Next week the Daily Corgi will have a Cardigan Carnival — all week. Send your favorite Cardi photos to Laurie (the inventor and editor of this great blog) at thedailycorgi@gmail.com. The blog has been overrun with Pems and it’s time to make a change! Even if your dogs have already been featured as the “Corgi of the Day”, Laurie hopes to see their smiling faces again.
Here is what happens to Chase when Susan gives him a massage — note the tongue. I’d say that is one very relaxed dog! I want to be next!
Well, I closed on the house this afternoon. Then I drove down to meet with the seller so he could show me what all the switches and knobs do, how to turn off the water. As I always do, after I buy a house, I looked across the tumbleweed riddled land and said, “Whoa, what have I done?” It will be nice being out in the country, backed up to a huge ranch. Eventually I’ll get ducks so everyone can herd. I have worker-guys lined up to scrape up the weeds and debris and finish fencing the acre. I have an inside worker-guy who will be doing patching, painting and re-flooring. Once those chores are done, I’ll move, and then send the inside man up to the townhouse to touch it up. Tomorrow morning I’ll meet with the inside-guy and I’ll take photos.
The word from the east — Susan called this evening. Chase worked ducks last night and this evening. Tonight he worked off the line and Susan said he was “herding”. He has a very solid STOP (makes Susan happy), and has learned to turn the ducks to take them in different directions, he always picks up stragglers. She is very pleased with him. So, he’s halfway through the first week and hasn’t yet been sent packing.
Holmes is back from Topeka and I think he’ll be out of the show ring for a while. He is so skinny though he usually eats like a pig. He’s also sure that Leidy is still in season though she tells him it ain’t so! We’re signed up for a Beginning Novice class and hope to visit some sheep for herding lessons. Once I have my new-house-act together, I may add ducks so everyone can have the sort of fun Chase is enjoying.
Following the meet and greet at the Atlanta Show yesterday, Cheryl and Susan packed up Treasure and Kearney and Chase to head home to the Knoxville area. Treasure picked yesterday to begin her first season, so plans were quickly reconfigured and Chase went home with Susan. He loves Kearney (who is about the same age as Holmes) and they played until Susan decided it was time for some work.
Chase had his first herding lesson yesterday, and this is what Susan said, “I did take Chase out on the sheep. I had to doctor my lambs (worm them). I let Kearney have all the fun of holding them to me while I doctored them. Afterward, I sorted some out, put Chase on a long line and entered the round pen with him. He got to sit at both gates – he thought that was a HUGE waste of time. Then I let him work the sheep for a bit. He was only allowed to approach them at the proper speed, but was praised for covering when a sheep tried to bolt. I remember he was startled a couple of times when I praised him, but I don’t remember what he was doing (I think it was covering sheep at a fast pace). All in all, he did a very good job. Lots of intensity, lots of drive, really good instinct. I am pleased ”
If Susan is pleased, you can bet your boots that I am. Soon we’ll have photos of Chase, tongue hanging out, big smile on his face — working with the sheep. I am so relieved that he didn’t wash out of Camp on the first day.
That rascally Chase has landed in Atlanta. Susan and Cheryl reported that he simply looked at them from his shipping kennel, but when they said his name, he acknowledged that they must be friends. Cheryl has already been the object of a Chase kiss. Tomorrow he will be at the shows to say hi to all his old friends and to meet some new ones.
Okay, I’m Here!
Photos (and herding videos) will be posted as he gets settled in after the shows.
Scout Puts the Moves on Chase
Best seat in the House
Thanks to Carol for the Scout and Janet photos.
Miss you, funny boy!
Chase is here handling his job well. He prefers to lie at the top of the stairs so no one can come in or go out or get food without his knowledge. I’m not sure how the inmates will manage for the next year and a half without Chase’s attentive presence.
My Chase.
We visited Dr. Larry this morning. Chase weighed in at 37.4 pounds, was declared disgustingly healthy. Dr. Larry issued him a Hall-Pass. We sent off some blood for a Brucellosis test. Chase spent the rest of the day at my office, racing down the steps to greet everyone who came in. Matt brought his little rescue Chihuahua “Lola” to work. She was afraid of Chase, so he laid on the floor as flat as he could get, trying to entice her to play with him. He napped on the loveseat in my office and curled himself around the legs of my chair. I took him to my friend’s grooming salon. I bathed and dried him, trimmed the hair on his feet and Dremeled his nails. He licked my neck while I brushed him out.
