinner of cavatelli. At this point, I did stop and read for a while. A girl has to have her priorities.

A bout of insanity struck and I decided to clean some more. I washed the dogs’ bedding from their crates. Then I thought what am I going to do, put Nikki’s freshly laundered bed back in her smelly Vari-kennel? So I hauled it into the bathroom, disassembled, scrubbed, and hosed it down.

Time to sit down now, right? My brain was too busy for this. It thought, you are out of granola, you should make a batch. Homemade granola for breakfast is a delicious thing. But…

since the oven is already heated up, and we are out of dessert, I should make that pumpkin gingerbread coffee cake I have been thinking about. And so I did.

As soon as I finish that load towels and make the pasta for dinner, I am sitting down! Boy, I hope I don’t have another weekend with no plans for a while. They are exhausting.

Soup’s On!

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Hot soup after working outside on a cold afternoon. My husband has been making and installing old-fashioned storm windows for our old-fashioned house. I help a little bit (very little) when I get home from work. So soup hit the spot this evening.

I sautéed some garlic, onions, and celery, then added the rest of the broth that I made a couple weeks ago and put in the freezer. I added some Slovenian sausage, also from the freezer, that we purchased on a trip to Rogers Flea Market back in the summer. Then I threw in some green lentils so I would have some protein as I avoid eating meat and would pick that out, saving it for my husband. Next came cubed sweet potatoes, chopped zucchini, some celery leaves and spinach. For spices I used salt, pepper, basil, oregano, garlic and onion powders.

You may notice that I use fresh garlic and garlic powder in the same recipe. I do this on purpose because each adds a different, unique flavor that complements dishes in a different way.

Everything simmered in a pot on the stove while we finished up a storm window. When we came back inside, the house smelled wonderful and dinner was ready. Bliss.