Sassy Sunday 6/24/12

Sassy

 Hello Everyone.  Happy Sassy Sunday!  I've been out to the garden recently to see if any of my favorite snack foods were ready for the picking.  And guess what we found.  Tomatoes!  Little ones, but they were really good.  I had to share with the family.  And with Chili.  But I got to eat mine right there at the garden fence.  (Barb put a fence around the garden to keep out the deer, rabbits, and Sassys that might want to eat the veggies.)

Almost Ready

Ready!

I love the garden.  I got to eat some peas the other day too.  And soon we'll have some cucumbers.  I've got a great gig here.
I don't remember much about my puppyhood.  I know that I was living with a real nice family in Birmingham, AL.  They got me because they were told I was a Chihuahua mix and the dad in the family had allergies but was able to tolerate the other Chihuahua mix in the house.  (Barb says if there is any Chihuahua in me, I must have eaten one.  But that's beside the point).

Anyway, it only lasted a few months and they knew they'd have to find me a new home.  The dad was just miserable with allergies to me.  The family was sad but they sent me to live with the dad's secretary.  I liked her, but her dog didn't like me.  So that didn't last long.  An older couple living nearby offered to take me in.  But they didn't realize how much work a puppy can be and I was just too much for them.  I'm not sure how much time I actually spent in any of these homes.  It's all a blur.  But I was only 9 months old when I went to live with the older couple.

When they realized they couldn't keep me, they let the original family know. (the allergy dad)  They were very worried for me.  Especially the little girl in the family.  So the mom talked to one of her employees.  He and his family were about to move to Illinois to start a new job.  They only had a month left in Alabama.  Would they consider giving this little dog a new home?  Would Ginger, their 1.5 year old dog, let a new puppy into the house?  They were willing to give me a try. 

I went with the older lady to a grocery store parking lot to meet my new family.  They had 3 boys and a beautiful reddish-gold dog named Ginger.  Everyone got out of the car to meet me.  They loved me right away and I got into that car with them.  I remember being confused but I felt safe and happy with them.  They didn't get too mad at me when I had an accident (or two, or three) on the carpet.  They were very busy trying to get packed up to leave, but they were kind and loving to me and I felt a part of the family in no time.

They were also in the process of getting another pet to take to Illinois.  Our cat, Spooky, had been a stray in the neighborhood.  But that's another story.  :)

Anyway, I moved with the family to Illinois and I have been a part of this happy home since then.  Gosh, it's been about 6 years!  That would make me about 7 years old.  I got a birthday card in the mail recently from the vet's office.  Barb thought it was funny since she doesn't really know when my birthday is.  She just guessed based on the fact I was about 9 months old when I came to live with them.  It's starting to show in my face a little.  I've got a few more gray hairs around my eyes and mouth.  But all in all, I think I look good. :)  Next time Barb gets a good picture of my face, I'll post it for you.

Well, the story continues but that's about enough for now.  Thanks for stopping by!  I'm gonna hook up with the blog hop that you can find over at Life with Dogs.  Link up and play along if you like!

Sassy

Sassy Sunday - 6/10/12

Hello, Everyone!  Happy Sassy Sunday. :)

It's gonna be a quiet day here, at least for a few hours.  My boys went to the Cardinals baseball game so Barb is here with just us girls.  (Spooky the cat is here too.  He's a boy but we don't count him. heehee)  She's got work to do on the computer so I have to get this done so she can have it.  She's working on her lecture for Tuesday.  She's teaching a class in Human Sexuality and Reproduction this summer.  I don't know anything about that.  For one, I'm not human.  (Shhhh!  Don't tell Barb) Second, I'm spayed.  I'm sure I'd make super adorable puppies, but it's actually a really good thing I'm spayed.  Lemme 'splain.

Barb has been telling me about something no dog should have to hear about.  It's our animal control facility and how so many dogs (and cats too) go in and never make it out again.  In 2010, according to public record (State of Illinois Department of Agriculture), 4,130 pets went into the Madison County Animal Control.  Only 1,037 left alive.  That's almost 75% of the animals going in left the building in a garbage bag.

So, we've started a petition and letter writing campaign.  These are the things we are asking for:
1. Open Madison County AC for public adoptions.  Right now, you cannot adopt from there.  If your dog or cat is there, you can claim them.  A very few rescue groups can come in and try to get any adoptable pets out.  But otherwise, they will be euthanized.
2. Remove the many restrictions on state licensed rescues and shelters so more can pull animals.  Right now only a few are able to get animals.
3. Remove the "death only" for owner surrenders.  Did you know that at many animal control facilities, if you surrender your pet they will not be adopted out?  They will be killed immediately because no one is looking for them.  Even if they are a highly adoptable pet.
4. Remove the "death at the end of the hold time" if space allows.  Right now, any pet that has been in the facility for 5 days will be put down, even if they are the only one there.
5. Only count business days.  Now they only have 5 days, including weekends and holidays.  What if a family loses a pet while they are out of town over a holiday weekend?  They can't go on Monday because it's a holiday.  They show up on Tuesday when the AC opens to find out it's too late.  All animals are put down Tuesday morning before opening. 

