Post-Party Crashers

Have you ever had a party and ended up with some late, late party crashers?  Well it happened here.  These girls just couldn't keep themselves from showing up......12 hours after the fact.

We had an outdoor, summer margarita party the other night which was a ton of fun {at least for me} where we had a nice group of friends, jumpy for the kids, whiffle ball, eating, drinking, etc.  All went well, nothing broken, all bodies accounted for....a good party.

I look out the front window at 8 a.m. the next morning to survey and plan the clean-up duties and find some late party crashers, 15 of them in fact.  Happy as can be, looking for some nibbles and coming a little to close to the  jumpy house that was still out on the lawn.

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Three Ticks & 200 Foxtails~Chloe Chronicles

My first experience with a tick took place seven or so years ago, here on the ranch.  Brushing my horse, Joey, while talking with my father-in-law, George, I came up on what looked like a skin tag on Joey's neck.  I asked George if he knew what it might be.

"Looks like a tick"

What!!?

"Pull it out" he says to me.

Um....NO!  How do you do it?!

He showed this wanna be country girl daughter in law of his just how it was done......grab as close to the buried head as possible and pull straight out.  GROSS!

I have since that time become very proficient in tick detection and removal, thankfully, because last week alone, I pulled FOUR....three from the Advantage Tick protected Chloe dog and one from five year old Paige.

If you follow me on Facebook, you then know that my dog, Chloe, took off and went missing for 4 1/2 hours a few days ago....VERY unlike her to be gone for so long.  Awful thoughts of someone picking her up near the road and keeping her for themselves, along with her, very possibly, becoming a coyote snack were weighing heavy on my mind.

After calling the Marin County Humane Society to find out if she had been found and turned in and.... she hadn't, I hopped on the 4-wheeler and searched the ranch in areas I thought she might have wandered.

No luck.  How was I gonna break this to the kids?!

Feeling really down, I wandered back outside to take my mind off it and low and behold here comes the Little Stinker trotting up the hill, tongue hanging out, panting like crazy, completely matted with foxtails and looking like she had been on quite an adventure.

If only dogs could speak.

An hour later, I had pulled at least 200 foxtails from her fur and the three digusting ticks you see in the photo above.

Not sure how or why my Advantage Tick protected Chloe ended up with three ticks on her, two of them engorged with her blood, but she did and I had the chore of pulling them.

If you've never encountered a tick, the photo above is a good visual.  The smallest tick had not yet buried its head in Chloe yet, the center tick had been in her for a bit and the third, largest tick, had been in there 'feasting' for what looks like quite a while.  They all start out looking like the little guy and as they draw blood from you, they grow bigger and bigger.

After her MIA morning, Chloe had a nice looong nap that afternoon.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. I love to hear from you! Have a fantastic day!
 
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TT w/Linky: 10 Pound Cow Dog

This week for 'Thankful Thursday' I am absolutely grateful for my little 10 pound cow dog, Chloe.

Okay, so she's a fluffy Maltese/Shi Tzu, but when you've been raised on a dairy farm from the young age of eight weeks, the 'cow dog' attitude just becomes who you are. 

Chloe doesn't know any different.  And I'm totally fine that my little fluffy 'lap dog' thinks she's a cow dog, especially in this instance ~

Just a couple of mornings ago as I'm carting a load of laundry to the laundry room I glance out the back window, only to see a herd of heifers in the back yard.  When cows are in the yard, everything is dropped immediately.  All I could think of was, how long have they been out there and are there now potholes the size of Texas in my lawn.

Chloe and I venture out to see if we could corral these girls on our own.  To the side of the house, near the pasture gate, who is the first bovine I see?  Our new resident bull, Napoleon....small but tuff {and scary to me}.

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New Found Friends in Pt. Reyes Station

Pt. Reyes Station is quickly becoming a hot spot meeting place for Chloe to meet new friends.  Every time we visit, we either encounter loose doggies running around town and many others, on leash. 

No matter the size of the pooch, Chloe is ready to make quick friends.  A lot of sniffing going on in Pt. Reyes Station, let me tell you!

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Cruisin' the Cattle~Chloe's Story

Chloe, the wanna-be cattle dog.....well, in her world she IS the biggest, smartest, quickest cattle dog around.

After all, when she barks, the cows listen and sometimes even back away, just to humor her, I'm sure.

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WW: Battle Lost...

Things are beginning to dry out here on the farm.  Which means the grass is drying out and the foxtails are relentless! 

I'm sad to inform, Chloe lost her battle with the foxtails this summer.

Here's what she looks like, normally......

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Brittney the calf and the Ferorious Beast

The area in front of our house this time of year contains 15 or so calves....well, right now there are eight because the other seven jumped the fence into the heifer pasture, but that's a whole other story. 

It's fun to have Brittney near our house {she's on the right with the mostly white face}.  These girls have a pasture full of belly high green grass, but they still smash the fence down  to get to the grass on the other side. 

Just like a girl to keep all options open at all times, right?! {or maybe just never satisfied}

Well, my little ferocious beast, Chloe will keep them in line.

This little fluff ball of a dog, loves to have a herd she can call her own so near the house to keep in line.

She has stepped up to the plate and taken on the responsibility that any good 'cow dog' would.

We're going to the Dairy Princess Ball tonight, what are you up to this weekend?

