Good Sunday Morning! I hope you all are recovering from Christmas; I spent the day yesterday alternating between eating, napping and trying to organize all of those gifts (thanks Mom and Dad!). The napping and eating pretty much won out, but I did have to get a lot of stuff put up and away because of the puppy. Which brings me to my Royal Ranch Royalty: the follow-up. I am very proud to say that our puppy, Iowa, is doing wonderfully. I got so many nice comments and e-mails from people that were concerned about our little baby, that I knew you all would like to hear about how she is doing.
Being the tough little scrapper that she is after a week in the chilly corn fields in Iowa, recovering from her very serious illness did not take her long. She is already the weight of a normal puppy her size and will be ready to start her vaccinations next week. This is one place I would like to jump on my soapbox for a second; please, please do not over vaccinate your animals. I have studied (quite extensively) and done research here at my own ranch and have found that animals that get what society considers "regular" vaccinations, are very much over vaccinated and their immune systems do not function as well as the ones that I have raised and been careful with. I do all of the puppy/kitten/whatever shots that are normally done with young ones; after that I only do what is absolutely necessary for legal purposes, like rabies. So, next time you get that postcard from the vet regarding your pets annual vaccinations, really think twice about it.
I am going to start over with Iowa's shots, because we have to assume that she was not vaccinated at all. It worries me a bit that she will get too much, but it is better to play it safe when they are pups. Also, it gives my vet another couple of chances to really get to know her and for him to check her out to make sure she is entirely over her terrible bout of illness.
Iowa is now just a normal puppy, chewing on everything in sight. She is a blanky addict and comes running as fast as she can to the nearest blanket and dives head first into it making a grunting noise. She is always hopeful that one of her humans is in the blanky with her and the she just works her way right onto his/her lap. We are wondering how it is going to work when she is a huge dog, but we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. She has been an absolute peach to house train, her only accidents are when the kids are in charge of her. We have to physically make her go outside (again, this will be quite a feat when she is 100 lbs or so), and the kids sometimes get a little side tracked. But, when you do put her out, she goes right out to do her business and comes back and sits at the door.
Tia and Iowa are great playmates. Tia is our Great Pyrenees that was given to me as a gift, she is only a little more than a year old and is ecstatic to have a friend to play with. If the weather is warm enough, the two puppies will play in the yard for hours, chasing each other in big circles as fast as their very clumsy legs will take them. I am trying to catch a video of it, but everytime I go outside with them they stop and stare at me for treats-they're no dummies, they know I always have them in my pocket!
We feel very blessed to have Iowa in our family. We know in our heart of hearts that she was meant to live at The Royal Ranch. We still are a little in shock that we had to travel 650 miles to rescue her little butt, but very happy we did so. Oh, and I suppose visiting the family (that I love dearly) was okay too-ha!!!
2 comments:
Iowa is very cute. Have you ever considered an in-wall dog door with a little wooden built porch and ramp outside of it for your dogs? We have one and love it. My sis-in-law has one for her cats and dogs, but she lives near Palmer Lake and says they are wondering if raccoons or foxes will try to get in since more seem to be moving in closer to where there house is.
Just a thought.
Every dog we've had, has learned to use the dog door in one day.
You just have one person on each side of the door and push them through while another person on the other side is coaxing them on. It takes them awhile to get use to the feeling of the flaps.
We have a double flap door to save on energy. It also has magnetic side stripes to keep it less likely to blow open with winds. It also comes with two slide in doors with a flip down lock. One door for the inside and one for the outside, so you can keep your dogs in/or out as needed. We keep our dogs in at night. If it's really cold and the dogs are in anyways we also close the doors to save on energy/heat loss.
Ruff Weather All Premium Weather Dog Doors is what we used. There are various sizes out there and various companies that sell them. I like the in wall units the best, but there are door units also available of various brands.
I'm glad little Iowa is doing well.
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