New chicks AND a vet visit for me!

Before the bad news, I am gonna talk chickies! Today the "real" chicken lady came to help Mom sex the babies. She thinks the same ones are roosters that Mom did, so that is a good sign!! So, there are 8 pullets and 7 roosters. Tomorrow Mom will pick the ones to go to her friends and then move the rest out to the chicken house. The ones leaving (five) will leave on Saturday. Plus, we are still babysitting the Chicken lady's three since they have to go away again this weekend.
Mom put all of ours in a HUGE, HUGE expen in the daycare room at work and now she is spending ALL her time watching them. She says they play just like us dogs, BOL! Apparently they bonded to her and Julias voices cuz they took them right from the incubator so now when they hear them, they all come running! FUN!!
We are going to have TEN new ones, four pullets and SIX roosters. Mom says we will be eating the four extra roosters once they get bigger, I am okay with that cuz I LOVE chicken!!! She found someone to process them for her so she is happy, too. We are keeping TWO roosters and Mom is trying to pick show quality ones so she has been reading the breed standards all afternoon!!!
Okay, for the bad news. Finally Mom actually took me to the vets today. They did some blood work and another urinalysis and it seems I have some kidney failure!!! I also do have another UTI as well. Mom was pretty upset with that news BUT, the vet said with care it shouldn't be a death sentence.
They want me to go on a Senior diet...hey, I am only SEVEN!!! Apparently, it has lower protein which is easier to process thru my kidneys. Dunno, but after searching all over in our little town for some suitable food for me, Mom says she is going to switch me over to all canned food. Fine with me!!! And, she read that egg whites are the PERFECT protein for dogs with kidney issues. BRING 'EM ON!!!!
Anyway, IF my UTI is what is causing me to pee everywhere and IF the antibiotic fixes it, I can go on vacation. BUT, IF it is my kidney disease that is causing the peeing, then I am stuck at home, BOO!!
I have just over one month until vacation and THREE WEEKS of antibiotics before that so here's hoping!!!!

BBAADD Beanie!!!

You know, certain things that happen in the bedroom should STAY in the bedroom!!!! There is no way, no how I would announce to the whole world that Beanie peed in the bedroom at night, never would I ever think to do something that personal.
After all, I have NEVER told anyone that he leaves tootsie rolls on the bathroom rug from time to time. Nor have I ever told anyone about, ah, maybe I shouldn't??? Nah, I WILL...would you believe the wimp sleeps in a little cushy bed RIGHT ON TOP OF MOM'S BED????
Anyway, since he told Mom it was ME peeing on the bedroom floor every night Mom has canceled MY vacation plans and transferred them over to him. NOT FAIR!!!
Since he and Barney aren't the best of buddies I hope Barney makes his trip miserable. I hope every time Beanie is having fun Barney comes over and threatens him, in fact, I hope he goes even further than just threatening!!! And, they both had better bring me a pressie!!!
Hey, I have discovered a chipmunk in our dog yard!!! I thought chickens were fun, that chippie is way, way more fun to chase! Trouble is, he goes into the chickie pen and we can't reach him in there. Cryssie goes on one side and I go on the other and we try and try and try to catch him. Every time he moves we race to the other side, nearly colliding in the middle!
The worse was when we were racing around the chickie pen, the chippie ran RIGHT UNDER our feet and we didn't even see it!! Annie and Riley saw it go under the shed and they were trying and trying to dig it out. Finally, I smelled it under there so I tried, too, but meanwhile, he had gone all the way around thru the garden and gotten back in the chickie pen!!!
Mom says she is ever so thankful that us dogs never learned to BARK at things like chickies and chippies!!!!

14,000 visitors for me, too!!

