Sascha (German Shepherd) is also getting older (8 years old), but she has turned into a wonderful house dog.  In her younger years she had so much drive it was hard for her to sit still for any length of time.  She still has lots of energy, but she appears calmer.  She is the typical German Shepherd, she’s extremely loyal to me and wants to be where ever I am.  Leecy tells me she sits by the front door until I get home.

Sascha And Maggie Laying Together By Pond

First a few distance shots.  Here’s Sascha the German Shepherd trying out her new Ruffwear Doggie Life Jacket.  The reason I got Sascha a Life Jacket is because at the recent trip to the vet he said she’s starting to develop a little arthritis.  On top of that, Sascha swims like a crazy person.

Sascha Trying On Her New Ruffwear Doggie Life Jacket

Then it was time to bring the camera a little closer to the pool.

Here’s Maggie getting her closeup shot

Maggie Out Of The Pool Face Closeup

Then Sascha needs her turn.

Sascha Out Of The Pool Face Closeup With Toy

So far so good for a little hand held camera.  Now the real test.  Underwater.  I combined a few video clips taken from this camera.

Notice how Maggie swims, all relaxed, calm, like she’s just floating on the water.  On the other hand, Sascha doesn’t know how to do anything slow and relaxed.

Overall, I think Leecy will have fun with her camera when she takes her trip to the Galapagos.

For new readers, Sascha has that floppy ear because she was stung by something a couple of years ago and her ear massively swelled.  We drained it for a couple of weeks, but it continued to fill with fluid so we ended up having to do surgery.  As a result, she has that floppy ear which makes her look a little less intimidating.

Sascha In Early Morning Sun With Bamboo Backdrop

Maggie is now 9 years old and is somewhat showing her age.  Her muzzle has definitely turned gray, she has some light cataracts, and she tends to lay down rather than standing.  Other times, she thinks she’s a puppy and starts running sprints around the yard.

She loves the weather like today where it was in the low 60′s and is supposed to be in the mid to upper 70′s all this week (yea, we’re really freezing down here:-).

After taking pictures of the Butterflies, I decided to take a few of the dogs since the light was really nice.

Maggie Yawning

Maggie Looking Directly At Camera

Maggie Looking At Camera With Face On Ground

Maggie Smiling At Macro Lens

Then there’s Sascha.  She is 7 years old and always has energy.  Whereas Maggie loves to be petted by anyone, Sascha is loyal beyond belief and loves to be near me no matter where I am.  She’s not one who needs constant petting, but she must be able to have a clear view of whatever I’m doing.  She also loves to be in the backyard no matter how hot or cold.

You may notice Sascha has that nasty looking skin irritation on her neck.  I’m guessing it started when her collar started rubbing against her neck a couple of weeks ago.  I took her to the vet on Friday and they gave her some antibiotics and some ointment to put on her neck.

Sascha Looking At Camera

Sascha Backlit Laying In Yard

So anyway, Leecy decided to make a little video of these two playing.  As usual, Delilah is the instigator.

We have.  Why?  Honestly, Leecy started the whole thing when I went on vacation.  You may recall that I went to the Texas Hill Country and took Sascha (German Shepherd) with me.  At the time I forgot to bring Sascha’s crate with me.

Well guess what?  When I returned Leecy had converted Sascha’s crate to Delilah’s crate.  Now why this kitten needed the largest crate in the house I have no idea.

So anyway, since Delilah seemed to be enjoying the new crate so much, I went out and bought Sascha a new crate.

There’s another reason why this crate training a cat thing isn’t such a bad idea.  You see, Delilah is very much a mixed breed kitten, compared to Chloe who is also a mixed breed (both are rescues) but likely has some Birman in her.  Delilah loves to run around the house, jump all over things, and chase the dogs and Chloe.  She also tends to stare at Coco (our African Grey Parrot) in a way that makes me a little insecure about leaving them alone.

Thus, during the day we put the dogs and Delilah in their crates.  Our cats tend to just sleep in the afternoon anyway, so I don’t Delilah cares in the least.  I also have a feeling (though I can’t prove it) that Delilah feels like Sascha and Maggie are part of her clan or pack (or maybe it’s the other way around).

Oh, Chloe seems to appreciate it during the night as she gets to continue to sleep on our bed and not worry about harassment from Delilah.

Chloe On Bed

Obviously Chloe is quite content at night (although Leecy may not be once she finds out that I took this picture while she was sleeping).

Sascha, Maggie, and Delilah In Crates

Here’s the rest of the pack.  Maggie (Golden Retriever) appears quite content (sleeping upside down), Sascha is happy to pose for me (although she’s so black you can’t really see her in the picture), and Delilah is on her little cat bed, completely relaxed.

All in all, everyone appears to be quite happy.

One more thing if you’re interested.  Sascha and Delilah tend to be best buddies (Sascha is very gentle with her and Delilah loves to play with Sascha’s tail), Maggie just wants attention from Leecy or myself, and Chloe tends to just not care who’s around as long as it’s relatively calm.

