"These lines of lightening mean we're never alone"

Well, on top of Heini there's also Tillie, Tara, Tazzie, and Honey. They're tons of fun. Honey is a BARKER. Tara's coat is a gorgeous red. Tillie is the crown favorite. She loves to snuggle...inside...on the couch. Like I said, they're all "on loan" from the Smithsonian (ha, only kidding about the second part) so I'm just supposed to make them happy, social puppies and then send 'em back. I plan to start working with them on "come," free dropping and the like. Probably by the time the snow flies, I'll be able to let them all loose to free run and chase the 4wheeler. They're just so houndy and cute! Seriously, it kills me. I'm dying.

I ran everyone this morning. First I took Keytone, Fox, Fed, Heini, Tune, and Brew on the road for 3 miles. Brew started to limp, so I put him in the truck and finished with 5 of them. They were great. I was able to get out early enough, while it was still cool, so I could run them a little harder. They can easily do 4.5 miles now, but the easiest route on the road is 3, so I do that when we're at home and 4.5 when we load and run at Ft. Custer. I'd also like to be on the 4wheeler more often, but it's hard because I can't use it at Ft. Custer....ah well, we're doing excellent either way.

The next chunk of teams were all sibes. I ran them in the woods- each dog ran two laps or 3 miles. (each lap is 1.5 miles). Kuzin was a good man and lead very well. He, of course, remembered the loop around the field. I only made him run once because he's a stubborn son of a gun and typically refuses to run again. For the last run, I had all 4 "puppies" and they were perfect! May and Jockey will be leaders no doubt. They are so impressive and confident. Little Brother is pretty much a fluffy pet and Star is a hard worker, but has ideas of her own if she's in front. That being said, I don't lead them often, it was just something I wanted to mess with. Love those babies.

The kennel looks amazing right now. We had tons of extra pannles and gates (I'm an obsessive collector)so we put five new kennels in the row and now all the dogs are kenneled and no one is chained. Typically, no one is chained, but the sudden inflext of muttlies happened before we could put up kennels. But, now we're all set for the winter....and well, forever. (unless, of course......)

For now, I just love the system I have. All of the dogs are used to having free time, so I can open the gates and let them all loose while I water and clean kennels. Usually I let about 10 dogs, give or take a few, out at once. If Brew and Sosa were fixed, I'd be more willing to let them out with everyone....but I get too nervous because EVERYONE else is a female and all of my girls are intact.

Because of deer season, I'm not running on Sunday. I would have taken it off anyway because today was three days in a row. I plan to run Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and next Sunday. Hopefully I'll be able to head to Ft. Custer to do some 4.5 milers for all of those runs but the Friday one.

But other than that, Elsie and I are going to a disc seminar on Sunday! I can't wait and I'm pretty sure she's excited too.