Fire On a Cool Wet Day and Dog Grooming

It is always good to start up a small fire on the veranda just to watch it burn.

It's basically safe and a lot more controlled than having one in a dry forest with many other people.

My hose is always ready but I am not very worried because guess what?

It rained again today. Everything is wet.

So with the fire keeping the cement veranda warm, I was able to sit and try to cut off the dirty mats off my dog who doesn't like anyone touching him with scissors.

But to my amazement he rolled over and let me play with a pair over his tummy.

He has very long fur that mats easily and he will never let you brush him the way you want to. So you sit pulling the fur out of him by hand and so much comes out in clumps. He just doesn't like the procedure. If you don't do it, the whole house is covered in fur clumps.

It must be very uncomfortable for him, in the end, to have the fur pulled by these mats.

After a bit of complaining and my soothing him saying

Hey! Whats up with that?

Don't you want to feel better?

I think he realized I was trying to help him as I do with the other dogs.

It's going to take a few days of work though.

Beau is a problem because he never trusts anyone except for pats.

I think it had to do with his Mom, a country dog, which was tied to a chain and the pup, still with closed eyes, was always rolled around by the chain, which must have hurt him.

As the kids hovered around these pups, the Mom could not be under estimated to bite. She was very protective of her babies.

So when one of them was attacked by wasps, eating it alive, my boys took it away and nursed it at home and brought it for nursing to the mom a few times a day.

It had a big flap of torn skin we didn't know what to do with and she just went and bit it off. lol solving the problem. The big hole began to heal up then. Funny how babies are so resilient. Under normal circumstances, that pup should have died.

We chose a little black female puppy for ourselves and took her also to keep her from being abused by the chain. I have to say she was clean and nice and warm and was growing quite nicely. but then my son went to the pups one day with her and this little tyke with eyes barely open, stood and barked at him as if to say:

Hey. Do you see me? I am the one you should take.

I told my son, I think this dog chose you and wants to be yours.

My son would have taken them all and his heart was heavy as he took pity on Beau and finally said: Ok. I'll take you. You need me. lol

He took some of the robust pups to the nearby restaurant and asked if anyone wanted a puppy and found homes for most of them except for Beau and the little runt, we saved from the wasps.

Our neighbors gave him away to a farmer and my youngest son cried because he was so afraid the pup would die. He was mad at me for not taking it.

We found out where the farmer was and I drove my son out there.

I told the woman the puppy story and she was so kind, as to let my son enter her home and visit with the pup. He was in a box, safe , warm and fed with a bottle just as we were doing at home.

My son came out beaming with joy telling me :

"Mom, they do exactly like we do with it."

The woman assured us that the pup was going up north where it would have a great life in freedom. I felt sorry for Beau cause he could have used this freedom as well but I couldn't take him away from the kids who were so absorbed with him.

Beau loves company and will never leave you alone . He'll keep bobbing your arm up and down so you put it around him all day if you let him lol

He was quite friendly but when we took him for walks, people would let their dogs run loose and they would sometimes come and try to attack Beau on a leash.

Nugget would come to his defense until eventually Beau learned to stand up for himself.

The mats around his legs are soo thick and long I am having trouble with my scissors to cut through them .

I have to get close to the skin and make sure it doesn't pull or he will jump up again or give me a little growl.

I have one almost cut off on one leg but it is a long process and taking me an awful long time to do.

It must be also hard on the dog to lie still for so long. In summer having such heavy fur is also uncomfortable for him. I wish I knew how to shear it off him for summer.

All the underside is matted and this will be a big job for me now to clip off so he can finally have a decent bath.

It makes me wonder how wolves deal with this matting problem in the wild?

I never see any of them on TV with matted, clumpy fur or even a Husky and they have very thick fur, like Beau does.

I wish Beau would let us care for him but he jumps around like a jack rabbit and you think it would not be good if you knicked him because that would make it that much worse the next time. He's just a chicken when it comes to trust issues concerning his body.

Lately I have been thinking to get some sleeping pills from the vet in order to keep him calm enough to work on him but I think he read my mind cause he lets me groom him in small doses. lol

I might just get it done and he might learn to trust me a little bit more once he sees how much better he feels.

Poor Beau.

At least we can sit together and watch the fire and have some quality time together outside.

Nugget had his clipping already but he is old and sleeps most of the time.

He used to have beautiful fur but now with his bad legs he sits in his business and its hard to keep washing him in winter. I hose off the underside and then let him in to dry off.

I clip everything off and he looks awful.

Poor Nugget

And Tanya got herself into trouble today as well.

While I was messing with Beau, my son jumped up and carried her to me alarmed that she was choking.

I stuck my finger down her throat for lack of a better thing to do and thumped her on the back and she was fine looking at me wondering what I was doing. lol

We would be devastated if anything happened to her. She is the Lady of the house and keeps order. lol

Poor Tanya.

Poor Me.

lol

Have a great day!!!