Guess What I Can Do

Shepherd James is a Dog, not a puppy anymore, he is a man dog.  He be "DA-MAN"...  My little boy has entered the responsibilities of being a dog father.  Light the candles and put on the soft music (really not needed) he made the plunge this week.  A little friend came to visit for a week to be his companion for fun, fellowship and ultimately a family.  Her name is Peyton.  She is a very beautiful young lady with the charms to stop a 1000 ships.  She took right to Shepp and to our home and became part of our family for a week.  She stayed in the house most of the time and slept in our bed.  She was a pleasure to be with.  As ours are, she loves to play fetch, and like Dutchess, will go and find a ball and drop it at my feet.

Good Luck Peyton, we miss you and will see you in about 63 days to see your new little family. 

Both Clancy and Shepp provided "service" this month.  Clancy was bred with a beautiful young lady from Kentucky.  Her name is Windy.  She was a little shy at first but soon became part of our family, laying in our lap as we watched TV and running with the pack.   Windy reminds me a great deal of our Molly.  She has the same temperament and both have curly hair, which is beautiful.  When Windy left, Elaine and I looked at each other and at the same time said 'Wonder what Windy is doing?"  We laughed and knew she was fine, also knowing we will see her again in about 63 days.  Good Luck Windy Girl, see you soon.....

Before I had dogs, I thought the breeding process was just a quick lustful thing that happened on the spur of the moment.  To my surprise, it is a very well planned and orchestrated process that can take up to 3 weeks.  They will court each other, clean each other's face, ears and even paw each other in a playful way and prance around.  It is always the female that will allow and initiate the act.  As I have said before, it is a wonderful world to be involved in. and it is much much more complicated than one might imagine.

It's Never Too Cold To Swim

It was just a few days ago that the lake thawed out.  With the few days of warmer weather, we now have water and not ice.  Well as usual, dogs being dogs, they wanted to play ball and Frisbee.  After just a few throws, in the water they went and they didn't seem to mind.

Well, It might be a little Cold

Everybody got in the picture and jumped in the water, not to cool down, but just because it was there.  Everyone had fun.

They seemed so quick to get in, I guess it's because they wanted to catch up on the "lake jumpin" they missed.



 I did not throw toward the water, they just did it on their own, and kept going back.  I will tell you when they shake, and it's next to you, it's cold.

This is Peyton, she is staying a few days with us



An update on the Dog Bath.  It works Great.  It is built very well and it is larger than I thought.  It is well worth the money.

Guess who is NOT coming in tonight...

From February 13, 2010
What to do with a dirty Border Collie.  Today it got above freezing for the first time in a long time.  I like it better when it is dry, or the ground is frozen, and I'm sure you know why.  The is nothing worse than a dirty dog.  With all the running they do, they kick up mud on themself and whoever is behind them, as they run.  Not only do they get muddy, they dig a rut in the dirt around the farm you could plant corn in. 

Meg is just as dirty, you just can't see it because of her color.  She and Abbie will run neck and neck and it looks like they are a chocolate blur.

Last week I cleaned out the utility room in the basement and because I have water and a drain there, it would be a good place to give them a bath.  If I only had an old bathtub to use.  When I worked at the Vet's office, the groomer had one, and it worked great.  Now I'm on a quest to find one, so Craig's list, here I come.  Well I did find one, but for $150.00, NO WAY.  I was thinking in the area of $20.00, and who would use an old bathtub that a stranger had their old smelly butt in, for their actual bathtub.  Well needless to say, that idea was out, and I remembered God created "GOOGLE" I use it for everything.  I just type in a question and "boom" here is the answer.  I even use it for a dictionary.  Just open a tab and spell the word.  I will try it and it will even suggest; DID you MEAN XXXXXX,  Well yea, that's what I meant. 

Back to the story, I typed in "Dog Bathtub"  They ranged from $149.00 to $2200.00 for the deluxe stainless steel one.  Of course, I clicked on the $149.99 one, and to my surprise it looked great, When you shop with Google, it will give you the same product and every Internet site that has it.  It went from $149.00 to $500.00 or so, same product, just differant businesses.  I ordered the $149.99 (you think) with free shipping and no tax, and beside, all the reviews were great from customers, how could I pass this up.

This should be a piece of cake and I'll let you know how it works.  I'm excited....

