Daily Chores with a Puppy

Anyone who has spent time around Cashew has heard me say “i’m trying to keep you alive dog” at least a few times before the end of their visit. There is no veterinarian out here. If your dog swallows something poisonous, you go pour a capful of hydrogen peroxide and ready the coconut water to …

Clearing Cedars

One of the neat things about Cedar trees is their uncanny ability to reproduce like jack rabbits. There will be one big old cedar tree and 40 little ones gathered around it; where the pollen fell last year. I went through the whole 2 acres with the blue tool pictured above and cut down the …

I Could Only Hold her and Listen to her Cry

I had never experienced such a reaction to vaccinations with Sili. She was a couch potato to begin with. If she napped more than usual on the day of her shots i didn’t notice, but it was never like this. We went back for puppy shots 5 times before she made it through the series …

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Too.

Cashew was separated from her mom when she was 6 or 7 weeks old, so she didn’t really get a chance to learn from her mom how to be a dog. Instead, she started mimicking Sili. If Sili peed, Cashew peed. If Sili ate grass, Cashew ate grass too. If Sili scratched her ear, Cashew …

Cashew Learns Stairs

When i first brought Cashew home she was pretty little. Fearless as she was, the porch steps were too tall for her little legs and she couldn’t make it no matter how hard she tried. So i carried her up and down them each time. However, one day i noticed her reach for the next …

Sili and Patience

My dog Sili had the patience of a saint. She never complained. She never lost her cool. She never turned on Cashew, though i myself was ready to pull my hair out 80 percent of the time. Sili had infinite forgiveness for Cashew. She seemed more amused by her behavior than threatened or upset. There …

My Escape Artist

Australian Shepherds are known for being smart. Nobody ever said those smarts had to be used for good. They just said the dogs were smart. I started noticing things while i was working on projects or cooking in the kitchen. I would turn around and Cashew’s crate would be closer to me than i remembered …

Teething Troubles

Just like a baby, a young dog goes through a totally natural phase of drool and destruction called teething, in which you have to safe guard everything you own, including their siblings and/or their collars and identification tags. She was like one of those automatic vacuum bot commercials gone wrong. She would follow us all …