Tuesday Morning Energy

I could tell from the first few minutes of the day that the bloodhounds were "high energy", the basset hounds were normal level. Right now after being back inside for about 10 minutes it's so quiet you can hear a pin drop because they are all sleeping. You would not have thought that just 10 minutes ago when Sadie and Stella were sprinting through the field and playing.

They actual had two running sessions. The headed deep into the field to dump their tanks plus smell any fresh deer tracks.

Luckily neither bloodhound moves into that wooded area. It is wooded for only about 10' and then drops immediately into a huge gully probably 50' deep. Another thing I find amazing is with Stella being that far away she will always come when I call her name ... as does Sadie.

Stella takes a different route when called. She will head north and then to the edge of my property where the pole marks the corner of my lot, while Sadie runs straight to me.

This morning after being on a full run, Stella was distracted by a smell and then decided to eat a small tree limb that had been burned last week while raking leaves.

They weren't done yet ... normally after this sequence they are both ready to come back inside but today Sadie met Stella head on. Stella zipped around her, then stopped as both started playing, something they were doing inside the house.

By now you would have thought they were finished but after Sadie stood up, Stella takes off running with Sadie not far behind. Another interesting fact I have mentioned before that is kinda of weird ... outside Sadie will be the one on the bottom, laying down ... inside Stella is on the floor laying down while they play.

They both ran faster today after each other than I had ever seen before.

Just like that ... they stop and head back to the house to go inside ... sleeping soundly within 10 minutes.

Where were Winston and Heidi during all of this?  Inside dry and warm, sleeping next to each other wrapped up in blankets by their own design and rearrangement. All four hounds did go out earlier in the dark and then sprinted for their food dishes for breakfast. I filled them up while they were outside.

I think they have caught on to the new feeding arrangement, moving to 2x per day, only after a few days.

It's a cool damp day so far in the tropics of southern Indiana.

Heidi and Stella Go Toe To Toe

For it to be close to 60° outside today it sure seems much more colder than that. Of course it was high 30's to low 40's most of the morning. With this recent short period of colder weather I am not sure I want to spend the winter here.

Besides feeling like a weird day today, there is a new game in town, so to speak. It started Sunday afternoon in the living room. Heidi had moved to her spot on the couch for her normal nap in the sunshine that was coming through the windows.


I was in the computer room and didn't notice at first what was going on until I walked out to find Stella pawing at her to play and Heidi in Stella's face barking in her "attack" mode.

The more Heidi barked the more Stella howled ... thinking it was part of the game she was playing. Heidi was seriously telling her she didn't want to be bothered and of course as with any bloodhound the rougher play is the better it is. They don't know their own strength and feel no pain.

I stopped them and that was it for Sunday between the two.

Although Heidi is a basset hound she has always been able to jump up on my bed. After everyone is awake and moving throughout the house in the morning, Heidi likes to move from her over night spot on the floor to my bed to sleep in the sunshine coming through the window.

This morning the howling is louder, Heidi's barking is more intense and I actually think after seeing her she was was really mad about Stella bothering her again. With Heidi on the bed she was now eye level with Stella who was standing on the floor next to the bed. Heidi is barking and Stella is pawing at her, and howling back at her. Once Heidi retreated to her spot to sleep, Stella placed her two front paws up on the bed while still standing on the floor only to have Heidi back in her face barking to get off of "her" bed.

Winston, only a few feet away, slept through every minute of this noise. Sadie came and got me and then sat outside the bedroom in the hallway with her ears laid back and glancing at me while listening to the rotation of howls and barking. She didn't know what to think or do because she has never seen anything that loud since arriving here in 2008 as a 12 week old puppy.

I finally had to get Stella out of the bedroom and shut the door so Heidi could sleep in peace.

So far, the rest of the day nothing has happened that loud ... they did touch noses though earlier this afternoon.

The hounds haven't done much today but sleep inside and only sniff for bad stuff to eat outside. Of course Sadie and Winston look in the photos as if they haven't done anything like that .. not guilty, even after I stood their watching them through my zoomed lens.

Speaking of lenses ... camera is back to working without any problems ... strange.

Both think they are innocent of doing anything they are not allowed to do.  I don't believe all the hounds are happy with the quantity of food feeding them twice per day instead of once. They expect the normal amount of food they received before ... but only twice per day ... LOL.

Back to my book and a new cup of coffee here in the freezing tropics of southern Indiana.

Goodbye 70° Hello Fall

I knew it wouldn't last forever but it lasted longer than I expected ... temps 70° or higher during the day. Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up to very cold temperatures and that is when it hit me that fall was definitely here. I had left some windows open and when I glanced at my iPhone for the outside temperature, it was 30° outside.

Flicking the light on I saw the hounds were packed together to keep warm. Sadie has never wanted a blanket to sleep on in 7 years, she sleeps on the dog bed I bought for Heidi. Stella doesn't seem to like laying on a blanket either but both basset hounds not only love blankets, they like to bury themselves inside blankets. That was the case around 3:30am when the cool air coming through window woke me up.

I fell off the strict diet again around 7:30pm with a quick run to the local Dairy Queen. I am embarrassed to list all of the stuff I bought and ate. I'll just say that as my body was getting use to all of the foreign particles, around 10pm I catch myself nodding out on the couch during 3 really good football games. An overdose of carbohydrates, sleep was so over powering, that I set the DVR to tape the rest of two games and to tape a new game that was coming on at 10:30pm. All of those DQ carbs had me sleeping within seconds after going to bed. I watched all the taped football games this morning while drinking the morning coffee.

Since it was still cold this morning, the basset's didn't get outside but the bloodhounds loved it. Once they were outside on their first trip they didn't do much but sniff the area out, eat some frozen burrs from those dead stalks that you see in the field. I was hoping the local farmer would be back this month to bale the field like he did last fall but so far they have not come back.

All the hounds were fed early this morning with the new feeding schedule of twice per day. Of course once Heidi heard the food being poured into the stainless steel bowls, she was wide awake from her deep sleep and was at her bowl anxiously waiting for her breakfast. I am not sure they like their portions cut in half, but eating twice per day now does not mean they get twice as much food.

They act as if they don't know that policy.

A couple of hours later Stella's nose is at my elbow while I am at my desk at the computer. She starts to whine. When I mentioned she was begging, she started howling. I glanced at the clock and it was only 10:13am, way too early for their 2nd feeding that now takes place late afternoon.

It was different though today ... she wasn't howling because she was hungry, the bloodhounds wanted to go back outside. When I got up to head for the door they sprinted for that door, then sprinted outside and started playing immediately.

They even got in some sprints chasing each other. They stopped just as fast as they started ... headed back to the door to go inside and fell asleep immediately.

Glancing at the ten day forecast it will still be great weather but the high temps will be in the range of 55° - 62° most of the time.