Cash and Paisley still run this place

No words needed.

An update, a year late

I know I haven't written in a very long time.  I've thought about it many times but things just changed so much since Faith passed away and my heart hasn't been in things.  I think that was clear in the decrease of my posts and the shortness of them.

We still have Cash and Paisley.  Cash is healed from his accident, although his back has never looked the same since then and the vets think he will have arthritis and possibly hip dysplasia later in life.

We still have guinea and chickens, although we have lost a couple in the last year.

The county has completely torn up the front of the property, moved the drainage ditch closer to our home where the trees used to be, and ripped up our driveway.  They haven't started laying the asphalt closer, but that's due to the weather.

We survived the snow storm, and that is probably the only interesting thing I have to share pictures of.

Don't let them fool you, they barely shoveled at all

I am thinking we will do the garden again this year and so we cut up the fallen tree and hauled it out of the garden area before the storm hit.  Hopefully I'll get motivated enough to finish weeding and getting the area ready once the weather gets a little warmer.

Dog updates

The 5-gallon bucket that we keep outside to refill chicken water bowls froze solid.  It wasn't just the top later, it was a complete block.  I brought the bucket inside thinking it would defrost, but apparently the kitchen isn't much warmer because after a few days, the only defrosting occurred from the dogs licking it.

So the oldest decided to hack away at the block to give the dogs some ice to eat.

They went crazy for chunks of ice and were running around the house playing with them.  It was hilarious.

Later, Paisley was curled up on the arm chair, nice and cozy, until Cash decided to come over...

Cash and Paisley - 8 months old

I'm so behind on updates because so much as been going on and so much has changed.... I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Really?!

The trouble has begun

Although Paisley will happily skip into her crate when we ask her to, Cash is another story.  He hates the crate and no matter how we bribe him, he hates to go in and hates to stay in quietly.  Each time that I put Paisley in her crate, Cash will look at me out of the corner of my eye and then quickly hurry in to my room and jump in the bed.  He seems to think that if he "goes to bed" in my bed that I won't make him "go to bed" in his bed.

A few days ago we came home to this...

I'm not even sure how he managed to do that, but he's clearly planning to break free.

Lesson learned

We went on a short weekend trip and decided that taking one of the dogs would make things easier for the pet sitter and would give us a chance to do some one-on-one attention and training for the other dog.  Because Cash is usually more mellow, we decided to take him with us.

Boy was I wrong.  Cash was not happy with the kennel he slept in over night and when we picked him back up the next morning, he just seemed completely lost and confused as to where Paisley was.  We took him to a dog run area and he just paced the fence line looking for her.

We heard from a friend that Paisley seemed much more quiet and a bit sad while we were away as well.  It looks like we won't be able to separate them again.

On the way home, I think Cash was being as patient as possible.

And once we were home, although Paisley was hyper as usual, it wasn't long before she came and climbed into my lap and fell asleep.  Maybe she was just glad to have us home.

Paisley and Cash

Whether it was a good idea or a bad one, we got two puppies.  We haven't told many people as I am still grieving the loss of Faith and I didn't want anyone to think we replaced her, as there will never be any way to replace her.

It has been two weeks now, and I figured it was time to make it public.

Cash is a fairly mellow little boy and will often sit calmly down next to me and just look at me.  I've snuck him on to the couch  (where they are not allowed) to cuddle with me twice and into my bed for a few hours while we slept one night.  He learned to come first and mastered "sit" within one day.  He's a cute boy and tends to be more passive.

Paisley is pretty active and full of energy.  She is constantly trying to jump at us, unfortunately with her mouth open and wanting to play.  She takes all of the toys or treats that Cash gets and instigates all of their wrestling matches.  She's worn herself out a few times and so she was the first to be snuck into my room to sleep for a few hours one night.  She learned her name first and learned to "sit" within 15 minutes.

They are siblings that were born on April 1st from a litter that were Shar Pei and Pitbull mixes.  It wasn't my intention to get a pit, but since these are mutts and definitely have some distinct Shar Pei looks to them, I agreed.

We are crate training them, which I've never done before.  They have to pee so often, it is crazy, but they have been really good about either going outside or having an accident on puppy pads that are set up on one corner of the living room.

So far they haven't been allowed out of the living room or on the furniture.  They sleep in separate crates, although they were next to each other until today.  We finally moved them so they are about 4 feet away from each other and through a doorway.  They can still see each other but the goal is to eventually have them in separate rooms.

They will be going on vacation with us to the beach because I was worried that a pet sitter wouldn't keep up with the potty training and we would lose ground.  They've done okay in the car for the two trips to the vet and I'm planning to take longer to get to the beach so that we can stop to let them out more often.

I'll save everyone from my sad and pathetic feelings that have come up about Faith since Cash and Paisley have come into our lives and I won't admit that I've caught myself looking up at her urn and asking what the heck was I thinking when they are whining to go outside at 1 in the morning.

**Yes, we did name one of the goats Cash when we had him for the first few months of his life, but we liked the name and used it again.