Reba Lou

Today, it was time. I had been holding off, hoping that she would go peacefully in her sleep, but her nights became full of stress and cries, so it was time.
Goodbye to one of the best dogs I have been blessed with.

Happy 15th birthday Reba!

Officially 15 years old today.

She thinks she is working Beamer in this photo. 

She has lumps and bumps and a bare spot on her elbow, her hearing is almost gone except for sharp noises, but her desire to work is still strong. Her appetite is good, and just her hind end doesn't work so good especially for going up and down stairs and for standing up after lying down. She sleeps a lot now too.

I took a video last week of her trying to play ball.

I love this old dog, she has been with me through many moves, been down a lot of trails with me and Beamer and several other horses, raised 2 litters of beautiful pups who are loved by their owners, including my Tess, has put up with several kittens and puppies and she loves people. Above all, she wants to work. 

Here are some of my favourite photos from years gone by.

My Reba

My last post was all about the two younger dogs- this one is about Reba. She is Tess's mama and is the matriarch of several of my friends dogs, who have daughters, sons and grandpups of Reba.
She is less than 3 months away from her 15th birthday. Her days are spent sleeping soundly, and laying in the pasture keeping an eye on Beamer. But every once in a while, she gets the urge to play ball with the other 2 hooligans.



Her hind end doesn't work too well anymore, so I have to help her up and down stairs, and help her to stand up if she is on a slick surface. Sometimes she just gives up and waits for me to come and help her up, like at the end if the video above. She is also about 90% deaf; her hearing started to go when she was 12.
She is a happy dog, and I love her to bits.

Wordless Wednesday

A dog day

Today was all about the dogs. It's a beautiful Easter Saturday, sunny and warm. Ted and I took all the dogs and drove up to visit Janice. I wanted to do a photo shoot of Reba and her clan- Reba has made it to 14 1/2 years old now, and every day is precious. Her daughter Sage, (one of Janice's dogs) is 12 now and her health is failing due to an old injury to her back. She also has Tess's daughter Kali, and I wanted Janice to get to visit Thea. This is Janice's busy season with her greenhouse business, so she won't get away for a few months and by then Thea will be past the puppy stage. So without further ado, here is the family portrait- with Thea added in.

Thea, Reba, Sage, Tess, Kali

 I took a few photos of Sage for Janice.

Such a beautiful girl!  The next photo is Tess's daughter Kali, who is rather camera shy.

I love this one of Reba and Sage. We will be lucky if they last through this year, so this might be the last photo shoot I do of them.

Thea

Well I didn't get in the riding that I wanted to do- other things seem to get in the way. I did spend a lot of time with Thea though- yes, she is one of the things that is distracting me from riding.

The focus is crappy on this photo but I had to post it because it shows how she looks to Tess for  leadership. She does what Tess does, which is a really good thing, because it's helping me teach her the commands that Tess already knows; hopefully she will soon associate the word with the action. She already is building her vocabulary.... No! and Leave it!  and, get up (when I want them to go up on the deck). We are working on that'll do, and here, and lie down.

She has a natural lie down so it will be easy to get that one on command.
She snuggles up with Reba when it's nap time- not Tess or me, it has to be Reba.

Reba also disciplines her as needed, as does Tess. I'm glad I got this pup while Reba is still around, it's giving the old dog purpose and she seems to have a bit more spark in her. And that makes me happy. Love that old dog.

Settling in to our new normal

Everything is going well with the puppy. She doesn't mind her crate after sleeping in it last night; we are working on the potty routine (only one accident so far) and the other dogs are getting used to her.
I had her in the Canine Hilton with Reba today while I went to town, and that worked really well; Reba tolerates her and pup likes the company.
I make sure to give Tess lots of attention; don't want her to feel neglected now! I played ball with her today; Thea isn't quite sure what all the fuss about balls is -yet!

Meanwhile. she was quite intrigued with my boots. I had just finished mucking out the mare's stall and she decided she likes the taste of horse poo. And she thinks boot laces are nummy too.

I went and got her a chew toy today. Now if only I get to sleep through the night......

A visit from the minions

Over the week between Christmas and New Year's, my 3 nieces (The Minions) visited for a couple of days. They were excited to meet and ride Clancy, and of course their favourite, Beamer.

 I haven't ridden Clancy bareback, although Shayla did, once, but the girls were happy to climb on and get led around on her. She actually stood pretty good for them in their awkward scrambles to get on board.

Such a good girl Clancy!
The next day I saddled her, and the girls rode her in the round pen (on a long line). The 2 older girls wanted to trot and were happy to find that Clancy's trot is much smoother than Beamer's.

