Tribute to Kenai

This is a hard one to write…

My tribute to Kenai

Kenai was our beloved King Charles Cavalier. He loved life, chasing Koda and warming my feet. Kenai was my faithful companion and always shared whatever space I was in. My mom always said that he had all knowing “old soul” eyes. Those eyes were always following the action throughout the house as he laid on the couch. Kenai did not think that playing “fetch” was a thing to do…he left that for his friend Koda. Kenai felt his place was on the end of the couch until I came home, when it was time to sit on my feet or lay his head in my lap. My true and faithful friend.

We will (and do) miss him forevermore…

Staying with my youngest when she was sick

Kenai with Koda

Waiting for me to come home

Hectic, Hectic, Hectic!

So many changes and so little time.  For the winter we had to drop from milking over 60 cows back to the low 40's as we do not have enough space in the barn for everyone.  This was done by drying a few off and sending them to another facility to winter and selling a few.  Over the winter we had so many calves born that we had them everywhere.  I even put a few upstairs in the hay/straw mow.  We have now moved back all the dry cows and have three bred heifers left to bring back home.

Eric (our milker that took over for me) has decided to move on to a larger farm and we have had to find a replacement.  Our first replacement was just not for us and thankfully Eric gave us enough notice that I had time to try out another person.  Jason is our newest member, and so far a GREAT fit for us.  He has a great attitude and loves the farm!  We wish Eric all the best in his new endeavors.

Our favorite farm dog, Koda, has had some allergy issues and this spring has gotten to the point that I can no longer think that Benedryl is going to help.  I have taken him to the vet for a very expensive allergy test and am waiting for the results on pins an needles.  After his allergies are identified, they (a lab in Colorado) will develop a program of shots especially for him.  I hope this gives him the relief that he needs as this year he is putting holes in his skin.  Until all this is done, we have put him on an anti-biotic and steroids for quick relief.

Hubby is settling into his new position and I am still enjoying my job at the Co-Op.  It gets hectic with the jobs off the farm and then trying to catch up on the farm every chance you get.  The house seems to be the last on the list, oh well as my mother always says...the work will still be there when I get home.

Have You Ever Said This...?

Have you ever said...No More Animals In The House!?

I must have said this time and time again...so what happens? I start looking for a small dog for my mom. I don't particularly care for small dogs. They seem to be more difficult to train and keep on track (just my opinion).

No problem finding a dog for my mom right! Well, there was this fenced area in the yard with 3 puppies...I asked what was up with them and the owner said; those puppies were from her friend who thought she could breed and sell them. It turns out she is not a good breeder and didn't have the puppies advertised or sold. The puppies were then dropped off with her and she was trying to sell two of them, but the third one was larger than the standard for the breed. Hmmm, which one do you think I was holding? Yep, the one that was too large. Of course I had to ask what she was doing with him! Her response was IF she could find the right home for him, she would just give him up.

She is what I would call the ideal breeder...all the bitches were living in the house and the studs had plenty of room in custom built kennels that were clean. All the puppies were whelped in the house and cared for in the house with separate pens for outdoor play. Her requirements for people are that the don't get to go home with a puppy on the first visit and you don't have to call before you show up. I like that you can see they keep the kennels in pristine condition at all times. If you have to have an appointment, they probably cleaned just before you got there. This particular breeder also showed that she was responsible by taking in the puppies that her friend had bred. Her friend had purchased one of the breeders females and bred it to one of her studs. Thus the resulting litter that ended up with this breeder.

Any way, as I held this young pup I wondered how he would fare with my Koda. Knowing my retriever had been missing Snickers (he passed about a year ago), I thought maybe since Koda is still young he might like someone else to play with. I checked with the breeder to see how she felt about living on a farm...the Humane Society frowns on me. She said it would be fine if she could speak with my vet. I gave her my vet clinic and she was excited as it is the same clinic as hers.

Time to get on with this story...I took Kenai home. For those of you without children...Koda and Kenai are the main characters of "Brother Bear". By the way, mom did not get a dog.

I should mention...Kenai is a King Charles Cavalier (most people think he is some sort of Cocker Spaniel).

Nothing against the Humane Society; I understand that they need to be careful about who they let adopt from them, but not all farm owners keep their animals outside.