Barb believes these are not only plausible changes, they are no-brainers.  She's planning to attend a meeting tomorrow of the Safety Committee that oversees animal control.  She'll be there with representatives of our favorite animal rescue (Hope Rescues).  There is a Facebook page and a link to the petition.  If any of your two-legged family members would like to sign the petition, tell them to do it!  Anyone can sign, not just residents of Madison County Illinois.  Some people as far away as the UK have signed it already.
Here's the link to the Facebook page.  Here's the link to the petition.  Tell them Sassy sent you!

On a happier note, we saw a cute little bird gathering up dog hair from the deck to use in building his/her nest this morning.  Check it out.

If you look closely, you'll notice that the bird mainly has Ginger's hair.  She sheds something crazy!  Chili and I both shed too, but our hair is nice and short. :)
Speaking of Chili, Barb got a picture of her just as she finished sniffing some flowers on the deck.  Barb wasn't quite quick enough to get her actually smelling the flower, but it's a good picture anyway.

 And here are a couple of other photos from the deck yesterday.  It was a nice day.

 Even though it's Sunday, we are linking up with the Saturday Pet Blog Hop.  Check out all the great pet blogs out there!!
See you soon,
Sassy

The Big (Hen) House

Well, the girls have moved to the hen house.  They seem happy in their new digs.  Instead of having a concrete dog run they have a pen outside under the pine trees.  As soon as their feet touched the soft dirt they were scratching and making all kinds of chicken noises.  It was great!

New digs for the chickens

Girls outside enjoying their new yard

I'm thinking this hen may actually be a rooster. :)

Look at her compared to the one above! (They don't just give those college degrees away, ya know!)

Inside they have nesting boxes, their food and water, and a couple of roosting places.  Look at all that nice clean bedding! 

 Chili likes to come with me to check on chickens. Ginger usually comes too.  Sassy likes the chickens ok, but she's more of a "go out to do my business then lay on the couch" kind of dog.  What is it, I wonder, that makes chicken poop taste so good?  Well, you'll have to ask Ginger.  She snags every opportunity to clean up after those birds.  Silly girl.  No wonder I had to worm her this spring!

We've got some lovely sunflowers blooming.  And in the garden we have tomatoes and cucumbers already.  And a butternut squash. :)

The radishes are all gone.  We had a ton of them left over after Sassy and Chili had their fill so we wanted to find a recipe that called for lots of radishes.  My DH found one that was just divine.  It is called simply Red Radish Soup.  But it should be called "The Best Cream of Radish Soup Ever."
Here's a picture.

If you'd like to try it, go here.
It's even good the next day served as a chilled soup!


That's what's going on in the lives of Sassy, Ginger, Chili and Me.  Thanks for stopping by!


Barb

Sassy Sunday 5-27-12

Hello everyone!  Sassy here for another installment of Sassy Sunday.  It's Memorial Day weekend, so don't forget to remember all those veterans.
We've been busy here at the new place.  I helped Barb get all the radishes out of the garden.  apparently radishes are cool season veggies.  We'll grow some more in the fall.  Chili and I ate plenty of those spicy little balls.  We had so many that Barb didn't mind sharing.  Ginger just spit them out.  Silly girl.

There are some tomatoes in the garden already.  They are called "early girls".  Barb brought 4 of them into the kitchen but has not offered me any of them.  I love tomatoes.  I used to steal them off of the cherry tomato plants last year.  Those and the peppers.  I'm sure Barb didn't know about it, though.  That won't be so easy this year.  We have a fence around the garden to keep the deer and rabbits out.  Unfortunately for me, it keeps me out too!

Need any more proof that we live out in the country now?  Here's a sign we never saw in town.

I guess this is the time of year we see lots of big farm equipment on the roads.  But we don't mind sharing!  As long as I'm going for a car ride!
The chickens are getting big.

They are in the dog run right now because there are some roosters in the chicken coup.  The roosters will be moving on soon, so the girls will get to move out to the coup soon.  But they have it pretty sweet right now where they are.  By night they are inside the barn in a nice cozy dog run with lots of wood shavings for bedding.  They spend the day with the door open to a huge run outside.  It's concrete, but there's lots of green things to peck at through the fence and they are really amazing at catching may flies out of the air.  It's fun to watch them in the morning when Barb opens the door.  They run around the yard making funny noises and flapping their wings.
Here's Chili with the roosters.  They have had some freedom to wander around but they started attacking Barb so she mostly keeps them in the pen behind the coup.

