The 65-acre field behind our house is home to the transmitting masts of a local radio station, which take up approximately half an acre of space. The other 64 and a half acres belong to Belle, who generously allows other dogs to visit. At certain hours, especially at the weekend, there's a real canine crowd.
Belle is that large white blob to the right, beneath the red tree.
We've had a tough month moving house and getting organised, and my camera has barely left its bag. But Belle is continuing to grow, continuing to chew everything around her (including much of the new house) and has quickly become a devoted sentinel, monitoring every movement in the 65-acre field behind us. If a rabbit shivers two miles away, Belle will attempt to investigate. Our new backyard fence, based on a design at Guantanamo Bay and under construction as I write, probably won't have any effect.
Did I mention that she's continuing to grow ?
Belle gets jealous when someone else sits next to me.
(Not the best quality iPhone shot, but clever of Sylvie to catch the moment. I think.)
You can clearly see from the first pic below that Belle is fast becoming a mature, responsible member of the family and is steadily leaving her crazy puppy days behind her.
Just don't click on the second pic.
I'm not sure which of them got most worn out.
We move on Feb 1st to a new home in Bethesda, mainly because Belle ate the old place. Somehow we found a house that backs onto a secret 65-acre dog park in the heart of suburban Maryland. Officially it's the site of a local radio station's transmitting masts (barely visible through the trees from our new deck), but local dog-owners know better. We went over this morning to explore a bit.
So we went down to the usual spot to pose for the monthly portrait, and Syl was just getting Belle sat when another dog appeared nearby. It wasn't quite the formal portrait I intended, but I guess the general idea is clear: our tiny puppy isn't quite so tiny any more....
(Left below at 2 months; right below at 5 months, today. Click on the pix for the full-sized versions)
We are paying a terrible price for allowing her to sit on the sofa with us when she was a tiny puppy.
Here for those of you who don't see my Facebook pages are some of the other dogs we encountered in Middleburg last weekend. We also learned a little bit more about the work of the Appalachian Great Pyrenees Rescue group, which is kept surprisingly busy for such a little-known breed. The sad truth is that many farmers regard Pyrs as working dogs, employ them to guard their livestock, but don't want to spend money on neutering/spaying and disregard their dogs' mating habits.
The result is a disastrous imbalance in supply and demand, with too many litters of both purebred and mixed breed puppies being born and not nearly enough families ready to take on such big dogs as pets. Add to that the familiar problem of families who fall in love with those impossibly cute little puppy bundles of fur, only to find that they stop being little very quickly and start eating children, cars and houses, and you end up with a serious problem.
The AGPR does its best to find families or foster homes for unwanted adult dogs, and we hope to continue to be able to support them - provided, of course, that Belle doesn't eat my chequebook first.....
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