Take that, Beanie! I got my OWN 14,000 visitors and I might warn you, I am catching up on you REALLY FAST!!!
Before, Beanie was about 300 visitors ahead of me, now his lead has dwindled down to about 100, hehehe!
BUT... there was a problem with Beanie's approach...he announced his impending big number to all, and everyone hurried over and visited his page hoping to be part of the big countdown.
Not me, I just quietly mosied along and got there without any help from ANYONE...well, obviously, I needed help from ALL you pupsters who read my diary but I didn't beg and cry for visits. Good things come to those who wait!
Man, it is sooo quiet and boring out in the chickie house now that the Guineas have left. The pullets are really happy, though. Me and Mom sit on the porch and watch them when she lets them down in our lab pen...they chase each other and jump over each other and have tons and tons of fun. When those Guineas were here the poor pullets spent all their time keeping out of the Guineas way.
Interestingly enough, we had only been getting ONE egg a day from them, since the Guineas left we are now getting three or four each day. Mom is wondering if the Guineas were eating them???
Well, gotta go now, Julia is on her way to visit US after being at her camp with NO DOGS all week long. Bet I will be chosen as one of the favorites to sleep in her bed with her!!!!

The Guineas have left the building!!!!!

Wow, big time excitement tonight!!! Mom got a couple of crates out and, as soon as it got dark she headed out to catch the Guineas!!!! Imagine this, if you will... a dark hen house filled with Eleven Pullets, FIVE Guineas and one old hen, all quietly sleeping. Enter Momsie, with a flashlight in her mouth!!!
Instant pandemodium breaks out, there are birds squawking,feathers flying, heck, feathers flying??? There were WHOLE BIRDS flying!!! I was stuck inside the house but even there, I could hear the screaming and yelling and squawking... I think the yelling was Mom when one flew right into her face, BOL!!!
Finally, Mom remembered you are supposed to catch them by grabbing both legs. Whew, almost instantly, I observed her exit the hen house with a bird in hand...hehehe, couldn't resist that one!!!! Seriously, she quickly caught all five and placed them in the cages in the Summer kitchen. Except for a minor bit of excitement until she covered the cages with a blankie, it was pretty quick and pretty quiet!!!
Mom has been searching and searching for someone to take them. Finally, this morning she remembered the Veterinarian!!! NOOO, she isn't taking them on a one way trip to the vets, this vet is a friend of Moms and has been since they were kids.He has a farm with lots of animals, different animals EXCEPT, he has no Guineas!!! He has barns and sheds where they will happily roost at night, and they can eat all HIS ticks and bugs!!
So, Mom called them up and told the girl to ask him if he wanted the Guineas. Sure enough, he said yes so they decided Mom would capture them tonight and he will pick them up tomorrow morning.
Mom is very happy and she let them all race around in the lab pen for a final tick fest! Sure enough, those Guineas were chasing the poor pullets all over the place so Mom knew she made the right decision!
Since the chickies are likely to keep the ticks under control because they run in the big field Mom figures she might not need Guineas, but, if she does, she can get some in the Spring and give them their own house separate from the chickies.
Meanwhile, we DID enjoy watching them all Summer and especially enjoyed the lack of ticks!!!! Good job, Guineas!
Oh yeah, Mom gave us all a HUGE dinner of the last of the Guinea eggs...she scrambled them for us, Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! Wait a minute, what about our delish egg dinners, Mom????

More Chickie info...

Supposedly, about 50% of hatchlings are male and 50% are females. Well, our babies are now getting their combs and Mom "thinks" that is how she can sex them. IF she is right, there are 9 boys and 9 girls!!! She is also counting the three foster chickies, which are two boys and one girl, as determined by black spots on the boys heads in that breed.
Anyway, we did NOT want any roosters, but Mom now says we can keep the gray one ONLY!
And, now that Fall is approaching, (shhh, we don't want to admit that little fact!), Mom is working on figuring out what to do with the baby chickies. First and foremost, those Guineas MUST go!!! They are not really very nice to the pullets and will be even LESS nice to the new babies, I am sure.
Of course, I offered to take care of the Guineas, but Mom wasn't having any of that! Besides, now that the excitement of the moment is over, they ARE pretty big now and those beaks ARE pretty sharp. Besides, last night I was watching out the window when Mom tried to catch them to separate them from the pullets and man oh man, they were BBAADD! If Mom got too close they would absolutely throw themselves at her, kicking and beating with their wings. NASTY!!!
Of course, Momsie won and they all got put in the Frenchie pen with the in/out door which Mom shut tight, BOL! But, all good plans have their problems and one of them flew over the pen last night so that didn't work too well. Mom has to go catch her pretty soon and get her back where she belongs.
Mom did say roast Guinea is pretty good, but she is NOT terribly fond of dressing poultry and would rather not have to go that route. She did mention them to a few people so we might have a home for them, if not then who knows!!!
But the babies are all feathered out now and this afternoon, after our visit to Quincy, we are gonna help Mom separate the chicken house and make the babies a side pen for their very own! Dog exercise pens are pretty useful when it comes to keeping chickies!!!

