Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The snake that bit me!

It's May here at the cabin and that means snake time!

Snakes are very active here on our mountain in April/May and October/November.

So Mum is keeping a good eye out for us.

A week or so ago, we were hanging out in the yard when it started to get to be dinner time.

So Mum headed to the front door and called us to come in, when she turned and saw this...




Yep, it's a 6 footer, probably a Rat Snake, but could be a Racer (big debate on my FB page). Definitely non-venomous, which Mum knew right away. But she still doesn't want any encounters between us. So.....

Mum got us inside, then waited a little to see where the snake went, as it crawled under the front deck, Mum watched it then it started to come out from under the deck and crawl up the side of the cabin. That's when Mum saw her opportunity.


Mum waited just a bit, got the three pronged rake, careful placed it between the snake and the cabin wall, scooped up the snake and took it down the lane and placed it on the other side of the road. Then willied out all the way home, BOL!!!

I have to say that even though some of these snakes are good snakes and keep the bad snakes (aka, copperheads in our area) away; she still doesn't like them, and worries that little me, even if bitten, could possibly require a trip to the vet if the bite connected well. Heck my little legs are only about the size of a quarter in diameter! So she was happy to get this one out of our fenced in yard.

Then just a few days later, Mum was sitting on a log in the yard, as Gracie and I sniffed around. I started trotting over to Mum when I stopped about three feet from her, looked over and saw something interesting.


I pawed at it and it coiled and struck. Mum was pretty certain it wasn't a copperhead, too bright brown and didn't have diamond shapes on it. But just to be certain she took a photo, sent it to our very knowledgeable vet (she's kind of an expert in the snakes and tick diseases that dogs encounter around here), and yep, total confirmation it was a Milk snake.

Mum cleaned up my snout, put a little peroxide on it, let it bubble and I'm no worse for wear. It didn't bite me too badly, heck the kittie scratches were a whole lot worse than that.

So the only snake we haven't seen yet, is the copperhead. Mum is keeping a vigilant eye out for us!

Monday, May 20, 2013

We have/had new tenants!

When we arrived at the cabin last year about this time, we saw that there was a nest in the upper rafters of our front porch.

At that time we didn't see any inhabitants of the nest. But this year about four weeks ago, we saw that Momma bird was reinforcing the nest.

Then not too long after that, we saw that she was tending the nest every evening and during the days when it was chilly, staying in the nest even when Mum would let me out for my last 'pit stop' of the evening. Fairly friendly Momma bird was only about four feet from Mum's head when she would walk out the front door. Momma would peak out at Mum as I was doing my business, but never felt threatened enough to take off.

Then a few weeks ago, while Momma bird was away from the nest Mum got out the little step ladder and took this photo and found Momma had gotten busy!


Then a couple of weeks later, we had new arrivals!!!


Up until last night, Momma bird would tend well to the babies and sit with them at night when we go out for my 'pit stop.' They are soooo cute, aren't they? Birds are difficult to identify...but Mum thinks it may be a flycatcher.

Then just last night Mum noticed that the next is empty!!! They've all flown the coop :). Mum snapped that first photo of them just the morning before they all took off. Good luck in life little ones!

Thursday, May 16, 2013

My latest agility trial!

Weekend before last, we attended a USDAA trial in a new location at a horse farm near Canton.

We hadn't entered on Saturday since they didn't have Snooker on that day (for me). And it was a very good thing we didn't because it rained, and rained, and rained, all day. The trial was outside on grass and those poor folks were soaked to the gills!

It was still raining on Sunday, but by that time they moved the trial into an open air horse arena with the oddest flooring we've ever seen....a combination of carpet bits and sand. Have to say it may have been different, but all of us dogs loved running on it!

This was a small one ring trial, so Mum only entered me in Snooker on Sunday, and entered Gracie in Standard and Gamblers. Well Gracie had her two runs before me and sure to her 'modus operandi' at new places, she was pretty unfocused. She came back to Mum every time, but Mum had a lot of trouble getting her to do more than three or four obstacles in a row and she would run off a couple of times during her runs. But, DOG, was she having fun!

There was a wall length mirror on one wall of the arena, and Gracie would stop and look at herself one or two times during the runs. Folks told Mum she was admiring herself, but Mum knows Gracie better; she thought it was another dog she could play with, goofy sis.

Snooker was the last event of the day and Mum knew we had to go for it, yet again, to try and get that SQ we need. Many folks had pulled from the trial so there were only about four 16'" dogs and one 12" dog running. And they are all very good, young and speedy.

