A Puppy, Twins, and 10 Months Old

A Puppy
My DH and I have been talking and decided that JB was ready to get a puppy so we surprised him a week and a half ago with a little 8 week old black lab.

Little Gunner is a sweetheart and Callie and him get along great.  Since the pup isn't potty-trained at the moment he is only allow on the tile floor.  JB is responsible for all the messes that Gunner makes and I have to say he has been doing a good job, cleaning up that is!

Twins
We've been suspicious for awhile and on Friday it was confirmed.  Patches our goat gave birth to twin boys!  It was so amazing to watch her give birth and what is even more amazing was we were all home to watch!  You would laugh to know I watched several "live" goat birth videos just so I knew what to expect.  Yes, I know that sounds weird but if my DH was at work when this all happened and something was right I needed to have some clue.

The little guys are so cute but sadly the all white one didn't make it.  He was weaker then the other one and didn't want to nurse so on Saturday my DH and JB were milking Patches and feeding the little one.  When my DH went out Sunday morning to check on the little guy he had died.  It's was sad but at least we have the other one.

10 months
Yes, my baby is 10 months.  She now has 3 teeth (plus a 4th pushing through) on the top and 2 on the bottom.  A week ago Friday she started to crawl, thanks to my dear brother-in-law who tempted her and feed her a bite of his cinnamon roll. (We all predicted he would be the first to feed her sugar.)  She now is all over the place and is starting to pull herself up on things.  I found her the other morning standing in her crib just chatting away to herself.  On the same day she crawled she also said her first word.  No it wasn't mommy or daddy (though she says it but doesn't quite directed it to us) it was "ed-eddy."  Yes, it the name of my in-laws little dog!  She saw him and said "Ed. Ed-dee."  It won't be long before she's talking up a storm!  We sure are having a lot of fun with her!

Introducing...

but before I go any further I know many of you will be surprised at what our new pet is. It's not something one would expect me to have. Let me clarify this pet is really JB's. It was given to him by a friend and now makes it home with us. I can't tell you how excited JB was when he told us his friend wanted to give him his pet. We talked about what all it would entail and on Saturday we went over and picked it up.

Let me introduce to you Titan, JB's Bearded Dragon

Titan is a 3 year old lizard that is 19 inches long (including his tail.) His meals consists of six meal worms and a few crickets each evening. He really is a very calm lizard and only puffed up slightly the first time JB picked him up.

Here's Titan's home. Right now his cage is on the floor in the family room until the guys come over to hoist the cage upstairs.

So there you have it, our new family member, Titan.

Another New Family Member!

Since getting married my DH and I seem to be in the habit of adding new members to our household every 2-3 months. It started with chickens, then a dog, then calves, then a horse, and yes you've guessed it we have now add two more members to our small family. Can you guess what it might be this time...it has four legs, eats weeds, and follows you around like a little dog. Goats! JB and I each got a goat the other night. Mine is the doe, who we've named Patches, and JB's is a buck named Stripe. Aren't they cute!

I didn't think I would get so attached to them but when you come into the field they come running over to greet you and like to stay close by.

Patches

Stripe

JB has been working with both goats to get them halter trained. They both are doing great and absolutely love JB!

Callie

I guess it has been awhile since I last said anything about our Callie dog. Well, she is officially ours. We signed all the papers and had her spayed about 3 weeks ago. We are discovering more and more what a sweet dog she is! She has a wonderful personality. She likes to be with people and play with other dogs. She seems to enjoy following little kids around (part of that herding instinct). She is great on walks, never wandering to far and seems to look forward to wrestling with my husband every evening when he gets home. Overall I would say Callie is a very warm dog. Both of us are so glad that we got her and that she has turned out to be such a great dog.

I will say that the week after we got back from our trip was a rough one with her! She peeped on the floor almost every night, run back down to my in-laws house 3 times, and came into the carpeted area of the house (where she isn't allowed) and chewed on several newspapers. By the end of the week my DH and I were a little fed up with her behavior. (On the cute side with all of this she found the basket in the living room with all the stuff animals and took each of them and set them on her bed. She's an interesting one.)

This week she has been much better. My DH and I have been working really hard on praising and giving her a treat when she potties outside. We started working on that this past Saturday and I'm happy to report that she hasn't had an accident yet. (Of course now that I haven't said that she'll probably pee on the floor tonight.) Another thing that has helped is if my DH or I wake up in the middle of the night we'll let her out. I really hope this continues to work because she is a much more enjoyable dog to be around when she does her business outside.

As for wandering down the in-laws to visit their dogs...I've been trying to go down there every few days so that Callie can play with them but then there is a time to leave. We are trying to teach her that its okay to go with when we take her but she isn't to go on her own. So far it seems to be working but I don't think she has quite mastered that one yet!

Yesterday I had a lot of fun with her while I was raking leaves. She is so funny to watch. She'll go to the back deck and then all of a sudden come running as fast as she can to the front yard where I'm raking leaves and jump over the pile and then quickly turns around want to be play. I couldn't help but laugh. She looked so cute and was so playful!

I know I'm really bias but she sure is an adorably cute dog!!!

Chicken Update

Well it has been a while since I've updated you on our chickens. Let me tell you they are growing very quickly and now look more like hens than chicks. We have now moved them to a larger coop where they have access to both indoors and outdoors.

This coop was built by the previous owner. My mother-in-law suggested I find an old board and paint the words "The Coop" in black and hang it above the door. I think that would look really cute. Maybe I'll do that this weekend.

Inside the coop

The coop's yard

Here are the girls now!! Quite a bit bigger than the last time I posted pictures!!

Cally

We have finally decided on the name Cally for our new dog. Cally is a shorten version for a local Indians tribe. Both my DH and I think the name fits her better than Sioux. It has been amazing to see how much better she is doing since we picked her up from the pound on Saturday. She now walks up and down the deck by herself. (That is something that we have had to teach her to do.) Since Saturday she has had three accidents on the tile floor but yesterday and today she did both of her businesses outside. Believe me this lady is very happy about that!!! The biggest change is she is going on walks with me off leash up in a field by our house. She will either walk right next to me or go out a little distance and then stop and wait for me to catch up to her. Yesterday a very loud motorcyclist drove by and she freaked out and took off running. She disappeared out of sight and I wasn't sure how far she had run. I called her and whistled for her and a few seconds later her head comes around the corner and she looks at me a little sheepishly. I called her again and she came running up to me!!! She has made huge improvements from when she was in the kennel!!

It has been funny to watch because Cally really hasn't been taught that much. We are had to or are having to try and teach her how to go up and down steps, eat in a bowl, walk on a leash, check to see if the glass door is open before walking through it, how to come when she is called, that its okay to bark when someone comes into the yard etc. Poor thing really does have much of a clue in some of the small things.

We did have one scare on Monday when Cally met Monk and Jasper. Jasper has been sticking his nose over the fence trying to meet Cally. I've been trying to keep an eye on that because my DH did say Jasper really doesn't like dogs. Well Monday afternoon Cally was in the corral with my DH and I as we were moving chicken into a larger coop. Cally had no fear of Monk and Jasper. They were sniffing her and she was sniffing them. The problem came when she brushed up against Monk's back leg and he kicked out. That scared Cally who accidentally ran into Jasper's back legs and he kicked. Cally caught that one and she took off running. Well, Jasper then took off after her. I started yelling for Cally and Jasper while running after them. (Let me tell you the two of them can run fast!) They took off into the other corral where Cally finally turned and barked at Jasper but by that time Jasper "ran" her over and she sat on her back legs yelping. By this time my DH, who had been in the chicken coop when the incident happened, came running and scared off Jasper and picked up our poor Cally. (Apparently if Cally had run to us or not run at all Jasper won't have gone after her but when she took off running he thinks it as a game.) We were both so scared that she was hurt real bad. My DH looked her over and on her back hind leg she has several hoof size pieces of fur missing. The whole incident literally scared the pee out of her but fortunately nothing was broken. She was just shaking like a leaf as DH carried her out of the corral. We were able to get her to walk on it and except for being scared she seems fine. We are so glad that, that is all that happened!!! And of course my DH and I thought this whole thing might sent her back into her shyness but it surprisingly didn't!!! We almost wonder if it bonded us even more because she sees us as someone that will protect her!!! Cally now growls and barks at Monk and Jasper whenever they come close to the fence she is at. I think she now has a fear and strong dislike for them!

She really is a sweet dog and we're glad that we brought her home!!!

Foster Parents

Well, after some talking my DH and I have decided to take on the role of foster parents. We filled out the paperwork and were able to take home our little girl this afternoon. She is 9 months old and is very shy. She didn't have much human contact in the past so she is somewhat resistant and almost scared to be touched. We have discovered that once she is being held she starts to calm down and seems to be enjoying it. Both of us would like to make her a permanent member of our family but that all depends on how she responds to us and those around her. Unless something major changes I can't see any reason why she won't stay!

Here's a picture of our new baby! Isn't she beautiful!

(I had you going didn't I?! :)

She was one of 13 dogs rescued from property where the owners were being evicted. She is an Australia Shepherd who the pound named Berry. When we went to visit the pound she was so shy that she wouldn't come out of her dog house without the worker basically pulling her out. She has been around other dogs but not around people. She doesn't know how to walk on a leash and the only things she had to play with was a bucket of water. Both my DH and I fell in love with her but were unsure if she would warm up. We decided to take her as a foster dog with the intent of adopting her. She was very scared on the way home and was trying to hide on the floorboard of the truck. After awhile we were able to get her back on the seat and she seemed to enjoy the ride. Once we got her home we placed her in the kitchen where she will be able to hang out with me during the day. Our plan is to have her as an outside dog but until we get her use to people we will keep her in the kitchen (tile floor).

She really is a beautiful dog and we are excited about having her. We are hoping everything works out so that she can be ours. We are already thinking of an alternate name for her. We are thinking Sioux but haven't settle on that for sure! I'll keep you posted on her progress!