He’ll spend tomorrow at the office — and then — Saturday morning — very early, I’ll take him to Delta Cargo and send him off to Camp Susan. He’ll come home eventually, with new skills and new tricks. Cheryl and Susan will sent photos and videos. I know they’ll love and care for him. We’ll use Skype to talk — so he and I can see each other. But, no matter how frequent the sharing of information about this dog, I will have an empty spot in my home and in my heart. I hope the time passes quickly.
Budget! How much of what I want to do can I do before the townhouse is sold? My sons swear that I have a DNA strand (that I passed on) which forces me to make over a house — any house. So, the new house is now squarely in my sights. The fencing must be completed before we move in, and the drywall re-do and flooring must be accomplished before we move in. I’m replacing the sliding glass door to the patio with a French door (that’s a lark — not necessary, but I love the look). All the window coverings must go. They are original and in really bad shape. I don’t know what I’ll replace them with and probably won’t decide until the drywall and flooring are done. I need to get back down there and take room by room photos before any construction/make-over begins.
The back 2/3 of the acre must be scraped — it’s just weeds and discarded “stuff”. There is one decent tree near the house that will stay, but everything else goes into a dump truck and away. (This must occur before the fencing is completed so we don’t damage the fencing). New Mexico is famous for its sand storms, so I can’t leave the land bare. I turned to my search engine (I use Dogpile) and found native wildflower and grass seed. In October, I’ll have a tractor come through and till the back-40, then blanket it with about $600 worth of seeds. The dogs and I will then demonstrate the Welsh version of a rain dance so the seeds take hold. Hopefully, from next spring into the late fall — and forever after, the back part of the property will be blanketed with native wildflowers and grasses.
Once the townhouse closes, I will build a 2+ car garage. It will be extra long so that in the back 12′ I can have a walk way and four small 6′ x 6′ indoor homes for the dogs, each extending into a 6′ x 10′ covered outdoor run. I’m going to use the rock base, gravel layer, sand layer, paver top method. Although the baddogs are house dogs, there are times (like last week when I was moving the office) that having runs in which they could spend a day would have saved us all a great deal of grief and money. The garage/runs will be on the side of the house next to the vacant acre. I’m going to take an option on that acre. Perhaps I can prevent anyone from ever living on that side. Behind the house is ranchland — so no one will be living there, and on the north side, the neighbor has placed his home nearer the main road than my property (that gives me shivers — “my property”). We should not be annoying or disturbing anyone when the plan comes together.
The other project I’m hoping to fit into the budget is to cover the back patio and surround the patio and some of the yard with a privacy fence. That will have landscaping, a fountain, and be the place to spend evenings watching spectacular New Mexico sunsets. I’m hoping some of you will come enjoy them with me from time to time.
Since his mini-world tour, Chase has not been driving well off his right rear. The massage therapist in Colorado Springs was pretty sure it was due to slipping on the concrete floors (he went to 15 indoor shows in four weeks). So, I made an appointment for our chiropractic vet to come to the office and adjust him today. His lower middle back and his right rear hip were out of alignment. I could tell the adjustment was uncomfortable, but he is already moving so much better. In a couple of days, he should be back to using his flying trot to get from one end of the yard to the other. Once he’s in Tennessee, Susan will keep his parts in shape.
On the home front: I am closing on the new house Tuesday. I’m going to have the Acre scraped and complete the fencing before we move in. Meanwhile, the handyman will be redoing the walls, laying flooring, and replacing the patio sliders with French doors. The cash buyers for the townhouse are still standing by — so this plan may come together!
Gwendy decided to jerk my chain so sent the this photo of our darling Darby in costume. Darby, being a true Chase daughter, did not find this particularly amusing.
Inca is today’s office dog. My new office mates think she is sweet and cute, plus cannot get over those little 3″ legs going up and down the stairs. My office is now up 22 steps. We have counted them. (I tell myself it is good for me.) Inca has navigated the stairs 15 times today. Apparently she feels an obligation to be each person’s office dog for part of the day. So she spends time in Matt’s office, and then moves into Jennifer’s, comes back to flop on my floor, goes downstairs to keep Debi company, then hangs out with Haley. When someone comes in the front door, she goes down to greet the guest. When someone opens the refrigerator (which is downstairs), she has a hopeful attack and heads down. She’s not nearly as stiff as she was for the few days following the dog fight, and this exercise might be good for her.
Cell phone photos — forgive the quality, please.
Such a sense of desperation — being in an unhappy circumstance at home. Though I take dogs to day care and to the office each day, I worry that one of the two left at home decided to bark (because that is what dogs do — even gooddogs — which, I hear, some people own). I don’t feel I can go to the grocery store because it’s too hot to leave dogs in the car, and they aren’t permitted to run the aisles at Trader Joe’s. If I leave them home for the 45 minute trip, they might bark and disturb the neighbors.
