I can't do a "52 weeks of ???", since in one fashion or another all my dogs have been rescues, while we may see a lot of development over the years (Sash's food aggression for example) I don't have the "cute" pictures of a puppy growing up.  I've been around here enough that I think a scrapbook of 'the pack' might be in order ... so here 'tis.
This, BTW is also a continuation of Finding A Home

An introduction (which'll bore the piss out of most of you):
I'm an almost 70 year old hermit who lives just outside the Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas.  I retired down here about 7 years ago (more or less ...)
There's a thread on here about where I live which will explain the title and maybe help with some of the comments I make about going to town, etc.

The Pack:
Right now the pack consist of:

• Avalanche - an almost 6 yo male Alaskan Husky
  
• Sasha - a long haired (but not wooley) 6<?> yo female Siberian Husky
  
• Sky -the classic silver Husky, female about 3 yo
  
• Two kittens. both male, who are nameless, one black who's relatively friendly and one (sorta) white who is anti-social except for food time
  
• One human - male, who gets to provide food and affection for all of the above. (Notice the humans place in the pack order, yep!)
  

Individually:
Avalanche, rescued from the Alpine Animal Control Shelter when he was one.  As I say in my signature, he's my perpetual puppy.  Of all the animals here, he's my favourite traveling companion since he's definitely a "sight hound", His favourite place when in the Jeep is with his front paws on the console looking to see where we're going.  He's also good at finding those things that I might not see, so I keep an eye on him when he turns his head to look at something. His one desire in life is to make friends with every rabbit on the desert (we have both cotton tails and jacks), but of course, they're not all that interested in making friends with him so he gets to get his exercise by the occasional (weekly??) run.

Sasha, rescued, almost literally, off the streets of San Antonio.  She'd been loose, stayed with one fellow for a couple of days and then, when he was going to take her to the 'shelter', saved by a young lady.  She started looking for an owner (Sasha had no collar and was unchipped.)  I'd recently lost my first ever Husky, Misty (and it was my stupid fault!) so I took the trip to San Antonio to save this girl.  
Little did I know that Sasha had a major case of food possessiveness and over the years she's bitten me more then once; I had the choice of either putting her down or working with her (and there's more than one thread here about how I've worked with her), there was no way I was going to pass a problem on to some one else and if she ever hit a shelter she'd be put down almost immediately.  
Without doubt, Sasha is my "Top Dog!", she has no qualms about putting Avalanche in his place and Sky has taken a couple of lessons from her though she's only been here a week.

Sky This poor little girl came to me from a very generous lady in Wichita Falls.  If I'm reading the notes about her right, I'm Sky's fifth owner in three years.  An absolutely lovable, loving little girl.  I keep saying little because Sky, at 3 is about 20 inches tall at the shoulder blades and weighs in at about 30 pounds (the first records I see of her were a rescue in 10/14 when she was 'a year' old).

Kittens What's to say, I live in the country, have mice and rats and other pests so when  a friend was looking for homes for his kittens, I picked up two as "mouse traps".  From past experience, my dogs are cat aware and, given the chance, cat friendly. (not too sure about Sky, yet). The kittens have their own room, separated from the rest of the house by a 'child gate', Sasha will lay on one side with the black kitten about a foot inside the gate.

I love these pics Al! The one of Sasha and Sky digging in the sand is TOO cute! Is that a road runner Avalanche is chasing?!!! And OMG, that jack rabbit is as big as Sky! Great pics Al ;

Seriously though, AL, where are the pics?!

Alright, alright!  No, that's Avalanche digging with Sasha and Sky watching ... my parking area, in front of the trailer is full of bomb craters - he does love to dig, just for the heck of it, I think.
That might be a road runner A is chasing, though more likely a rabbit.  He doesn't get upset by the roadrunners - who'll literally come up on the porch to drink from his bowl with him there.  But one of the few times he'll chatter at me is if there's a rabbit in the yard!