I'll leave you with a picture of Ginger being her sweet, silly self. :)  Have a great weekend!
Love,
Sassy

Sassy Sunday 4/22/12

Sassy Sunday 4/22/12

Hello World!  Sassy here.  I’ve got a lot to catch you up on, so let’s get to it.  

The chickens are growing like crazy.  Here are some pics to show you how they’ve changed.

This is March 17 2012

Here they are April 3, 2012 and April 8, 2012.

They look like real live chickens now.  We should have eggs by the end of August or early September.  I wonder if I'll get any?

We've been working on the garden.  Barb has been harvesting the radishes already.  She gives some to me and to Chili.  Ginger won't eat them.  She thinks we are crazy.

We've planted potatoes, tomatoes, onions, squash, and some peas.  We also planted some apple trees and peach trees, some asparagus, some rubarb, and some Jerusalem artichokes.  We have a little more room in the garden, but I don't know if Barb will be putting anything else out. :)  This picture is from a few weeks ago.  But it gives you a good idea of our garden.  Plus you can see both me and a rainbow in the picture.

 We ran a turtle hospital here for a week.  Barb and the kids saw this poor little guy get hit by a car.  The car got him on the edge of his shell and sent him flying into the air.  Barb stopped and picked him up.  He's a red-eared slider.  An aquatic turtle.  The vet kindly looked him over and said his injuries weren't life threatening.  She was nice enough to give him a shot of antibiotics.  (She's the one who takes care of our gecko, Mamba)  We brought him home and kept him gooped up with antibiotic cream until he stopped bleeding.  Then we let him go in the pond near our house.  

I'll leave you a couple of pictures - evidence that the cat, who sleeps with Barb every night, sleeps around with the other females in the house.

Have a great week!

Love, 

Sassy

Sassy Sunday - I'm Back!

Something happened this week that hasn't happened in about 3 months.  We have internet at our house!  Yes.  It's been quite difficult for those human children who are addicted to addicting games dot com.  But they've managed.

Here are 2 of my boys playing in our "back ten"

This is our front yard!

So internet is new.  The other news - we've moved out to the country!  Now Ginger and Chili and I have lots of woods to run in!
We have a bunch of acres, whatever that is.  We have a barn with dog runs (why we need dog runs, I don't know.  We are house dogs and Barb won't ever leave us out there) and horse stalls.  There's a place for a big garden.  There's a chicken coup (no chickens yet).  And lots and lots of woods.

We love being out in the country.  It's a half mile down the gravel drive to the road.  There are all kinds of interesting sounds and smells out here.  We've got coyotes - you can hear them at night.  We've got barred owls - you can hear them early in the morning.  They sound like monkeys right now because they are arguing about territory.  There are deer and rabbits.  The neighbors have horses - I got to meet one of them.  What a great place to live as a dog!

Well, that's it for this installment of Sassy Sunday.  I hope to be a bit more regular now that we're back on-line!
Love,
Sassy

Sassy Sunday 10-9-11

Hi Everyone, Sassy here.  It's time again for an update.  Sorry it's been so long, but Barb keeps saying she's too busy to help me write a post.  Oh! If I only had fingers!!

Anyway, our lovely foster dog Tracker now has a new home.  And thank goodness she has a new name too!  Her name is now Sadie.  She had to have a little extra surgery when they took her to get spayed.  Turned out she had a mammary tumor.  One she never would have gotten if she'd been spayed 5 years ago.  The vet thinks it's benign, so that's good.  But we won't be sure until the pathology report comes back.

Look at my Mum's awesome mums!

Well, Barb went to two (yeah, two) dog-friendly events this weekend and she did not take me along.  The first one was a fundraiser for an awesome group called Loosen the Leash.  They take homeless dogs to a juvenile detention center.  There the kids learn how to train the dogs and the dogs get training to help them get a new home.  It's a great thing!  And they get most of their dogs from out favorite Hope Rescues.  Anyway, Barb didn't bring me because she had to be in charge of the adoptable dogs that day.

This is Jigs.  His owner die so Hope Rescues is helping find a new home.

Here are some of the people and dogs at the event.  The lady in the center with her back to us is the main person from Loosen the Leash.

Then today she went to the botanical garden on the local university campus.  They were having a discovery day.  Dogs were welcome, but Barb didn't think she could handle me and the other two along with the kids.  There was a bird show.  Barb took some great pictures.  They all look really tasty!

Red-tailed Hawk

Barn Owl

Great Horned Owl

Peregrine Falcon 

Turkey Vulture

There was a pug there that apparently made all the birds nervous.  So I guess it's good Ginger and I weren't there.

We are linking up to the Saturday pet blog hop (yes, I know its Sunday).  Go check out some other great pet blogs!

Thanks for stopping by,

Sassy