Another goat gone

   I never checked the livestock SAt night or Sunday night so Monday  am when I went to sort for a lesson, there was a goat missing. Of course it is not my goat.  I checked the fences in case his horns were caught  but no he has simply vanished.  An Alien ship apparently came down and stole him out of my pasture.

I called fish and wildlife and they came up to take a look.  I did find a huge pile of bear scat in the cow pasture and the 100 gal water tank had been overturned and a set of panels had been upended too, but that all happened either Fri or SAt I cant' remember when I saw them.   Anyway fish and wildlife found where a bear had climbed in the cow pasture and where he climbed out near my bedroom window.  But not where he dragged the poor goat which we are assuming he killed.  There was no sign of the goat in the woods or along the roadway. 


Anyway last night I slept with the window open in case I heard anything(it was cold last night) and I had fixed the electric fence and turned it on and locked the sheep near the barn.  But since the sheep are leaving at the end of the week, I decided to lock them in the barn until then.  The electric fence is still on and hopefully the bear will touch it.  I also loaded the shotgun and it's ready to go.

The Cluster

 I took my annual trip to the Cluster today, mostly to see Greg and Laura, but I shopped a little too. I took Dually and he was very excited to see so many potential friends(peoples).  He got very tired even though he was only out of his crate for about 1 hr.  I guess he is not resting much in the car.  But the good news is he is still eating his BARF(which for those of you who dont' know is a frozen raw food).  I am able to mix mashed sweet potato with it to try and up his calorie content and  he is still eating it really well. He is getting about 1/2 cup of sweet potato so I will try and up it a little more. The more food I can get in him the better I will feel.

I bought a pound of a raw pork grind to see if he will eat that.  It is defrosting now.  I also bought  a bag of freeze dried tripe.  I have some frozen I have been feeding him but need to find a source.  I also bought a neat see thru ball with a handle on top and bottom and a tennis ball inside. It squeaks too.  They seem to be intrigued by it.

  Tomorrow is going to be a cold day for me.  I think I have 5 hrs  of lessons in the morning and I don't think it's going to be over 40. yay. But then I will come in and crank the pellet stove and take a few hours to get warm.

Speeding in Va

I don't think I told you about this before so here goes. On the way home from Nationals,after having no sleep for 3 weeks because of the shingles, I got stopped for speeding. Not just any speeding but reckless speeding.  I was trying to  keep my cruise control on rt 81 and I got stuck behind a guy who was in the passing lane and he could not keep  his speed steady. fast and then slow and then fast and then slow and he would not pull over.  I got irritated and when there was an opportunity to pass on the right I gunned it. I have a lot of power in my car and apparently when I crested the hill I was going over 90.  I would have slowed down after I got by the guy but it was too late. There was a cop on the median strip and he pulled me over. 

    He informed me it was an "arrestable" offence.  Clueless as I am, I just thought "Well isnt' that nice he isnt'going to arrest me just give me a ticket. That is not how it works, I found out.  The ticket had a court date on it and no fine. 
    When I got home I decided to use the head in the sand method and just sent the ticket to the court to be adjudicated without me.  Apparently that is a bad decision.   I would not have know that except I got a flyer in the mail from a lawyer in Va who only deals in traffic violations. It scared me a little or maybe a lot. If I am found guilty (which I was) I could get a $2500 fine, 6pts on my insurance,suspension of license,and a jail sentence. Not only that but it's a Class 1 misdemeanor which means I would now have a "record".So imagine how hard it would be for me to get a job.
     I have had to hire  the said same lawyer for $1500 and collect "evidence" for him to go to court and try to get this reduced.  So yesterday I had to drive to Boston and get my speedometer calibrated for $210.  I had to pay $20 to get my driving record from the RMV .  My friends and family have to write me letters for recommendation and have them notorized and I had to call the bank and get a copy of and ATM gas purchase in Va I made that morning so they could determine how fast I was going before I got stopped.   What a joyful year this has been.  This madness must stop.
 Anyway, I have to make copies of everything and send it to the lawyer and then I can stop thinking about it for a while. In the meantime they are trying to get my case pushed out. The original date was Dec 1.  THey have not informed of a new date yet.

So the moral of this story is :

DO NOT SPEED IN VA.   FOR ANY REASON. THEY HAVE NO MERCY!

Dually food

Gosh what a pain in the neck he is.  I mixed up SoJo premix for him and put in ground raw chicken and then I have to prime him like a pump.  After a couple of forced spoonfuls, he decide he can eat it. Too much work for me.

I went down to Janet's and got more BARF raw food that he thinks is crack.  Tonight I gave him just a little of that full strength to get his pills down and then I mixed the rest of the patty with sweet potato and some of that same ground chicken that he is not that fond of. He at it all and licked the bowl clean and then came back to lick the bowl again.  And that was after I gave him a lamb bone with quite a bit of meat on it so he ate a lot for him tonight.  So I should have plenty of food for a month if I am judicious with it.  That sweet potato should stretch it and it's good for fattening him tooPlus I have the ground chicken and a roll of ground beef and a lot of ground organ meat.  We should be fine for  a while.

Today he worked ducks.  I set up a little crazy course for a student and did it first to make sure it was doable with Dually.  It was fine.  He wants to work but he's so slow for him.  But he's still having fun and that's what counts, including taking  a bite every darn time we work ducks now.  I'm not getting on him so he gets worse every time.  Bad doggy.

