Cooler weather is a relief

Today is in the 70’s. What a relief! The last week was a tough one. Breathing is harder, sticky and clammy skin, bugs that are relentless. Today there is a cool breeze to compliment the milder temperature. A welcomed break. To bad it is a work day but I’ll take it none the less. I have a few hours before having to go to work. I could go relax in the new swing! Off I go, toes in the grass, dogs right behind.

Even the animals are enjoying the coolness of the day. Dazy girl rolling on the grass and Ralph, he’s just Ralph. They do their business while I swing away. Funny how they don’t stray off. Of course, in Ralph’s case, he would get instantly disciplined by way of the shock collar. Dazy doesn’t tend to stray, she just doesn’t mind well. To spoiled I think.

Shock collar?!

Yes, it’s true, we have Ralph on a shock collar. We had no other alternative than a lost or dead dog. When we first got him he was so stressed out. He had been passed around to many families, all of whom brought him back to the humane society. He chases small critters and is a hater of cars. Of course we had cats, too, but I wasn’t going to give up on him. Ralph is a very intelligent and unique dog.

After being pulled around the yard by this 100 lb animal, the humane society urged me to try a choke collar. I didn’t like those either. But we tried it non the less. It did work for a short period of time. A couple of times Ralph forgot he was wearing it and gave himself a bit of a surprise.

We had been working with Ralph steadily, attempting to get him to drop his chasing things. We finally reached the day we started walking Ralph without a leash. He did very well, except when you took your eyes off him, then Ralph was gone and no calling him could stop it. Thus the shock collar enters into play, and frankly I wish we would have done it sooner.

We rarely have to shock Ralph. After learning the phases he did not want any part of the final shocking. Ralph usually responds to the tone. But when he doesn’t, there is the trusty vibration. It’s always an attention getter. And Ralph seems to be a much happier dog. He wonders around the place and we are comfortable knowing that we can reach him up to 300 yards. Problem solved. I highly recommend it. We only paid $25 for the collar through Groupon.

The kittens

Hubby says the kittens are growing, and in fact have doubled in size. I just don’t see it. We are feeding them solid food directly from the can now. Soon, I will be mixing in kibble and when the kitten milk is gone, I won’t be buying another container.They are active, happy and appear to be healthy. In 6 months I will be making an appointment to have them fixed. I believe we have two females and one male. There is one black kitty that is bigger than the other two. He stands off to himself a lot. Is more aggressive than the other two and looks to have a little bump where his genitals will be…. removed. (ha!)

They, too, were out playing in the cool weather. Over the weekend I took advantage of the heat and gave them all a dunk in warm water. Despite the high 80 degrees temperature they still shivered. I wrapped them all up into a thick towel and held them until they dried off. Afterwards the black ones happily went out and pooped down their legs. The two black ones are fuzzy so I had no choice but to deal with it. The gray and white one hasn’t experienced that issue. She must know how to do the deed without wearing it.

Another day in paradise

I’m happy that we are all healthy and enjoying the weather, as well as living. Life is good. So much so that I have decided to move my retirement date up. No longer is it September 29th. Now it is August 11th.