Bye Bye Babies

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Jo Danehy @ The Sundog Drift

One week ago this was the scene in the “Puppy Palace”Now this is the scene….kinda. We do have the star of the show but he’s hiding inside the BIG people house. Which is where he wants to be with the BIG dogs.

Before the baby Sundogs left we decided to send them off in style by having a little going away party. But SOMEONE got his paws muddy before the party while I was tending the garden. He had to get his first puppy bath. Guess who? Yup, the star. Ahwahnee One Eye got a bath.FIRST shake!! Puppies need socialization you know. So we invited lots of kids to “Puppies and Pizza”. Alida and Owen enjoyed the food on the beautiful spring evening. It was not too sunny but Owen felt he needed some eye protection.Emily spent a lot of time in the puppy palace and was very gentle with the puppies. Marley could not stop hugging the pups and had a smile from ear to ear the whole evening.Cathy had been waiting all week to see these puppies. She said the pizza was good but judging by her smile I think the puppies won her over even more.

Friday, the day before the dreaded “pick up day”, was a day to put away the “to do” list and just hang out with the puppies. What a glorious afternoon, I did not want it to end.NOW is not my favorite part to post. I HAVE to give the puppies up because you see….I have FIVE yes FIVE grown up dogs. But I was happy the puppies went to good homes. Here are some photo’s of the lucky families.This is the Salamida family who traveled all the way from Hayward to get Shoshoni. They all have D names so Shoshoni’s big dog name will be Duncan. This is their FIRST dog. I am in close contact them in case they have any problems their first week with Duncan. I made sure they knew they might not get much sleep in the coming nights.This is the Deary family. The came to get Cheyenne. Cheyenne gets to live with Bessie who is her 4 yr. old sister. They have a swimming pool in the back yard and the dogs get to swim in it. Oh boy 🙂 Cheyenne is going to stay Cheyenne. Yeah!Lori and Mama Maisie were sweet enough to let Cheyenne have one last drink before the long ride home to Elk Grove.This is the Blake family. They were in the running with two other families to adopt Lakota and as you can see they are VERY HAPPY to have him. They are still exploring the name Lakota among others. I don’t think Lakota cares what he is called. Lakota will live in Roseville. Not far from yours truly lenses.This is Christina Hesson and her boyfriend John picking up Tenaya for Lynn Hesson who could not make the trip. They were one of four families in the running for Tenaya. I picked them because they are BIG animal lovers and their 3 year old Golden Loki needs a friend. Lucky girl. Tenaya won’t be far from this lenses either. She will live in Auburn.

And….DARN DARN DARN I had a memory card mishap and could not retrieve the photo’s of Chinook’s new owner Sarah Wade. Chinook got to stay with us one extra night and made the trip all the way to San Diego with Sarah and her boyfriend on Sunday. On the list of things to do now is ….call Sarah and have her get a photo of them together on the beach.

After Saturday watching FOUR puppies leave I had to dry my eyes and do what ever I could to get my mind off the emptiness. So Sunday morning before Chinook left we had a play session with the BIG dogs. BIG dog socialization. None of the little guys got trampled either.After that the little guys got real thirsty.Ahwahnee thinks nursing is easy as pie now. Not much competition.And guess who gets to be Ahwahnee’s baby sitter and best friend now? Why of course big sister Sasha. Sasha has no problem clearing the puppy fence to come to Ahwahnee’s aid OR steal his toys.I wonder how long this little stuffed donkey will last?Sasha says “not long”.

Adios Amigo’s

The Puppy Palace

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Jo Danehy @ The Sundog Drift

If you are a puppy between the age of 5 and 8 weeks old this is where you want to end up. Sundogs’s PUPPY PALACE.

We call this the puppy palace because it has everything a puppy (or doggy) could want. It is an insulated house with sliding glass windows for light and ventilation. It has added features like a heater for winter or air conditioning and misters for the SO HOT summer months. It also has a shaded indoor patio with running water and pine shavings to roll, pee and poop in. This photo shows the palace looking very fancy AFTER a litter of puppies has vacated. NO the puppies are not allowed in the roses. A little green fence is erected so they have lots of room to run, play and goof around like puppies do OUTSIDE the palace walls.

This is what I face every morning when I open the front door. Crying, barking puppies who want to get out and go were they are not supposed to go. And since there is nothing better than puppy breath in the morning, I have to pick up each one of them up for hugs, licks and kisses. Tough job I have, huh?

AND….. did I mention the palace has a doggy (I mean puppy) door? All our babies learn to use it immediately upon arrival.

Sometimes getting in can be a challenge as there may be five other puppies on the other side trying to tackle you for the best spot.

Made it in! Yeah. Now who can I harass?

Inside is pretty nice too. We draw the line at big fluffy dog beds because some members of the gang are too lazy to go outside in the middle of the night to relieve themselves. Rockin Roy and I have a debate about this. He thinks we need the big fluffy beds in there but I think the puppies are just fine with some old bath mats and soft fleece blankets. WHICH CAN BE THROWN IN THE WASHING MACHINE 🙂

During the day if it is warm the french door is left open so the puppies can lounge about and watch me pick up poop outside. I’ll leave out the photo of the poop scoop. A very valuable tool in raising puppies.

