Our GSD...

Most people that are familiar with our family will tell you that we just love pets...we have quite a few too. We each own a dog (well that's not true, I have two, lol) and all are rescues. Hunter is one that our daughter picked out from a rescue in TX. He is such a goofball. He loves the trampoline, running around with the feed bowls hanging from his mouth, he'll chase balls or sticks, he loves peeing on our car tires (we hate it, but we can't seem to make that clear to him), enjoys antagonizing our other dogs or the farm animals behind the other side of the fence...he is mostly quiet, but can sing like a husky when he wants to. He likes to put his feet in the water buckets and he'll paw at the water splashing it all over himself. He's even been seen trying to bite at it!

We like taking him places with us. He's always quiet and watchful.
He of course couldn't resist the water. I don't know if he saw a fish or what, but this is what he does at home in the water buckets...

Look close and you'll see a good bit of water running from his mouth.

Goofy dog looks like he'd drown!

Hiking....

Beautiful isn't it...so peaceful. This little river flowed into the lake nearby.

We really enjoy hiking. The kids have been hiking since they were young with us and do really well. Their first real hike was around 4 miles long. I don't remember any complaining like 'are we done yet?'...just ones to the effect of 'can we eat yet'?!

The crew ready to roll. Hunter our GSD loves to go with us and he does very well. Tall Girl is getting to where taking her picture requires either bribing or sneak attacks, lol...she gets so sullen about it! This time she just decided to act goofy.

These two are ready to combat whatever they may find in the woods!

Isn't hubby sweet again! I just love that man!

Our Hunter...tired after all that hiking! (actually I was trying to get the boy to sit there so I could get a nice picture and he decided he'd lay down instead). Handsome fella ain't he! At 77 lbs, we don't worry much about anyone messing with him or us, lol!

The Church and Fountain...

The grounds behind the church were very pretty. There were live oaks here and there. I love those trees. They are just huge!

This was a memorial for the Confederate dead from Natchez and Adams County Mississippi.

It is a large fountain. I noticed as I was taking the picture that the kids were playing with some stick in the fountain. So I zoomed in on them.

I realized that they were testing the depth of the fountain. I thought, oh it's probably not too deep though...

Um I was wrong! That stick still had 4 more inches or so left in the water!

Cuties!

I noticed Hunter had jumped up beside Tall Girl. Not sure what he was doing so I moved to the other side of them...

Nah...he was just thirsty. He was taking advantage of some cool water. Upon closer inspection of the fountain though, we saw large golden fish swimming around in it. I don't think they were koi. Probably just your run of the mill large goldfish. The fountain water wasn't clear so it was hard to tell.

Visiting Natchez...

There is so much history all around us...we love to travel to local places, visit and try to learn something. We took a little trip up to Natchez, MS (less than two hours from where we live) and did a little site seeing. It was so quiet in the town area. After talking to some shop owners, that's the way it is up there and they like it just like that. Oh they get business just fine and there are busier times during holidays and special events, but for the most part, life downtown is nice and easy. We took Hunter with us. Unfortunately there are people afraid of him because he is big, but he is a great ambassador for his breed. Calm, watchful, quiet...he does have presence, but he's relaxed about it.

Here we are at the Mississippi River. We were on this walkway/wall very high above the river itself. We were quite surprised at how tall it was.
We saw some very pretty buildings. This was a large Catholic church in town. Steve really was taken with the building itself. There was a large fountain and memorial statue on the garden grounds behind it. That will come in another post...

This is the backside of the church.

Yeah...mom and her picture taking! Again....actually it was a little warm out and everyone was wanting something cool to eat (ice cream was a welcome treat!).

Something got everyone's attention, LOL!

If you look under the bench, you will see Hunter's water cup. We stopped in at this building because we thought an art exhibit was being shown. But they had just finished putting it in the vault, though we did get to see some of the paintings. The man who owned the building invited us in as he wanted to give Hunter some water since he looked a little hot. Hunter was very good about it all. At one point the kids and I went into a book store while Steve waited outside and Hunter just whined and cried about it, lol...the big baby! I had to go out and stand with Steve so he'd stop.

Silly pups...

Our dogs are so goofy sometimes...well most of the time really.

The lady we got the piano from gave the kids a couple of things. One was a pink beanbag. The kids like sitting in it, but the dogs love sleeping in it! LOL. Sophie is just right, for now, and Hunter is too big but doesn't care!

Ugh....More rain!

I was so glad this week. We'd had no rain for more than 5 days....a big too-daa here, and the mud was finally just dirt again...I was all set to go get my calf yesterday only to find out they were out of town. I was going to head out this evening to get him, but then came the rain. Now I can't get into the yard with the trailer. Of course if I could just learn to back the thing into the driveway and down the drive, it wouldn't be so bad, but well...I can be a bit goofy and I'm sure I'd end up with a not very pleasant bill from the wrecker company after having them tow me out of the deep ditch on either side of my driveway. Steve would be just thrilled with that especially since it'd be his truck in the mess! I'm quite sure that I don't need to start practicing now.

