puppy play

Miles and Captain show the cattle dog pup how to have a good time!

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It's baby season. And,....You can't run from ticks

Two baby great horned owls.

It's hard to find the time to sit and write when the sun is FINALLY shining.
Then the rain is unceasingly falling.
The green house is bursting with plants to transplant.
The garden needs more planting and the garden needs hoeing.
Work is bursting with baby owls, baby falcons, baby hawks, baby animals of all varieties. My job is to avoid baby animals(sort of). Today alone I took over twenty bird calls,(meaning people calling the raptor clinic about birds) most of which pertained to young birds being clumsy and kind hearted people determined that those birds needed to be saved. Again, my job is to avoid those babies at all costs, because baby birds and other baby animals, are best kept in the care of their true parents where they can learn how to hunt, who to mate with and what a predator is. Convincing people that the clumsy, 12 inch tall, not flying raptor in their backyard is not in desperate need of medical attention can be a daunting task. Many people begin telling a long tale of discovery and concern, others talk so fast you can barely understand them and they themselves are running out of breath.
"mynameiscindyweneedsomeonetocomethereisabirdonthegrassneartheparkinglotanditcantflyitsbeentherefor

20minutestherearenototherbirdsaroundcomequick!"......( I dearly hope this fast talker never has an emergency requiring them to call 911- the operator will never understand her.)
It consistently feels anticlimactic to tell people that this is normal and no action needs to be taken. Some people are relieved, others in disbelief will argue and insist. Some people call me names like "honey-bun can ya come and help?" while others swear at me when I don't give them the answer they are looking for "You don't give a damn about this animal do you? What the hell do you do all day?!". Today I was alone in the clinic with a baby owl who had two of his talons (the toes on the feet that have long claws for hunting and perching) traumatically amputated (a.k.a. accidentally cut off)when the tree he was nesting in was cut down. I was examining the bird for other injuries when the phone began to ring. I ignored it prioritizing the INJURED baby bird in my hand, but the person called again and again and again. I wrapped the nestling barred owl in a towel and took him with me as I reached for the phone. The man on the other line said "Thank god! I thought it was going to be the voice mail again! My name is Mr. Recall Man (names have been changed to protect the innocent) I live at 1234 blah blah blah road in This City and I need someone to come out right away. We've got a bird on our back porch and its just standing there!" I gently asked the man to describe the bird, height? eye color? did it have a slightly fuzzy appearance? Together the man on the phone and I decided that it was indeed a young red trailed hawk and that it must be exploring the area after coming from  the woods just a few yards away. Yes, he had thought there was some baby hawks up there. Yes, it made since that he couldn't fly yet, must be a baby. The bird was too frightened to move and it would be best to leave the area.Yes, we agreed. I thanked him for his concern for Iowas birds of prey and returned to the baby owl in my hands, who is very likely doomed. Owls need their talons to hunt and perch, releasing an owl missing one talon would be okay, depending on what talon was missing, but two talons? One of them being the most important one of all? I called my boss to confer, she suggested I make the baby comfortable with pain medication, stabilize the foot, give the baby antibiotics and reassess in the morning. I cleaned the wound as best I could and wrapped it. I hand fed it a cut up mouse with the antibiotics. As I put the baby into a clinic cage for the night the phone rings again.

For as much time as I spend avoiding babies, they keep finding their way to me. This little buckaroo was found by my mothers neighbor and after going unclaimed in the area she called me to help. I have to give a big thanks to the wonderful volunteers of Protege Canine Rescue for taking him in. It just kills me to see little bitty pups in animal shelters and Protege is making sure he stays out of a shelter. I just can't walk away from a face like that! It's those same chemical reactions in the the brain working on me and on the people calling me about baby birds, saying...."take care of that baby! Don't walk away!" This little cattle dog puppy will be with me until tomorrow when I will take him to the vet for a check up, then drop him with a volunteer foster home. He wriggled and cried when I gave him a bath, but he doesn't stink anymore. He yelped when Michael and I removed his ticks, but he forgave us soon after.

Having this puppy around for a whole 2 days has helped me realize how hopelessly busy I am. No wonder I'm behind on blogging! It's that time of year. That time when things are bursting out of the ground and time slips away faster then the sun at the end of the day. A few weeks ago Michael and I went for a run in the woods at a nature area near me. We took Bugsy, Wonder and Miles with us and ran about three miles. One week later we were still pulling ticks off the dogs. The total tally must of been over 100 ticks all together between what Michael and I found crawling on either of us or any of the dogs. In addition to the tick problem the poison ivy has shot up around the edges of the paths and I haven't been to that park since. Even if I diligently avoid the poison ivy creeping at every trail edge, I can't keep the dogs from letting their paws brush against it. If  I even suspect they were in it I scrub them up in the kiddy pool in the yard with dawn dish soap to break down the oil and protect myself. I am highly allergic to poison ivy.