If my pack were better behaved, I'd see if I could get a pack picture.  Avalanche will set when I tell him to, Sasha will think about it and Sky will as long as she doesn't have to near Sasha.

---

We have a Husky missing.  Some guys brought their red down to one of the swimming holes down here and when they were ready to go home she was nowhere to be found.

I took Avalanche and Sky over with me, to see if Avalanche could 'track' her.  We spent a couple a hours wandering around the two holes and while he marked a couple of places nothing that indicated a path or route.  I've commented that A is a "sight hound" and he did spot a coyote hunkering under a bush (probably coming to the hole for a drink).  When I went over to see what he was looking at the coyote decided that one human and two dogs was too much of a crowd and took off (that's when I decided that it was really a coyote)

Needed a picture of this - Sky headed into the water and went paddling around; Avalanche looked at her like she was nuts!

Went up to the lodge restaurant last evening and when I came out a friend (employee of the lodge) and I went down to a "pond" (maybe 12' across and about 12" deep) and Sasha decided she'd go for a paddle - not too easy in only 12 inches of water but she did get her belly wet.

Life is getting much better!  Sky's been here for a little over a week and everyone has settled down nicely - well I lie!  Avalanche has convinced Sky that it's okay to play and Sasha, who's an old stick in the mud, has decided that she can get into the fray as well. The major result is that I'm going to have to some major house cleaning - I have hair everywhere!!!
I did wake up two mornings to find a present in the kitchen, ut that was early on and I haven't had any more.
Other than the two times that Sasha had to prove that *she* was top dog, there haven't been any serious confrontations - thank you muchly, my heart doesn't need any more session of a "dog fight" right under my feet.

I was refviewing the information at the chip sites and realized that I need to upload pictures to them (Sasha and Sky are with Home Again and Avalanche is with Petwatch)

I had Sasha out and she and the kittens are getting comfortable with each other, they sat face to face, about a foot apart, and the black kitten couldn't have cared less. The black one took a stroll through the living room and the dogs just looked at him- then Avalanche stood up and kitten made a hasty retreat beyond the gate.

Enough of this, it's time to get some fresh coffee!!!

Kenzi is with Home Again. I am not a fan of their site but it works I guess. I haven't gotten her pictures uploaded either. My vet did all her registration and took a fast picture for me when I had the chipping done. I should probably update her picture though. I let the membership run out there. It keeps going up. Was $17 when I got her done, now it's $20.

Interesting guys, I did not know about the pics and the costs....Sofie is chipped, and there was something the breeder said about it, but didn't remember, so I just let it go, but imagine it was about a pic, I believe she is thru home again, not even sure how to do all of that, hahahaha, never got anything thru the company, and the breeder set it up?????

Al glad to hear things are improving with the new girl. I am sure you are highly entertained quite often thru the day

Well things have been, overall, better but Sky's definitely not housebroken -or- I'm just not seeing the signs.   Most morning's I'm waking up to a mess somewhere in the house - tread real carefully until I make the rounds.  

On the other hand she and the other two have decided that they can play so most mornings before it gets too hot and most evenings I have a round of "catch me, if you can!"  

Time to take her in to my vet for a follow up on the heart worms and a general check to make sure she's in the good health that she appears to be.  Report to follow after our visit.

Even though Misty was chipped, I never heard from AVID. I did call several times during the first year / two after she went missing.  That said though, many dogs are returned to their owners each year because they are chipped and the cost for chip and yearly fee are, in my opinion, well worth the cost. Most chip readers read both the frequencies that the RFID use so if a dog is chipped (in the normal place) there's a better than even chance that the chip'll be found.

Vet report follows:

1. Gained 2 pounds from her last recorded visit (before I got her)  She needs to gain a couple more.  Agreed.
   
2. Heartworm seems to be good, no filaria (baby heartworms) present in her blood stream.  The HeartGuard I have is for a 25 pound dog and Sky now weighs in at 36 ... I do want to keep her on heartworm meds for at least a year after she shows completely clear so need to consider.
   