Reflections and a few Wrap-Ups

This has been a very different week.  All the dogs are fine, I did see a drop of blood on the driveway and I'm sure someone has cut their pad, which happens more often than not, nothing major.  Pups might be on the way....More Later

As most of you know from a past post, we have a Hot-Tub.  I do enjoy it and will use it at least 4 or 5 times a week.  It's good for a number of ailments and also a good place to sit and talk with the little lady.  Today about 2 PM, I decided to sit and relax for a few minutes and chill out.  The dogs were sitting over on the side porch, so things were calm.  This has been a bad weather week, except today.  Most of the country had ice and snow and more ice and snow is due to come in this weekend.  It was a very sunny day today and while I was sitting, I noticed a Robin sitting in the crab-apple tree eating berry's.  It came to me, that as hard of a winter we have had, spring is just around the cornor.  I started thinking of things that I need to do as soon as the weather brakes and I'm excited.  I have planed my garden out and landscape projects are on paper.  It was just nice to see things in the sun again and see the robins...

My oldest son left for one of his Alma maters today, he will give a speech tonight and then fly over to London, England for a week of speeches there.  It just seems like yesterday we were playing Army in the sandbox in the backyard, I guess I now know why he was the General.  We both have traveled a lot of roads, some bumpy, some hilly and while his has been mostly straight, mine have been a little more bumpy and hilly.  God speed, Brad, your in my prayers.  Daddo


Dr. Michael B. Shuck




Brad and Maddie Grace


This is a bad time of year for the dogs.  They want to be outside soooo bad and then they want to come in.  Well when they run, they sling mud on each other and all over their legs.  Even if you wash them, they will be as muddy the next day, it's never ending.


I guess she was the 2nd dog on the team.

 To the relief of many people, I got a hair cut. I had let it grow for about 14 months. I went to bed and it was fine and when I got up, my first thought was, I'm going to the barber today, so it's all gone, just thought you might want to know.

Everyone said "you look so much better"  I didn't know I looked so bad.  Why didn't someone tell me........

What to do with . . .

Is a Border Collie bored in the Winter?  Well, here at the Shuck house we have invented some ingenious things that will take up their time and give them some entrainment and activity.  The most important thing and the one thing they seem to enjoy the most is to play a little Frisbee while they are watching "Reba."  Most people would think they would like to watch "The Animal Planet," but not these dogs.  They enjoy the comedies.

Meg and Dutchess like the Frisbee the best.  Several says ago, Dutchess started with a tennis ball and suddenly a Frisbee appeared in her mouth.  I was curious, so I went over to the counter and found where she had laid the tennis ball on the table and had gotten the Frisbee, which is her favorite toy, as we all know.  No matter if she is inside or outside, every jump is with a wiggle and a twist.

After a little Frisbee throwing, they even get into a little tugging just to see who can pull who, around the family room.  It's usually a toss-up.

Molly will enjoy a good catnap, she will put herself to bed, either up stairs or on one of the chairs, here you can see her with a gourmet assortment of chew toys.  Molly likes to think about which one she will gnaw on before she takes action.

Abbie is a tennis ball girl, and she will yelp and bark as she plays. If there is more that three dogs, she doesn't want to give it up, but just two, she will bring it back and put it in my hand.

One other chore Dutchess likes to do when she's in the house is to help with housework.  Here you can see her giving the dirty dishes a pre-washing before they start the cycle.  She is an excellent pre-washer

Here, Dutchess is trying to decide (as you can see she is in big thought) if she should help get rid of this pesky old candy that has been on the counter for a few days.  I made that decision for her.

All in all, they usually take care of themselves, we have never broken anything playing in the family room, not anything that Elaine has noticed anyway.  Usually, after some intense games and fun and maybe a snack or two, we will all settle down and finish watching "Reba," making sure we rest our eyes.  Ken

The dogs Facebook page

Abbigale Leigh

My "Abbie", what a Gem.  She was born from Clancy and Molly.  She went to a house with 3 young kids, came back and was re homed again.  Well, number two home did not work out either.  When she came back the second time, we wanted to evaluate her and just see what was going on.  After just a few days, Elaine and I looked at her, and then at each other and wondered just what was wrong.  To be fair, the second attempt to re home her, nothing was wrong, they had circumstances come into their life that would not be fair to them or to her.  It was the best decision.  But we did wonder..... 

Back to the story.  Abbie would stay in the house and would be the perfect dog.  She did not chew on anything, bark, beg and was completely house broken.  Better than any dog I have ever seen.  She would come to me and just sit and look at me until we went outside and then in about 10 seconds, back to the house, no playing around.  After a few weeks passed Elaine, knowing my rule not to keep any pup of ours, ask "can we keep her" To her surprise, I said "Sure", she is prefect and has fit in nicely. 

She LOVES the water no matter where it is.  When we took her and Meg on a road trip to Shipshewana last year, after a hearty game of Frisbee, she ran to a dirty, stagnant pond and jumped in to cool off, just like at home, only our water is clean.  Well bath time was in order, so here we were at the hotel getting a bath with fancy shampoos and big towels.