Cheyenne in her favorite lounging spot. Then getting a mouthful of Chinook.

Chinook decides to step out into the “pine patio” for a drink perhaps. No he is NOT sad. He just has a pathetic look that gets him lots of extra love.

Chinook waits for his turn at the watering hole. What a gentleman.

The watering hole is full. Gotta get that bowl hooked up to a automatic waterer. We must fill it 3 times a day now.

Shoshoni finally gets in there for a drink. He is the quiet patient one.

As you can see he is pleased and refreshed. Ahwahnee tackles Cheyenne until…..

Big sister Sasha arrives at the door. Sasha LOVES to play with her younger siblings in the outside pen or better yet in the big FREEDOM yard. Which is where they are going right now. Tenaya take the first steps to FREEDOM.

When time permits the puppies are allowed out in the big FREEDOM yard under watchful eyes. They get to act like big dogs AND play with the big dogs. This helps them with future socialization 🙂 It is one of the secrets that makes Sundog babies so special.

Lakota stands quivering in front of giant Mr. Lassen waiting for acceptance.

Finally he gets the approval he has been waiting for.

After Lakota gets acceptance, Chinook goes in for the ritual. Tiny head in Lassen’s big mouth is the name of the game.

Cheyenne is not ready for the ritual. She high tails it out of there and quickly.

Ahwahnee follows Cheyenne using his heightened sniffing skills.

Then the rest of the group follows to a big scary place far from were they are supposed to go.

Sasha tries to attract attention with her game, “chew the manzanita”

So after about a 1/2 hour of these games back and forth, time to go back in the PEN.

WHAT GIVES?

Adios Amigo’s until next post.

Got Your Back

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Jo Danehy @ The Sundog Drift

Last weekend I got my mustang fix at “The Wild Horse Sanctuary” in between Shingletown and Manton California. Boy are these mustangs lucky. Instead of being stuck in some BLM long term holding pens or worse yet on someone’s dinner plate, they get to live their life out protected in the lovely Northern California foothills. It is spring and the the first baby of the year is here! For purposes of this blog I’m going to call this little filly “Smokey” Ain’t she a doll? Here she is looking back at me while hanging tight next to mom. She does not fear me because she has a mom and dad and her whole band to watch her back.

Mom very bravely standing still so Smokey can nurse. She has one ear listening to me and the other ear listening to whatever goes on beside her.

Mom and Smokey have others in the band watching both their backs.

And their fronts.

Daddy can be seen in the back ground of the two last pictures, can you find him? Might be hard to do since some of these mares are quite large and round. More babies coming. Daddy’s job is to protect the whole band so he has to keep an eye on me who keeps pointing the big black thing at him.

Here he is. Is he a manly stud or what? I think Smokey is going to have his dad’s color as a Blue Roan but he could turn out to be a Grullo too. Grullo is a color of horses in the dun family, that have tan-gray or mouse-colored hairs on the body, often with shoulder and dorsal stripes and black barring on the lower legs. Smokey’s dad has other “wives” too. Don’t these two make a handsome pair.

After nursing for awhile Smokey tries to sleep much to the dismay of Prince the sanctuary dog in charge. Prince does not seem to understand Smokey does not want to play now and needs to have napping time.

Gosh darn it, I guess I need to wake up says Smokey.

OK now I am REALLY awake.

Got to get back to mom. Got milk?

Yes thank goodness she does.

Smokey is happy happy with the band. So many “Aunts” to stay close to when mom goes away.

Gotta itch. Guess who is watching over me.

Time for another nap and guess who is watching Smokey’s back? Just about everybody has Smokey surrounded but look at Dad. He is very sneaky watching me trying to act like he is just eating.

Like newborn human babies baby horses do the same, sleep, eat, sleep eat, sleep, eat…..except they can stand, walk and run on day one!

There is dad again watching Smokey’s back making sure I’m not a predator, about to pounce on her.

Dad nudges Smokey telling her it is time to move on now.

He grabs a bit to eat before they all go AWAY FROM ME.

They decide to take a turn to the right. This is the way to the creek for a drink.

It is hard to take my eyes off Dad. He is so handsome and such a fine father figure. You don’t get to see natural wild horse behavior like this every day.

Dad keeps his eyes on me and waits patiently for the rest of the band.

His mares are taking their time. He continues to wait patiently so the band will stay together.

Finally I decide to say good bye to dad. I feel I have put enough pressure on him.

Goodbye you beautiful thing.

Many more Mustang posts come…hope you enjoyed this one!

Adios Amigo’s

Time for Shots

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Jo Danehy @ The Sundog Drift

It’s that time…time to stick needles into cute little puppies.

Canine Distemper, Adenovirus Type 2, Parainfluenza and Parvovirus

Record the lot number and double check the expiration date.

Sorry I can’t photograph myself GIVING the shots. The puppies did great, NO CRYING.

Weight checks and new ribbons are also on the agenda today.

Chinook agreed to go first on the scale. 10 lbs even.

Does he look like a little teddy bear or what?

