PUPPIES!!!

Jan 14,2016 PUPPIES were born! This is our first and last set of puppies. We have 6 beautiful dogs that have all been fixed except the two youngest Shih Tzu (from different places). Took them in to get them fixed and voila...puppies. 63 days later they finally came. Four were born which is a lot considering Shih Tzu usually only have 1-3.  Only three made it which was extremely sad.Here are some pictures of our babies. At the end is the link to the birth if you want to see it. Its edited so its only a couple minutes long. Didn't have to wait like I did. Excuse the Drumming sounds but apparently I am still working on my editing skills. Its suppose to be BACKGROUND music haha! Molly (the momma) is doing really well and I am proud of her. I only had to help with two so I was glad I was here. She is first time momma. I cant wait to see them grow up. Two of them are already spoken for and its not even been 24 hours:) Two great families that I am so thankful for anyways. Now we have had everything at the Ranch. Calves, Goats, Lambs, Kittens, Piglets, Horses, and now puppies. First and last batch but man aren't they so cute! Makes you almost want to keep one.

Subscribe by Google+, Bloglovin but email is best. Every week when they turn 1,2,3 weeks old I will be posting pictures. Who doesn't love seeing puppies grow up. Right now they look like little piggies or rats haha but they are super cute! ant wait to see what they end up looking like:)

Saving Angel who is not so Angelic (pics)

Am I the only one who puts a cow in the back of her car and drives home? Isnt this a normal thing to do haha!

So I got the phone call! The one phone call that I always know I want to say yes to. My friend called and said "We have a three week old Calf that doesn't have a mom anymore". I said YES and she hadn't even finished her sentence. Since I am 2 months post op from surgery however I had to go through a little more than normal to get the calf. Instead of my normal YES meaning something I had to get approval from the hubby and a text from him to her making sure it was him saying yes haha!


Normally its not a problem. I am known as Farmer Rae. If you have an animal that does not have a mother for one reason or another....CALL ME! All of our cows have been bottle fed and didn't have moms. Some moms died, some kicked them off etc. I called my husband up as he was helping someone put in a water heater, asked him if it was ok and he just laughed as if he could ever say no!


So the next morning we went to get the Calf. My good friend Lesley named her this time. I always have other people (mainly my nieces and nephews) name my bummer calves, lambs, goats etc. Lesley named her Angel. What a cute name as its the Christmas season.


Angel however is nothing but an angel! She is spunky!!! You know she is spunky when the first text I get from my friend who gave her to use was "How many times did you get kicked today". Angel is the size of a newborn. When they were loading up cows she had no mom. I am so thankful that they gave me the call. She is actually 3 weeks old but soooo tiny! She was eating grass which is amazing since she is just a baby. I think that's what kept her alive.


It took 3 times of trying at different hours to just get her to put the bottle in her mouth. I didn't want to scare her as she is already jumpy enough. At one point she jumped into her water bowl and got stuck. I had to try and lift her out. I tell yah! Spunky! We had to put in a different water bowl. I mean good gracious.


Its snowing pretty bad outside so we have her inside in part of a barn where the chickens  and goat are. I don't want her freezing to death as she doesn't have mom. Plus it helps her to get use to us and come for the bottle.


The sixth time is a charm? That is when she finally figured out the bottle. I just kept trying to be patient and hold it in her mouth over and over. She was chewing on the nipple like it was hay. Then all the sudden 15 minutes of doing this again she latched on. Then it was ON! Her eyes got bigger and she drank with gutso! She drank down the whole bottle and then head butted me for extra uhmph to tell me how good it was.

Yes I am wearing PJ pants still ha!

Angel will be an angel one day. Even her look she looks kind of mad at the world. She is a sweetheart though. I am so blessed to have her. Once she is bigger she is going to love to hang out with all our other bottle fed calves. Thankfully those ones have been weaned

since Fall. Angel and I will be spending a lot of time together having four feedings a day to start. Just wait till I get lambs...they are coming soon too. Its going to be a busy winter for me with my animals! And I love it!!


