Saturday, April 30, 2005

Springtime in the Rockies

The first year I lived in Colorado, when April rolled around I was in shock. I grew up in Virgina where April means spring flowers, cherry blossoms and dog woods in bloom. Winter is (usually) a distant memory by the end of April.

In Colorado, April means snow. And then more snow. Most non-Coloradans don't know that April is our snowiest month. It has snowed EVERY DAY THIS WEEK. But it's not our usual "dry" snow. And the ground is no longer frozen.

As ususal the dogs get to go out every morning. Here was the result after an hour of playtime yesterday morning...what Springtime in the Rockies means to me....


Kelly


Aliy


Ilsa


Babe


The other dogs all looked just as bad, but really, how many dirty dog pictures does anyone need to look at.

And what about Mama Raven, aka The Dog Who Never Gets Dirty?

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

This Day In (My) History

15 years ago today, my German Shepherd Ripken was born. Ripken has been gone now for almost 3 years.

6 years ago today I bought my first Palm Pilot. And Columbine happened.

5 years ago today my dearest darling Sasha, love of my life, died.

2 weeks ago today Raven's puppies, Sasha's great grandnieces and nephews, were born.



Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Picture This

I have been VERY lax about getting photos up here lately. I promise to do better in the future. But that is not what this entry is about. This is about using your imagination...

Picture if you will... me at 7:30 AM this morning. Dressed in navy blue clogs, red, white and green socks, electric lime green velour pajama top with turquoise, hot pink, purple and electric lime green Eeyore pajama pants, topped off with a jean jacket embroidered with bright blue paw prints... running aorund my neighbors yard trying to catch Pumpkin... who had escaped over the fence by using a 4 foot snow drift as a launching pad for her leap to freedom.

Never a dull moment.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Babe has Cousins....

.... 5 of them!!

Meet the puppies:

Yellow Girl, Green Boy, Purple Boy, Red Boy, Black Girl


Visit That's So Raven for all the details and to keep up with the first 9 weeks of Babe's cousins.

Monday, April 04, 2005

The Excavators

Friday was a False Alarm. Still no puppies.

On one of the Samoyed e-mail lists I'm on, we were recently discussing the holes our dogs will dig. My dogs dig holes year round. But when a girl is getting ready to have puppies they will create especially impressive ones. Caves really, not just holes. I wrote about Aliy's hole last year shortly before she had puppies. And I talked about Raven's hole just last week on her blog.

But the digging is not just confined to holes. In early Spring they also dig trenches. It is my theory that they are either following the scent or sound of the ground squirrel tunnels. These trenches can be very impressive excavations. And yes occasionally they do catch a critter. Dont' ask me how I know.

Here is what my ground looks like in a non-excavated area:


Just dead Prairie Grass and dirt this time of year.

Here is an active excavation site:

This is about 15-20 feet across and 30 feet long.

And here we have one of the more impressive trenches:


It's about 30 feet long and right below the bottom of the picture branches off into an inverted Y intersection with the two legs each about 20 feet long.

Imagine 4 acres of this.

Friday, April 01, 2005

Surprise!

Well even though I was convinced that Raven would have her puppies early next week, it appears she may have other plans. As of 1 PM MT her temperature has dropped to 97.5.

When her mother's temp went this low, I had 6 puppies within 8 hours. When her sister's temp went this low, I had 4 puppies 24 hours later.

Although I hadn't planned to put it up until Sunday, I did some scrambling and the Raven-Cam is live. My guess is that you may experience some delays as lots of people may be hitting it at once when they know it's up. Just keep trying :)



To keep up to date on what's happening, vist That's So Raven.