After seeing Stella's side effects over the weekend from a rabies shot on Friday night, her running to start Monday morning's walk was a welcomed sight.
I could tell from the first minute she was up that she was feeling the best she had felt all weekend. She trotted through the house to the door to be let out, then howled for breakfast and was energized for her first walk of the day.
She had not looked this alert all weekend. I implemented my 'no shots' policy immediately for all the hounds after seeing Stella on Friday night and Saturday morning. I haven't given the hounds any kind of shots for years, annual checkup ... yes, but no shots.
I was up feeding the hounds and brewing coffee by 7:10am. That's really early most of the time but it was beautiful outside in the cool mid 40's. Sadie stepped into the computer room to let me know it was time for the first walk of the day a little after 8:30am ... so off we went.
With poor lighting for taking pictures and a field overflowing with very wet grass ... both of the bloodhounds took off fast and moved out in front early. Heidi stayed back inside, sleeping on her Marmot sleeping bag as the sunshine hit her shining through the window.
The new plan is for Stella to be fed a larger quantity of kibble twice per day, plus I am adding boiled chicken and rice as in between snacks for her. That means Heidi and Sadie will get very small portions of that same food ... you cannot feed one hound and leave out the other two.
As I was looking at Stella I hear tree limbs breaking and thick bushes making a crackling sound, only to see Sadie charging through the brush with her head down and not caring what was in front of her. A couple of times she stopped and stared down into the gully, knowing that is where the deer went.
I wasn't even halfway into the walk when I see my hiking boots are soaked more than normal. Thankfully the waterproof design kept my feet nice and dry.
Stella spent most of her walk with her tail up, which to me is a good sign that she is feeling better. Over the weekend after seeing a few pictures of her you would have thought she was taking her last steps. She did not look good most of the time, very lethargic.
Sadie had followed the edge of the field into the far right hand corner, then along the backside of the field. Pictures of that trip were too washed out, even with the lens hood, to be posted.
Stella did glance over at the 'no fly zone', probably remembering her trip fro yesterday morning, but once Sadie moved in my direction she followed her. I still find it interesting that Stella stopped in the same 3 places in the field to scratch herself. Why is that?
The owner of the field lives a couple of houses down from me. He is retired but does a little farming on the side. It looks like he made a trip early this morning around his field. Maybe the sound of his 4-wheeler is what woke me up although I didn't hear it. He turned before he got close to the house, but I could tell these were fresh tracks from this morning.
She doesn't look happy when I told her she could not head in the direction of the highway down over the hill. She wasn't really going to the highway but a spot out in the middle of the field, too far off the return path home. Her stare makes me laugh.
She is down over the hill and across the highway, all controlled by an invisible electronic fence for dogs. They are about the same distance from the highway as I am and I find it amazing the Saint has not ran anywhere close to the highway.
I almost bought this house ten years ago, but it doesn't have anywhere to walk in the back of it. The field across from my house curls to the right and goes right behind their property. Some find it strange I would turn down a better house because of a 7 acre field in back of mine for the hound walks.
I love these wild yellow flowers and that is why I keep taking pictures of them. They will not be there after 2-3 weeks. The temps are heading to the 70's today. I am going to try and get my act together and get at least one thing lined through as finished, on my 'to do' list. Then again, spending the afternoon outside enjoying the sunshine while reading a book might be a more enticing option.
We did a little of that yesterday. While Sadie roamed the yard and field, Stella slept in the sun and Heidi stretched out in the living room.
I know the urge to blog comes and goes sometimes but I've been having the urge to blog multiple times per day since changing the format on the front page to abbreviated posts and the 'read more' link to open it up for all the pictures and rambling.
I like talking and taking pictures. During a day I end up with more pictures than one post can handle. If I decide to do multiple posts per day instead of just one, some of them may be short with just a few pictures ... similar to the "routine' post I did yesterday afternoon.
I know it's my blog and I have been told before to do what you want but I also like to blog in a way the readers like. So send me some feedback on what you do or don't like about the blog. We will put all ideas/complaints in front of the three hound review board for discussion.
I am feeling much better about Stella's condition today than I was last night.
The weather in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana had been making me lazy.
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