We are getting close to finishing the dog barn. I am calling it the "Laughing Barn" because the "Laughing Deck" has been reused as the floor. We got most of the tin up today. We ran out of insulation just before we finished.

While the boxes are not exactly square, the roof was pretty square and the tin went on pretty easily. It is a little scary walking on the tin! 29 gauge is NOT sturdy! I'll get some pictures up soon.

I did get a picture from Sandra from Roxi's big win in Franklin, TN. The photog messed it up and its a little blurry. Anyway, here it is:

Roxi MAY be going through her high in the rear stage but that is COMPLETELY normal.

Forgive me, I haven't posted anything in a while. I've been working 12-14 hour days on the new doggie palace. Some vacation! I'm burned, chaffed and generally exhausted. I wanted to buy trusses but the guy told me three weeks so I am making my own. I have five of the eight up. Then it will be time for purlins and tin.

The good news is that it is AWESOME! I love it. It is SO much better than what I built the first time and at a fifth of the price. It will even have windows and a heater!

This is so funny. Tammie wrote me and said that Maegan went out and played in the rain. Since she is spoiled rotten, when she came inside, Tammie dried her off and wrapped her in a woolen blanket. Maegan thought that was great and started walking around terrorizing the other dogs until the Dalmation figured out that the big white sheep was actually just Maegan!

See, I'm just Maegan!

BIG NEWS!

RoxiToo won again! She won two points on March 11th up in Jackson, Tenn. She is 8 months old and has 6 points! Not only did she win Winner's Bitch in a field of six, she also beat a nice Special and won Best of Opposite! Way to go Roxi! Congratulations Sandra!

One of my favorites. This picture was not posed. Oscar and Tug had not seen each other since they were 8 weeks old. They are about 21 months here.

Brothers

Tammie sent me a picture of Maegan while Maegan was working her job at Petsmart. Tammie runs West Georgia Pet Rescue and often goes to our local PetSmart to place puppies. Maegan's job is as a people magnet, and I believe she is doing it very well. She looks pretty relaxed! Great job Tammie!

FIRETRUCK! The dogs bark at everything that is not a car. Golf carts are fun. Four wheelers are geat. But a firetruck came down the road this evening and it was wild. Everyone went crazy. Since this is a dead end street, it took several minutes for the truck to turn around. The firemen were watching the dogs and seemed tickled. Susie and Roxie got baths. Yesterday, Roxie, Susie and Lexus ran with the four wheeler in the pasture behind the house. Roxie keeps up pretty well considering she was running with the gazelles. When I pulled through the fence, after running for about a mile, Susie comes tearing into the gate at full speed. Speed and power. I still say that Susie is the hybrid between the two body types. Not thin, not heavy. She's just super strong.

What keeps me up at night? Well, it could be the caffiene. Or it could be knowing that there are dogs out there like Summer.

Now, I know the Boswells are about 1000X the photographers that I am, but I think Summer is the most beautful bitch on the planet. She is simply stunning. I have been looking at these two pictures all day. I keep coming back to them.

Just when you think the silliness has passed...

Trojan is acting so sweet. He is following me everywhere. This morning he followed me into the shower. It took a while but I got him out. To prove that he wasn't pouting about being kicked out, he immediately began eating a bar of soap. To his credit it was only about the size of one of those hotel bars, but I still had to take it away from him. The boy was literally dripping suds all over the bathroom floor. The child has gone insane. Laura now refers to him as Satan.

We seem to be pairing off with our heats.

12/21/2005 - Lilly
12/21/2005 - Chocolate
01/01/2006 - Morrigan
01/01/2006 - Lexus
03/07/2006 - Susie
03/07/2006 - Roxie

I wrote this 3/9/06:

Trojan spent my National Specialty money yesterday. We HAD two inch wooden blinds on all our windows. Trojan removed them yesterday. This occurred AFTER he somehow broke out of a HEAVY steel crate that WAS clipped. He simply bent the steel. You see, Roxie and Susie are in heat and he REALLY wants to get to them. Upstairs and downstairs we only have two blinds left. One over the sink in the kitchen and one that was behind the big plastic crate. 12 sets of blinds and one window screen ruined. He also somehow got a box of stuff that had been on top of the crate, INSIDE the crate. We have no idea how he did THAT! He was eating/digging through the gypsum board wall in my son's room when Laura got home. Today, when I went home for lunch, he had bent and removed an aluminum caribiner from the crate. He was working on another Houdini, but I am wise to that trick now. There are 9 caribiners holding it together now!

I swear this boy is going to drive me to drink. He only acts this way when the girlies are in season. At the new house I am going to build him a nice cattle panel enclosure six feet high with two feet of wire on the ground. He'll probably learn to fly.

Jennifer brought our Lilly home today. Of course, she took Chocolate. Chocolate looked so happy to be going for a ride!

Roxie and Susie are in heat. Both are snatching their tails aside as soon as Trojan appears.

Trojan is a smart dog. He dreams almost everytime he goes to sleep. Sometimes he wakes up growling. Other times he wags his tail, but tonight was a first. Tonight trojan started howling in his sleep. It was hilarious. Finally I called his name and he jerked, sat up, wagged his tail and I swear he looked embarrassed. I just wish I had the camera rolling.

Jennifer has had Susie or Lilly staying with her for the last few months. She wants Chocolate but we waited because of heat cycles and Chocolate's back injury. Then when she brought Susie home, we traded her Lilly so that she could give Lilly the TLC she needs to get rid of the Lick Hygroma that she has developed on her right rear foot. Anyway, the goal is to get Chocolate over to Jennifer. Chocolate is doing great and moving great. She is back to her old self and she wants her position/rank back. Lexus doesn't want to give it up and so they sometimes have issues. Just like her Momma, Chocolate always wins the battle but ends up with the worst wounds. She got ANOTHER puncture wound in her left forearm were she asserted herself over Lex and Lex didn't appreciate it. Oh well, more Anirobe and Rimadyl.

I know, usually women folk have a lot more shoes than the men folk but Trojan doesn't believe that is the way it should be. I have been leaving him loose with Morrigan inside the house while we have been at work. It hasn't been a problem but the boy is starting to scare me. The last two days, Trojan scampers all over the house and deposits all the shoes that he can find in the living room floor. He doesn't chew them, he just brings them in. I know, the boy is weird but it is a short step to loosing all the shoes we own! It is so strange to come home and see a dozen pair of shoes in the living room floor. I think he just misses us!