
The former chicken yard has been shortened four feet and cleaned up. I cleaned out the coop, took out the boxes and roosts, turned it around, did some repairs and reworked the doors so it can serve better as an absurdly-large-for-the-purpose doghouse. Turns out I didn’t need the old top cover, the new net covers the area nicely. Only thing left to do is put up some shade fabric on the walls.
When I hung that now-very-faded sign on the gate several years ago it was meant humorously but not ironically…

…but I’m afraid I can no longer make that claim. So far Laddie is the least bad-ass excuse for a dog – that’s still recognizably a dog – in the whole neighborhood. Nice little guy, don’t get me wrong, and I’m sure once we’ve both settled in we’ll get along famously. But he truly has no dreaming idea what he’s doing here.
I finally figured out why he kept darting away during walkies – he was going after lizards. Not sure how many lizards there are in Wyoming and southern Montana, or if he’d ever even seen one before moving here. Here of course the more relevant question is how many lizards per square yard, and he finds them endlessly fascinating. It gives him the air of a dog who can’t keep his mind on one piece of business for as long as ten seconds at a time – makes walking with him rather frustrating. I’m sure we’ll work it out.

Now I still have a lot of cleaning up to do but it’s going to have to wait for the weather. I no sooner came back from belated chicken chores than the regular afternoon storm broke in mid-morning. In fact…

…there’s a river running past my yard again just this minute. Not a huge terrifying flood, just a normal “it’s raining in the east” kind of flow. Sun was shining weakly through the clouds at the time I went out to take that just a few minutes ago, but there’s another storm cell coming right at us and I’m going to post this right now and then unplug the electronics.
















































So have you tried Laddie in the dog pen? Does she object?
Just because you’ve gotten accustomed to lizards doesn’t mean that they aren’t fascinating. The novelty will most likely wear off eventually – or not. 😉
Does she object?
“She”? I was under the impression (perhaps false) that Laddie was male.
Still male last time I scratched his belly.
Ok, so at least *that* wasn’t a false memory!:-)
Ah, but does Laddie identify as “male”? Or are you showing your hate by forcing him into a role he never chose?
That’s the nice thing about a dog: He can identify as a genderqueer flea on a gay camel’s crotch, and it won’t make the slightest difference. He’s still gonna act like a dog.
Well in all honesty, the same thing goes for Communists.
I think Laddie is more the Communitarian type, but I’m only guessing. We don’t talk politics much.
Any political conversation with Laddie would make more sense than much of the political drivel I see on Facebook.