If the Merriam-Webster Dictionary's definition of the expression hangdog is "sad, dejected," we've got the poster child for it.  This is blind Moose, who can give us the saddest, most dejected look imaginable with that big, sweet face of his.  And yet, he is one of the happiest dogs we've ever known!

Even with the look you see in this photo I took yesterday afternoon, his tail was happily thumping away on the step.  We've begun to wonder whether he didn't learn a long time ago that appearing this way was guaranteed to get him an extra load of attention and petting, in which case -- clever boy!  Our alternate theory is that his head is just so big and massive that he's found it's just easier to let it droop down rather than hold it up.  But when it's time for dinner, that head is high in the air and we've got 100 pounds of bouncing, jumping, whirling Labrador on our hands!

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We're on the final stretch -- voting ends Sunday, July 26th -- so please keeping voting for us every day in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3, and that means a $3,000 grant if we can hold that spot!  Thanks for voting!

I saw blind Callie grooming Dexter in the kitchen -- yes, in the exact same spot that Daisy and Dexter were in for yesterday's post -- and got this photo.  I don't know if Callie started grooming him and that prompted Dexter to begin grooming himself, or vice versa.  A number of people have been asking in their blog comments how Callie was doing, so here you go!  We were very pleased to see Callie doing this because she has really not been herself in recent weeks, and it's been rare to see her grooming her various clients.  The phenobarbital has really knocked her for a loop.  So we've been adjusting the dosage to try and find that right balance between a therapeutic level (i.e., where it's effective) and not having her so doped up she's checked out.  Her circling from the inner ear problem has diminished a lot, and she acts "lost" much less.

But to be honest, she still is far from her original pre-tumor self -- but how much of that is due to the tumor and resulting radiation treatment, the inner ear rupture during her hospital stay at WSU, or her medications, we just don't know.  Suffice to say, when we see the "old" Callie back in action like this, we're very happy!

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We're on the final stretch -- voting ends Sunday, July 26th -- so please keeping voting for us every day in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3, and that means a $3,000 grant if we can hold that spot!  Thanks for voting!

We recently put in new kitchen cabinets, and as anyone who has done this knows, there is a wide array of finishes to choose from -- oak, maple, hickory, birch, cherry, etc.  In our case, however, as you can see from this photo, we used a different color palette to choose from, called Dachshund Coordinates.  We were fortunate to have as many available choices as traditional wood cabinet selections -- the colors included Bailey, Callie, Dexter, Belvie, Daisy, etc., all with matching trim.  Some of the differences between them were subtle, others not, but in the end ... well, it was hard to choose, but we went with the Daisy.  We almost chose the Dexter, but ultimately we decided it was just a bit too dark for kitchen cabinets.  A little too ... cherry, perhaps.

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3, and that means a $3,000 grant if we can hold that spot!  Please keep voting -- thank you!

Alayne saw blind Austin digging a hole in the gravel so he could bury a soft chew toy shaped like a bone.  She went to get the camera, but as soon as he heard Alayne walk up near him, he pulled the toy bone out of the hole and took off.  She followed him around the yard, bone in his mouth, as he sought a new spot to hide the bone in.  (Apparently he thought Alayne might try to steal his bone, for reasons still unclear to us.) 

At one point, thinking he had thrown her off his trail, he stopped to bury the bone in the tall grass underneath a cottonwood sapling:

But then he heard Alayne again -- "Dang, I just can't shake this woman!" -- so he grabbed the bone and headed out across the yard again:

Finally -- perhaps thinking that if he showed he didn't care about the bone any longer, maybe she wouldn't want it -- he laid the bone down and wandered off nonchalantly.

Alayne picked it up and carefully put it back in the hole Austin had originally started digging for his bone when she first saw him:

That evening we held a refresher class in our popular "Burying Bones 101" course, with special emphasis on the first module -- Choosing The Right Bone For The Job.

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3, and that means a $3,000 grant if we can hold that spot!  Please keep voting -- thank you!