Ok, let ME tell you the CORRECT story on the “dog meets skunk”.

Sascha started barking at 4:15am, I tried to see if she could wait till my alarm went off at 4:35.. Uh, nope, she wanted out NOW.  So, I got up, still ½ asleep when I let Sascha out to potty. She went out in the grass, did her ‘thing’, and then must have gotten a whiff of Peppy (my name for the baby skunk). She took off towards the rose garden. I did not see anything when I shined the flash light over that way, but I might have been a second or two behind her on seeing Peppy.

So I tried calling her to come back inside, then I see her run to the middle of the grass rubbing her face in the grass. She finally came running to me to go inside. As soon as we did, she ran & rubbed her face on the carpet —-EEEEKKKK — I smelled something, but it was more like old garlic, so I hurried her back outside & ran to turn the hose on – she ran back to the grass to rub her face. I called her over to me & ran the hose in her face/eyes (in case that’s where she got sprayed), then I towel dried her face off & took her straight inside to her crate. Usually we don’t give her towels or a bed to lie on in her crate because she is notorious for chewing them, but in this case, I gave her the old towel to rub her face on.

I went back to the bedroom & softly told L that “uhm, we have a problem. I think Sascha met up with Peppy. She was rubbing her face in the grass & on the carpet & it smells – BAD!”  So he gets up (still mostly asleep) I hand him a wet wash cloth to wipe her face/eyes more. He says he didn’t smell anything. I don’t know how he didn’t, it was BAD! (It was even worse than this scratch ‘n sniff book that I had as a child that had burning trash as one of the scratch ‘n sniff pages ).  So he crawled back to bed. I get ready for work. Once I go out to the kitchen to feed Delilah & let the dogs out –this time on leashes, the smell is WORSE! Luckily Coco (parrot) can’t smell. I was afraid the cats would roll in the section of the carpet that Sascha rubbed on.   The dogs just looked at me like “uh, yeah, no thanks I’m not going out.”  Put everyone up & I left for the day. (5:30am)

(insert your section of telling me what to get at the store)

So, by the time I got home (12hrs later)… yeah, just an FYI: initial skunk spray smells like a mix of old garlic & burning rubber….12hr skunk spray smells like… DEAD SKUNK…we ALL know THAT smell! So, our garage, house & dog now reeked of that smell! *GAG*  I changed really quick because I didn’t want my work clothes to smell like skunk, I let the dogs outside to potty, grabbed an old wash cloth & the Natures Miracle Skunk Odor Remover  & Sascha. Followed the directions. That stuff smells A LOT better than skunk…its citrusy. It says to let it stay on her for a while.  So, as she ‘dried’, I used it on the carpet and then when L got home, he used it on her cage.   By the end of the night, everything seemed to have dissipated.

This morning, I didn’t smell skunk. I will bathe Sascha when I get home to make her smell even prettier than the citrus smell. When I let her out this morning, she went potty right off the patio, she didn’t venture out further to see if Peppy was around… I think she learned her lesson, stay away from that black & white thing out in the yard.

~Leecy

I waddle over to Sascha’s cage, sniff her, and tell Leecy I don’t smell anything and crawl back into bed.

This afternoon I call Leecy who tells me the whole house smells like a Skunk.

I look online and see that some folks have used Nature’s Miracle Skunk Odor Remover so I tell Leecy to buy that.

When I got home, it definitely smelled like a Skunk.  Leecy had already bathed Sascha in that Nature’s Miracle stuff so hopefully the smell will start to fade.

I’ll post an update later this week and tell ya’ll if that stuff seemed to work or not.

I ask Leecy if she could go by Wabash Antique and Feed to pick up some wild bird food.  I gave her 60 bucks the night before and I said I would give her more money when I got home.

Somehow, Leecy spends $180.00 on bird food.  Okay, it’s for the birds, all is well.

I get home and give Leecy $110.00, two fifties and one ten.

Leecy apparently sets the money on the table and while I’m feeding Coco (African Grey Parrot) I hear a bunch of curse words and Leecy telling me I need to train the dog better.  I ask her what happened.  She shows me a fifty and points at Sascha (German Shepherd).  I ask her where the other fifty and ten are, and she says “your stupid dog just ate it!”

I start laughing.  I said it could have been worse, I could have given her all twenties, or dollar bills.  Leecy is not laughing.

Leecy then tells me I need to go make Sascha poop and get the money back.

I told Leecy I can’t just make Sascha go poop, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow and hope it comes out.

Leecy tells me I need to give Sascha something to make her regurgitate the money.  I said I can’t do that.  “Let’s just wait until tomorrow and see if we can find it.”

I notice Leecy still isn’t seeing the humor in this, so I said I’ll go outside and pick up the dog poop so it will be easier to find tomorrow.

Whereas Leecy may not be feeling too confident she will get the $60 bucks back, I remain hopeful.  Why?

