Stray Dogs

A dear blogger friend, Journey in your Dreams recently went through a devastating ordeal involving stray dogs, probably belonging to her neighbors. The dogs had killed and maimed her animals before, but this time were there to kill and injure her goats and chickens, and even her sweet cat, until they grew tired and bored. It was all so heart-wrenching to read about and realize what poor Kayte and her family had to go through upon finding the carnage left behind all so mindlessly and needlessly. It broke my heart and terrified me to the bone.
It could happen to any of us who own animals. I fear stray dogs more than I fear any other predator. They usually don't kill for food. They kill for the sport, for the excitement and for no reason at all.

When we first moved into this house last October, we had a house warming party. During the party, a stray dog showed up and our guests fed it hot dogs, chips and cookies.
A little later that same dog snuck up into our barn, tore apart our bunny hutch and dragged our poor sweet bunny all across our pasture, by the neck, until she was dead.
We were devastated.

That dog's belly was stuffed full of hot dogs and junk food, but it still savagely attacked and killed our innocent, caged rabbit.

So, imagine my terror at waking up early in the morning for a visit to the restroom, and peeking out the window to check on our 'woolies' up at the barn, as I always do.

A single grey and black dog was standing beside our barn.

I didn't recognize the dog and had no idea how it had gotten into our, what I believed, fortress of a pasture.
Our goats and sheep looked terrified, but our llamas were on alert. And our horse was snorting and screaming.
So, I hastily threw on some clothes from my dirty clothes pile (yeh, gross, but when it's life and death, wearing dirty clothes is a non-issue) and ran outside and up to the barn, my heart racing!

First I let the llamas out of their pen, as I knew they would run-off or destroy any canine that showed up in their pasture.
Then I chased the stray dog, who seemed frantic to get out, but couldn't figure out how.
Finally, the mangy creature slithered under a gap under the fence in the horse paddock.....a spot I thought I had reinforced with concrete blocks and dirt piled up a few months ago. Darn!

A bit later, after checking on the safety of our woolies, I noticed this dog at our neighbor's house and realized it was THEIR DOG! It had somehow gotten free of it's chain. It was growling at me and I wanted to just kill it with a large rock...and almost did, too!

John said he would talk to the owners, who are actually pretty nice, and let them know that their dog might be a liability if it gets loose again and hurts or kills any of our animals, or children. I also want him to let them know that if their dog is on our property that we won't hesitate to capture it and turn it into Animal Control, or shoot it if we find it hurting our animals or children.

Like I said I fear stray dogs more than any other predator. Unlike a wild animal, who's life depends upon protecting their body from injury and not taking any risks that might render them unable to hunt, stray dogs aren't concerned about that.
They know that they'll have no trouble finding food from humans. They kill and injure animals, not for food, but because they instictually enjoy it.

Siberia?

Do we live in Siberia? Global Warming??!! What? Are you kidding?

Have I mentioned before that we are more than ready for Spring to arrive?

Well, we are....and I am! This recent snow storm caught us by surprise because for the past two days the temps have been warmer, up in the 40s and 50s with lots of warm rain to melt away all of the stubborn rock-hard, icy snow that has been sticking around for over 2 weeks now. We also had some very strong wind with gusts up to 50-60 mph.

So when the snow started falling...well, actually blowing (we were still experiencing those awful wind gusts,too), we were quite surprised.

We sat around as it got worse and worse around midnight debating whether we should go up to barn to check on the llamas and rabbit. John was not up for it and grumbled about it, so I took the lead, picturing our poor llamas coated in a layer of freezing cold snow and our faces being on Animal Cops New Mexico for neglecting our furry critters.

The wind was furiously blowing so hard that with the snow, I couldn't even open my eyes to watch where I was walking. So, with the pitch-black night and the wall of blowing white, I felt like I was walking into a maelstrom.

The view from our back porch to the steps leading up to our pasture. There were snowdrifts up to 6" deep.
When I got to the barn, the poor llamas were in their pens, eager to get out to better shelter. Cataleya was covered with about 1-2" of snow. Catlinite had snow all over his face and eyes. Poor babies. All I had to do was open their pen gates and they followed me directly into the barn where I gave them a bit of pellets to warm them up.
Catlinite, always looking for an eating opportunity, went right to work munching on the hay. While Cataleya was more curious about getting close-up to Sage the Rabbit.
Sage was very cozy with her fuzzy cat house and plastic dog house to sleep in. The metal pan, bricks and piping on top are placed there to give the cage some weight so that it can't be flipped over by stray dogs. I had turned the cage with the door to the wall to prevent any stray dogs or coyotes from getting in, but with both of her little houses facing backwards, it also kept the snow from blowing in. The white stuff you can see in her cage is not snow, but rather her blankie that she likes to shred and sleep on.
A view out of the barn. I didn't want to go out there and walk back to the house in all of the blowing cold snow.
Here you can see how useless the current design of the barn really is. The roof is too short/shallow and high. This allows snow and rain to blow in when accompanied by windy conditions. Both pens have no space for either llama to lay down, kush and keep warm and dry.
Poor Cataleya with her snow blanket. While she was eating some pellets, she allowed me to brush off most of that snow before I headed back to the house. Sage seemed to enjoy having the llamas up close. She is very cozy on the floor of the barn with hay, straw and her blankie to snuggle into.
Catlinite seemed relieved and happy to be inside the cozy barn with all that hay to munch. So much for putting our big guy on a diet!
After I left the barn, I stopped off at the chicken coop to refill the chicken's food and water and make sure they were ok, too. They were cozy, warm and dry in their chicken house.

Sage Advice

Right before we moved to the mountains, back in September 2007, we made the decision to find a new home for our 1 1/2 yr old bunny, Sage. She had been given to us from someone who didn't want a female bunny, after Sage had mated with her male, and she gave birth to kits.
She was supposed to be a small bunny, but grew very large quickly. And she also started going through that teenage cranky-bunny phase, where bunnies growl and lunge when in that mood.
We were still very fond of her, but we already had another bunny and we knew an older couple whose bunny had recently died, and they were looking for a new one to love.

Unfortunately, they were really wanting a tiny bunny, and a super loving bunny, which unfortunately, Sage is neither. Well, at least, on the latter, not for now. I know she will grow out of the crankiness with time and love.
Anyway, this couple had her for almost 5 months, but after another bite from Sage, they decided it wasn't going to work out. And since I had made them promise to contact me, if things didn't work out, they did...and now Sage is back home with our family again.

Which happens to be quite ironic, because as some might remember, our sweet, dear Liberty was killed back in October by a stray dog that knocked over her hutch in the barn. Ta that time, my heart was aching and I was wishing I could call up that older couple and ask if we could have Sage back.

Funny how things work out, isn't it?

Sage Advice? Listen to your heart. It won't often lead you astray.

So far Sage has been very gentle and loving, and hasn't growled or lunged at any of us. And we've been hugging, holding, petting and loving on her quite a bit.

Jackson took some pics up at the barn yesterday.