Thursday, January 31, 2008

Puppies and Babies


As some of you may know we recently fostered some adorable little golden retriever mix puppies here at the Ramsey home. I have found puppies and gardens do not go together. Specifically, my little garden. It may never be the same.

Generally I love wild things in my garden, the birds, cats and the dogs. Puppies ARE dogs, are they not? Turns out, no. Puppies are babies; which are VERY different from dogs in my opinion.

Jimmy and I brought them home on Monday night. Even though my backyard is fully fenced, I was still nervous the little ones would find a crack and wiggle out or get lost in the backyard. Since my vegetable garden is almost completely fenced with rabbit fencing, I decided to block off the three gates and safely place the pups in the vegetable garden. Turns out that was not such a great idea for the garlic (the entire yard smelled of garlic and let's just say no vampires will bite these pups). The garlic will be fine. I am not worried about it or the perennials (though I would still rather they not eat them all). It was when they got to the woody ornamentals that I really, really became worried. Talking to the babies, uh hum, puppies, wasn't working.

I had two very nice vines in my vegetable garden growing up a large arbor. One was a sweet autumn clematis, and the other a double Carolina gessamine. I say had, but honestly I think they are still there-somewhere. When spring comes we will see. I decided the vegetable garden was not a good place for these little pups, out they came.

Maybe the whole garden would be better? More distractions and less of a chance for any one woody ornamental to take the full brunt of the puppies teething assault. Nope. Not a good idea either. Whenever one puppy attacks a shrub (something I have a lot of), ALL six pups join in. Uh oh. What to do now? Well, I tried to do what anyone would do with babies when they want to change the baby's point of focus-distract them! This worked for awhile. I would try to persuade the little ones to attack my tons of plastic plant pots, which are not important and might even feel good on the puppies teeth. That worked, for about five minutes. Oh yeah, babies don't have long attention spans either, do they? On to the plants then and all those gardens. Oh dear, what next?

After about an hour of playing in the garden I finally decided the what next was a playpen, in the form of a huge doggie crate in the middle of my small living room. Getting all six in without losing one or two into the house was not an easy feat. Especially since early on Jimmy and I had to carry all six up the deck stairs. It never fails to amaze me how when a baby, or in this case, a puppy is able to do what he or she wants to do, but not when we want him or her to do it. These puppies can climb stairs when they want to come in the house and to their playpen, but when we call them and we want them to come, they of course can't climb. Isn't that how it always works?

The above picture is of only four, but there are a total of six. They are from left to right, Dade (my very favorite), Lamar, Bruiser and CJ. Jimmy named three and I named three. The other two are Baby and Mia.

Oh yeah, no sleeping through the night tonight.

in the garden....

15 comments:

  1. They are so cute! I hope the gardens recover --did I mention how cute they are?? :0)

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  2. Awww, they are toooo cute! Had to laugh out loud about the vampires staying away. Too true when it comes to fleas!

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  3. Cute but oh lordy how did you get them to stay put long enough to get even 4 of them in a picture together?

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  4. Those little fuzzy wuzzy’s are adorable to say the least!
    Poor Garden...
    Tina you are a jewel to jump in and help the Pet People like that.
    Hey not sure about the garlic (will ask pet people) but onions can be deadly to dogs and cats! So be sure to keep them away from the onion...
    Hummm, I am wondering if Dade has a new home with the Ramseys...

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  5. Tina-they are sooo precious! If I could take one, it would be the second from the right-the one with the paws on the railing. Bruiser? He looks like a load of fun. I'll bet you are wore out! It sounds like so much work...but lots of smiles and laughter along the way. You are an amazing lady to step up and do this. I say at our next pet people gathering we all bring a replacement plant for Tina! I think these adorable babies will have forever homes soon-thanks to you Tina!

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  6. Let me say it one more time--TINA YOUR MY HERO

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  7. They are SO adorable! To think they would have been killed in the shelter they were at! You are such an angel Tina for helping out with this rescue! The Golden Huggs girls are wonderful, as you know, in finding a new home for Matt's dog and now these guys! I know they can find homes for so many more dogs from down here!

    I have some name suggestions if you haven't named them all. For the boys, Ramsey of course! And Titan. Deb of Golden Huggs said to give them Tennessee names! How about Ernie Ford? Loretta? :)

    I hope the vet visits and everything go well so they can soon be on their way!

    Sorry about your garden, but that's just a "thing" and these angels are God's creatures, right? :) Bless you!

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  8. hi everyone,
    all is fine here. two of the pups are sick and in the hospital. i am watching the other four like a hawk. the sickness is parvo, which is NOT always fatal, contrary to popular belief, but it is a funny infection which manifests itself strongly and mercilessly in ways we cannot imagine so who knows. the other four are on preventative meds. they are all themselves. my two in the hospital are dade and lamar. the two biggest. dade was always quiet and laid back since we picked them up on monday, but lamar wasn't. when lamar would not leave the crate this morning i thought something might be wrong. the only sympton they showed has been lethargy. i will keep everyone posted on their recovery.

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  9. No throwing up or no b---dly stools is a good sign, hopefully you caught it early enough they will be alright.
    Cold and bitter winds today brrr, we have a ice/sleet storm coming tom., its not do until the kids are out of school. Thank god-tgif

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  10. Thanks Dawn with peaches, I too hope they will be fine.

    Cold here too. Snow and rain and wind. Not good for puppies or gardeners. No school here today. It was great.

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  11. Oh no Tina I hope they will be okay but if not it was not meant to be. Darn thing of it is that I thought their eyes looked funny with Dade and Lamar the worst and alsmost said that but figured it was the picture. Is the hispital near you or the one an hour away?

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  12. Forgot but wanted to tell you Dawn we only got rain here and now we have only small patches of snow left here and there. But they saw we get get a little tomorrow, well today now....mid afternoon but the temp has to drop quite a bit for it to snow here. We will see.

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  13. Dade probably was sick since I got him, that was why he was so laid back. But the other pup I think he was just squished when he was looking through the rails. They are such sweet pups and really not bad to care for at all, I too hope they get well. They have not messed in their crate at all. Amazing to me after learning crate training with Link. He was not the smartest little pup.

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  14. I am sooo sorry to hear about the pups!
    Living so far away keeps me from being able to do anything but I am sending a check to the clinic to be of assistance in paying the bills!
    Good Luck and Prayers are with you Tina...

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  15. skeeter, you are so sweet to help the rescue out.

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