Watson's A Changed Bloodhound

I am only guessing that since Watson was neutered the 28th of October, that is the reason for his change in attitude. The differences are obvious so I don't know of anything else I can pin it on. He is only a few weeks older since that unexpected surgery to get that large piece of Mexican blanket out of his blocked intestine. This coming week he will be only 7 months old. One nice thing is, with all the three males neutered, there is less all out fighting taking place over any knuckle bones, the nylon bone with bacon flavor or the Kong balls filled with treats. I still supervise with a watchful though when they have those on the floor or in the backyard. Anything food related has been phased out.

I apologize for the lack of photos of the hounds. I might have to go back through my hound library and pull out some of past hounds and add those, just to think back to some great times. Not a lot of photography the past week but a lot of things getting done. I am still mowing leaves. Yesterday it was 37°, wearing a carhart sock hat I kept, some gloves and my smaller down jacket. A little strange I know but while I was walking around letting the mower mulch the leaves I was joined by two other neighbors doing the same thing in their yard.  LOL

Walter got to go outside in the front yard to meet his buddy yesterday.  The mailman sent a text on his way asking to see his favorite dog. Walter knows who he is, what the postal truck is and that Matt will give him 2-3 small Milk Bones. I am always asked to take a photo of Walter and Matt together so he can send it to his kids. Once I tell Walter "he has to go", Walter will turn and sprint to the front door. The way he sprints is funny to look at.

Don't want to gross you out but Watson wanted to show me and you his scar. Don't eat things you shouldn't. 

While sitting at my computer the other morning I thought it was "too quiet". I didn't hear the hounds running through the house wrestling when one was caught. They were not outside because it was too cold to leave the patio door open. I found this. Not even 7am and they were back into a dream state of sleep.

It might get down to the high 20s at night but during the days it is nice enough to leave the patio door open. Luckily that white trim cleans easy and I spent a couple of hours wiping and cleaning everything that is white, inside and outside on Thursday. When the hounds and the dog have found a mud puddle, then put their noses against the door to see if they can get inside ... it is time to clean.

You know that when Walter is spending time outside, the weather is nice. Those end pieces to the step will not be installed until some of the puppies are older.

Below those tomatoes and onions are beans, the perfect food for cold fall days.

Yes, he has fallen off the couch backwards when sleeping. He doesn't realize he is getting longer. 

I found out the day after this picture, the material the couch is made of cleans up like new with a damp rag, just like the saleswoman told me it would. "This couch is dog proof, call us to pick it up and get a refund if it isn't" ... Henry is happy he can test the couch to see if it is as good as they said it would be.

Cruising down the highway the other day when I had a check engine light come one. That was a surprise and sad to see since I had a car dealer do their 150 point inspection, going through everything on the car and fixed anything that needed it. They must have forgot to service the brake fluid. Out of curiosity when I got home, I lifted the hood, took off the small protection panel in the corner to see dead tree leaves in that area below the brake fluid tank. Instead of taking it back to the same dealer I made an appointment for the local BMW dealer to fix it. An hour and a half later I pulled out of their lot with the light off and a free car wash.

Well let's see what I can find in the photo archives ....

The leaves I was talking about were down inside that space in the upper right. When I told the service manager what I had found after their inspection, he apologized. He told me like everyone else in business they too are finding it hard to find people to hire and some that they do hire either don't want to work or don't pay attention to what they are doing. Sounds a little dangerous when you are in the car business.

A few weeks ago not only was I doing a cost analysis of different dog food, I was trying to figure out the right amount of food to feed the two hounds and the dog based on the calories they needed. I called Diamond Pet Foods and made sure the calcium level was no more than 1.3% for the puppy. Putting the list of ingredients next to each other on my spreadsheet, I could see the top five were identical to the Fromm Large Breed and Large Breed Puppies foods. With the increase in food quantity I didn't know how much I longer I could afford 33 pound bags of dog food that were $63 each. So far the change to Diamond Naturals Life Stages has been a good move, all three are now eating the same food and the puppy is getting what he needs in nutrients as a fast growing puppy.

A retired traveler, blogger, that many of you know picked up a great puppy a few weeks ago at the animal shelter. The story goes that he is driving through this small town and the local shelter had a display on the sidewalk. He turned his car around to go check them out and brought this dog home with him. He is smarter than Walter, and beautiful mix of a little Australian Shepard ... He ran into one of his brothers last weekend at the dog food store, where the owners did not know each other. 

