Yesterday was a muddy mess for the puppies. They enjoyed the warm weather, saw deer, and barked and greeted them. They also had a high old time running and getting muddy. I spent last evening cleaning up the house, and today is cleaning up the puppies.
This is Phatty, the biggest in the litter from Moma Sophie. He’s also the boss of the rest of the cats. He’s aloof around the other cats and is still getting accustomed to the new puppies.
These are Clyde’s paws when looking on the counter for cats. How big will he actually be? His sister’s paws are enormous. Mom was 75 pounds, and dad was 52 pounds. They currently weigh 36 pounds for Clyde and 30 pounds for Bonnie at four and a half months.
Tory Kitty
We moved to our mini-farm in June 2021 and brought along two dogs, four cats, and all the furniture, boxes, and equipment. Everyone was getting used to the rural change from the city. The dogs gradually roamed over the property, and the cats started to venture out. They had never been limited to the house because they learned how to use the doggie door we had. With our animals roaming and exploring, we noticed that some feral or stray cats were checking things out. One of these visitors kept visiting and worked his way up to being picked up. None of the other cats would ever approach people and would run and hide when we were outside. This little cat, a short-haired domestic type, was pretty thin, so we set out some food and coaxed him into the house. He settled right in, though he was a little skittish at first. We took him to the veterinarian to ensure he was healthy, got his vaccinations up to date, and neutered him. The vet felt he was pretty young but couldn’t put an age on him. His name is Tory, and he is friendly with the Bernedoodles but aloof to the other cats.
The Bernedoodles are growing and are weasels. They have a whole bin full of toys, but today found a beach towel and were playing tug of war. We are still working on training, and they are hardheads. They chase all the cats that run from them, but one, Levon, a male Maine Coon, stands his ground and even rubs up against them. This afternoon we were visited by some friends, and the pups were very excited and wanted to play with them. They also went for a run around the property, got thoroughly muddy, and were a mess when they came back in. Then they were tired and became a pile of doodles on the couch.
They have a new crate, 48 inches, and have two beds, one for each, inside. Fortunately, they are sleeping through the night.
We have always been pet people. We’ve had Malamute/Wolf, Shepherd/Wolf dogs, Beagle, Great Pyrenees pups, Akita, Chihuahua, and mini schnauzer mix. We’ve also had numerous cats, Persians, short-haired domestic, Blue Russian, and Maine Coons.
Our mini schnauzer passed away last summer, and we felt an emptiness in the house. We had been exploring options for a new dog and discovered a nearby family that had a litter of Bernedoodles, from a full-size Bernese Mountain Dog mom, mated to a full-size Standard Poodle dad. We had been looking for a larger dog, and had been searching for Great Pyrenees in our area but had no luck.
We visited the Bernedoodle puppies and what a surprise. Eight nearly coal black, 10-15 pound bundles of joy, licking, jumping, and hollering ‘pick me’. Pretty much the only way to tell them apart was their colored collars. We chose an energetic male and a cutie-pie female.
