My New Pals

Do y'all have any idea how hard it is to get two puppies and a shy, grumpy old dog to stay in a picture frame?

The other day, I got home and was greeted by this:



They barked and barked at me. I was something new, and even though it was my yard, I was trespassing. I wondered where Babs, my dog, was. After calling to her, she came from underneath the porch steps where she'd been hiding from flies. Oh, man, I just thought I'd been trespassing. These two little devils were not happy about her. Babs just wanted to be friends, but they weren't having any part of it. In her overtures of friendship, she more or less ran them off the property.

Well, it turns out they belong to my neighbors. They are of course Jack Russell terriers. The neighbors wanted a couple and found some puppies east of here a ways. They had four. There were some others who said they wanted one, too. However, when Brent came home with the four puppies, they backed out. Brent was now the proud owner of all four puppies.

Two females ended up at their north place - they keep two houses to cover their farming empire. The two males stayed at the south place, about a quarter mile south of me. I called JoAnne the other day, and she confirmed the dogs were theirs. They were tired of the barking at Babs, plus they had been messing with Brent's guineas. Normally, that is a capital crime for a pet, but it seems Brent has an even softer spot for his new acquisitions.

But, time has passed, and now they can't get enough of Babs. They pretty well live here. I feed Babs a mix of wet and dry dog food - some version of blackbirds eat up her dry food faster than she can, so I try to meter it out during the night, and give her a can of wet food during the day. She shares the dry food. The wet food, not so much.




I haven't helped the situation much. I've been feeding them treats when I give Babs something. It's only fair - I not going to give Babs a treat and refuse these youngsters. After all, I don't want to traumatize their childhood.

In one pic above, Babs was ducking her head to paw flies. I really need to put some grease on the little devil's ears as well. Flies are always a problem when cattle are near, and bovines reign here at The Poor Farm. I've got to get some pics of the calves playing - they can be a riot.

I'm sure when things all settle down, the pups will move home and Babs can get some rest. But for now, they are pretty entertaining. I stepped out last evening and one had found something alive, and both were extremely excited as they pursued the creature. After the one had captured whatever it was chasing, he spit it right out. You could almost hear the "ptooey" and "ack, ack, ack." I'm sure it was a toad, and this was his learning experience that they don't taste good.

I am surprised at Bab's reaction to the pups - she has always been the jealous type in the past. Perhaps she is the lonely type at the moment, but I'm thinking she'll be cured of that pretty soon.

And on the plus side, while they are here, they aren't mauling guineas. They don't bark louder than my A/C plus television, so mostly they aren't bothering me. When they bother Babs too much, she'll show them the way home.

Meanwhile, it's a lot of fun to have them around.