The house my client found for me in Los Lunas turns out to have been foreclosed and will be auctioned off in early September. It’s always difficult to outbid the bank, and I wouldn’t know what was going to happen until after the sale — that’s another three weeks. I need answers sooner rather than later.
This morning I was reviewing the out-of-town homes for sale listed in the Albuquerque Journal. One ad leaped off its column and shouted at me to call the number. I waited until 8:00, woke the broker up. Drove down to Los Lunas and met him at the Dion’s on the main drag. We drove about 6 miles east of the Village to a private road. It dead ends into a 140,000 Acre ranch. A retired couple has already basically moved to a home near their kids and their house is for sale for less than they paid for it. It’s on an Acre, has a vacant Acre next to it. Wonderful community well water, natural gas, high speed internet is available. The furnace, hot water heater, and evaporative cooler have all been replaced within the past three years. The septic tank was replaced with a much larger one in 2008. One side of the land is fenced and there is an interior fence around the patio in the back. The house is just shy of 2000 square feet. It has three full baths. The third one (right next to the laundry room and door to “what will be a garage”) will lose its bathtub in favor of a booster bath and built in grooming table.
The master suite has an adjoining sitting room — don’t know why they’d call it that when it’s really a new puppy room. Total — four bedrooms and the puppy room, a living room, family room, bright island kitchen, formal dining room, kitchen breakfast bar, and the three baths. Best of all, I can afford it.
The paperwork is sitting here. I am meeting with the Realtor tomorrow evening or Tuesday morning to sign everything. Wow! Scarey.
The plan: a handyman will go into the new house and retape all the drywall, float the walls, re-texture and paint it all white. Then he’ll pull up the carpet in the bedrooms (the general living areas are all oak parquet) and he’ll lay Pergo. Finally, new molding all around and French doors replacing the patio slider. I’ll move. The handyman will come to the townhouse, patch and repaint. I’ll have the tile cleaned and will re-carpet the stairs and bedrooms. We’ll sell the townhouse. Then I’ll build the garage and do the exterior fencing, have the acre scraped and the weeds and “stuff” hauled away. I’ll seed with buffalo grass and native wildflower seeds, then hope for some rain.
Ya’ll come visit — hear?
Leidy and Chase were bred last night and tonight. Though this is only day 8 from when she first showed color, Chase found her slightly boring this evening. Based upon the 12.5 Progesterone reading on Wednesday morning, she probably ovulated on Monday night or Tuesday morning — so yesterday and today all the puppy eggs should have ripened. Time to start counting. Puppies are expected on Tuesday, October 19th. I just want a cute little Chase/Leidy daughter to show in Bred-By. Possible colors: reds and brindles for sure — and maybe some tris. Okay, little Leidy-Lou — now it’s all up to you.
Leidy’s mom, the indefatigable Inca, is healing well. She’s trotting a bit, not struggling when she goes up and down the door step. Nothing impairs her appetite. Holmes is in Colorado with Wendy, playing happily with her Akitas. They’ll be in Topeka Wednesday evening for the four day/5-show cluster. Chase will visit Dr. Larry on Thursday to get his hall-pass so he can hop his Delta Flight to Atlanta on Saturday morning.
Tomorrow morning the two teenage boys are supposed to be here to help take everything out of the garage so I can decide what stays and what becomes yard sale fodder. I think a lot of “stuff” can go away!
This one is pretty up-close and personal. She is so cute!
Yesterday was Leidy’s Day 5 so first thing in the morning we drew blood for a baseline progesterone test and sent it to the lab. I had been religiously checking her for the past two weeks, so I know yesterday was Day 5. Chase was telling me that it was time to breed her yesterday and I thought he was losing his touch. He’s been very good about ignoring the girls until the testing confirms that they’ve ovulated. Well — Chase was right. Doesn’t matter what day it was. Leidy’s progesterone level was 12.5. Time to take care of business. This means puppies should be due on October 19th or 20th. Cross fingers, please!
Oh, and poor little Holmes who wouldn’t eat and howled all Wednesday night? It appears he’s no dummy either. Holmes is on his way to Greeley and then to Topeka, so will be spared the realization that his Dad has all the fun.
I am past sixty-five and still practicing law. I have two terrific sons, they have lovely wives, and I have one truly special granddaughter. At home are three Cardigan Welsh Corgis that amuse and challenge me. We participate in lots of dog-related activities. I love my camera, writing, and roaming. I live in central New Mexico because it's where I want to be. Thanks for visiting my blog. Your (tasteful) comments are welcome.
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