From Dog Days to Puppy Days

Our dog days quickly turned into puppy days when I rescued six puppies. Talk about turning our place out here in the woods into an uproar.

These adorable little critters were in danger of being run over and starved. They ate and ate until their little tummies were full.

Here is one little fellow who is sticking close by the food dish.

Another two get a drink of water.




I placed the dear little things in my enclosed back garden for safety. As soon as I would open up the back door there was a mad scramble of puppies trying to climb up the steps with tails all madly wagging.



Meanwhile the big dogs were trying to figure out what had invaded their back yard. Here Shep and one little fellow have a doggy introduction.



Talk about curious!
The pups kept sticking their noses and heads out through the lattice trying to wiggle their fat little bodies through the fence.





And you wouldn't believe all the holes they found underneath the fence. First a nose would poke out...

Then a head...

Then two heads would appear while the rest tried to squeeze out too.

Here Shep is guarding one of the pups that escaped.

I gave them doggy biscuits to try and keep them entertained, knotted old nylons into doggy toys, and anything else I could think of.

The only quiet time was when they took a puppy nap. If they didn't roll completely over on their backs with their legs in the air they would stretch out flat on any surface where they happened to be for a quick snooze.

Here two brothers are still enough to snap a picture.

Every couple of hours I was counting heads to make sure that they were still in the garden and all the wiggly little bodies were safe. We kept blocking holes and rescuing pups that hung themselves up in the lattice. After five days when they kept escaping, I call the local animal rescue shelter and they came and got the puppies.

I hugged all the furry little bodies good-bye. It was hard to see them go. It's what you call puppy love.

The Dog Days of Summer

The hot and humid dog days of summer are here up in the mountains of Tennessee. This is the time where you watch where you step when out walking in the woods as this time of the year snakes shed their skin and are rather quick to strike if they get taken by surprise. During these days any garden work or harvesting is done early in the morning as the heat lays close to the mountain even at night instead of breaking its hold and cooling down like usual. Even the breezes only waft the hot air around hardening the ground as the earth waits for a summer shower to appear on the horizon. Our dogs lay lifeless seeking a cool spot to snooze the day away while the hens scratch listlessly in the dirt.





My plum trees were loaded with branches reaching down to the ground as grapes ripened on the vine. I was plum busy canning plums and making jam for a couple of weeks. Only the hardiest of flowers: Queen Ann’s Lace, Holly Hocks, Bee Balm, Lilies, Spider Flowers, Touch-Me-Not, Phlox, and Cosmos continue to bloom during the heat of summer while colorful butterflies and buzzing bees flit from flower to flower.





One of the miracles of summertime that I always look forward to is my Miracle Lilies that poke their green leaves up through the ground in the spring, die down, and then bloom on tall slender stalks about the time tiny birds begin their first venture outside the nest from which they hatched to begin their fledging flight. Yes, even though we are in the middle of summer there is still a lot of life and activity up here in the mountains.

The Foxes and the Hounds

The neighbors that live on the hill above us go through all kinds of animals- the main reason being that they don’t bother to take care of them so unfortunately whatever set of animals at the time runs wild. Numerous cats and dogs have been killed. Then they decided to raise rabbits only they didn’t bother to pen them up. Guess what? The dear bunnies ran all over the woods- with several getting killed on the road. I wasn’t too worried until I planted my garden in front of the woods. One day I discovered that all my beet tops, cabbage, and lettuce had been eaten. Dana was slowly wiring the fence with electric after work and on weekends. A Sunday afternoon when he and Dwight went to look at the garden they came back with the news that the rabbits were in my green beans. I told him to let my dear “wolves” loose in the woods to scare off the rabbits.




It was then that Dana and Dwight were privileged to see the race of the “foxes and the hounds”. They said as soon as Shep caught wind of the rabbits inside the gate that he stretched out his long legs and without hesitation made a beeline for the rabbits with Natasha right on his heels. Dana said he had never seen a dog run so fast before in his life while Dwight declared that it was a thing of pure beauty to watch. Despite the rabbits having the advantage Shep still managed to nip one in the heel as it dived through the fence. Dana and Dwight kept shaking their heads and retelling the incident about the speed of my German shepherds that effortlessly went right through brush in a straight line to run off the rabbits. So now my dear doggies patrol the woods keeping my garden safe from any wild or tame critters that don’t belong inside.