3. Urine has a low pH which is the probable cause of her UTI
   
4. UTI is *NOT* clear.  The vet suggested a C/D (I think) food.  She gave me a sample of (argh!) Hills now I have to get a good one and then try to figure out how to really feed three dogs, three different diets with one of them (Sasha) trying to eat every bodies food.
   
5. Blasted dog has now cost me $10 a day for every day I've had her, not including two tanks of gas.  She could get expensive - fast.  But as Mary (my vet) said, at least the major expense is over and it wasn't on me.
   

Maybe more to follow after I get something to eat. It was too hot to stop and get anything in town since Sky would have to stay in the Jeep.

aljones wrote:

Vet report follows:

1. Gained 2 pounds from her last recorded visit (before I got her)  She needs to gain a couple more.  Agreed.
   
2. Heartworm seems to be good, no filaria (baby heartworms) present in her blood stream.  The HeartGuard I have is for a 25 pound dog and Sky now weighs in at 36 ... I do want to keep her on heartworm meds for at least a year after she shows completely clear so need to consider.
   
3. Urine has a low pH which is the probable cause of her UTI
   
4. UTI is *NOT* clear.  The vet suggested a C/D (I think) food.  She gave me a sample of (argh!) Hills now I have to get a good one and then try to figure out how to really feed three dogs, three different diets with one of them (Sasha) trying to eat every bodies food.
   
5. Blasted dog has now cost me $10 a day for every day I've had her, not including two tanks of gas.  She could get expensive - fast.  But as Mary (my vet) said, at least the major expense is over and it wasn't on me.
   

Maybe more to follow after I get something to eat.  It was too hot to stop and get anything in town since Sky would have to stay in the Jeep.

Ahh poor baby... Maybe this is why people keep getting rid of her - health problems? Of course I don't think that's a good excuse. We have to do what we have to do for our babies, not just send them off to other people.. I wish you luck. Always wish I could help but my poor boyfriend is having surgery in a few days so our finances are not-so-good ($200 up front! - with insurance) and I head back to college too. Can't even get my girl spayed this month like I had planned. Hard times, I tell ya.

My poor kids (and I) are suffering!  The dog days of summer are upon us and we've now had several straight days where 100 is the cool side of the day!  Nights are dropping down into the 80's but it's been nothing but hot during the day (currently 106f)

I guess it's needless to say that my kids are doing as little as possible and an evening walk isn't much more than going out to relieve themselves and then back in - but since I have no A/C it's really just as hot inside as out but at least in here there is shade.  My fan is doing a good job of moving air - the trouble with that is, it's hot air!  

Avalanche - I caught him a while ago out sunbathing, before it got hot.  But he's back under my Jeep.  It's too much trouble, I think, for him to come in and put up with the females though he will come in about sundown and the it's play time.

Sasha and Sky - I think it's just too hot to have any confrontations, though they have had two more after the initial two.  Right now they've both 'crashed' pretty much under my computer stool about two feet apart.

No one - human included - feels like eating; I put food down and they sniff and walk away.  They'll probably, if they follow the trend of the past few days eat after the sun goes down and it starts to 'cool off'.

Amanda, her health really isn't that bad, she just got a rocky start in life.  Shar got her back on track but it's going to be a while before she's a really healthy dog.   I've caught her and Avalanche playing and Sasha will try to play with them but Sky's reluctant to play with her since she's 'corrected' her a few times and I'm really not sure what that's about.  I never did understand hormonal females and I think the heat is just making things worse.

So, how are the rest of us Texans bearing up??

I don't know about the Texans, but it was a tough night for Ami  last night.  It was 69 out but 78 inside.  We had the bedrooom windows open, the fan on the air conditioner on and a 2nd window fan going.  Ami was panting fairly hard and at 3am, moved from the foot of the bed to... my pillow!!! Waking me with wtf spewing out of my mouth as I struggled awake.  He stayed there curled up on my pillow in front of the window fan, spooning.  And panting.  Enough that I got out of bed, brought him a bowl of ice and a bit of water.  He lapped up the water, licked the ice and then fell asleep with his snout laying on the ice.