Because Sascha has a fetish.  She likes to eat paper, especially paper towels.  I don’t know why.  Perhaps it’s the fiber content.

Also, that “fiber” content occasionally gets a little stuck and Sascha waddles over to me for help.  I, being the animal lover that I am, always help Sascha when she has these little problems and give the “fiber” a gentle pull, then all is well.  Sascha, for her part, always seems quite appreciative when I help her out.

So, I remain hopeful Leecy will get her $60 bucks back tomorrow, and I also will have my camera ready to photograph the ordeal:-).

In the meantime, if you know Leecy or see her, tell her everything will come out alright.

I’m sure she’ll appreciate the sentiment (after she strangles me for posting this:-)

For those who don’t know, or don’t want to hunt within the blog, Sascha is my German Shepherd that I have imported from the Czech Republic.  She’s 6 years old.  She loves to follow me everywhere.  She also tends to love being outside, no matter how hot it is.  I’ve never quite understood why a black coated Dog would want to be out the in sun, but Sascha loves it.  She’ll just grab one of her many toys (she’s never without a toy nearby), find her a little shaded place in the grass, and lay down.

You might notice how her left ear is a little floppy.  That’s because a couple of years ago she either was stung by a bee, or perhaps bitten by a spider and her ear became really inflamed.  The vet ended up have to cut part of her ear to let some of the fluid drain out.  It’s never seemed to bother Sascha one way or another.  Oh, and Deliah (our adopted kitten) likes Sascha’s floppy ear the best.  Apparently it makes for a better toy than Sascha’s other ear:-)

Sascha Laying In Grass

Sascha seems to be the most bonded with Delilah as she follows her everywhere and licks her at every opportunity.

On the other hand, Maggie, being true to her character, doesn’t seem to care one way or another about another animal.  It’s people she’s most interested in.

That is, until Delilah decides to go in between the dog’s crates!  That’s when Maggie starts whining, probably asking why she has to be in a crate when the kitten doesn’t:-).

Kitten Bonding With Dogs

She and Chloe get along great, as well as her and the dogs.  In fact, her favorite playmate (other than Chloe) seems to be Sascha, my German Shepherd.

We also got her a new toy today.  I think she likes it.  She carries it around the house.

Delilah Jumping After Toy

Delilah Jumping But Misses Toy

Sascha Comes Flying Back To The Pool Stairs

Sascha has no concept of half speed or just slowly moving through the water.  She has to attack the water, she rush back as fast as she can so she can go back in.

Sascha Prepares To Pouce On The Water

You can see from the picture above, there is no graceful jump for Sascha.  She has to jump in the pool like she’s going to destroy anything in her way.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve probably bought 100 bags of mulch, 50 bags of topsoil, and 50 bags of potting soil.  Needless to say, my back is getting a workout and I’m not getting any younger.  Today, I purchased another 10 bags of mulch, 10 bags of potting soil, and 4 bags of humus peat.  I dreaded unloading this from my truck, wheeling it to the backyard, then spreading it around the yard.  I tried to call my neighbor and see if his 12 year old son was interested in earning some extra money.  Nope, his son was busy.  So I wondered what I could do to make it easier to unload all this stuff and transfer it to the backyard.

Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head.  Sascha (my German Shepherd) is a working dog (both of her parents were working dogs in the Czech Republic) and she loves to have some type of task to do, so what if I put on her harness (previously used for protection training) and had her pull the mulch and soil into the backyard for me?  Sure, each bag of this stuff is 40lbs, and Sascha weighs around 80lbs, but it’s worth a try isn’t it?  I normally load 4 bags in the wheelbarrow so surely Sascha could pull a couple of those right?

I’ll now let the videos mostly speak for themselves.

In this first video I just put two bags of mulch in the cart since I wasn’t sure Sascha would even know what to do much less pull her entire body weight.

Okay, so on the first try Sascha got a little excited and ran over some rocks which knocked the cart over.  Did you notice her tail wagging?  I think she was starting to enjoy this.  Of course, so was Leecy who was laughing in the video.

On this second video clip, Sascha seems to be getting the hang of it.  She seemed to be real excited doing this work (as you can see when she jumps on me).  However, I made a slight mistake.  I should know that when Sascha is in “working mode” that is NOT the time to lose focus, or let her lose focus, which is exactly what I did and what she did.  If you watch the end of this video, as soon as Sascha jumps up on me, she (for whatever reason) took a little nip at my arm.  That’s the first time Sascha has ever bitten me and I view this instance as my fault.  She just got a little too excited and I didn’t keep her focused.

In this last video clip, you can see that Sascha is in the groove.  Her tail is wagging, her ears are down and she is very focused.  I don’t even have to really say much to her.  That’s Leecy at the end of the video clip saying “she must know where the divots are” as Sascha avoids the drainage line in the grass and instead goes around it.

During the last trip, Sascha was actually pulling 3 bags of mulch which is 120lbs.

So what do y’all think?  Pretty cool huh?