animal dilemmas

I am faced with two animal dilemmas. I have way too many dogs already and can’t afford to care for another. But there is this dog that’s been tied in a vacant field all year. Someone comes and gives it food and water from time to time and it has a house of sorts, the house has lost the north wall, not good in winter. It is a large mixed breed adult dog.

I don’t know why someone thinks this is a good situation for the dog. I suppose they live somewhere where they can’t have one. I have never seen anyone there but a neighbor that lives closer has seen people feeding it. No one knows how to contact these people. If I call animal control they will come and take the dog probably. But then he will go to the animal shelter and be held in a cage, scared to death until he’s put to death. So he lives a sort of half life tied to a tree with no one around or he dies. Poor choices. At least outside he can hear and see things and probably isn’t scared. He’s thin but not starving.

I guess I can try and make his home a bit better if he will let me. I just can’t bring him here as I am stretched to the limit with dogs, and my dogs love to fight strange dogs.

My second problem is the lamb Taco. I never dreamed a lamb could be this much trouble.
I tried taking him out to visit his relatives but he was scared to death and kept trying to get through the fence to his dog friends. That’s the only time I have seen him scared. Inside nothing fazes him. He climbs, jumps, chews and is generally destructive. If you swat him with a newspaper he takes it as a challenge and comes at you harder.

He especially won’t leave me alone. I can’t read a paper, he pulls it out of my hand or he jumps on me. When he takes a flying leap and lands on you it hurts. This seems cute but after a while you can tell he is just doing it to get your attention so you will chase or otherwise interact with him. That’s ok, I’ll play for a while but it wears on the nerves. He leaps and runs through the house with his dog friends chasing him. He is tall enough to reach the tabletop and counters and pulls everything off. He chews electric cords and walls, won’t leave a book or paper in reach until it’s shredded.

Last night in order to watch Comanche Moon without having to get up every 2 minutes to save something I locked him behind a gate in the kitchen. This is not a baby gate but a stout tall piece of metal grate we installed to keep some of our dogs confined. He got a running start and hit it with all his force, buckling it out at the bottom, then crawled through to continue his havoc.

If he can’t pester me or Steve he starts on a dog. He likes to pick on ones he can intimidate, he’s much bigger than them now. He chases them around, biting and pawing at them. He tries to mount our cocker all the time for some reason. He jumps down on them off the top of furniture. He has been bitten a few times, once quite good on the face, but it doesn’t bother him.

I know he knows the word no. He stops what he’s doing for a moment. But he is like an obstinate defiant toddler and goes right back to what he was doing. If you put something out of his reach he keeps trying to find a way to get to it. He knocks my glass over if I set it down and he knows enough not to do it while I’m watching. But if I forget for a moment over it goes. While I was up getting paper towels to clean up my spilled pop last night, he jumped in my recliner and peed on it. I have about had it. I know why sheep are not kept as house pets now.

I tried taking him outside on a leash but he won’t learn to lead, he just about kills himself.
When he is loose he won’t let you catch him. So outside isn’t fun or practical. He doesn’t like it outside. He truly believes he is a house dog.

We do have a large dog carrier that we lock him up in at night but he is fast out growing it. All of our rooms either have things he could destroy or are occupied by other animals.
There is plenty of room in our big barn but he would be alone except for cats. We would also have to go out there to feed him. He hates being alone and would be miserable, but its about to come to that.

My husband suggests lamb chops are quite tasty. I would never eat him but seriously I am thinking about selling him to the next person who comes along and they might. It’s kind of like the dog problem. He can live outside and alone or be eaten.

Granny's Guide to Everything

I have always been an opinionated person. Just ask my husband. I have an idea about how to fix everything. It may not always work and I'm quick to admit that. I also have no problem requesting ideas from others. It's solving the problem that's important. If you don't find the right answer the first time, try again, that's my motto. I can be persuaded to change my mind about something if your reasoning is sound so don't be afraid to comment, suggest solutions, and ask questions of me on this blog. I basically started a blog so that those who read my writing on other sites have a place to go to get to know me better. I intend to post personal ramblings and opinions as well as tips and advice and little tidbits of information I have learned.

Some personal background. I was born and raised in a midsized grungy factory town in Michigan. I was the oldest of six children. My grandparents lived on either side of me and they were a big influence on my life. My childhood was fairly happy, I was never a child who longed to grow up- instead I had a rather Peter Pan view of life, I knew childhood was going to be one of my fondest memories to say the least. I was a tom boy, roaming the woods and fields near our suburban neighborhood with my brother and his friends. I learned to read before kindergarten and devoured books of all kinds. I was good in school, rarely a behavior problem, a kind of shy, average looking girl with glasses. At home I was a bit more of an instigator and leader, always coming up with some new scheme and talking my brother and sisters, and neighbor kids into it.
My greatest wish was to live on a farm and own a horse and I lobbied my parents endlessly to move to a farm. It didn't happen, they are still in the house they built, between the houses my grandparents built and where they grew up.