Hope the Texas pups tolerate the heat better than Ami.

It's currently 90 out. we have been 104/105 for a couple of weeks now, and in the mornings typically not bad, cool breeze and low 80s, but that's because over night lows have been low 70s, last few nights, and the next week lows in the upper 70s, ugh.....I am done with this. The girls seems to do ok. In the mornings they romp and play afternoons they chase and play in the pool. The front door out towards their pool is 2 huge pecan trees, so we have good shade, and thank heavens we usually get a nice breeze, towards the expansive side yard I have 3 old oak trees, so they chase between those points only have to be in the sun for a brief burst, haha. We have a window AC, and it's sufficient to keep the house about 73 during the hottest part of he day, I am thankful we over insulated, our home is originally a metal building, so the other side of the house, the shop side isn't insulate and is as hot in there as outside, we don't go over there too often . Try and keep cool y'all, dog days of summer is upon us.

Amy, not meaning to be offensive- but you're getting absolutely no pity from me.  Of course one night of 69 would freeze my butt off. A few days in the 80's would be really nice though.  Surprisingly, the pups seem to do an amazingly good job of tolerating the heat.

Renee, yeh, the week or so of 100+ is getting old.  Normally we have a decent breeze but when the temp really went up the breeze has died so it's been a really stagnant hot.  We've got - what - another couple of weeks to a month of these 100f days and I'll be glad when it starts cooling off .... my big gripe is that when the weather changes Summer to Fall - there's never enough fall (ditto spring). Winter isn't all that long, but it's too long for my blood.

ETA:  Guess I'm going to have to start giving her the pills by hand.  I've been cutting a hot dog into quarters and then putting a pill into one piece - hasn't been a problem, then this morning she eats the hot dog and spits the pill on the floor.

Took her and Sasha out last evening; let Sasha off lead but I don't trust Sky yet.  It was funny, though, as much as they squabble in the house, Sky was always at the end of her lead toward Sasha.  If Sasha changed direction the Sky did as well.  If Sasha will come when I call (or at least generally follow me) and Sky will follow Sasha - is it safe to let Sky off lead (rhetorical, I'm not comfortable yet)

I am curious about how you let the dogs outside. It's pretty obvious that you don't have a fenced area, so are they on leads? Also, (while I understand that 100+ temps would keep any dog or human doing the least amount of moving around as possible) how do your Huskies handle the heat. I find that Zhukov is housebound and looking for a cool spot to lie down on the wood floor if the temp gets above 85f.

I have read that their double coat really helps with the heat, but I just find it hard to believe that any dog with a double coat likes the weather south of the Mason-Dixon line. LOL!

The general practice for potty breaks is to put them on a lead, I have one out front that Avalanche and Sky 'share' and one out back for Sasha.  All are in the 30' range so they can wander a bit.

When it's walk time, for the moment, it's generally Sasha off lead and Sky on lead - Sasha stays relatively close to me and even when she decides to chase a rabbit, she seldom follows them more tha a couple hundred feet.
Avalanche on the other hand gets let loose to run; he tends to circle the trailer at, let's say, 150-200 yards out.  When I don't see him any longer, I get in the Jeep 'cause he'll come to the Jeep - figure he thinks he's going somewhere.

After losing Misty because I did just let her run, I'm a lot more cautious about how long and how far they get to run.

As for the heat, I've seen Avalanche (thin coat) sprawled out in the sun when it's "only 95" or so.  Sasha (long coat) and Sky (thin coat) tend to stick inside until there's some shade they can get in and Sasha tends to stay out on the front porch overnight.  At first I was concerned about coyotes coming to visit but I haven't seen or heard any that are too close.

The example I use here btw is to suggest people think about the insulation in their attics, it keeps the heat out during the summer and keeps the heat in during the winter. There have been times when Sasha's wanted to go out during the heat of the day and she comes back in her guard hair is, literally, too hot to touch but once through the outer coat she's about normal in temp. Personally, *I* wouldn't think about going out in these temps in a raccoon coat - but if it works for them .....