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Coyotes killed my babies (Caution Pics)

 “Coyotes account for 65 percent of all cattle and calf losses to predators and 61 percent of sheep and lamb predation (ADHIS.usda.gov) Wildlife Services (a program within the USDA’s and Animal and Pant Health Inspection service). “

Quinny gotten by a coyote

We have four calves. They started out with rough lives either by the mother dying or not wanting them. One of them we bottle fed since birth. The other three we bottle fed when the mothers didn’t want them.

You can look at it the way of money. Each bottle fed calf is between 500-600 dollars and that’s only because they aren’t even weaned from their mothers and need supplements for months. So 600 times 4. Then you add all the grain and formula to each cow. We were feeding them 26 bottles a day. I went out in the morning and night when they were bigger. When I first got Minnie she was only a day old so we fed her every 3 hours around the clock. We give them all grain everyday which is 10 dollars a bag. I am sure you can see the numbers adding up here. Its an investment for sure. Especially when you are already feeding 4 teens but all their friends. These calves were for us to have for our family, produce more calves or help sell for college funds.

Quinny and Tulu before we left

Then there is me…..I love my animals. They are my babies. I talk to my calves. I pet them. I give them probably too much grain because they love it. I take a million pictures of them so I can see them grow. They think I am their mom. They run to me when they see or hear me. They follow me around the yard when I am doing other chores. They all have names….they are my babies. Yes I know they are calves but to me it like a family pet too. I have put a lot of time and energy so they are raised well and growing. They are gentle and all our nieces and nephews and friends kids can just walk up and pet them without being scared.

We went camping for two days. Came back to mayhem. We double checked that everything had been fed and watered while we were gone. Which they were. As I walked over to the normal spot and called for my cows they weren’t coming. I went over to check on the pigs and then a yard away I see this.

I cried immediately Quinny was gone…..called for Ryan. He said,”oh no coyotes” and we started to search for the others. All the kids had flashlights, driving quads as we searched and searched. The calves never stray far from the house.  We found Tulu hiding behind the hay bales. She was bit all around her neck, her face, her back leg and her ear was missing. She was alive! I don’t know how she stayed alive. My husband picked up this 100+ pound calf to get her into a horse stall so we could doctor her up, keep her from danger of anything trying to come back after her. She won’t be able to move much in there but we can doctor her up till she is better. We just prayed she made it through the night.

After 30 minutes we finally found RJ and Minnie. My panic subsided as I saw they were well. They had gone as far as I ever seen them go through hiding in a corner by the fences. They were our older bigger calves by 2 months.

I think the only reason the coyotes didn’t get Tulu after getting Quinny was because we have dogs that probably scared them away.  The dogs are always around the calves and we have never had any problems. The dogs usually keep the coyotes away. We have been hearing coyotes come closer and closer. They are definitely hungry if they are coming this close to our homestead. Our neighbors have been having big coyote problems too with their sheep. The coyotes went after the two youngest because they are weaker ones.

I am so sad. We have been doctoring Tulu and she is surviving thankfully. We have washed each wound, gave her antibiotics, sprayed all the wounds to keep flies away and so she will heal. We even are giving her electrolytes to keep her hydrated. She is getting better and I hope she is going to survive.

I know that coyotes have their place in the world but I personally don’t like them one bit. They don’t have a place around me, my kids or my animals. If they are brave enough to come up to the house that is not okay with me.

Here are some more facts so we can be educated on coyotes.

1.       Coyotes may only weigh 35 to 50 pounds but their jaws can exert more than 300 pounds of bite pressure.

2.       Veterinarian bills, lower rebreeding rates, and loss of weight gain are all part of the indirect costs suffered by herds that have been hunted by predators

3.       Coyotes kill $2- to $3 million dollars’ worth of livestock a year

4.       Coyotes are not eating the entire animal, they are just eating the prime parts and leaving the rest of the carcass to rot.

5.       They will eat the afterbirth right out of a cow that is calving. If hungry enough will eat the calf as its coming out. In most cases you lose the mother and the calf.

6.       Coyotes will lure domestic dogs out to them and kill.

7.       Coyotes kill for food, to teach pups and for fun.

We are taking precautions to help protect our animals. Please understand this is ranchers livelihoods and also to some of us our pets. These are the animals that you feed your children with. It’s a sad loss for everyone.  We are really saddened by the loss of Quinny and pray that Tulu makes it. Here is a picture of them right before we left for two days to go camping.

 

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