Sherlock and Watson

All of a sudden, we have two dogs! They showed up in our yard a week ago and we couldn't resist. They adopted us, so we adopted them. Nobody has claimed them, so we are keeping them. We didn't really have plans to get pets, but we have always told Amber that if another stray came along, we would feed it. These puppies are more than just gross traumatized strays; they are sweet energetic trusting youngsters who need a family. Sooooo we named them Sherlock and Watson and started feeding them everyday. 

Sherlock is on the left, and Watson is on the right.

On Labor Day, we cleared out and reorganized our shed to make space for the puppies. Our shed has two rooms in it, so we moved some stuff around and gave half of one room to the dogs. They share the space with our old rarely-used kayaks, the two fruit ladders, and our bikes. This shed used to be a very fancy chicken coop before we moved in, and there was already a chicken door in the wall of the shed. The chicken door was covered by one layer of plywood, so Jeff simply cut through that wood and created a doggy door. We're pretty sure the dogs are going to grow and we will probably need to make the opening bigger at some point, so we're waiting to add a flap to the dog door. 

Jeff repurposed the old metal pipes from our well that have been lying around for a few months. He acquired the proper metal-cutting saw and blades, and cut the pipes into fence post-size pieces. Then he pounded them into the ground around one side of the shed. We have done battle with this west side of the shed ever since day one, since weeds grow there and lots of random junk from the previous owners was left there. It was such a murky weedy area that we started calling it "the dark side of the shed." Now the dark side of the shed has a purpose: a dog enclosure!

On Tuesday after cross country practice, Jeff and I bought some chicken wire from the hardware store and strung it around the pipe-fence-posts, zip tying it in place and using leftover landscaping staples to anchor it into the ground. It sagged a bit and looked pretty lame, but at that point we were uncertain if these dogs would be claimed and didn't want to invest more than $30 in a fence for them. But we are amateur fence builders at best, and the first night we put them in their new fence, the dogs stepped right through it and followed us back to the house. 

Staple gun to the rescue! The next night, Jeff staple gunned the loose chicken wire to the side of the shed and the dogs stayed in their enclosure all night! It worked for two nights before the dogs busted through that wimpy chicken wire again. We should've just gotten the better fence supplies up front, but at the time it seemed crazy to buy over $80 of fencing for stray dogs! As the week wore on, however, these puppies became more and more integrated into our life and we began to plan for their future.

While in the past we've been able to get away with just feeding stray dogs and letting them do their own thing, it's not realistic or considerate to take partial responsibility for puppies. Sherlock and Watson love to run and explore our neighbor's pastures and chase their livestock, and they even visited our other neighbors and hung out on their front porch for a bit. We couldn't just feed the dogs and let them become free range Scoon Road menaces! But how on earth would we contain these energetic pups? 

Our 3 acre yard is too big for dog-proof fencing, and we have neither the skills nor the money (nor the desire) to figure out how to fence in our yard for dogs. Electric fencing seemed like a good option, but again: expensive. I did some more research and found an innovative dog collar that allows owners to set up a GPS perimeter for their dogs--no burying wires or planting sensors necessary. The collar beeps when the dog gets close to the perimeter, and then vibrates if they don't turn back. It can even be set to give them a static shock if they go over the boundary. The issue: the collars I found were $250 each!! And we needed two of them! Back to the drawing board. Jeff ended up finding a much simpler version of the GPS collars on Amazon for a mere $89 apiece, so we ordered them on Friday, and they are in the mail now. Hopefully we can train Sherlock and Watson to stay inside the GPS fence soon and their days of visiting the cows and goats next door will be over. 

Side note: I'm pretty sure one of the dogs killed a rodent last night. I saw a bedraggled furry gray body draped on our front porch this morning. Maybe our prolific yard goohers have finally met their match!