I love to hear from you! Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment, you can click on the “Post a Comment” link below to do so. Have a peaceful day.



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Chloe the Coffee Hound

Chloe.  She's my little buddy as most of you know.  She likes 'mommy and me' computer time.  She loves riding in the car, all of the time.  She likes her cowdog time, thinking she's a ranch dog.  Chloe has quite a busy schedule.

I have boasted in the past, not here, but to family members that Chloe is SO good when she rides in the car with me to do my errands.  She sits in the back seat.  She waits patiently in the car for me.  If I have a load of groceries in the car and have one more errand to do, she doesn't go digging into the bags.  What a good girl, right?

Well, the other morning, after looking at the time and realizing I had been on the go for 4 1/2 hours and it was only 9:30 a.m., I thought a well deserved Starbucks was in order to begin my list of errands while the kids were in school. 

I usually only treat myself to a decaf gingerbread misto once a week at the very most and this particular morning I was craving it.  It was raining and cold. A perfect morning for a hot drink. 

After my first stop, Chloe in the car, I return.  I open the door to the strong smell of gingerbread misto wafting out the door.  Chloe.  She had overturned my misto and drank most of it {it was 3/4 full}.  The carpet was a little wet but not soaked.  So glad it was a decaf. 

And Chloe knew she had done something wrong even before I scolded her.  So when we returned home, she hid her face in shame.

And today, I'm dealing with the smell of sour milk in my car.  From past experience, the smell will last about a week.  Tomorrow I'm going Barrel Tasting with the girls and I'm the designated driver.  I'm hoping Febreze will do the job.  Any other suggestions?

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Chloe, the Escapee

Yesterday we were at my sister and brother-in-law's house for a combined birthday party for my niece and nephew.  They have a couple of puppies, Buddy {who you may have read about on my 4H Presentation Day post} and Brownie.  Chloe was invited to attend the party as well.

Maybe I should take some notes, next time, when I'm watching my niece train her puppy, because Chloe escapes at any chance she can get.  And she doesn't come when called......even if I have a handful of treats! I think she thinks it's a game......or she just likes to be a stinker.

So the front door was left open and that's all that Chloe needed to dash out.  Both Buddy and Brownie followed her. 

I guess the temptation of all the new smells were too much to handle.  There's sheep poop, chickens and pygmy goats after all!  Totally different than a dairy farm, right?

They headed down towards the dam, first thing.  Brownie and Buddy were the first to be caught.  Chloe was a bit more stubborn.

She had to go get good and dirty before she was caught.

We did get a chance to go visit the two Pygmy goats that have recently arrived on the ranch.  Here's Georgie.

Paige wants one...........I want one!

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Oh Chloe, What Now?

We've had this adorable feathered, teal colored 'tree' on one of the shelves in Paige's room, up high for decoration.  One day last week Paige begged and begged me to get it down so she could play with it and use it in her doll house.

I told her, it's not really a toy, but okay, you can play with it in your doll house. 

She played and played with it for a couple of hours.

Later in the afternoon, Chloe came out into the kitchen looking like this........

I didn't think she was spontaneously growing feathers and when I walked up closer to investigate, Chloe immediately rolled over on her back. 

She only does this when she wants a belly scratch OR when she's done something naughty....


 












I didn't think she was up for a belly scratch at this point........

I do think Chloe was imaginative playing in Paige's room........about bird hunting.

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Yet Another Side to Chloe

Remember the other day when I talked about how Chloe is a full blown stalker cow dog? 

Well, today after some time spent in the pasture barking at cows {she's now brave enough to stay in the pasture with the cows and bark at them at their feet}, she comes trotting up to me, completely wet, tangled  and with something hanging from her mouth.

Warning:  this post has a bit of a 'yuck' factor to it.

I saw a side of Chloe that I didn't even realize existed.

Just as proud as she can be, she trots up with a mouse in her mouth.  Can it be?  Do I have a wannabe Fox Terrrior on my hands?  A hunter, a gatherer {of cows}?

The little moppy headed mess was SO, SO proud of herself.  Then it dawned on me, she may have scared off one of our two resident ferral cats from their catch and stole the mouse.  Not sure how it happened, but now that it has, and Chloe has the taste of varmint on her taste buds, I'm sure she'll crave the hunt here on the ranch once again.

YUK! I'll say it for you.

Just for the record, I pried the mouse away from Chloe and threw it back over the fence.  I couldn't let her eat it.....she does sleep indoors and loves to give doggie kisses and the entire mouse-in-mouth thing was completely grossing me out.

It's gonna be a long summer......we have tons of field mice.  Time for another bath and a good teeth brushing.

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Respectful Dairy Cows ~ Chloe's World

Boy, there's been a ton of action at this gate lately.  First it was left open and now Chloe thinks she's in charge of the cows on the other side of it.

There goes the little sneaky stalker.  I believe Chloe was a much larger dog in a past life....because she definitely has that big dog mentality. 

"I'm the boss of these cows.  They don't scare me.  Not one little bit."

At least not until the cow begins running towards her.

"I better get back over to the other side of the gate where I can really dominate this cow." 

"It's working...my yippy bark is drawing a crowd.  They're listening to me."

"I demand respect!"

"No one can touch me!"

"Look Mom, I'm so good at my job.  I just love being a cow dog."

Another day in the life of Chloe.

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