Vacation for ME!!!!

Shhhh, don't tell. Beanie is NOT invited this year, hehehe!! It will be ME and Barney. If I had my way it would be ME only, but, hey, Julie gets a choice and she picked Barney.
She and Mom have decided to go to the Pocono Mountains on Columbus Day weekend. They said it is close enough to be easy to get to, yet is something different and should be FUN! Besides, I figure the foliage should be pretty then, too.
Mom has been researching so they can make some reservations and she found a site for Pet Friendly attractions in the Poconos. Did you know we can take a train ride all thru the mountains??? Yup, and us dogs ARE invited, too, and WE don't even have to pay. Also, there is a candle making place and we can go there, too, as long as we are in a stroller, carried, or in a cart. No problem, I LOVE my pink stroller!!!
And, unlike many states, NH included, pets ARE welcome in most of the PA State Parks. And, we can even go in lots of the restaurants there, too!! I LOVE restaurants!!!!
Now Mom is making a map with the stuff WE want to do, then she will find a pet friendly motel/hotel right in the middle. I am sooo excited and I can't wait!!!!

Eggs anyone????

Well, the new Comets have started laying their eggs AND the Guineas are laying three eggs EVERY DAY, so tonight Mom decided we could all have one in our dinner. I am special, so I got TWO!!! (Guinea eggs are very little!)
Mom hadn't cracked open any Guinea eggs since she was about 12 years old so she was very surprised to find how hard the shells were. She was going to give us the shells, too, but she said they were just too hard and the pieces were too sharp.
Their eggs are really good, but the yolks are very small and the whites are thicker than regular chickie eggs. WAsn't a problem to me, I just sucked them right up, BOL!!!! I figure at three a day we will most likely be getting eggs twice a week or more! Not too shabby.
The little babies in the kennel are getting all their feathers already. Mom says it's amazing how fast they grow. Almost as fast as little Quincy, who will be home with us in about a month, now. Mom says we can get him a little early cuz all us dogs will do all the socializing for him. I am getting excited to have a little brother.
Yeah, I forgot, he's only going to be littlier than me for about three weeks, then he will be MUCH bigger than me!!!! Hope he doesn't step on me!
Gotta go now, Mom is going out to lock in the Chickies for the night and of course, I have to supervise in case any get stubborn and want to sleep outside. Catch ya later!!!

The Chickie Chronicles

I don't know if you noticed or not, but...Mom brought me home some new chickies!!! It turned out the the eggs we tried to hatch didn't BUT out of the other 30, 15 of them turned into babies!!!
We got them yesterday and they hatched the day before. We also are chickie sitting for three that the girl hatched for her 4-H project. Her three are yellow bot ours are all calico (black, yellow and white), except for one all black and one gray which, like ME, will be a blue.
Our kind are hard to sex but the little yellow ones get a black dot on their head if the are roosters. Two of hers are, which is good cuz that's what she wanted. Mom doesn't want any roosters so we shall see!
Right now they are brooding at work and I am brooding cuz I want to chase them, BOL!
Speaking of brooding, I dodged a HUGE bullet today!!! Last night Mom discovered I had a broken off incisor. It was all jagged and nasty and I kept licking it.
First thing this morning she sent me off to the hospital. I also had to get a urine chech which they have to do by sticking a needle in my bladder THRU MY ABDOMEN! Well, the vet called Momsie and said they would leave my tooth alone AND, I also had cracked my lower canine. Oops! Watch and see, I guess. And, my urine was perfectly fine so Julia raced up there and got me and brought me home. No surgery and no antibiotics!!! A perfect day for the Toto!!

