A boy and his dog

We're back, and had a good little vacation. There is much to tell, but first and foremost is the new addition to our family. This is Xena.Ain't she the cutest? We got her on Mother's Day, but I didn't tell you about it because we wanted to surprise the Rockeys. Barb is an avid dog lover and I couldn't wait to see her face. I also respect very much how she has trained her own dogs and aspire to be as good a "Mom" as she is. This is all very new to me, that's for sure, but I am determined to make it work. My true love are cats and I know a LOT about their behaviour and care, but puppies .... not even an eensie-weensie bit close. So the learning has commenced, for all three of us, and it's proving to be a challenge. I hope we survive it.

I think we've probably confused the poor little girl. The first 10 days of her life with us were spent camping in the Boler. I guess she took it to be her "den", so there were no bathroom mishaps. But now that we're home and she is in the house, it's just mayhem. Even with Art sleeping on the living room floor to help her transition better. So, last night was the first night that the spare bathroom was made into her new den. Her blankie, food dishes and all chew toys were put in there and she spent the night alone. She cried a lot, but eventually calmed down. Here's what it looked like in there this morning, though. She ravaged a couple of rolls of toilet paper, but that was the extent of any damage.There's a lot we don't know about Xena. The whole litter was rescued from a ditch on the local Indian Reserve. They were 5 or 6 weeks old. She looks a little Golden Retriever, a little Husky and there's some smaller breed(s) mixed in. Her foster Mom brought her to the Mother's Day breakfast here in Endako and, as a joke, Art bribed the little boy who was playing with her to let him show her to me and ask if he could keep her. The Mom jumped right in and said "she's yours!". Art was immediately smitten. How could I say "no"? And God's clever. He makes them so adorable so that we won't choke the living @#$%! out of them when they're misbehaving.

When we got home, the fields were full of dandelions. Acres and acres of yellow. Gorgeous!Also, Carol will be very happy to know .... the cow's have arrived! While we were gone, Walter fixed the fence (to keep them out of the house area) and "drove" them up. I kinda would have liked to see that. On horseback, they just herd them down the road from their place to ours and close the gate behind them. This was taken from the veranda. There had to have been over 50 in total (a bunch not in the picture).Here's Art and Xena watching a few of them walking past into the west pasture. I don't think Xena's ever seen cows before. She sure was curious, and afraid, which is a good thing. We don't want her chasing them.