As I said earlier, she loves the water, even bath time.  She will stay put in the sink and even walk into the shower to get a bath.

Here she is with Molly (Mom) after a bath.

Abbie, like many young girls has a "BFF" and that would be Meg,

They run together, wear the same clothes, bark together, play together and take "Road Trips" together.  They even had their own bed together.

Many times when they run, they will run as fast as they can.  They will run around the entire property, running neck and neck within inches of each other and as they do, they will bark and yip at each other the entire time.  I can just imagine they are saying "catch me, I'm faster, I'm beating you, No I've got you"  It is a hoot to watch.

What I enjoy most about Abbie is she is so loving.  When when we first got her back, she was sitting in my lap in the recliner and Clancy was in the other recliner sitting right next to me.  Clancy came over to visit and she started grooming him, licking his face and cleaning his ears and then she would, with her face, ever so gently rub his face with hers.  It was so gentle and sweet and I had the best seat to see it all.

She is a great bed buddy.  She is one of the only dogs that will make "spoons" with you.  She is like sleeping with a Teddy Bear and her hair is like silk.  In the mornings, she will wake you only after the alarm has gone off of if you stir,  She will smother you with big kisses and licks.  She will search for everything on your face, nose, mouth, ears and even your eyes.  The odd thing, she seems to enjoy it, and of course, we do too.  She always has an open spot in my lap.  She will jump up with a spring, give me a kiss and make two circles and make a nest, sleeping for hours, sometimes both of us..

Many people who come to look at our dogs or pups will hear her story and will ask, "Can we buy Her?" and my response is always the same.  No, she is the "Official House Dog" 

She is truly a great Dog.  We have Abbie just for the pure joy of Abbie.

Have you Ever.....

Had everything go wrong?  First for my avid readers, I want to apologise for the tardiness of this weeks activity.  It has been on my mind, but it is part of the problem.  Two weeks ago I got a nasty computer virus, not to the point I was shut down, just everything did not work right.

Let me start, after the virus was found in the computer the wireless router went out so both had to be replaced or fixed.  My computer is still in the shop and I am using one at our church just to catch up.  Just try to imagine no email, no news, no nothing.  I did not know how many times I went to the computer just to check on stuff, or to respond to an email.  The new router came in so I was going to use my laptop and when I hooked it up, there was so much snow on the satellite dish, I could not get a signal, so I just gave up.

I'm here to Party

Dutchess came into heat last week and we are not going to breed her.  We have taken extra precaution just to make sure this did not take place.  I went to town and put Dutchess up and locked her in the kennel.  Just to make sure, I put Clancy in the garage and pushed a new water heater that was still in the box in front of the dog door.  As I was pulling in the driveway, Clancy and Dutchess (Party Girl) were in the middle of the driveway running and playing.  Of course, Dutchess went back up and I had to explore how Clancy had gotten out.  To my surprise, he had pulled the cardboard off the water heater box and squeezed himself out the dog door.  He then went to the dog shed and found the only door that did not have a lock on the gate, went in, jumped over a gate in the shed and let not only Dutchess, but all the dogs out and went out and partied.  We'll just have to see if we have some pups.  I'll let you know.

The next thing, in my hast to check and move the Water Heater back, I removed my glasses and as "God is my Witness"  I said "don't put them there, you'll never find them".  Well that statement was so right.  I never have.  I have looked for five days, Everywhere.  I saw a commercial on TV from Sears "Two pair of glasses for only $99.00"  Great this will work out just fine.  Well, $249.99 plus tax, my glasses are on the way.  Funny, they don't tell you everything.

We got about 7 inches of snow on Monday.  Great, I can drive the 4 wheel drive truck to town.  I started out and was truckin along when steam started coming out from under the hood.  The temperature light was on and it was in the danger zone.  I was only 3/4 of a mile from the house so I thought it best turn around.  When I got home, I put some antifreeze in it and it came out the bottom so I knew there was a problem.  I took it off yesterday, and took it in this morning to get it repaired.  Well guess what, it's not repairable, so we have ordered a new one. 

A lot of people have ask about Maddie Bear, She is wonderful thanks.

I'm sure everything will work out fine, we'll have puppy's, the computer and router will be fixed and I will find my old glasses when I bring the news ones home, and the truck will work just fine....Oh well it can always be worse....and by the way, Meg is in Heat and Clancy is right by my side here at church, maybe he needs to talk to the Minister while he's here...........To make matters worse, Elaine is in Florida on a church trip, can someone tell me how to put on the new roll of TP.........