Mum and I went for four of the five reds with a 7, 6, 5 and 4. It was nice and flowing, a couple of tunnels, six weaves and the rest just one jumps. I ran really, really well; nice and speedy, until Mum came up to the red after the five and got too close to it, so I refused it. She did the same thing on the 2 going into the close and yes, I refused that one too. (That's the result of my current Gamble bubble problem.)


I finally went over those jumps but the refusals cost us some time...time I needed to get through the tunnel, six weaves, tunnel closing and the buzzer went off as I was going into the last tunnel which would have given me 53 points. So I ended up with 46.

That gave me second place in the 16" class. No 16" got the SQ, it went to the one in the 12" height that got the 53 points.

So for the eighth time, I got second place in Snooker going for that elusive SQ. Mum counted up my Snooker Q's and she thinks I have a total of about 12 now. So when I get the last SQ, I may also get my Snooker Champion (maybe even the Bronze, depending on how much longer this takes) title at the same time. (Friend, Elf, will know more about those metal titles that Mum knows :).

The nice thing is that lots and lots of our new friends ran up and told us what a great run it was...and that they are certain we'll get that SQ soon. Mum felt really good about her strategy too, and if not for the two refusals, we would have had those 53 points. We also know we'll get it, since I'm running really, really well, just a matter of time. Mum was super proud of how I ran this run, super proud!

Next trial may be in August, or we may take a day and drive three hours up to TN for a day in June/July...not sure yet. But I am ready!

Monday, May 13, 2013

Book Review: The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs by Nick Trout

You may remember the book 'Tell Me Where it Hurts' by Nick Trout. Even though it was published back in 2009, we remember reading it a few years ago. We got it from the local library and really enjoyed it.

Now Nick Trout has released another book that we highly recommend.

"The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs' is a really quick, fun and entertaining read. And no it won't make you cry (since I've been asked that a lot lately :).

'The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs' will make you giggle on occasion, wonder what's around the corner, and in the end say...awwwwww. It's a feel good book, through and through."

It's the story of Dr. Cyrus Mills, son of a long time, small town, well respected vet in a fictional town in Vermont. After inheriting the veterinary practice following the death of his father, Cyrus takes over the practice with one goal in mind...to get the heck out of dodge.

But the lives of dogs, cats and those in need takes over, Cyrus' endearing, caring and concerned nature takes over, and he learns that life in a small town has it's advantages with both two and four leggers; and maybe, just maybe you're really home at last.

We think you'll enjoy the book! It's a recommend for your summer reading list. Get the 'The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs' on Amazon, or get the Kindle version!

And, thanks to the nice folks at Hyperion (click to read an excerpt) for sending us a free copy of 'The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs' for reading and reviewing!

Friday, May 10, 2013

Split nails hurt like heck!

Gracie and I were zoomin' around the cabin last week with Mum cheering us on, when suddenly Gracie didn't finish her last lap.

Mum went around the cabin looking for her and found her in her 'dug up dirt cool spot' and she started licking at her back foot. Mum looked down and saw blood all over Gracie's pinkie toe.

Mum took Gracie inside to take a look and saw that Gracie's pinkie toe nail was split almost half way down. Ouch!!! Out came the first aid kit, peroxide to clean the ouch, Traumeel cream to numb just a tad and help heal it up. And then she added the dreaded vet wrap.

Mum was able to later look even closer at Gracie's nail and noticed her toe was very red, sort of bruised, at the base of the nail. Which probably means that Gracie got the nail caught and got it twisted too. Big ouch! Since I've had a dislocated toe before, Mum was sure checked to see if the toe was dislocated or broken, just in case. But Gracie didn't show any signs of either.


Over the next few days Gracie had to go out with her foot wrapped up (something she did not like) with one of Mum's socks tied up to her hock to keep it on.

Since Gracie was signed up for a trial on Sunday, we weren't sure she could run, and decided to just wait and see. Mum could always see if she handled Gamblers well (with just jumps, tunnels, chute) and then see how she felt for Standard and hitting some of the contact obstacles.

By Saturday, Gracie was feeling better and even let Mum trim a little off the nail, and dremel a little to make it smoother, so she wouldn't get it caught on anything.

So off we went to the trial on Sunday. A good friend of ours watched Gracie in Gamblers to see how she was handling her toe during the run and neither one of us saw any discomfort.

Mum ran her in Standard and even though Gracie was a kind of unfocused, she took her nice running dog walk like a pro, even hitting the contact! Woo hoo!

Here's a photo of her nail today (it's really dirty since she just came inside from the morning jaunt, and is ready for more dremeling). But it's looking real good and doesn't even bother her if Mum touches, now.


She healed that split nail up really quickly! Split nails can be very bad if split further down than Gracie's, even to the point of having to have a vet take the nail out. So glad we didn't have to go there!
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