Well this Texan can't go outside without feeling sweaty and sticky....

Well, I was going to give you a hard time about Corpus being on the Gulf so of course it's sticky - but a quick check of the weather shows Corpus to be at about the same temp as I have today.  Accuweather says' it's 97 with 45% humidity in Corpus (feels like 103f - no wonder it's sticky) while we're at 101f with 24% humidity (feels like 104)  I'm getting real tired of the 20%+ humidity, I think last years we were around 10% for most of the summer and this is muggy as far as I'm concerned!

We've got a mostly cloudy sky and I wish it'd either rain (we could use it) or clear off (solar power, remember?) 'Course, cloud to cloud lightening (thunder) has Avalanche jostling Sky for the space under my stool (Sky's not afraid of the thunder, she just lives under my stool.)

---

The kittens are getting braver since the dogs aren't chasing them.  Sasha and I sat on the back porch last evening - nice breeze - and both kittens came out and went nose to nose with Sasha.  Sky and I walked out back shortly after noon (I'm trying to watch how much / how often she eliminates what) and the kittens came out and were almost playing with her.  They'd walk around my feet and then go walk around her feet and she'd just look at them like "What are you??"

aljones wrote:

Well, I was going to give you a hard time about Corpus being on the Gulf so of course it's sticky - but a quick check of the weather shows Corpus to be at about the same temp as I have today.  Accuweather says' it's 97 with 45% humidity in Corpus (feels like 103f - no wonder it's sticky) while we're at 101f with 24% humidity (feels like 104)  I'm getting real tired of the 20%+ humidity, I think last years we were around 10% for most of the summer and this is muggy as far as I'm concerned!

HOPEFULLY, I get a good breeze tonight when i'm at the dog park.. The past few nights have been generous but who knows I think mother nature just wants me to sit inside with the air conditioning, LOL.

Home Again emailed me the confirmation of the transfer of Sky to me and I was shocked. Sky was born 2/25/2011 which makes her another 5 year old dog. She was originally chipped in June of 2011 and the chip numbers agree.

Oh, there was a question about where she was chipped - since the paperwork from Ft Sill says it was in her right hip (rhip) but the vet found it slightly off center above her shoulders.

Glad she is getting along fine with the pack. I know they say that the chips can move and migrate. Mine are chipped through Home Again. If you let the membership lapse you still have access to your site I believe but you just do not get to update it. So the picture hone address etc stays the same unless you pay again.

Now, wait a minute, did I say she was getting along fine??  Most of the time I feel like I'm living in an armed camp!  The best that can be said is that they (Sasha and Sky) are coexisting  Sasha will set there and stare at Sky and I can almost read the "What's she doing here?!"  It's almost gotten funny, I can take them out to walk together and they're fine, but whoever gets in the door first is standing there blocking it from the other.  I'll give Sky this, for a small pup, she's more than willing to stand up for herself.

Avalanche and Sky will play fight, mostly it's rolling on the floor and seeing who can get a leg (or an ear or a muzzle); I think it's too hot for serious play but they're doing well. Sasha stands off to the side and will occasionally make a grab for Avalanche but she's not too happy about playing with Sky - I know, give it time ....

Need to get off the tower and back on the laptop - but I don't have mail set up on the laptop (argh!)  Setting here under a nice cloud cover, watching the rain fall but not hit the ground (it's called virga), one of the nice side effects of that is that the temp has dropped from over 100 to the low 90's and with luck it'll drop some more!

This is getting old!  Sky isn't housebroken and it's not a matter of me not seeing signals, she's simply not housebroken.  Last evening I took her and Sasha out for a walk, came back in and ventured into the "library" myself and came out to a mess in the living room.  We'd just been out for almost an hour! What is this .....???
Adding insult to injury, Sasha has gone back to wetting in the kitchen ... talk about a minefield!


