Baroquen x Whiskey Mac has 4 beautiful babies. 3 torts (one is broken) and a broken black. Cool. Proves her as another non-extension carrier. I am definitely set for tort. When I first pulled them out I thought they were all solids which would have been a drag. Pattern is so heavy there's very little white on the topside. Not what I expected from her, but I'll take it. This is Baroquen's 2nd attempt so she's doing a fine job. Didn't pull much fur but it's so warm, it wasn't necessary. Do does know that sometimes? I added a little from the bag of fur to soften the nest under them.
Still waiting on Flashdance. She's nested but hasn't pulled fur yet. If she's successful, I'll update this blog entry.
In other news:
I made a big mistake and tried to release the guinea keets. They should have been big enough and I think they were. But they couldn't defend themselves against the forces in the yard. That being Tanner and maybe Abby the cat.
It's a longer story and I won't go into it here, but Tanner was kicked out of the house to spend all his time outside with Whipper. I've been so frustrated. He is so damn smart and eager to please, but he can be sooo bad! Anything left out where he can get to it is forfeit. And he knows he's bad. I don't even have to say anything. If there's something out of place and chewed, he slinks off with a guilty look as soon as I see it. I've tried to fix it so he can't get to things and he still manages to do it. The problem is that he only does it at night when I can't catch him. They both hole up during the heat of the day, and become active at night. That's always been Whipper's thing, it's his night job.
Back to the guineas. I needed to move them out of the Summer House. With all the chickens in there, it was getting too crowded and smelly. Guineas can smell really bad, way worse than chickens. So out they went. I also released the white Japanese roo to see how he does free-range. What a disaster!
The first thing I saw when I looked out the window at sunup was a rabbit that had been culled to yard bunny and a blue keet dead in the grass. Dammit. Some of the keets were hanging around the poultry pen. Just 5. 2 blues and 3 purples. I found the feathers from the other purple but no sign of the other 2 blues. The other yard bunny was hopping around in the front yard safely out of the fence. I saw white feathers and assumed the Jap roo was history as well. Then I heard him. He was hiding deep in a garden. He came out and followed me when I went out to feed in the Summer House. He looked rough. Most of his tail feathers are gone and he was dirty and wet. I herded all of them back into the Summer House.
I have to blame Tanner. Abby might have killed and eaten one of the keets, but she doesn't usually bother anything that big, and I doubt she would have eaten more than one. I should have known how risky this was. I've corrected Tanner when he went after the adult guineas and I thought he understood. Wrong.
So now what do I do? I'm so tired of being mad at him. I had to rehome a Sheltie that was too prey driven, but I'm not willing to give up on Tanner. He just has too much going for him. He so smart, he learns commands in 2 or 3 tries. When he's good, he's very good. He responds so well, and I love that. My only option is to confine him when I can't watch him. That was a problem. I couldn't tie him up and didn't want to anyways. There's no good place to tether him. A dog run was an option but expensive and again, no good place to put it.
I looked around online and found a small dog run that might fit on the porch. Kinda pricey but I kept it in mind. Then I looked at crates. Lo and behold, saw one pictured with a Great Dane standing in it. That might work. I didn't want a normal house-breaking size crate. He has to spend the whole night and anytime I'm gone in it. I wanted him to have plenty of room to stand and stretch. It would fit on the porch and in the house during winter. I figured out the size I needed and priced some online. Found it at TSC (their biggest crate) and for less than $100. Beat the heck out of everybody else for price. I had just got a 10% off coupon for TSC, too. Called them as soon as they opened and they had just one. Mine!
He spent his first night in it last night and so far so good. He didn't fuss. Except he's not used to having to control himself at night and there was a mess to clean up. No biggy, just hosed the tray out. I think (hope) he'll eventually get it. He has to by winter when I bring the crate inside. I was going to get another dog house for him, but this way I won't have to. It has the housebreaking divider that I can use if necessary. I gave him a water pail, but now I'll save that for when he has to spend a longer time in it. Not drinking water should help him control his bladder at night. He's fed early in the day so there shouldn't be that much effort to control his bowels at night. Just gotta keep him from eating anything late in the day. Like birds.
Oh and another little trick he came up with. I can't imagine why it would even occur to him to do this! A few nights ago, after I went to bed, I heard an odd noise but just assumed it was Whipper and Tanner romping on the porch. My bedroom wall is right there. Then I heard water running. WTH? The last time I heard that, a pipe had broken under the house. Crap. Took the flashlight out to see what I could see. He had been chewing on the outside faucet's handle. That was the noise I heard. It's covered with hard plastic, and it only takes a slight turn to open the tap full blast. Water was running out the hose. My quick fix for that was to attach some scrap cage wire over the handle with "spikes" sticking out. Now I have to be careful I don't get stabbed when I turn on the water.
Jeez!
tnt
