Lo and Behold! A new stray dog

1/13/11 Thursday
Some things are predictable here on the farm. One of them has to do with stray dogs showing up here. I was just talking with the sheriff when I went there to report a suspicious car that had been obviously scoping out the place and mentioned how two of our dogs had been shot and one poisoned. “But wait, we know someone will drop off their dogs or a stray will show up” I said. As I was out cutting wood with the chain saw I was surprised to see a dog come right up to me. It wasn’t aggressive in posture at all, kind of submissive waiting to be rejected yet obviously seeking acceptance. He’s thin and shows signs of being involved in some tussles with a large open wound on his tail. There’s no question this dog has a lot of pit bull in his lineage so that naturally raises some concerns, especially regarding how he will get along with Rascal and Trixie. The temperatures were predicted to go down to about twelve degrees overnight so we tried to create a safe warm spot for this new arrival. He seems to be familiar with going inside a house and sure wanted to come in but we won’t allow that.

So the as yet unnamed dog was still with us this morning. He had eaten much of the food I put out along with drinking plenty of water. There is no collar on him or any other identification so I’ll check the bulletin board at the grocery store and see if anyone reported losing him. I went out with Rascal and Trixie this morning to carefully supervise how they related. Trixie wanted to play with him but Rascal isn’t as happy and more interested in making sure this new arrival knows who’s boss. New arrival is really not sure about this. He kind of played with Trixie but clearly wasn’t sure if they were playing or not. With Rascal it was more of a standoff though new arrival did run at first. I’ll have to watch closely and make sure they can get along.

Cherie had just been thinking about having another outside dog, and there has been a recent rash of home burglaries in this area so that’s an idea I certainly had been thinking about. Lo and behold, a dog shows up. These strays cost us a lot of money. We finally got the vet bill for Midnight and it cost us $470.00 for him to die. The bill was a shock and will be hard for us to pay. If this new dog proves to be able to get along with Rascal and Trixie we then need to make sure it has it’s shots and isn’t sick, but we’re not comfortable taking him to the vet when we owe her so much.

Today we want to go to the IRS office and talk to them about the money they have confiscated as well as learning how to do our taxes for last year. We had employees for the first time and that makes it more complicated, along with having a farm and lots of expenses related to it.


I need to dig through the many cans of paint we have to see if there is any of the primer we had that is mold resistant so I can use it on the drywall in the bathroom. I’ll tape and put the drywall plaster stuff on all the joints today so it’s lots of drywall work. Got the tub in place but need to play with it to make sure it’s level. As I write I can hear the new dog outside whining and scraping at the door, wanting to come in or to have company.

I need to take a kitchen sink bath first. Want to wait till the fire helped warm the house up some first. No doubt it’s cold outside cause it certainly is cold inside. We so look forward to the day we have a bathroom again. This is much harder on Cherie than it is on me, and it isn’t easy on me.

Poor dog, breaks your heart to hear it outside. I’ll go give it a reassuring pet and then get to work getting cleaned up so I can put warm clothes on and supervise them all when I let them out.