Okay, so this post isn't exactly about an animal, but it is about something that helps us do our job of caring for the animals here.  About a year ago we traded in our Honda ATV for this Kubota RTV 900 utility vehicle (our two ranch tractors are Kubotas, too).  And what a difference it has made.  With a bed that can carry a full-size pallet and a load that weighs up to half a ton -- 1,000 lbs (453 kg), the same as a Ford F-150! -- we no longer have to use the trucks for ranch chores like hauling water out to stock tanks on pasture.  That's what I was doing on Saturday when I took these photos.  The bed also tips like a dump truck.

It can tow, too, so instead of using the much bigger trucks or tractors to pull something like a sprayer, I can hook up to the super-efficient little RTV for towing.

It runs on diesel, which means we can fill it from the fuel tank we have here on the ranch.  But filling it is not a frequent thing at all -- we run it for weeks between refueling.  It has a small tractor engine and thus usage is measured in hours of operation rather than miles, but I last filled it at 155 hours and am now at 170 hours with a full half tank of diesel to go.  So depending on the type of work we're doing, we can get about 30 hours of use on one 8-gallon (30 liters) tank.  It also has 4-wheel drive and an engine-block heater, which means it's fully functional in our bitterly cold and snowy winters.

It can seat three people in the cab, has plenty of room for tools and other equipment, and allows us to take dogs with us when we head out to do projects like fix fence.  Just last week I took blind Madison along for a ride.  (A certain goat named Margaret has also been seen in the cab being chauffered around the ranch.)

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3, and that means a $3,000 grant if we can hold that spot!  Please keep voting -- thank you!

I saw blind-and-deaf Spinner in our front yard around noon today lying flat on her side in the grass, soaking in the sun.  I went in to get the camera because she looked so angelic and peaceful.  When I came back out, she had sat up and was in her "processing mode," as I call it.  When she detects a smell in the air and isn't sure what it is at first, she often puts her ears back -- like you see in the photo above.

Now, since she is totally deaf, I don't know why her ears would do this, but it's always a sign of her mentally processing an unfamiliar smell in the air.  Sometimes, if she's not sure what it is, she'll spring up and go bounding off, often barking as she goes to let us know there's something new in the air.

At other times, like today, she decided she knew what that smell was after all -- no need to sound the alarm, thank you -- and then her ears go forward:

That's the sign she's finished processing and all is well!

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We're going to take a blogging break for Friday, so this will be the last post until I blog again for Monday.  We hope you have a wonderful July 4th holiday weekend.

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3, and that means a $3,000 grant if we can hold that spot!  Please keep voting -- thank you!

I took this photo this afternoon of our veteran escape-artist, Travis, looking through the new six-foot high (1.8 m) "no-climb" mesh fence we just finished having installed.  (Click on photo for larger image.)  We have tried everything to contain this boy, but he is so athletic and agile that he continued to outwit us at every turn.  He's an incredible climber and jumper, and we finally realized that what we needed was a really tall fence -- with matching 6-foot high gates -- to keep him in.

So we fenced the full perimeter of the east yard of Widget's House with the new fence and also put a fence-line down the middle to give us two separate sections, just in case we needed the flexibility down the road (i.e., in case we get another climber/jumper in the future who doesn't get along with Travis, for example).

The new gates are also easy to adjust for height, so as the snow piles up, we'll be able to loosen a couple of bolts and simply raise the gates up.  That should save a lot of time and effort digging out the gates all winter long. 

The first time I put Travis in the newly fenced yard, he ran along the full perimeter of the fence, as if he were inspecting it to see if there was a gap or ... well, some way to get out.  There wasn't.  We've also learned to keep dog houses, cots, and any other structures a good distance from the fence because he will use them as a springboard for a jump. 

We think the Steve McQueen of the Rolling Dog Ranch won't be making any more great escapes for a while.  But if Travis shows up in the yard with a motorcycle one morning, at least we'll know what he's planning.

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  Invite your family and friends to vote, too! 

Wow .. still No. 3, and that means a $3,000 grant if we can hold that spot!  Please keep voting -- thank you!