Posion ivy and ticks be damned. I'm going camping this weekend! Michael and I will be spending the entire weekend hiking and camping with lucky dogs Miles and Bugsy.  In other news Wonder Dog and I finished our fly-ball class and have been invited to join the Disorderly Conduct team! Last practice I took Comet along, and he really enjoyed it. Looks like fly-ball is in this dog packs future! Captain and Miles come to the garden with me every day to water the green house, pull weeds and walk through the field and farm. Captains favorite part is the giant field puddle he splashes then lays in. Then he runs around full tilt like his little fuzzy butt is on fire. Every time I see this I think ......I should make a T-shirt that says
"My pekingese has more fun than your Labrador!"

Raw duck neck and buffalo heart with green herbal supplement.

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If you are thinking about adopting a puppy and think a cattle dog might be in your future, take the time to learn some more about this SMART, ACTIVE and LOYAL breed.

silence

This week.....
A moment of silence to observe the sadness of the tragic event this week at the Boston Marathon.

Miles eats a chicken wing.

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The sun came out in Iowa

Another busy week has flashed past us here at HMFT bloggy headquarters. Bugsy and I are working back up to our 5k and running on the nature trail this week we saw an American Mink. I  have never seen this animal before and was careful to take a long, good look at what I saw. The animal was a chocolatey brown color and was easily over a foot long. I gazed at the creature moving swiftly along the path as we were, it watching us, us watching it.

Then on the drive home from flyball training I spotted an Osprey! I was excited to have spotted it. Macbride Raptor Project has been instrumental in the osprey introduction plan in place here in Iowa. We keep tabs on nesting sites, band babies and have been tracking the progress of the birds as they continue to return to Iowa. Also, these birds just look cool. They're like the punk rockers of the Iowa raptor population.

Miles got a haircut!

Before

After

 Doesn't he look cute!?!? I am so pleased with the care he has received at Kirkwood Community College. Miles has been groomed by the students of the dog grooming program at KCC. They have done a fabulous job of helping shy Miles feel comfortable. Both times I picked him up from his hair cut I found him playing with a student. Seeing him playing instead of in a crate made me really happy, but it was also a smart move on the part of grooming instructor Terry Anderson. Rounding off the end of a grooming session with some fun time is no doubt going to help Miles remember the groomers as a happy place to be.

After Miles' haircut I was inspired to take a group picture for a new blog header. I really like to have an outdoor picture as the blog head, but until the green spring and summer sun start improving the Iowa landscape the above photo is the new blog header. Below is one of the shots I took in my living room.(I altered it with photoshop so it looks like a drawing, it was not drawn by me!)

Miles and Captain enjoy an off leash hike

Good walk, poptart.

            This week, with the help of my trusty "Activity Manager" 

                                        the dogs and I have visited two new places. 

Ready to walk!

                      One of which really surprised me.....

  ...In the spirit of trying new things, I packed Wonder Dog in the car with me on the way out to the grocery store. I figured I'd find a place to stop somewhere in between the store and home for a dog walk. I could think of two parks, but she had been to them before. As I drove down a road I have driven down a hundred million times I noticed that there was a side walk in front of a small contrived body of water in front of a strip mall of businesses. The body of water was filled with floating Mallard ducks and Canada geese. The water was splashing over a spillway causing a misty spray to splash up on the sidewalk. Surely I had noticed this pond before, but never as a "place to go for a walk". I pulled over and hooked Wonder Dog to the 15 foot retractable leash and we walked down the sidewalk to the pond. The pond was very contrived, with large white gravel rocks 2 feet around its edges on all sides, a cement spillway took the water beneath the road and funneled it to a marshy area beyond. As we walked, Wonder Dog nosed the ground. She zig zagged back and forth in heaven with all the green poo and good sniffing. We left the sidewalk behind and began circling the pond, as we got further from the road, grassy prairie areas surrounded the mowed grass beyond the ponds graveled edges providing habitat for wildlife. The geese in the pond watched us and honked, seemingly agitated. Most of the ducks took off, flying across the street towards the marshy wetland. As we finished a half circle around the first pond we came to another small damn connecting this pond to another. Empty shells floated at the waters edge, and I imagined a raccoon having made a meal there. I recalled seeing many people fishing this pond over the years, both on the warms days of summer and atop the ice in the freezing winter. But on this day, Easter as it was, everyone was elsewhere. We trailed the edge of the 2nd pond and found it connected to a third. A great blue heron rose up from the waters edge having decided we were too near, and landed on the opposite side of the pond.  An amazing site, I watched the bird for some time as Wonder sniffed at, read the story on the ground, invisible to me. We circled around the 3rd pond, having leaped over a muddy creek bed, and again the great blue heron rose up and moved away from us. I watched the grassy areas, searching the trees for raptors and watching the tall dry amber shoots of dead prairie grass wave in the cold wind. The ducks made a commotion and just as I looked back to her Wonder leaped into the pond! I can't tell you weather she was overcome by the temptation of the quacking ducks on the water, or if some creature, a turtle? A fish? A muskrat? slid into the water just in front of her calling her to chase after it. Wonder popped back out of the water like a pop tart out of a toaster with a strong spring. The snow here has gone away, but for a few piles in shady spots. The weather has warmed so that I don't wear long underwear anymore, but the water still must have been frightfully cold. She had gone all the way under, and I'm not sure if that had been her intent, or if the pond dropped off so fast she hadn't had a choice. Either way she was none the worse for wear. If I could guess her feeling at the moment she popped out of the water, I'd guess she had decided it was too cold for a dip after all, but it had been worth a try. Wonder Dog shook off a few times and continued happily sniffing the goose poo all the way around the other sides of the ponds. She didn't give up her enthusiasm as we returned to the sidewalk and made it back to the car. I gave her a quick sniff. Her thin coat and repeated shaking had left no noticeable trace of pond smell on her. We drove to the grocery store. She perched on the console next to the driver seat, leaning forward as much as her seat belt would allow her. Her head leaned against mine. Good dog. And a good walk too. Not bad for a contrived triple pond. The sight of a great blue heron almost made the strip mall signs in the distance disappear.

