It's a Dog-Eat-Dog World

We have (had) 7 kids in our family 3 boys, 4 girls, all born between (I think) 1952 and 1964. Plus, mom lost one somewhere in the 50's before I was born. 7 kids under 12 would make for one crazy household. 

Now, all of us are in our 60's and 70's with me living the furthest away. I would not say we are a close family, 6 of 7 of us will call and text on holidays and other special occasions and each of us know we love each other.  Well, we lost one of our sisters this week. My sister Beth, who turned 70 this past September, passed away on the 17th. With a family of our size, one cannot help but wonder who would be the first one to go, she had heart trouble that caught up with her. 

I am not writing this for condolences as I have not seen or talked to Beth in almost two decades. She lost touch with our family some time ago and did not wish to reconnect. Any condolences should go to her kids who lost a mother, grandmother and great grandmother. We had a lot of good times together back in the 80's and 90's when we hung out together quite a bit and I choose to remember her from those times rather than the later years. One thing I will always be grateful to Beth for, (although I do not remember it) was saving my life in the early 70's, if I had to guess, I would say I was probably 8 years old. 

I remember the incident, but not the aftermath. My brother Bob and I were in a small boat on our lake place in Wisconsin when the motor caught on fire, and we had to abandon the boat. I did not know how to swim and was told that Beth swam out and drug me from the bottom of the lake to shore. All I remember is panicking in the water and waking up on my parents' bed. So, for that, Beth, thank you. I hope you are happy and at peace. 

Now, on to happier news. We currently have 6 dogs in our household. We are watching our nieces two dogs and along with our two and Forrest and Somer's two, that makes for chaos. You know what else it makes for? Dog videos!

This is what our house looks like in the morning before Forrest and Somer get up and their dogs join us. 

Don't let the peaceful and tranquil photos feel you, when they get ramped up, it is chaos! You can usually find one or both of the Frenchie's on our laps as in the picture above where they are both on Barbs lap. As you can see, Loki still has leg problems, the poor thing is going on months now with braces or casts on his leg. But he has come to like our couch and seems quite comfortable up there. 

Sophie is very vocal, her breathing alone is very snorty and when she does not get her way, she lets you know it!

This is pretty much a daily occurrence. Actually, several times a day. Zoey is the boss of all of them and as you will see, sometimes, she needs to lay down the law!

At other times, they just chill like little angels

I'll tell you what this week has done. It has cured me of wanting a large breed dog for our next puppy. Over the past week, I have come to love Loki, but OMG, I just do not have the energy to keep up with and train a puppy. The bad: running into screen doors, not once, not twice, but continually thinking that the screens is going to disappear all by itself. Not listening at all when called, pulling on the leash and trying to drag you around on a walk, jumping up and scratching doors when you go into the bathroom, bedroom or go outside, barking in the middle of the night for no reason at all. 

The good: The loving look he gives you like you are the only thing in the world that matters will melt your heart, the nose nudges in the middle of the night as he comes up to the bed to make sure everything is all right. The willingness to please and learn. He is a very lovable dog and when his leg issue is behind him, they can really focus on training. 

Friday night/Saturday morning was a s#$tshow. Loki woke up at 2am wanting to go outside and of course Sophie wanted to go too. Dakota and Zoey just looked at both of them like they were crazy and stayed in bed. I turned on the lights and waited for the deer to run away as we don't need the dogs to see the deer and try to chase them. Coast clear, I picked up Sophie and led Loki out to the pen at the gazebo, release the dogs and close the gate, what I did not see was the rabbit also in the enclosure, but the dogs did!

The chase was on! That poor rabbit ran to and fro bouncing off the fence as it tried to escape. It looked like a pinball bouncing off the fence on one side, then the other, then another, with the dogs hot on its tail. Finally, it ducked under one spot and disappeared into the darkness. Sophie tried to duck under as well and Loki tried to go over, I am sure my yell woke up the entire neighborhood! Luckily, they stopped, turned around and smelled around for another rabbit to chase. 

After getting them back into the house I was now wide awake, as was Barb, as was now, Dakota and Zoey. So, we decided to take a soak in the hot tub (Barb and I, not the rest) before going back to bed. 

Poor Zoey had a traumatic week as she had to go into the vet and get a few teeth pulled. The trouble started a few months ago when we began noticing her breath started smelling like something crawled in there and died. Then when Barb found one of her teeth in bed a few weeks ago she made an appointment to get her looked at. The vet said she could not tell how many teeth were bad until they put her under, but it would be approximately $100/tooth and set up the appointment. Well, that appointment was this week and 7 teeth later, her breath no longer smells like @ss, and our pocketbook is a little lighter.

That night we headed to the VFW as the Queen of Hearts is still going strong at $36,000. We met Dan, Bonnie, Merril and Vicki as well as Forrest, Somer and Lily. The game still continues as no one won! We then headed to The Beacon for open mic night. 

Then Saturday night we had neighbors, Jim and Carmen over. I brought out a dozen or so of my new bourbons for Jim to try. By the end of the night he was feeling no pain, we went from all smiles to head down on the counter in a matter of minutes at the end of the night!

Sunday was...... Football day! I do not know how many jerseys Barb has but when she saw I was watching football at 8am in the morning (the London game), she asked who was playing. I told her, and the next thing I knew out she comes with a Jacksonville and Panthers Jerseys! She said she purposely put the Jag's jersey on Zoey as she thought they were going to win, and they did!

Then she asked who the Vikings and 49'ers were playing as The Vikes are Alana's favorite team and the 9'ers is Ryan's team. Out she comes with two more jerseys for each of their opponents and dressed their little Sophie up in each. And you know what? Barb went 3-0 with each of these teams winning. I am pretty sure Vegas is going to start following our blog to see who is going to win each week!

Sunday is also Somer's favorite day as she can watch football... A l l....D a y....L o n g. She was so excited to see football on the TV when she came in, she asked "How many games do we get to watch today", I replied "With this early London game, we can watch 4 games, 12 hours of football!" Her response of "Yay" could have been a little more enthusiastic, but I think she hadn't fully wakened up yet. So, she settled on the couch to watch 12 hours of football with three of her 4-legged friends.  

When Lily came in, she ignored the game on TV and went straight to her puzzle. She, Barb, and Somer have been working on it all week long. Pretty soon she says, "Everyone come here". We get up and go over to the table to see her holding the final piece of the puzzle!

She was so happy! She and Barb immediately went online and ordered a new 1,000-piece puzzle! 

Then it was off to Kevin and Cheryl's to see their mini donkey. Ever since Forrest was a little boy he wanted to mini donkey and apparently, he is still infatuated with them 30 years later. We should have called first as when we got there, no one was home. But we made the most of it by taking selfies with both Festus and Zeke.

We had a chance to check the trail cameras since getting back from North Dakota. One decent(ish) buck and several other interesting photos of squirrels, turkeys, birds and several coyotes, two of which have turkeys in their mouths. Hard to tell in the pictures, but the feathers on the ground near the camera tell the rest of the story. 

Check out the shadow behind this deer, I don't know how the shadow was created as at 5:14pm, the camera would be pointing directly at the sun and be behind the deer. it must have been caused by reflection off the water....

Tuesday morning, we packed up Loki and Sophie and headed to Rapid City for the big exchange. The house is quiet now. Almost too quiet and I kind of miss the big guy. Maybe a large breed dog isn't so bad after all. Ouch! Barb just hit me on the head trying to knock some sense into me!