Eloise Mae died and went to cat heaven after running away a couple of times and trying her paw at living out in the wild. For some unknown reason, despite being petted and pampered inside, this cat that I raised from a wild kitten was never satisfied to be a house cat. The first time Eloise ran away and came dragging herself back a couple months later she was only skeleton of herself with half of her beautiful tail cut off. I thought for sure that she would then settle down as a civilized cat, but nothing would do for her but to run away again. This time Eloise didn’t make it. Meanwhile Sarah Annabelle lives the life of a princess indoors getting fatter and lazier every day.




The chicks are busy growing and are now out in the big pen- after trying to dig their way out of the enclosed part of the barn where we kept them. They act like a bunch of kids out on the playground as they run around hunting for bugs or anything that moves. Dana enjoys feeding them from his hand and they are getting quite tame. My doggies are quite enchanted with them as well running along the fence and watching their every move as they flutter and chirp mimicking grown-up hens. I eye the dear things with visions of fresh eggs this fall. Meanwhile our lonely rooster- I’ve renamed Solomon considering all the wives this guy is going to have in the near future- crows and struts around stretching out his wings trying to prove his superiority in the hen house. Thankfully his tail feathers are starting to grow back. He just might end up looking like a normal rooster again.

Cats & Chickens

Spring has arrived up here in the Tennessee Mountains. I’m enjoying hanging out wash outside again on warm sunny days. We’ve planted most of our garden already. The red beets, green beans, lettuce, and radishes are all up.


All kinds of things are happening on our “farm” lately thanks to my dear doggies, Shep and Natasha.



Sandy, our ancient lab dog, has been getting in on the action too.





First of all they treed my cat, Sarah Annabelle. The other week, Dana put a cat door in my sunroom that leads out to my enclosed garden. I had visions of Eloise and Annabelle lazily sunning themselves in my garden to their heart’s content. For some reason known only to cats Annabelle decided to explore further. The first night when we heard the dogs barking up a storm, we discovered Annabelle up a tree. As soon as she saw us, Annabelle jumped down in the driveway, I let her in at the French doors, and all was peaceful again.



The next night (at 4 am again) when the dogs started frantically barking, I decided that Annabelle could walk her furry body around back to cat door. I ignored her scratching and meowing at the French doors and went back to sleep. Around six am I heard a loud ruckus in the back yard and went to investigate. To my horror I saw all three of my dogs surrounding Annabelle, who was lying on the ground. When I yelled at the dogs, Shep grabbed Annabelle and began dragging her around the back of the enclosed garden. I ran outside to rescue my dear cat. At first I was afraid that my dogs had killed my cat as poor Annabelle was limp, quite muddy, and in shock from her ordeal with the dogs. Once we got her inside, Dana checked Annabelle over and said that she would be alright. I felt guilty for not letting Annabelle come inside earlier. The next day Annabelle was limping around, but in a couple more days she was back to her normal self again. Meanwhile Eloise, my other cat, has disappeared.




Then a couple of weeks later when I was inside having a slow day lying in my recliner, I heard a big commotion outside. I looked out I beheld the dogs chasing chickens all over the yard. A gust of wind had opened up the door to their pen and the dear chickens had decided to investigate the world outside the fence. I jumped- PJ’s and all- into the fray and managed to rescue the rooster, but when the dust settled three hens were dead and the rest had disappeared into the woods. That evening Dana found two hens and we coaxed the dear things back into the pen again. The next day I rescued two more hens, but one died the following day. So now we have one rooster without any tail feathers, two normal looking hens, and one hen without any tail feathers. They are quite the most motley-looking batch of chickens that you have ever seen. Our egg production has dropped down to one green egg a day. Thankfully the twenty-four chicks that we bought a month ago were in another part of the barn and was safe- just eating like little pigs and busy feathering out. I told Dana that if we had any more action around this place, I’d be ready to keel over and lie down like a dead chicken myself.