Saturday, February 9, 2008

Farm Update

Little broccolis, rosemaries and cilantroes are now germinating. Lettuces are thinned and doing well. We need more grow lights....
This week we got our dogs back. Our Jack Russell terriers, Woody and Beaker, are 10 and 7, respectively. Woody is pictured here, in his (not my) favorite sleeping spot); Beaker tends to avoid the camera! The little darlings are great fun, and they eat their weight in mice.
But, for whatever reason, they seem to not like us. Rather, at every opportunity, they head for the hills. Now, they won't do it if they're out solo; they need the other to be a really good team of escape artists. It doesn't help that we have hundreds of acres of "dog heaven" (read: farmland, brush and ponds) surrounding our puny 5 acres.
We've tried invisible fencing. We've tried pens. We've tried double-fencing the pens. We even tried a chain and a stake, until it was pointed out to us that, from a hawk's point of view, they look just like a white and black rabbit. And it's just too easy for the coyotes if their food is tied up for them.
We have a wonderful neighbor who catches them up for us and calls us. We have another wonderful neighbor who catches them up for us and calls us, cussing and swearing. Thankfully, this time they eluded both and met up with a very friendly animal control officer, who took them home to the pound, fed and vetted them, and microchipped them. Now, after paying the ransom to get them out, we can rest assured, that, next time, they can be scanned and we will be called when they are found. We don't have to rely on collars and tags, with which they both left but without which they were both found. No, no, they have a high tech (and expensive) microchip to help in locating us.
-whew-


P.S. Aren't you glad you don't pay extra for the sarcasm?

3 comments:

Susan said...

>>Aren't you glad you don't pay extra for the sarcasm?

I'm glad you put that there. I was beginning to wonder if maybe I was missing something, or if I didn't know you as well as I thought I did....

Melody said...

Yep, Susan, you DO know me!
We had a tough time with this one. When they disappeared, Ethan and I were on our way to Milwaukee Shakespeare. John headed out to find them, and asked, "Should I take the gun?" He was serious. When we saw them on the pound's website, (they didn't show up there for a week!)we thought seriously about calling and telling them to give them away. I may look for a Jack Russell rescue this week. All I could think about was the food that ransom would have bought...and with John's situation, that was not a silly worry!

Elephantschild said...

I can't believe those stinkers got away AGAIN.

It's like they've got stones for brains.