This is the youngest- just walking was fine with her!
This is the oldest one, she just wanted to keep trotting! I plan on giving her lessons on Clancy and hope they get on well enough that she can show her in the little local shows this summer.

Beamer got his minion time too!

They all 3 rode him and he lapped up the attention.

Reba also benefited from some special attention. Poor old dog, her hind end is giving out on her. I have to help her up the stairs to the deck most days, and she has trouble getting up if she lays on the laminate floor, can't get enough traction to push herself up so I have a blanket spread on the living room floor - and everywhere else she hangs out- for her. Sometimes I have to pick her up and hold her while she gets her feet under her. Hope she makes it through the winter.

Sunday Silence

First Snow Day of the Winter

The winter storm they forecast hit last night. Light snow until after dark, then this is what I woke up to today:

Just over 8 inches and supposed to snow all day today too. First order of business was to feed the birds, and they were all waiting for me to get out there, galvanized bucket of black oil sunflower seeds in hand, to fill their feeders. On January 1st we had 1 Red Winged Blackbird, we now have 4 and the little gold finches are really having to battle with them for food. I'm sure the blackbirds are putting the word out.... we also have a resident pair of Flickers that were trying to get to the feeders. Then there are these little guys- we don't get many of them usually, but there seem to be more this year, I like their rosy chest.

When I looked out my window at 2 AM, I could see the two geldings standing in the pouring snow (pouring snow because it is coming straight down in tiny flakes like rain) playing with the Christmas tree that I threw in their pen yesterday.  It is mild, and no wind, and I think they were enjoying the snow. Definitely better footing for them, the pen was all frozen pockets of muddy footprints before the snow hit. Now they can move around much more freely.
Josie, however, doesn't look impressed.

After horse chores the dogs decided that I should play ball with them.... it was pretty funny watching them plow through the snow and dig for the ball.

They had a blast! Even Reba got in on the play, although Amber wouldn't let her have the ball.

I'm making progress with Amber, I can now stop her when she is in full flight, and I can get her to "leave it" when she has a toy. Darn near to the point where I won't be wasting my money sending her for stock dog training, which I have scheduled for sometime in February.
Anyway, snow day for me means getting the housework done, then later trimming horse feet. Guess I'd better get off the computer!

What to my wondering eyes did appear....

No, it wasn't Santa and his reindeer, but they probably would have got the same reaction from the horses that Reba did when she visited the horses for the first time wearing the cone.

Nitro was on full alert.....

The two brothers - almost identical aren't they! Kai has a little higher tail set than Nitro.

Josie had to squeeze in the middle of her brothers and get a bead on Reba too.

Beamer was quite intrigued.

You know that song, "I can't take my eyes off of you...." 

Well Beamer, I can't take my eyes off of you, Mr. Handsome!

Reba update

Just a quick note to say that Reba's surgery went well, they found 2 tumours which they removed; her blood work and x-rays show no further problems. She gets to wear the e collar until her stitches come out on Christmas Eve, and I have to make sure she doesn't go out to the horse pens and lie in the mud and manure until she is all healed up. It will be nice to have her back to her old self!

It's all good.

I took Reba to the vet today, as you may recall I had mentioned that she has a tumour, and I wanted to know if the cancer was throughout her body or just the one spot. They did bloodwork and xray, and the good news is that she is normal, so she gets surgery tomorrow and will be home tomorrow. I am so relieved!

She is still quite active for a dog over 13 years old, and I hope she sticks around for another couple of years.

Portraits

The full moon brought a weather change- a little cooler, but some nice sunshine. Just in time to get my pre-winter yard work started!

I just managed a shot before the ground mist faded it out as the moon slipped behind the mountains this morning.
Yesterday at turn out time I took advantage of the sun and took a few photos of my lovely Beamer Kidz.

Miss Josie is the most photogenic of the bunch, it's tough to get a bad photo of her.  The next collage I put together because it shows how she ran through the branches, I thought it was pretty funny.

Next up is Shayla's horse, Nitro. As most of you know, he is the 2 yr old full brother to Kai (who is 4) and Rio (who is 3) and Jazz (who is 5).

Even with a rubbed out mane he is still a pretty boy. He is the blackest of the bunch too.

Airborne! After spending over a year alone, Nitro is quite happy to be part of a herd again. His manners are improving too.
And then there's Kai....

I think he has the prettiest head of all the boys (bet Shayla doesn't agree!)

One more portrait- my lovely old dog Reba, who accompanies me whenever I'm doing horse chores. She is 13 now, and on her birthday in September I took her on her last trail ride, she is getting too slow to keep up. Not long after that I found a tumour on one of her nipples, and she has several fluid filled spots, like cysts maybe, so her health is really in question. Doesn't stop her intensity and her desire to work though.