Windwomen Farm: Dog Dynamics

It's now been a little more than a week since the established dog dynamics at Windwomen Farm were thrown to the wind. Prior to Saturday, February 2nd, the routine of the household was well established. Get up, open the back door, dogs go out, open the back door, the dogs come in, feed them and then they each go to their own scheduled events...Frannie, the old black shepherd, will head to the living room, lie down on the rug and promptly go to sleep. Emmett, the blue merle Aussie/BC cross, looks up at you with pleading eyes and asks to return outside to patrol the perimeter and protect his patroon from trespassing foxes, deer, rabbits...can you say,"SQUIRREL!!"...This routine was repeated again in the evening...except for the "Get up" part...All was "calm, well ordered, exemplary", to quote a favorite movie line. Even the cat, Cinder, knew when it was time to come to MB's desk chair for pets and to beg for more food.

Now life at Windwomen Farm is totally dependent upon the actions or lack of action of Walker, the new puppy. When Walker is asleep, everything is calm and orderly. When Walker wakes, a hasty trip outside is necessary. This time it's not as simple as opening the back door, you must go too, no matter the weather. The trips outside at 9:00p, 11:00p, 3:30a (when Buck the rooster crows...God know why...) and 5:00a in the morning, are beautiful with moonshine on the big snow flakes, but very chilly...it helps when the trips coincide with a hot flash, but alas...those are pretty hard to schedule...And then there was Nemo...that storm set us back on the potty training by about 3 days...

Of course, Walker is never quite ready to back to bed after each constitutional...she makes the rounds and gets an official rebuff from both Emmett and Frannie before she settles back in.

After 5:00a, and breakfast, Walker is ready to play...if Frannie is in the vicinity, Walker sucks up to her...she knows who is CEO of dogdom on the farm...Frannie tolerates the fawning monster for about 5 minutes, then sends her packing and retires to MB's office for some peace and quiet. Once the brown-nosing is over, Walker sets a trajectory for Emmett and her approach is that of a steamroller...Emmett is her personal chew toy for about 10 minutes, then he gets up and the game is on! There are windsprints through the kitchen to the living room and back again, tug of war skirmishes and wrestling matches that could rival any in the WWF...all of this will be banished to the outdoors in a few weeks but the reward is definitely worth the short term turmoil...