Check out those eyes. 

That same friend saw these two basset hounds out in that small town. At first I thought he was sending me a picture of Heidi. In the past month in that same town he has now seen two red bloodhounds and these two basset hounds. It is good to see "we" are nationwide.

It is a nice Sunday afternoon to take the old sports car out for a drive. I figure with a nice expensive fence, plenty of water available and bright hot sunshine it would be fine to leave the two hounds and a dog outside. But Walter didn't want outside so I left him inside. I have no doubt he sat at the patio door tormenting Watson who was left outside. It's another screen to repair. Stella gave me a lot of practice in fine tuning my abilities to install new screens ... this will be my "biggest" job yet. Or there is a business a couple of miles away that advertises on their store window "window screens repair". I might check them out instead.

Remember in the past I have said on this blog on two different occasions I called 16 vets in the area and not one office was taking new clients??? Well the vet I took Watson too a few weeks ago had this on their website or Facebook page. It explains the current dilemma in the business of veterinary offices. I did run into the same problem in Arizona before I moved. All started when the pandemic took over the country.

Years ago when Stella and Sadie would chase deer in the 7 acre field behind the house I was living in at the time, I got lucky with the camera and was able to capture this deer heading for the hidden fence to jump over and escape two bloodhounds running full speed but not even close enough to be in the photo. They loved chasing deer and would act so proud on their return trot home. 

Those of you that are from the Cincinnati area might remember Crosley Field, the home of the Cincinnati Reds. I went to my first baseball game ever in this park to see Willie Mays and the San Francisco Giants. I was probably 8-10 years old at the time. I saw a lot of Hall of Famer's come through that stadium. Later on they built I-75 just past the center field fence. With the piles of dirt needed to build that interstate, people would stand on that dirt and were high enough to look into the stadium and watch the ballgame. The outfield grass was elevated as you got closer to the wall. The Houston Astros tried to copy that when they built their new stadium a few years ago.

That does it for this week. It's college football today, college basketball on other nights although I don't watch every game like I use to. I follow a couple of teams and watch them. My stack of books is getting taller for winter reading. So far I have not minded the colder temps because they were like this in Sierra Vista AZ in the mornings this time of year. But 28° is much warmer than 3°. I am told it does not get that cold here ... I will find out if that is true within the next few months.

Yes I do miss where I use to live. About the time I forget their border problems I see a story on the County Sheriff's Facebook page warning people to lock their doors and call a phone number if they see anything going on. This past Wednesday night in Ramsey Canyon near Kachina Trail 34 illegal immigrants took off running through residential areas when the Border Patrol and County Sheriff's showed up. Those are areas that I would ride my bike. You have to remember that sometimes those groups are led by a "coyote" that is armed. Such is life now in Cochise County.

The leaves finally changed color here. I will try to capture some of that today but I think I have some of those photos on my Nikon that is back on the bookshelf now.

I almost forgot this story, one where some of you might want to do IF you are looking to cut costs on your phone service. I am NOT an affiliate, I am just passing this great savings along. I have been with Verizon for years. Like all the other "sheep" nationwide I pay them with automatic withdrawals from my checking about and watch the cost climb year after year.

I get a flyer in the mail the other day from my internet provider for Spectrum Mobile. I did a search and found they use Verizon towers for their signal so that is good. The price they were advertising, $29.99 was good enough for me to call them. It even got a better deal. Since I wifi mostly from my computer when I am home, my iPhone's average cellular data usage the past 18 months is point three .3 of a Gb. For $14 per month I could get unlimited calls, unlimited texting and a data limit of 1Gb per month. Well .3 is way below 1 and I was going to use the same towers ... why not?

SIM card showed up yesterday and the switch took longer than expected because now AT&T and Verizon are requiring us to call them for a "transfer code" before they will release the port for other companies to connect to. With help of a Spectrum customer service rep, we figured a new way that was fast. I called #7678 and got the code I needed instead of waiting on hold forever.

It took only minutes for my new service to connect and I have found no issues between the new Spectrum Mobile and Verizons. ... let see do I want $14 per month or $74 per month for the same service?

Basically all is good in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.