The two of them got into a squabble today over something, I have no idea what started it but I figured I'd just let it play out.  I'm not sure who won, I'm not sure if anyone won.  Sasha's got a booboo on her muzzle where Sky apparently got a decent nip in and I see nothing on Sky except some ruffled fur.  The two of them seem to have this standoffish relationship until they flair up.  I've caught Sky growling at Sasha - over nothing from what I see - and she'll accept a 'No!' from me and let it go but this is getting real old.

Obviously I have a 30# dominatrix here ... and I wish they'd come to an agreement sooner rather than later.  At least this one wasn't right under my feet (which is where Avalanche has been spending a lot if his time when he's not outside.)

Sorry, just venting ... sometimes they do so well together, even Sasha's gotten into some of Sky and Avalanche's play and sometimes it's like living through D-day!  And poor Avalanche just tries to stay out of their way ....

Let's see, followup on the last vet visit:
Still no fillaria so it's pretty safe to say that she's  heart worm free.  
No more crystals in her urine, so that's good, too.No weight gain, she could stand another 5 pounds but I'm not going to push it.

I'm still not getting any warning for when she needs to go out, but I've been taking her out more often and rewarding / praising her when she does her 'duty' outside.  She wants to go out when Avalanche goes out and they play on the front porch so I think we're winning this battle.

We've had either rain or heavy cloud cover for the better part of the week so walks have been limited.  This clay/sand mix turns into quicksand really quickly when the ground start to get waterlogged and it doesn't take much rain to soak the ground.  The good part is that the ground does absorb the water fairly quickly after it stops raining.

Took Sasha (off lead) and Sky (on lead) out for a walk this evening.  Started laughing at them when I realized that they were 'watering' almost every bush we went past - and there's a lot of brush out here.  What I found amusing wasn't that one would mark and then the other would mark the same bush (that's what I would have expected) but that they were each watering as many as they could get to that the other hadn't already marked!

Life's getting better.  Avalanche and Sky are playing nicely - though there is the occasional 'yelp' - and Sasha is trying to figure out what they're doing since she really does not know how to play.  Avalanche will sometimes try to involve her in playtime but Sasha shies off quickly.

So, on with life .... Sky's been here for a little over a month now, she's settled into the pack after a few squabbles with Sasha - though I'd be hard pressed to say who's the 'Queen'.  

I've found that I can't let her free feed - very soupy feces.  Still working on just how much to feed her since I'd like to put a couple more pounds on her so for the nonce she's getting a cup three times a day.  Solid feces so I may up that just a bit more, not really sure.

It's obvious, on the one hand that she's been an outside dog at some point in her life -  we still can't determine when we need to go out. That, with sloppy poop, has her tethered and she's still managed to defecate in the house.  She can squat and drop a load faster than any dog I've ever seen.  

On the other hand she wants to be near her human, which I wouldn't expect from a dog who's used to being outside.  She's seriously got me confused.

Walking with her and Sasha on the desert has gotten better.  Though I let Sasha run, I still don't trust Sky to come when I call so she's been on lead (100' rope) and running as far as she can.  The good part is that she follows Sasha so I'm inclined to think that she would come back to the house with her but not comfortably sure.

So, life on the desert goes on ... generally peaceably.

<< vent >>
Two months into Sky being here and she's seriously about to become an outside dog. I *will* not put up with this continual pissing whenever / wherever she feels like it.
Sasha goes to the door, then back and forth between me and the door and she will bark if I'm asleep / not paying attention; Avalanche just goes tot he door, sets and waits; Sky - oh, I gotta piss!
I take her out every couple of hours, praise her for being a good dog but then she comes back in and pisses wherever. It's not like it's just overnight. I saw her walk into the kitchen and squat, not even a warning of any kind that she needed to go out.
My patience with this is getting to be extremely limited!!! I've tried her on a short leash in the house but she gets really upset if she doesn't have her freedom, but I'm afraid that she's just going to have to put up with it.
<< /vent >>