Fast forward to college years. A counselor talked me into going to a local Christian college on a scholarship and student loan. I was taking pre-med courses. Maybe because it was a safe environment to explore "limits", I became a little bit of a rebel. In a big college I would have seemed like a fairly average college student, here I was part of the "wild" crowd. I got a boyfriend who was not a college student and after my second year of college he persuaded me to take a year off. That has always been one of my biggest regrets.

Next chapter of my life. Always one to care for strays I picked up a boyfriend fresh out of 2 tours of duty in Viet Nam. He was an alcoholic and had a host of other mental problems. Like a lot of optimistic women I thought I could help him. Then I got pregnant. He wanted to marry me but something in me said no and I didn't, despite the tears and pleading of my mother. I had already dealt with too much drama and despair. I knew that I couldn't raise a child in that situation. I decided that I would devote the next 18 years to being the best mother I could be, making my childs welfare the top concern. I had a job in one of the major box store chains and I worked hard to get promotions and support myself and my child. I managed to buy a small house in the same grungy factory town and my son attended the same schools I went to. I rarely dated, although I had friends of both sexes and a quiet social life. I had a big garden, several pets, and I read back to the land magazines with a passion. I still wanted a farm.

Next chapter. My son was in high school. He was talking about getting married to his girl friend already. I realized that he wouldn't be around forever and I was lonely. When he left on a summer vacation to visit my sister in Alaska, I decided to put some serious effort into dating.
At age 40 I found my soul mate and married him. The woman everyone thought would never marry, did. I also acquired two teenage step children, the oldest, a girl, got married a few months after her father and I married. There were some rough spots with my son and stepson but it all worked out in the end.

Three years after my husband and I married, company he worked for went bankrupt. He found a new job, but it wasn't in the same field. It did leave him with a little more time and flexibility. We had been talking about moving "beyond the sidewalk". It was time to do it. We didn't have a lot of money so we searched long and hard until we found the perfect small farm for us, even though it meant a long commute. We jumped into the back to the land thing with both feet, chickens, beef steers, milk goats, pigs, giant garden, fruit trees. I got my horse, and a pony for the grandkids. A lot of work and a lot of fun. Our kids, all now married and presenting us with grandkids, stayed in the city. [ Although my stepdaughter did move to a city in Minnesota.] At this writing we have seven grandchildren and are expecting another.

A few years after the big move, there were more changes. My company offered a buy out and I took it. I went back to school and got a degree, educational counseling, and got a job working in the AmeriCorps program. My husband also lost his job, due to another business closing, and got a job a bit closer to home. We had shorter commutes but a lot less money. Then there was my husbands illness. He has a congenital disease of the spine and had to have surgery on his spine. He was in terrible pain and losing the use of his legs. After the surgery he had complications, including a terrible staph infection in the wound. He was able to go back to his job in a limited way for a few years but is now unable to work and is in a wheelchair.

So the big farm animals are gone, I also have physical limitations with severe arthritis and diabetes. But we carry on. We still have a few chickens, a small flock of Painted Desert sheep, and we raise Jack Russell Terriers and Cocker Spaniels. There is a garden, smaller than before, but perfect for us. We love our country home and hope we never have to leave it. It's quiet here at night, crime is very low, I can sit on my porch and listen to the birds while looking at pastures full of pretty horses and fields of corn that belong to neighbors. No boom boxes or sirens wailing. I can hear the rain coming across the fields before it gets to us. Our house is small and old, needs lots of repairs and both cars we own are over 20 years old. But we still think we are living the good life.

I now work for the local Extension office, it's a part time job and doesn't pay very well but I do love it. I teach gardening classes and answer homeowner questions about their gardens and lawns. I also do some freelance writing.

We are waiting for my husband to receive Social Security Disability. He was turned down the first time, although we were told to expect that as he has a back problem, which almost always means a delay. He's 59 years old, confined to a wheelchair, on strong narcotics to control pain and has a host of other medical issues yet he was told he could still work. We have a legal advocate working with us and he and our doctor both say we should be successful at the next hearing. Trouble is, it's been over 6 months since he applied and we are told to expect another 6 months. Things are a little tight, you might say, as we wait for a decision. I am told there are ways to speed up the process. If anyone knows of such a way, please comment in this blog and let me know.
I do some freelance writing to try and make ends meet, you can read my online work at Garden and Hearth [ I'll post the url soon to my new page there], or at the links listed below. I write about gardening, animals, political opinions, you name it. I get a tiny bit of money each time someone reads my work on one of these sites so please take a look. Every little bit helps- thank you. read about Taking Care of Gift Plants here
or read about the cruelty of piercing a babies ear here
or read about how to pass your passion for gardening on here
read about how to plant a tree here
You can read my article about zoonotic disease here
or about breeding mixed breed puppies here