The Dogs of Sweetgrass Ranch

Most people have a single dog.  Some have two, usually a senior dog and an upcoming pup.  There are the two-plus dog owners, the crazies like me who attempt to ride roughshod over a pack of three or more canines.

Few folks are bold enough or nuts enough to go where I've been this past year --three dogs, three years-old and under.  Add to that an elderly, nineteen years young Beagle/Whippet pound puppy and you have a diverse pack.

The senior member of our dog clan, Princess, is a lovely soul who has been part of our family since we found her at the Bonnie Hays Small Animal Shelter  some thirteen years back.  These days, much of Princess's time is spent napping and enjoying home cooked meals.

Next in line is Sombra, an eighty-pound King shepherd.  A purebred, Sombra has the distinction of being way more complex than the rest of our pack.  Her big dog digestive system is temperamental and she has several behavioral quirks which require us to be more dog saavy than usual.  On occasion, I've enlisted the help of a canine behaviorist to decode Sombra -- everything from resource guarding to fear-based aggression.  On the flip side, Sombra can be exceptionally expressive, tender, and loving.  Like I said, complex.

Thankfully, Sombra's out there behavior is tempered by a twenty-four pound bright spot in our lives, the dog we call Soleil or Lei Lei.  Technically this by-your-side twenty-four-seven companion isn't my pooch.  She belongs to my daughter, Rosie, who is away at college and has been so for much of Lei Lei's life.  I guess that makes me a surrogate dog mama.  Sigh.  Rosie's bundle-of-love two year-old Foxador, a Fox terrier/Labrador cross came to her by way of the McMinnville, Oregon animal shelter.  Lei Lei is the kind of dog I hope to own one day.  For now, I've got her on loan.

Last and certainly not least, there's Sprite, a comical twelve-pound Rat terrier/Miniature Pinscher cross more reminiscent of a small baby than a dog.  Sprite is a little like a late life baby -- unplanned yet so gosh darned overwhelmingly cute that you don't mind too terribly much.  She first appeared at Sweetgrass in the pick-up truck of a man I hired to wash windows.  He had banded all the pup's tails and none too well, so short that Sprite has no more than a tiny stub left.  The man pestered me incessantly and I finally relented with one condition.  Sprite's purchase price was to be used to spay her mama.

So that's the dogs of Sweetgrass.  Princess gets along fine with Lei Lei and Sprite, but is definitely locked in a struggle for alpha position with Sombra.  At forty pounds and nineteen years of age, the old girl isn't much of a match for Sombra, so the two are usually kept separated using different rooms, a covered dog run, or a crate.  We usually integrate each dog into family life in shifts and everyone gets all the love and attention they can handle.

In return, our pack of pooches gives us unconditional love and lots of laughter.  Come watch Sombra, Lei Lei, and Sprite at play:

http://youtu.be/reYX_rAp9a0

"I am joy in a wooly coat, come to dance into your life, to make you laugh!" ~Julie Church