Chickie Journals

Mom jokingly suggested I title my diary the Chicken Chronicles. I think that is a silly, stupid idea. Everyone will think I am obsessed with chickies if I do that, BOL!
Speaking of chickies, the four new ones Mom and Julia got on Saturday are finally settling in. Mom said she thinks they were not from a great home. They were very, very skinny and had quite a few picked feathers. Already they are fatter and happier.
The four they got two weeks ago are really happy and love it here. Every single night Mom and us doggies sit on the porch and watch them. Chickies are sooo interesting. If one gets something like a worm, she immediately takes off running and everyone else chases her. Mom says it is so they can break up the worm or whatever they have into bite sized pieces by everyone grabbing a piece. I say it is really cool to watch!
And, the eight youngest ones are playing all the time. One will race toward the others and at the last minute, flap her wings and jump right over the others. Then, they all race around the whole pen and start the game over again.
Mom also loves to toss pieces of food into them, little pieces of watermelon or bread or other people food. Those chickies can catch the stuff in mid air!!! They are way better than I am at catching stuff!!!
Today Mom let them all down into OUR lab pen because the poor Guineas were so upset to be shut down there all alone that she had to let them back in with the girls. Anyway, they were all down there catching bugs and eating ticks and playing in the new mown grass and we were all watching. Suddenly, Mom noticed a black chickie with them.
Hmmmm, we do NOT have a black chickie. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be Smokey cat, BOL! He was playing with them and wasn't even hunting them. HEY, we ALL know they are TOO BIG for us to catch and eat now and those pointy beaks HURT!!!
Another little known chickie fact... they rub their beaks on the hard rocks to sharpen them. Yeowwwwwwwwwww

This and that, mostly that...

Well, sure enough, little Quincy was born on Saturday morning. Soo, he will be coming here sometime in September. I can't wait, well, actually, I CAN wait, BOL!
And, we didn't take Maggie kayaking. For some reason, Julia convinced Mom to go shopping with her and we got left home alone. Mom said the house didn't collapse with Maggie here so she guesses it was a good test run for Quincy. We all had fun with her!!
Mom brought us FOUR more chickies from the Swap. She got Golden Comets, which are the kind she grew up with. They are about 16 weeks old so are a bit younger than the Leghorns and a bit older than the ones we got last weekend.
Unfortunately, with the terrible heat AND the stress of a new house hardly any of the chickies are laying eggs now. We are lucky if we get ONE each day. BOoooo, I LOVE eggs almost as much as I love chickie!!!
Right now the little ones are chasing the new ones all over the place AND the Guineas are trying to chase EVERYONE. They are kind of mean to them so Mom made them (the Guineas), go down in the lab pen to stay. She put their food and water down there, too, and there is a HUGE doghouse for them. Right now they are trying to get into the chickie house but Mom says they will get over that soon and then be happier to have that HUGE field all to themselves.
Meanwhile, Mom finished the chickie house today. She fixed the screen door so the whole door opens and she no longer has to crawl thru a small opening. She also fixed the screens on the windows cuz it was HOT in there.
Yesterday she and Julia raked ALL the yard so now everything is neat and clean, at least for a couple of days it is! Mom also blocked off the space where Crystal and I were sneaking in between the chickie house and their pen. Darn it all, it was a matter of minutes until I figured out how to get into their little "doggie door" and help myself to some Chickie!!!!
Oh yeah, the continuing story of the hatching eggs. Mom candled them, and the light shelled ones still looked pretty dead to her...just liquid yolks floating on the tops. So, she took one and broke it and, sure enough, it was NOT growing a chickie.
She assumed she must have cooked them all, so she took the rest, put them in an egg box and tossed it into the sink. One broke and, you guessed it, there WAS a baby growing in that one!!!! Needless to say, she put the rest of the eggs back in the incubator, BOL!!