The other big dog-related issue for me personally is the hair and general dirty-ness that are inevitable with dogs. We already know they will be outdoor dogs. They even have a fancy insulated shed room so we don't even feel bad about keeping them outside. But the hair, the muddy footprints on my person--I have a hard time enjoying dogs with those factors in the mix. At first I wore old clothes outside and changed them every time I came inside--and washed my hands up to the elbow. But that is not sustainable--the laundry piled up and my skin got super dry. 

I started wearing my yardwork overalls outside with the dogs. That was much better, but my arms were still exposed, and I realized that during winter I would want to be able to wear a coat outside without getting it "dogged." So I got on Amazon and ordered a long-sleeved canvas jumpsuit--a full body coverall designed for mechanics. I wore it for the first time on Saturday on top of my regular clothes, and it was THE ANSWER. I can fully enjoy the dogs and have zero consequences for my clothes. The dogs' claws can't even scrape my skin through the coverall! All I have to do when I come inside is hang the coverall in the garage and wash my hands. Easy peasy!

My sister Melody trained her dog Pancha from puppyhood on up, so she has been giving me pointers on puppy training. Step one for us is to teach the dogs their names. Then, when the GPS collars come, we will teach them the borders of the yard. We can do this!

The dogs like snuggling in the overgrown grass by our berries.

Labor Day: Rose took a turn pounding in fence posts on the dark side of the shed. This is a nice big enclosure; we just need to clear it out a bit more and make it more comfortable for dogs. I refuse to impose my dogs on anyone who doesn't want them around, so we need to have a good enclosure to put the dogs in whenever they need to be fully contained. I have ordered one section of real fence with a gate in it (used on Amazon) to replace the broken chicken wire.

This is the dogs' room inside the shed--before Jeff cut out the plywood for their door. We put two towels on the floor for them to lay on. They also have a water bowl in there. It's pretty spartan, but we're working on other things first.

All of the pipe-fence posts in place! Sherlock was very interested.

The saggy chicken wire, haha. It looks so junky!

Sitting on the back porch bench in the sunset glow with our dogs. We may as well retire now and live out our days in peace.

The dogs really like Jeff's ancient 20 year old Keen sandals.

Rose loving on the puppies. Sherlock the extrovert has this endearing habit of climbing into the lap of the nearest person. Watson the introvert is used to waiting patiently for his turn to be petted.

Jay also loves the dogs. Several of Jay's friends have come home with him throughout the week to pet the puppies. Once they came during their school lunch break, petted the dogs for 10 minutes, and then went back to school.

Inquisitive dogs at sunset: Sherlock stole Watson's bone. Typical big brother behavior, haha.

I sat down on the front porch steps on Wednesday evening and got totally swarmed by after-dinner dog energy. It was 360 degrees of affection, with too much licking for my liking. But Watson's little paw hugging my shoulder was so sweet, and Sherlock climbed his wiggly body into my lap, and I was happy.

Licking is gross, no matter how cute the dog.

Watson, questioning me when I told him not to chew on the exposed corner of the landscaping fabric.

It is endlessly entertaining to watch the puppies play.

When Sherlock loses a round, he gets big brother snappy and puts Watson in his place.

But Watson can hold his own! 

On Friday morning, I went outside to see if we had any more pears left on our trees, and it was so surprisingly fun having canine company as I walked around checking the fruit trees.

Overalls for the win. After picking the last few pears, I sat on the back porch with the puppies. Watson climbed up onto the bench first, and Sherlock got jealous so he climbed into the tiny space between me and Watson. Watson patiently let his brother stomp on his head.

Sherlock stiff-armed Watson away from me--they like to fight over attention, haha.

"Do I need to sit between you?" Both dogs fell asleep almost immediately and I found myself in new territory: nap trapped by two golden puppies and unwilling to move because it was so sweet!

Watson snoozing.

Sherlock--this picture makes him look huge, haha. He was too big for this spot though: his head kept slipping off the bench and his leg kept waving in mid air with nowhere to rest. 

After about 20 minutes of sitting with their trusting sleeping bodies, I quietly stood up. They both looked at me reproachfully.

After practice, Rose spent some quality back porch bench time with the puppies.

My amazing coveralls are already well used!