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Feel like chicken tonight?

Chicken for 5 dogs and 2 cats.

Or maybe...
Beef is whats for dinner?

Beef chunks with dried organic kale and organic coconut oil.

A tip from me...

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I keep a spray bottle of water handy. I use it to spray the leaves of my houseplants, but I also spray the dogs home made food whenever I add dried things like dehydrated kale or any kind of dried herbal supplement. Nothing is more unappetizing than inhaling pepper, or breathing pixie stick sugar. I'm sure a nose full of dried herbs would be really annoying so if I add a dry herb, green or supplement I always make sure to spray it down with some water before serving.

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Bugsy turned down the covers.

I learned it from watching you!

Wonder sporting her horse blanket style dog coat. Captain sports his natural coat.

There is so much information out there! So much to learn! Where do we start?!

 Where do we move on to once we think we know a thing or two?

This week I learned from my own mistakes. After reading through a previous blog entry I realized that I'm really in a rut. Here I am, with a house full of dogs, telling you and myself that, this dog walks best here, and this dog walks best on leash with this dog, and this dog gets to do this. After a long winter stuck in my routines leave it to spring to help me break out.

Post hike Miles snuggles in a towel.

With out a doubt it is important for me to know that for example, Comet is easily excited by people petting him and that he is likely bark if his head is being petted in a moment of excitement so I should discourage people petting his head, or petting him at all, during moments of high arousal if I don't want him to bark. Instead of letting that keep me from ever matching him as a travel companion with Captain who hears the bark and lets out a loud howl himself, instead of that I should practice with them together of course!

snowy hike.

I finally bagged myself a planner for my year in dogs. With 5 dogs, and two cats don't forget, in the house it is absolutely necessary to keep a calendar or planner with notes of who needs vaccinations, or flea treatment as well as vet appointment dates and when I might give out a heart-worm preventative. Last year my calendar was ity bity. Small enough to stuff in the tiny corner of a treat cubby and forget about it when I didn't need it. I had to abbreviate all dogs names, and anything else that needed documented because there just wasn't room to right. This year I picked up a calendar planner with at least a paragraph of space to write in each day and I have dubbed it my "Activity Manager". Every day I document what I did with each dog. When I started this I had an idea that it might help arrange my activities to ensure that if I skipped a dogs walk one day, that same dog wouldn't get skipped again soon after. But the results of my record keeping have already gone well above my expectations. I should have known! I have recently been reading "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg. The book is full of exmples about how habits affect our lives, and can change them for the better or keep them in a rut for the worse. In one example a group of dieters was asked to keep a daily journal of all the food they ate. In the end all those that did keep the journals, they made a habit of them, lost weight. Perhaps because they were in the habit of thinking about the food they were eating. In the case of my dogs and our "Activity Manager" I have found myself not only successfully knocking out all daily walks, but I'm doing it in new places I have never gone to before. I have found myself taking note of where I have been and that I like to do new things,(huh, imagine that!). Also I have found that when I make the extra effort to go new places I have more fun, so do the dogs, and I find myself less often coming home from work and looking at the dog crew like a daunting to do list. Here is some of my daily entries ....

