TnT’s New House

Time for a Titus and Tru update.  They are doing great.  Titus is huge and mellow and Trulea is huge and dramatic.  Typical girl.  LOL  But sweet as pie and they have a new home!  Here with us still of course but my dad was able to make enough progress on their area of the barn that they got to move in last night.  Their new sleeping area is in what used to be an office.  Yes, an office in the barn.  One of the many modifications by a previous owner that didn’t suit our own purpose but we’re making progress on alterations and this was a big one.  We really needed a space for the dogs so that they could be with the goats 24/7.  As it was we had to house them in the kennel in an area where they couldn’t hear or see the goats or interact with them at all.  During the day, if it was nice (ask me how many days that is here in WA) they could go to their pen inside the goat enclosure but it offered no shelter except for a doghouse they are quickly growing out of and we had to move them back and forth a couple of times a day. 

So my dad cut and framed a door in the office and fashioned a half wall and gate from found objects around the property and in the barn.  Now the dogs have a “room” with access to the outdoors 24/7.  The room is across the hall from the goats’ stall and the door leads out to their pen.  It was heaven today to not have to hustle them about and midday when it started to rain to not have to rush outside and move them to where they can have shelter.  Yes!

Piccies:

 

 

 

 

Trulea took to it right away.  She loved it and bounded inside and outside and back in again.  The blue thing is one of the kids’ old pools that got a hole, now it’s a dog bed.  :) 

Titus on the other hand didn’t like the feel of the floor, it scared him, and he went directly outside and refused to come back in.  He REALLY wanted to though, he lay down just outside with his head on his paws, the most pathetic look on his face, and commenced to whine sadly.  Very sadly.  Poor sad boy.  Later I convinced him to come in but he turned as quickly as he could and left again.  *sigh*  He has, in fact, never been inside a building before and never felt anything under his feet but grass and dirt.  So I covered the floor with the same shavings I used in the kennel and by morning he was coming inside just fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tru did her darndest to convince him to some inside, she tried to show him it was fine, barked her encouragement, she’s a good sis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s it is with nice clean shavings.  A good warm place for a guardian dog to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the view from the barn hall, the office door opens and half the room is for Titus and Tru and the other half is still suitable for storage.  It’s not much but it makes me a happy girl. 

Thank you, Grandma!

Oh we surprised the kids big time yesterday!  Rob’s mom sent us some spending money as a Christmas gift and yesterday, on the way home from a birthday party, we pulled into Toys-R-Us instead of going home.  THEN we got to tell them they could actually purchase for themselves some things that have been on their wish list for a while. What a joy for all of us, Rob and I got to say “yes”and their faces were just lit up!

Zion chose a scooter and a cute basket (thanks to the scooter being on sale).  She’s been wanting one for so long.

Gideon and Elias wanted the same thing so we/they pooled their portion and got them a Batcave add-on to go with their Geotrax train set and they each got to choose a smaller item.  Gideon picked a stuffed Angry bird (a green one of course, his favorite color) and Elias chose a two-pack of Cars characters that also go with the Geotrax.  The love of trains in this house is not going away anytime soon that’s for sure.

Gabe looked and looked but didn’t find anything he’d been wanting.  He perused.  He browsed.  He checked out a lot of things but ultimately decided to shop elsewhere. So after we went home Rob and he went back out and checked out GameStop.  Ooo, we love it there!  And Gabe SCORED!  GameStop was having a sale.  Gabe got two game guides and a set that came with a game guide, a game and a Lego toy.  Wow!

You can see how happy they are.  Well, Elias may be a bit overtired but he’s happy on the inside! Thank you, Grandma Marlene!

And because I’m overdue, puppy shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are HUGE and they are characters and so sweet, like giant teddy bears and they were a couple of days shy of 4 months old in these shots.  More puppy photos soon.  :)

We Have Puppies!

Two weeks ago we put deposits on two Anatolian Shepherd/Great Pyrenees puppies.  These breeds were developed as Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGDs) and are meant to live with the animals they guard 24/7.  It will be difficult for us, to raise adorable puppies and not bring them in the house for cuddles but we’re up for the challenge!

After realizing we were getting the pups, a sister and brother, I started researching names.  I wanted good strong names that mean defender or protector or the like.  I fell in love with names like Titus (defender) and Argus (vigilant protector) for the boy but the girl name was harder.  I discovered that Trudy means “maiden of the spear” or “strong spear” but I wasn’t sure I loved the name.  The nickname “Tru” sounded kind of cool though.  Still I wasn’t sure.  We need to get to know them I guess.

Yesterday we got to go pick up our 9-week old pups (though one of them ended up NOT being one we chose, there was a mix up, but we’re keeping her and it seems a good fit so far) and bring them home.  Today after church we broke down the stock panels making the goat enclosure and moved them inside the new goat yard and put them back up to make a home for the pups.  The pups kept us company the whole time under Zion’s watchful eye.  We also got the goats’ new stall in the barn ready for them and now they get to sleep in the barn with direct access to their yard.  No more shuffling goats back and forth from the old goat run to the chicken yard and back again at night.  Yay! 

So at the end of the day we were all exhausted!  Evidence:

That’s Titus in the front.  We all loved that name.  The kids wanted to name the girl Leah though and I wasn’t in love with that one, so we compromised.  We’re calling her Trulea (like truly) a combination of the Trudy and Leah.

There will be many more pictures to come of this sweet duo, we’re smitten already!