Next Cheyenne who outweighed Chinook. Sorry big guy, the big girl weighs in at 11.3 lbs

I thought Cheyenne was going to jump off the scale but she just stayed there kinda frozen.

Next was Lakota. He is our medium sized boy at 9.12 lbs.. He crouched down and whimpered a bit then sat up and posed for the camera. What a good boy. Look at those paws!

Tenaya was literally frozen with fear so I started by petting her and putting on a pretty new lavender ribbon. She relaxed and did fine on the scale although you can tell it was not her favorite part of the day. She is our biggest girl weighing in at 11.15 lbs.

Shoshoni wanted to help me with my record keeping. Where is the pen Momma Jo?

Shoshoni weighs 8.4lbs. A perfect weight.

And can you guess who I did last? Awhahnee of course. He’s up to 6.14…almost 7 lbs!! He was barely 7 oz when he was born.

Is’nt he handsome? Just look at those curls.

Until next post….Adios Amigos

Happy Birthday Lieana. The Full Story.

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Jo Danehy @ The Sundog Drift

How do you erase the memory of an animal that was a big part of your life?

YOU DON’T

Visions of Lieana never leave my mind (or my albums and hard drives). And today especially since it would have been her 28th birthday had she survived the cancer she succumbed too in April of last year. Lieana was a purebred Arabian born on March 7, 1985 in Tigard, Oregon.

She was a grey who was almost black at birth I’m told but she eventually turned to what we knew her as a “flea-bitten” grey. Sounds pretty huh? She was pretty as most grey arabs are. She had a lovely way of turning her neck around to look at you just like in this photo and the one above. The one stuck in my mind and on my living room wall.

About the time of her birth I was a young mother living very near to the park I ride horses in now. Horses back then were a pleasant memory from the past when I insisted on riding them at camp as a little girl so little I had to be “ponied”. Or up in the Oakland hills as a teenager riding rental horses and getting bucked off and still loving it. But as a young mother I cared nothing about horses since I was too busy changing diapers and wiping snotty noses. Little did I know then, the baby girl who nose I was always wiping, is who would draw me back into horses. You see, Andrea, my little bundle of joy who was all grown up at age 8 had to have a horse since her best friend had a horse. AND this best friend’s mother happened to be a horse trainer and lived on a ranch nearby. AND yours truly was getting the itch to be around horses so Andrea got lucky. I don’t remember how we found Lieana but we got her in Elverta, California. I was a bit naive buying her. She was sweet and pretty and my sister had Arabians so I thought she was perfect for us. As I later found out she was not exactly the best for western pleasure showing but we made good with her. She was nick named “Speedy Gonzales” in the show ring….not so good. Anyway after much hard work the result …. this SMILING FACE!

This was Lieana’s and Andrea’s FIRST blue ribbon. Yahoo! Can we say PROUD show Mom? After many NO RIBBON classes and many 3rd 4th’s and 5th places it was WELL deserved.

Fast forward several years and several barns and here is Lieana are her final destination “Sundog Ranch” You could say Lieana got our butts up to Sundog. I did not care for boarding her at other places. I wanted to wake in the morning and go down to greet her, take her soft muzzle in my hands and sniff that wonderful horsey smell. We needed a place for her. And her buddy GQ.

Here is the nose I loved to smell and cuddle with in the morning.

Lieana was very happy at Sundog.

Rolling in the mud and golden leaves. then running like the wind.

She agreed to teaching children the art of balance.

She was very flexible despite her arthritis setting in. Here she is scratching her soft smelling nose while feeding with her buddy in the sun.

Lieana loved to roam around the barn.

She’d eventually make it up to the green lawn by the house she so yearned for.

Thanks for letting me roam mom.
Lieana looked very cute in her barn in the winter.

Especially at Christmas time.

A roll in the snow was a special pleasure.

We got to go on lots of fun trips with Lieana too. Like Roy’s 51st birthday at Euer Ranch in the Sierra’s.

GQ did NOT want to leave Lieana alone the whole trip. That caused a few problems but we had a good time anyway.

Our last camping trip was way out on the western side of the valley we look upon at Sundog on a beautiful piece of land belonging to my sister. We had a scary run in with a llama, and Lieana escaped the electric pen in the middle of the night. She did not go far as the delicious green grass was all around us.

Lieana was a great camping partner.
Lieana even got to go on a cowgirls’s overnight party we me. She got to stay in a stall all of her own in my dear friends barn . She got along well with all the other guests.
At the end of her life, Lieana got to boss around our new horse Chiron. Here she is not exactly too happy about standing next to him.

She did NOT want to play with him no matter how hard he tried to get her to play.

For some reason I asked Rockin’ Roy to take some photo’s of Lieana and I together on her last “alive” birthday March 7th 2012. Little did I know it was to be her last live birthday.

SNIFF SNIFF

She still rides at sunset at Sundog but with out the aches and pains of old age. And she has a special someone to run and play with and keep her company….. her twin, someone who thinks, feels and smells just like her.

My sweet Lieana I miss you so. May you ride at sunset forever more. Lieana Banana March 7, 1985 – April 12, 2012

Until next post which will hopefully not cause tears.

Adios Amigos

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