No work for Edge or Kip today. Tomorrow I will work both of them.

Rain and working dogs

It was cool and rainy this morning off and on. 2 of my students bailed and one came in between the rain drops.  I worked Dually before my student came and  he is quieter at night when he has done something during the day.  Last night he kept throwing toys at me because he didnt' get to work yesterday. Today I sent him out for the livestock into the arena and we sorted and I also worked for 10min or so on the corner exercise. He seemed fine. He is quiet tonight.  I am having trouble with food again.  I tried the armellino chicken raw and added cooked sweet potatoe. He is not too keen on it.  I ordered SoJo's pre mix and we'll see if we add that he gets more enthusiastic.  I was hoping he would eat some dehydrated but he still wont' eat the Honest Kitchen.  Aghhh. 

Then I worked Kippy and he was very good. He is going into the corners around the goats and not biting them anymore.  Yay.  He did the on the fence driving exercise and seemed to pick up on that really quickly.

Dually is eating!!!!!

   A friend gave me some Bravo beef patties and he LOVES  them. I don't have to beg him to eat or even ask him to eat, he just eats them and licks the pan too.  I think I have to give him more than I have been giving him.  I will try 3 patties instead of 2 tomorrow.  Of course I will probably go broke feeding him this stuff, but what can I do?

Today he went out to gather up the goats and sheep for me.  Kinda sloppy but who cares.   I had him help me get the ducks up too with his usual jumping on them , but that was about all he did today. I used Edge to hold out sheep for a student and then I did the AKC A course intermediate with him. He was a little wild.  He was very sure I was giving him the wrong flanks so he insisted on going the direction he thought I meant.  Cute though very cute.

I had to go to a wake today of a former colleague.  He was only 56 and just retired this year. very sad

Out to a late lunch and home to watch more "Orange is the new Black".  Engaging show.  much like the book. 

Auction Day(yesterday) and Today

   I loaded Dually in the car this morning and Kip and Edge sorted the goats and sheep for me.  He loaded everything in the trailer calmly and quietly and off we went.  I pulled in to the auction site about 9:30.  They were a little disorganize but we unloaded quickly.

I just realized this whole post which was a lot longer never got posted yesterday in spite of the fact that my sister said she read it.  Ha caught you.

So must shorten yesterdays story because I am not rewriting it.   Took 4 sheep and 4 goats from Wendy to auction. easy peasy.

I  had to go to Tufts to get pills for Dually in the afternoon.  That was a little fiasco, but all done now. I'm waiting for a mail order script and it's not here yet and he cannot go without his pills.

Ok the original story was much more intersting , but I'm not writing it again.

Today , Dually went out to the top field and brought the sheep in at a walk mostly and then we sorted and then we worked on driving in the duck arena.  After yesterday I decided if he dies, I don't want to say I wish I had let him do such and so yesterday.   He also raced after the boys up the hill once.  I am not going to let him do that much or he will drop dead.  Then he stood around and stared at me while I raked, but when he came inside he cuddled and talked to me and played toy.  He coughed twice today though.

Kathy B gave me some nupro supplement to try on him and he liked it but I think it might be full of salt. There is not indication on the packaging so I need to call the company tomorrow.  It smell like liver and he cleaned his bowl.   It's the am meal that is the problem though.

goat pick up

   When I got up this morning, I hooked up the trailer and loaded all the dogs in the car, Dually rides shotgun now.  I'm not sure if he likes it or not, but at least he is not jumping over the crates to get in the back.  I drove down to Canterbury Ct to Wendy's to pick up 4 of her goats to take to Auction  along with 4 of my sheep this week.  The first thing Dually did was to jump  out of the car window to greet Wendy. Everything looks scary now.  I decided to try and use him to gather and sort the goats. Well the goats were light, really light and they ran this way and that and not in a group but all split up. Dually was willing but I was not.  I put  him in the car and took out Edge.  Edge had to do quite a bit of running inside the pasture just to get them to the gate to sort and then once outside they ran up the fenceline without their old lady leader.  I grabbed the old lady with a rope and sent him for the other 3. He wanted to work the old lady so I tied her to a fence and showed him where the other 3 were. He brought back one and had to go back for the other 2.  Then I was able to load the old lady  and 2 of the younger ones followed and one went off by himself.  So I had to stay in the trailer and keep the 3 in while Edge was sent to bring the other one to me.  He got it done.  He's a good boy.
      When I got them home, I put them in a stall and had to put a scrapie tag in them. Nobody got hurt. I let them out and had him sort the sheep so I could put tags in them. I got them in the stall and got 3 of them done and got to "Crazy Legs" and she was wild.  She ripped her ear open and then I quit.  I did not want to get hurt and I could feel  it coming. Hopefully they will help me at the auction.

      I worked Edge in the duck arena on the "new" beginner sheep group.  We drove them on the fenceline. He is so much better going the away direction. He holds the line by himself. So I guess I need to work  the go bye more.

     Kip and I worked too. He would not go into the take pen and let the goats out.  He still  won't so we will be doing that every darn day.  His corners are much better and his down is better and I am working his out.  I need to keep working on his biting. Alfred said the other dogs in the litter don't much like to bite. I told him that was not the case with Kip.  He was surprised.