Tag: dog

30 Days of Thanksgiving – Day 15: Pongo

CarolynCares Pongo

Pongo is our Rat Terrier. We got him as a puppy, for a two week trial period…four years ago. For our daughter Laura and I, it was pretty much love at first sight.

I got my first pet shortly after Jonathan and I were married. She was a beautiful shade of gray, so I named her Smokey. That was when we found out I have asthma, and that I’m very allergic to cats. After a trip to the ER, and a shot of adrenaline, Smokey became an outside cat.

We’ve had a few dogs in the 25 years that we’ve been married. I still miss my first dog – a Border Collie that would climb trees to fetch her favorite stick, or climb ladders if we were working in the barn loft.

Pongo is the smallest dog we’ve owned, and by far the cuddliest. He is also the first dog that has been allowed in the house for more than an hour at a time. He likes to jump up on my lap when I’m sitting at the computer, which really makes it difficult to type! We trained him early on that barking in the house is not allowed. He will whine and run to the door when he sees a squirrel outside, then start barking as soon as he’s out the door. He’s a very good farm dog as well. True to his breed, he catches and kills mice around the grain bins when he finds them. Fortunately, he doesn’t bring them up to the house like the cats do!

I am thankful that our friends asked us to take Pongo for that two week trial. No matter how bad I think my day may be going, he is always happy to see me in the morning, and he never loses his enthusiasm. Some days it would be nice to forget all your cares, run around the yard at top speed, then take a nap. Sweet is the life of a dog…

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Be Careful When You Tease the Dog…

This last week has been interesting, to say the least. Some good, some not so much…

We finished harvesting our crops exactly one week ago. It was an overcast, windy day like today. I was anticipating the finish, and getting back to a more normal schedule. I received a phone call with just a few hundred yards to the end. I mentioned in that call that I was watching three raccoons running in and out of the rows, going slower than I wanted to make sure they wouldn’t get run over.  Cue the foreshadowing music…  Apparently my combine is not only good for rock picking, but it is also handy for coon hunting. I’ll leave the details for those who want to hear the story in person. Let me just say… “Ewww.”

My huge rock I picked up on the bean head…it was so dusty I couldn’t see it until I picked it up. The biggest one I’ve picked up so far!

 

Now that harvest is done, we are hitting the tillage pretty hard. We have had so many offers from friends to help, which is such a blessing. Jonathan has taught my niece, Katie, how to drive tractors and use air tools. She has been loving the lifestyle so far.

Katie and her tractor

 

With so many people helping, I was able to concentrate on getting our guestroom ready for Jonathan’s sister, Anita and her husband, Charles. They will be staying with us for a couple of months while they visit churches in the United States that sponsor their mission work. They are splitting their home assignment time between Charles’ family in Canada, and Anita’s family here.  Anita and Charles arrived last Thursday evening, which gave me Wednesday and Thursday morning to have their rooms ready.

Thursday morning arrived, and I had just a few things left to do in the basement. I played with the dog every now and then when he was inside, occasionally teasing him by hiding his favorite toy in my pocket, and squeezing it to make it squeak every now and then. It drives him crazy when he can’t find it, which we find really funny. Cue the foreshadowing music…

Thursday afternoon was so beautiful, and I hadn’t had a chance to run in so long. I thought a quick sprint to the mailbox and back would be just what I needed to keep the cleaning motivation going.  The dog was out in the yard with Jonathan, who was working on the plow before heading back out to the field. I hopped down the two steps outside the door, and accelerated as I started to round the corner of the house. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the dog in a dead run towards me. He usually runs beside me when I am walking/running laps around the yard, but this time he went right in between my legs. Not good.

Do you remember when you were little, and when you fell while playing, it sometimes seemed like it was in slow motion? That was me. I remember thinking, as I see the gravel driveway rising up to smack me, “this is going to hurt!”  It did.  I rolled onto my back on the driveway, sobbing and bleeding. Limbs were in the air…kinda like a dead bug. Jonathan came over, assessed the situation, and offered a hand to help me up. I hobbled into the house, still crying, and started to clean the gravel out of my hands, right knee, and right elbow. This is the same knee that I bruised super bad 17 months ago. I was determined not to be on crutches again, so I haven’t gone in to the dr. Sorry mom.
I have spent the last few days feeling super lazy as I elevate and ice.  Things are not so swollen today, but the colors are very pretty. I always did like purple.

So, the moral of my story…I am very thankful for the people who have asked to come and help out by driving a tractor for a few hours, and I am thankful that Anita loves to do dishes. Oh, and don’t tease the dog.

15 pounds of energy and destruction…but yet so cute

Injury by Goat?

I have been nursing a sore foot the past couple of weeks after doing a little running again. It isn’t like anything I’ve had before…not like plantar fasciitis, but a pain in the back of the heel and outside of my left foot. I have started icing, and continuing the stretching for my calves and ankles. It has been helping a lot, to the point where I was pretty much walking without pain today! I had been feeling sluggish today, but mustered up the energy this afternoon to go 25 minutes at a jogging pace on the elliptical. I had just finished my cool down when my father-in-law came in the house looking for whoever was home. I made my way out of the basement, only to see our semi wild fainting goat buck running through the yard. Crap.

We adopted this goat from a family that was moving, and couldn’t take him along. Most of his life to this point had been spent in the woods around their house. He came smelly and full of cocklebur’s. I talk to him every day when I feed him, but he is still pretty skittish.

The other people helping me chase this creature were my 77 year old father in law, and Nick, our part time hired help. Jonathan showed up after the fun had begun, and did what he could to help for the few minutes that he was able to be home. Soon, it was just me running around the farm yard. At this point, my heel just hurt a little after sprinting around our house, around a couple of sheds, around a couple of bins… I finally went to the house and called our Rat Terrier out. He had been locked in the house by my father in law. Pongo had gotten in trouble earlier in the day for barking and lunging at the goat through the fence, so he was a little unsure as to what I wanted him to do.

Pongo, it turns out, is a great goat herding terrier! He nipped at the heels of the goat just enough to herd him in the right direction. They didn’t make the turn into the pen, and goat took off down the driveway again. Another sprint…great. We got him turned away from the tar road, and took a little detour behind another set of buildings. Pongo kept right on him, without having to nip at this point. Nick parked the Ranger in the way so goat wouldn’t try going the driveway loop again. Pongo made one more run towards goat, and in the pen he went. Nick quick shut the gate, and put the strap on the door to lock it. Whew!

Somewhere on the last sprint, going around the semi’s that were parked in the yard, my foot started hurting so bad I could hardly walk, let alone run. So here I sit, foot elevated and resting on an ice pack, thinking that this is the most bizarre cause of re-injury I have ever had. And I am wondering…if he is a fainting goat, shouldn’t he just fall over if you scare him? Apparently, he’s missing the desirable fainting trait. Bummer!

By the way, for all of those who drove by on the county road in front of our house…I hope you at least had a little smile on your face watching a 44 year old mom dressed in capri length tech shorts and bright pink tech t-shirt running full speed around the yard after that darn goat!

Pongo, the goat herding Rat Terrier: