The Family:
(See "The Beloveds" page for our gone, but not forgotten pets)
We currently (as of 11/9/11 - it changes frequently) have:
6 horses (3 Drafts, 2 Quarters)
The Drafts:
Gretchen (Belgian Draft) Guinness Stout (Belgian Draft X)
Hannah (Clydesdale)
Gretchen was rescued from a PMU farm after having a foal. For the longest time, she didn't trust anyone with medicinal bottles, etc., but over time she has grown to trust us and has no qualms about most anything (spray bottles still scare her!)
Guinness was the offspring of another unknown PMU mare. He was rescued in the parking lot of a slaughter house and has joint problems, probably due to the feed that was given to pack weight on him, to fatten him up for slaughter.
Hannah was rescued from a field in Ohio where a breeder had decided to get out the business and left the entire herd to fend for themselves.
The Quarters:
Note to self - find pictures of Cocoa and Zephyr to post....Note to others - one day there will be pictures of Cocoa and Zephyr here!
4 Goats:
Abby (Boer) (as babies - now almost 3) Indy (Boer) (as babies - now almost 3)
Abby and Indy came to us one cold January morning when a local goat farmer had 50 of his dames die from drinking bad water. As a result, he had to give away the 50+ kids to anyone that would take them because they had to be bottle fed.
We also have two other Boer goats, named Daisy and Lily. Daisy was actually another goat from the kids that were given away, that went to our neighbor. The neighbor had raised the male goat he received for meat, and didn't want the female anymore, so we took her. Four months later, we had a kid on the ground and a lot of head scratching going on! The baby was named Lily. I have pictures, but for some reason they aren't cooperating with me!
1 Bull
Norman the bull is about 1 1/2 years old. He desperately needs a girlfriend, which he'll be getting here in the next few weeks!
13 Dogs
Jasmine (approx. 6 1/2 years now) Lucy (approx. 6 years old now)
Gracie (approx. 6 years old now) Captain (Approximately 5)
Millie (Approximately 3) Ellie (Approx. 3)
Sally (Approx. 3) Bear (Approx. 3)
Pumpkin (Punky) (Approx. 2) Baby (Approx. 1)
Bolt (Approx. 1) Goldie (10 mo. as of 11/5/2011)
Moxie (4 mo. as of 11/4/2011)
Jasmine, Lucy and Gracie (German Shepherds) are all sisters;Jasmine from a Spring litter, Gracie and Lucy from the Fall. Jasmine is missing an eye in her pictures because she lost one when she decided it would be good fun to chase our old, grumpy horse around - he kicked her. She lost her eye, but that was the worse of the damage; she suffered no brain damage or broken bones.
Captain (Anatolian Shepherd) was rescued from a local feed manufacturing plant, where they were going to drown a litter of puppies that had been delievered on the property by a stray. Dad went there to get super sacks of corn and hay pellets and came home with two puppies, as well! Unfortunately, his sister Pip had to be put down for aggression due to mental defect. Captain, however, doesn't seem to have whatever gene went wonky in Pip.
Millie (White German Shepherd) was a 18th birthday present for me and she is a big, spoiled rotten, baby that gets whatever she wants (it's her room; I just sleep there LOL).
Ellie (Mutt - Possibly Jack Russel/American Bulldog mix???? (We found a site where a man had tested his dog that was the spitting image of Ellie and test said those two breeds)) was rescued from the local Humane Society after being dumped only a block from where we now live - we moved about 2 years ago.
Bear (German Shepherd) was/is my Dad's big, spoiled rotten, baby that gets whatever he wants. We literally cannot keep toys in the house because he likes to destroy them in minutes (the longest thing thats lasted is some sort of water system ball that keeps some sort of balance or something and is the size of a baseball and rock hard).
Sally (Border Collie/Queensland Heeler Mix) was a present for my brother. He had never had his "own" dog and he was so excited to get her!
Pumpkin (AKA Punky - We think she might be Jack Russel/Queensland Heeler Mix) has a sad story...we found her on the side of the road on a rare cold May night. What I thought was an older male dog had made a small dugout in a hill of dirt, laying in it with his back against the hill. When I first approached him, he ran at me, barking and snapping. I left, but took back bowls of food and water for him. Slowly, over an hour, I was able to gain his trust by feeding him bits of food. When he finally got close enough, I realized that he was actually a she - her tail was tucked up so far under her it looked like she was male! When I ran out of food, I said, "Well, girl. I'm out of food. What do we do now?" In response, she lunged at me. I froze because I wasn't sure of her intentions, but she only started to lick my face and jumped around excitedly. I stood and asked her if she wanted to go for a ride and walked to my pickup. She jumped right in and licked my mom's face (it surprised us only because she had taken so long to trust me). Upon closer inspection the site, we realized she'd been dumped...in a trashbag among grape jelly jars and vodka bottles and a budget list that had the word "DOG" scratched out on it. Unfortunately there was no address or name on anything to report to police. How do we know she was IN the trashbag, you ask? Well, trust me when I say there is a difference between a dog digging through a trashbag and the frantic clawing their way OUT of a trashbag. We brought her home and the rest is history!
Baby (English Labrador - Chocolate) was brought home by my Dad from a job site (he drills water wells), where someone had dumped her and an older chocolate Lab. His worked took the older (male) Lab and we took Baby. And much to our surprise, we realized within a few hours that she was pregnant! Now, we have NEVER had to deal with pregnant dogs because we spay and neuter (we rescue enough to not need to make our own!). On January 4th, she went into labor. She had one ginormous puppy (we named "Tank") that night, and had 4 others the next early, early, early morning (a gold ("Goldie"), and four chocolates ("Gilly", "Boomer", "Carmie", and "Helga"). We found good homes with people we knew that took Tank, Gilly, Boomer and Carmie, and we kept Goldie and Helga.
Bolt (Chihuahua mix) was another Dad rescue from a jobsite, and is just about the oddest looking dog I have ever seen. The day before he was brought home, him and three other similar puppies were in the area, but the next day Bolt was all alone and terrified. It took a long time to build a trust, but he does all right now - mostly with my brother and Dad...he tends to pee everywhere if we come up to him for some reason...
Goldie (English Labrador - Golden/Yellow) is Baby's puppy. She has never had a difficult day in her life and is spoiled as spoiled could be.
Moxie (White German Shepherd) is the newest addition to the family and a big spoiled baby that demands to be carried to bed. She was born on July 4, 2011 and we got her September 11, 2011. In remembrance of 9/11, we named her after a Search and Rescue dog that was used at the Twin Towers site that is still currently living.
Now, I only have to wait for chickens!
(See "The Beloveds" page for our gone, but not forgotten pets)
We currently (as of 11/9/11 - it changes frequently) have:
6 horses (3 Drafts, 2 Quarters)
The Drafts:
Gretchen (Belgian Draft) Guinness Stout (Belgian Draft X)
Hannah (Clydesdale)
Gretchen was rescued from a PMU farm after having a foal. For the longest time, she didn't trust anyone with medicinal bottles, etc., but over time she has grown to trust us and has no qualms about most anything (spray bottles still scare her!)
Guinness was the offspring of another unknown PMU mare. He was rescued in the parking lot of a slaughter house and has joint problems, probably due to the feed that was given to pack weight on him, to fatten him up for slaughter.
Hannah was rescued from a field in Ohio where a breeder had decided to get out the business and left the entire herd to fend for themselves.
The Quarters:
Note to self - find pictures of Cocoa and Zephyr to post....Note to others - one day there will be pictures of Cocoa and Zephyr here!
4 Goats:
Abby (Boer) (as babies - now almost 3) Indy (Boer) (as babies - now almost 3)
Abby and Indy came to us one cold January morning when a local goat farmer had 50 of his dames die from drinking bad water. As a result, he had to give away the 50+ kids to anyone that would take them because they had to be bottle fed.
We also have two other Boer goats, named Daisy and Lily. Daisy was actually another goat from the kids that were given away, that went to our neighbor. The neighbor had raised the male goat he received for meat, and didn't want the female anymore, so we took her. Four months later, we had a kid on the ground and a lot of head scratching going on! The baby was named Lily. I have pictures, but for some reason they aren't cooperating with me!
1 Bull
Norman the bull is about 1 1/2 years old. He desperately needs a girlfriend, which he'll be getting here in the next few weeks!
13 Dogs
Jasmine (approx. 6 1/2 years now) Lucy (approx. 6 years old now)
Gracie (approx. 6 years old now) Captain (Approximately 5)
Millie (Approximately 3) Ellie (Approx. 3)
Sally (Approx. 3) Bear (Approx. 3)
Pumpkin (Punky) (Approx. 2) Baby (Approx. 1)
Bolt (Approx. 1) Goldie (10 mo. as of 11/5/2011)
Moxie (4 mo. as of 11/4/2011)
Jasmine, Lucy and Gracie (German Shepherds) are all sisters;Jasmine from a Spring litter, Gracie and Lucy from the Fall. Jasmine is missing an eye in her pictures because she lost one when she decided it would be good fun to chase our old, grumpy horse around - he kicked her. She lost her eye, but that was the worse of the damage; she suffered no brain damage or broken bones.
Captain (Anatolian Shepherd) was rescued from a local feed manufacturing plant, where they were going to drown a litter of puppies that had been delievered on the property by a stray. Dad went there to get super sacks of corn and hay pellets and came home with two puppies, as well! Unfortunately, his sister Pip had to be put down for aggression due to mental defect. Captain, however, doesn't seem to have whatever gene went wonky in Pip.
Millie (White German Shepherd) was a 18th birthday present for me and she is a big, spoiled rotten, baby that gets whatever she wants (it's her room; I just sleep there LOL).
Ellie (Mutt - Possibly Jack Russel/American Bulldog mix???? (We found a site where a man had tested his dog that was the spitting image of Ellie and test said those two breeds)) was rescued from the local Humane Society after being dumped only a block from where we now live - we moved about 2 years ago.
Bear (German Shepherd) was/is my Dad's big, spoiled rotten, baby that gets whatever he wants. We literally cannot keep toys in the house because he likes to destroy them in minutes (the longest thing thats lasted is some sort of water system ball that keeps some sort of balance or something and is the size of a baseball and rock hard).
Sally (Border Collie/Queensland Heeler Mix) was a present for my brother. He had never had his "own" dog and he was so excited to get her!
Pumpkin (AKA Punky - We think she might be Jack Russel/Queensland Heeler Mix) has a sad story...we found her on the side of the road on a rare cold May night. What I thought was an older male dog had made a small dugout in a hill of dirt, laying in it with his back against the hill. When I first approached him, he ran at me, barking and snapping. I left, but took back bowls of food and water for him. Slowly, over an hour, I was able to gain his trust by feeding him bits of food. When he finally got close enough, I realized that he was actually a she - her tail was tucked up so far under her it looked like she was male! When I ran out of food, I said, "Well, girl. I'm out of food. What do we do now?" In response, she lunged at me. I froze because I wasn't sure of her intentions, but she only started to lick my face and jumped around excitedly. I stood and asked her if she wanted to go for a ride and walked to my pickup. She jumped right in and licked my mom's face (it surprised us only because she had taken so long to trust me). Upon closer inspection the site, we realized she'd been dumped...in a trashbag among grape jelly jars and vodka bottles and a budget list that had the word "DOG" scratched out on it. Unfortunately there was no address or name on anything to report to police. How do we know she was IN the trashbag, you ask? Well, trust me when I say there is a difference between a dog digging through a trashbag and the frantic clawing their way OUT of a trashbag. We brought her home and the rest is history!
Baby (English Labrador - Chocolate) was brought home by my Dad from a job site (he drills water wells), where someone had dumped her and an older chocolate Lab. His worked took the older (male) Lab and we took Baby. And much to our surprise, we realized within a few hours that she was pregnant! Now, we have NEVER had to deal with pregnant dogs because we spay and neuter (we rescue enough to not need to make our own!). On January 4th, she went into labor. She had one ginormous puppy (we named "Tank") that night, and had 4 others the next early, early, early morning (a gold ("Goldie"), and four chocolates ("Gilly", "Boomer", "Carmie", and "Helga"). We found good homes with people we knew that took Tank, Gilly, Boomer and Carmie, and we kept Goldie and Helga.
Bolt (Chihuahua mix) was another Dad rescue from a jobsite, and is just about the oddest looking dog I have ever seen. The day before he was brought home, him and three other similar puppies were in the area, but the next day Bolt was all alone and terrified. It took a long time to build a trust, but he does all right now - mostly with my brother and Dad...he tends to pee everywhere if we come up to him for some reason...
Goldie (English Labrador - Golden/Yellow) is Baby's puppy. She has never had a difficult day in her life and is spoiled as spoiled could be.
Moxie (White German Shepherd) is the newest addition to the family and a big spoiled baby that demands to be carried to bed. She was born on July 4, 2011 and we got her September 11, 2011. In remembrance of 9/11, we named her after a Search and Rescue dog that was used at the Twin Towers site that is still currently living.
Now, I only have to wait for chickens!