So I'll wait a few more days and see if it starts to dry up again.

On another note. B helped me clean up the carport and take all the horse stuff and feed cans out to the horse shed. I'm going to use it for storage now since we have the other shelter to feed under. Steve will be so glad to get all the stuff off the carport and we won't have to haul feed twice a day to the back and get attacked by the goats on the way in...those goats will knock you over for a smiggen of feed...bunch of pigs they are. Now we'll be able to make the buckers out there and feed everyone without getting mauled all the way to the troughs, LOL!

Got a pic of Hunter and the kids outside the other day. They were having a blast on the trampoline and Hunter thought he must have been missing something and popped right up there with them. Goofy dog!

Of course here's the videos of the three of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw_EVkHUevY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19UkvYzEbdo

We're Home!

We got home this afternoon. Our trip went well...a bit of a long drive, but the hotel was great! The staff was so nice.

Steve and I visited a golf putting range. He enjoyed that. I actually hit balls this time and sent them a good distance...but lets just say I should stick to horseback riding. I truely have no future in even getting better at golfing; I'm just bad!

We took Hunter on a hike up to Mount Bonnell. It was so pretty up there. It's supposed to be the highest lookout point in Austin. I of course forgot my camera!

Then we took him to a park to walk some more. We were trying to get the dog to pee, but that dog held it from the time he got there until evening when I think he finally could hold it no longer. Luckily that had happened when we were outside and not in the hotel room!

He rode nicely all the way back to Baton Rouge and Britney was so surprised when she opened her bedroom door to a very excited German Shepherd coming at her! He needs a good bath and grooming and a good bit more weight, but other than that he's a sweet pup. He's also big...and only 10 months old!

Begging for some of Steve's pizza! He didn't whine, didn't inch forward...just sat there staring with those sad, 'I'm starving' eyes!

Rescues...

I sometimes wish I had a large fenced property set up to run a rescue for dogs....I'd probably have one of every kind...LOL.

We are in the process of searching out a male German Shepherd Dog. It's B's turn to pick out the next dog and she just loves them. I signed up on a GSD message board to learn more, although we have owned one...Cleo was a white GSD/Husky mix..what a stubborn, nippy, smart, exhuberant pup she was! I've been scouring rescues for a young male GSD. We found one that may work with our family and we're waiting on a reply...

As much as I find puppies cute, I don't need a pup. I don't really want to support the breeding industry. When people tell me that they think it'll be great to have a litter of pups from their dog, "because he/she so darn cute, smart, funny"... fill in the blank with whatever and "because people I know would want one", I just roll my eyes. Many times I tell them to go look at the pound because it's full of those puppies that everyone wanted, got tired of dealing with, didn't get fixed and now have made more puppies that were dumped at the pound where many will be euthanized because quite frankly I don't know of a single solitary pound, shelter or rescue that isn't full to the brim with dogs. I get so tired of seeing owners surrendering their 2-3 yr old pet and because they are too cheap or lazy to train it (which by the way makes a 110% difference in your pet), or animal control pics it up half starved because they just let it go. Oh and it's probably pregnant too or got something else pregnant...

Or how about when people move..."we can't take it because the new place doesn't allow dogs"...I guess you didn't try hard enough to find a place. We have moved with large dogs many times. Three times we were in apartments. Guess what? We found atleast a few different apartments in each area that accepted large dogs. Yeah, we had to pay extra, but hey, that's how pet ownership goes. They aren't cheap to have.

I see people with their senior dogs...you know the ones that can't hold their bladder much anymore (there's a pill for that), they're arthritic and can't hardly walk (there's a pill for that), they are going blind-really not a big deal if you aren't moving anytime soon...they adjust well, or ones where their teeth are rotting out-take them to the darned vet and remove them. The owners dump them saying they found an old dog...get real...they just don't want to deal with them anymore...what a nice way to treat the pet that gave you so many years of unconditional love!

Good grief, if you don't want to deal with it anymore, take the dog to your vet, hold it in your lap, stroke it's furry head, tell it you loved it and will miss it as your vet puts it to sleep. That is more humane than some of the other options I've seen people choose. I have a Great Dane. She's huge. She's getting older. She's starting to have issues, but we chose her and she loves us. There will be things that I can't do for her as she gets older just because of her size. She will be humanely put down when the time comes...it's the least I can do for her.

Anyways....sorry for the little rant this morning....just seeing/reading this stuff on message boards and at the animal shelter has just hit my buttons today...besides what are we teaching our kids when we dump their pets? That they are just disposable things? They aren't and I'm so glad my kids know better and I'm glad that they enjoy helping out at the shelter or with dogs they find...