Kenai and Koda spend 95% of their lives in the house...winter is too cold and summer is too hot, they like the temperature controlled house AND sleeping in bed with us.

That means we have 2 dogs and 2 cats in the house full time and whatever stray cats show up in the barn get to stay and get fed.

I had been looking for a home for my indoor cats for a while...no one wants to help me clean the litter box, the hair is out of control and Kenai loves to torture them...which means that Koda has learned from the young one to play "chase the kitty". My daughter's boyfriend's mother (what a mouthful) was looking for a smaller pet for her youngest child. Teach him responsibility (supervised of course) and give him something to cuddle of his own. She loved the fact that the cats were used to staying indoors, were "taken care of" and trained. Tada! They had a new home.

Now, down to the two dogs, right? Nope! I seemed to forget that every spring/summer there are many babies that seem to need us.

If you look very closely, there is a towel with a tiny kitten head sticking out.

This poor kitty's leg looked like Swiss cheese. It finally let us pick it up about a week after I noticed it was injured. We have 2 barns...the milking barn and the horse barn. The horse barn has all very friendly cats and the milking barn has all feral cats. This kitten learned to be scared of humans from its mother. They day we caught him the vet happened to be on the property. While examining the kitten my daughter asked the vet what the "white" thing was. The vet grabbed a tweezers and pulled out a long white worm. Poor kitty! Needless to say we had a new "pet" for the house.

Sadly, the kitten only made it with us for 3 days.

We are sorry he didn't make it, but I am certain we will have other visitors from time to time. I guess I should never say "never". So the house has too many hairballs and never seems clean, I guess it is best to count my blessings and be happy we have the ability to help those in need.

Down on the farm...Life With Koda

Life with Koda

Last year my daughter started asking for a puppy. You need to understand that I need another animal and responsibility like I need a hole in the middle of my head. We already have 1 farm dog, 2 inside cats and numerous barn cats. The barn (shed) is filled with dairy heifers and horses.

The previous summer (2005) I had to put the farm dog (he adopted us when we moved here) on joint medication. During the winter he became increasingly stiff and I knew he would not be able to make it for very much longer. So, in the spring I started contemplating a puppy to ease the children's inevitable loss. I was not looking for a replacement for Snickers, but something that would take their mind off Snicker's passing when the time arrived.
In July my middle child's best friend got a Golden Retriever puppy. The puppy, of course, was adorable and my husband fell in love with the idea. Naturally, he doesn't take care of the animals, so why not?

We set out to find a Golden Retriever and all the kids came along. There was an advertisement for a puppy that was last in his litter, no papers, price reduced. I am no rookie when it comes to puppies so when we got to the home and the puppy was completely obnoxious, I had no problem saying no thank you. Not far away there was another litter and off we went.

The puppies were placed on the floor and the kids (18, 13, and 3) all joined them. As I watched, the kids begged for their favorite puppy. My 13 year old decided we needed a female (so she could have more puppies) and my 18 year old acted like he didn't want to be there (not his choice in breeds) and my 3 year old just wanted a puppy to love.

Well, after about 30 minutes of watching, a particular puppy kept sitting quietly behind my 18 year old and was not shy or upset about my 3 year old picking him up or petting him. We took him home.

On the way home, my 3 year old decided to name him Koda after the little bear on Brother Bear. Koda settled in quickly and learned to stay out of the way of our Snickers (border collie). My 3 year old really wanted a dog that would fetch with her and chase her, poor old Snickers just couldn't do that anymore.

Well, this February Snickers passed away. We miss him daily and remark about him regularly. I don't believe that once your pet dies that you just forget about him. We all talk about how we miss him herding the cows and horses away from the fence when we come home and his incessant barking.

Koda with my youngest child...he sat there for 2 hours while she slept

As I said, Koda was not a replacement for Snickers, but he is a new addition and is living up to my (now 4 year old's) expectations. He fetches, chases and even drags Bry around the kitchen.
We are approaching 1 year with our new puppy and feel that the experience will be lasting for our last child to grow up with her own dog. He is the best baby sitter, friend and companion we could have found. We know that dogs are not immortal but the unconditional love and adoration we get and give from our pets is priceless.