Friday- Captain, Miles and Comet to farm-Comet 15 ft retracto leash, Miles and Captain off leash in feild
Bugsy and Wonder short walk to park in AM
Bugsy and Wonder Long hike in natural area
Saturday-(cold, rain, slush and snow) Bugsy car ride, shopping trip to petco/petsmart obiedence in stores
All dogs 10 minute training sessions
Sunday- Captain and Miles spent the day at Raptor Clinic with me and had beef stuffed kongs mid-day -Wonder dog-walk around block in AM and walk in park PM-Comet and Bugsy had a long walk down the gravel road, saw 1 raptor and several deer
Miles off leash back and forth from mailbox
Tuesday- Wonder meaty bone to chew in her kennel during the day-Captain and Miles at raptor clinic,lots of people in and out playing with dogs today, raw bones in afternoon and short walk through campus end of day- Bugsy and Comet short walk around neighborhood
Wednesday - Miles went to office with Michael during the day-Wonder dog short walk in AM-Wonder and Captain walk in PM- Miles off leash to mailbox- Bugsy and Comet walk to park
 Thursday- Wonder dog and Jeni run a mile then short walk, Miles walk around the neighborhood, Captain Bugsy and Comet walk to park together.
Friday- Captain and Comet come to raptor clinic, have raw bones to chew in afternoon, get pets and love from janitorial staff and get a short walk around campus end of day, Wonder, Miles and Bugsy get kong puzzle toys while I am at work with C and C. Bugsy and Jeni run a mile then short walk.
Saturday-Wonder, Bugsy and Comet raw bones to chew in AM, Captain and Miles come to Coffee shop with Micheal and Jeni then a walk around post office park, Comet and Bugsy walk to park and around neighborhood, Wonder Long leash walk in the wild wood secret spot.

..........You get the idea. This is just a few of my entries, but you can see from just this that I have begun to try new things like "post office park" (which is actually a park I don't know the name of that is near the post office) and "wild wood secret spot" a place I have been wanting to go but hadn't dared, until now! You don't have to have 5 dogs to make this idea work for you. Trying new things with your dog is good for both of you! Also, having the habit in place of tracking activity of the dog crew will make me more likely to take note, literally, of concerning or positive behavior changes, diet issues or events that effect the dogs. Which reminds me I have to keep that puppy gate up to block the puppy from the basement until I can get that box of old records out of there! Miles keeps peeing on it, even though otherwise he is successfully potty trained. (Have I just doomed myself by declaring that?!?! Oh geez!)


---------diet plan----------------------
Good ole facebook (FB) popped this to my attention this week. This is a colorful and eye catching poster from Dr Peter Dobias, you can see his website address is attached to the image and I don't think I am breaking any copy right laws sharing this with you. Since I am saying to you that this is his poster, which he shared publicly on FB. Anyway,...This poster says "Carrots may cause problems with digestion in dogs" I can't get behind that statement. This poster caused a flurry of comments and speculation, friend him on FB to see for yourself. Many of the comments came from dog owners who were shocked and proclaimed to immediately stop feeding carrots to their dogs as they had been for some time. Others stated that they had fed carrots with success and wondered what the fuss was about. Here is what I know with absolute certainty - I have fed carrots raw, dehydrated and cooked. I have fed them from a can, I have fed them from my garden, I have fed them from the farmers market. I have fed them organic and "natural" and just plain regular. I have noticed that if you feed them raw in large chunks or offer as a whole carrot for a dog to chew that it will come out the other end just as it came in. In this case the carrot plays a role of filling the stomach(along with other foods!), for a doggy on a diet perhaps, also some claim this can help clean the teeth. I have read in a holistic care guide for pets that raw finely grated carrots can aide in digestion (fiber, more easily accessible) when your dog is constipated. I have used this method when I suspected digestive issues. For example when Comet was observed trying to go, but not going and licking his rear frequently I finely grated carrots and apples onto boneless meat and added sea salt and dried sage. During this time I also made sure he had at least 2 short walks a day. I then observed that Comet was able to "eliminate" and the licking problem subsided.
I might feed carrots, in one way or another once every two months, or several times a week and not, in my opinion, to the detriment of my dogs. Some of Dr Dobias ideas are worth a look into, his holistic sense makes him a far cry from the old school country vet I use, but lets be accurate.Lets eliminate scare tactics and hard and fast rules that don't fit into the working reality of a home preparing dog feeder. Later on his page Dr Dobias wrote "They are not harmful, they are just hard to digest for most dogs." Let this be a reminder to a lesson you already know, do your own research to back up claims of others. Don't throw out the carrots the instant you see a pretty poster protesting them.

Know your dog. 

Know your food.

Know your dog food.