Dog

Night Time Goosebumps

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Laura

At 2:00 am, Dieter signalled that he had to go outside.  Hj turned on the upstairs lights and tottered down the stairs with him.  Then he turned on the downstairs and outside lights, including the spotlight out to the dog’s garden and since it looked clear, he opened the door to let Dieter out.  Dieter immediately rushed out the door barking and began chasing a large animal around the yard.  Hj was yelling “Dieter, Dieter, Dieter” and running after him.  At first we thought the animal was a fisher, but within moments we understood it was a porcupine.  A big one, of about 25 pounds.

Fortunately, Hj was able to get Dieter back into the house and the porcupine never made contact with either of my guys.

Can you see it?

S/he is right there under the sapling. Can you see our prickly friend?

 

The porcupine, I guess needed to relax after such a burst of commotion, so s/he stayed in the fenced area for about half an hour and then finally scaled up the fence and continued up one of the maple trees.  After s/he climbed up Dieter was brought out to go to the bathroom… ON A LEASH, this time.  He really did have to go to the bathroom but quickly did his business without further incident and came back in.

 

Dieter (doing his best Flock of Seagulls imitation)

Dieter (doing his best Flock of Seagulls imitation)

Dieter is, by the way, our most recent rescue.  He is five and a half and was adopted in December.  He had been living in a cage in disgusting conditions for the first five years of his life.  His owners were backyard breeders, who ran a small puppy mill.   He was the “stud”.   When he was pulled along with all the other dogs he was half the weight and had half the hair that he now has.  He was covered in fleas and suffered with tapeworm just as all the other dogs in the house.   He has made a stellar recovery!

Please adopt, don’t shop.  Dogs like Dieter make such grateful and wonderful companions!

 

Categories: Dog, Dogs, Forest, Ontario, Open your eyes, Tiny house, Tiny House Ontario, Wildlife | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

Polar Vortex

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Laura

We are in the throws of a weather phenomenon here in Ontario (and elsewhere) called the polar vortex.  It was -22 C (-7.6 F) when I got up this morning, but it felt like -35 C  (-31 F) this morning and now the temperature is at a nice balmy -19 C (-2.2 F).  I am not at THO and I have to admit this is one of the rare occasions where I am happy that I am not.

For those of you who do not live in a cold climate let me tell you that with this kind of cold it goes right into your bones, it is painful.  For the dogs it is torture every time they have to go outside because the cold is so deep that it burns their little feet.  Our newest rescue lived his entire 5 years locked up in a cage at a puppy mill and is just being house trained now, but for him this cold is new and dreadful.  His little feet are not tough so within 10 -15 seconds his body collapses on the ground because the pain in his feet is so deep.  We go out with them and carry their tiny collapsed bodies in and treat their feet again with Blistex.

Thankfully there is a warming trend coming, but not before it reaches -40 C (-40 F) tonight, which is ironically where our thermometers meet.

If I already had my wood stove installed I might have actually driven down to THO to stay for a few days.  I would go without the dogs though because I don’t know how easy it will be to make the house warm.  Knowing it is coming makes me look forward to next winter already.  Finding out how it will work has a lot of fills me with anticipation.  That I know my Greyworks Stove is on its way makes me very happy indeed!  But… I will not install it until the end of the spring rains because I have some unique plans in mind.

Before I close, I want to introduce you all to Dieter, who has been through a lot.Dieter napping in the January Sun

Categories: Dog, Dogs, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario, Winter | 11 Comments

Lyme Disease

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Laura

Good news today from our vet.  Rudigrrr Wolf’s 6 months test to recheck for his lyme disease came back really good from the vet.  The vet says “it is unlikely that he will have any residual problems”.  Poor guy had a lot of bites from being abandoned in the woods before he was found, rescued and housed with me.  I am  hoping that our vet is right!

After the vet called I gave the Little Wolf his quarterly haircut, albeit a little late.  He was starting to look like a big grey marshmallow.

He is really good about grooming.  He falls asleep for most of it and only wiggles if I am clipping the fur around his toes.  I think dogs must have very ticklish feet.  Imp dog always runs to hide when Rudigrrr gets groomed.  It is funny because she is smooth haired and has never had scissors near her in her life.  Imp has been hiding pretty much all day, silly girl!

Here is the tired little Wolf having a nap near the window.  The red pillow behind him was in perfect condition when he moved in here a year ago.  He spends hours chewing on it, so it is neither nice anymore nor is it trash because it is Rudi’s favourite toy.

Categories: Dog | 6 Comments

NaNoWriMo and The Little Bad Wolf

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Laura

NaNoWriMo is going well.  I am, happily, ahead of schedule of the 1,667 word per day count.  This morning I knew I could not get right down to writing because Rudigrrr Wolf had to go the the vet to have his follow up blood test for Lyme disease.

When he was found, after being abandoned with two other little ones in the woods, the poor little fellow had ticks.  The first test came back negative but 6 months later the disease showed up in his screening.  My poor Bad Little Wolf was treated, but you have to wait 6 months until you do the next test to see if the blood comes back clean.  While he was there he also got his rabies booster shot and because he is so small these vaccines are quite hard on him.  He has been sleeping beside me all day.  Poor little Toot!

I will let you know, Monday or Tuesday when the test results come back if the THO’s Tiny Wolf is clear.

Isn’t he just too gosh darn cute?

Categories: Dog, Tiny House Ontario, Writing | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

Sweet Little Ones

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Laura

Leo came and put the eves trough up.  Now that I have a ladder, this means that all I have to do is hook up a barrel to it next spring in order to have running water in the in-house.  I decided to put two downspout holes in it.  One for the garden water which is using chain instead of a downspout simply because I saw this on the internet and liked the look.  I will let you know how it works.

He brought someone fantastic with him.  Beautiful blue eyed Izzie.  She was a very good sport about the thousand kisses that Rudigrrr placed on her little cheeks.  She is a very quiet little girl, totally easy going.  I had to play with her of course!  I also sang and played a bit of music for her and she never once complained.  I am not a good musician so this was pretty cool.  She also let me read “The Giving Tree” to her and since I don’t know her that well, I totally can’t believe how easily she just let me entertain her!  What a sweet child!

When Leo, Kyle and Izzie left, we worked on the cloth porch to get it closed up but did not get quite finished.  The green tarp had a salamander living in it, and while trying to help it to the ground the poor thing fell about 5 or 6 feet from the tarp to the ground.  It walked away after laying stunned for about 30 seconds.  I hope it will be okay.  Anyone know anything about salamanders?  This sweet little one was a darkish colour with a yellow stripe.  We have a lot of them around THO, but I don’t know much about them.  They sure are cute and tiny… I love their itty-bitty fingers.

Categories: Cloth Porch, Dog, Family, Magical, Music, Nature, Off Grid, Ontario, Tiny House Ontario, View | 2 Comments