That handsome tornado’s name is Dash, and he is 1.5 year old Australian shepherd who has taken a great delight in mowing over plants in my backyard. Several bulbs and tender shrubs have met their demise under the paws of this stampeding ball of fur. The most recent deaths included a healthy thriving purple salvia as well as my most mature white salvia. No fence can keep him out, and I’m at my wits end trying to find some way to deter him from entering the beds. I purchased 6 planter rings from Home Depot this weekend and hopefully I can protect the remaining fragile salvias, including the 2 salvia chamaedryoides that were cut low by this Texas twister.
Meanwhile, I’m way behind on purchasing my white daffodils for the 2008 show. I’m looking more into salvias to fill the bare spots in the garden. A few that have caught my eye: Salvia greggii or jamensis ‘California Sunset’ (orange) , Salvia greggii or jamensis (?) ‘Sierra San Antonio’ (coppery peach), Salvia greggii ‘La Encantada Peach’, Salvia jamensis Moonlight (yellow) , Salvia greggii ‘Yellow Cloud’, and any more orange, yellow and peach variants I can dig up.
It always seems that when a new plant finds its way into my flower beds, a mischievous puppy manages to rampage through: uprooting, trampling, eating and mangling all the newcomers.
For example: barely a week into the ground, the new irises I obtained from Zebrairis.com became victims of a stampeding fur-nephew. If he wasn’t such a cutie, Dash might have gotten more discipline than he received. It’s a sore reminder for us pet-loving gardeners to take extra precautions in securing plants from rambunctious puppies.
The pups used up the last of their pressed rawhide supply last night…and it’s time to replenish. Shopping around on the net for bulk rawhide yielded poor results…hardly anybody offers pressed rawhide in bulk numbers. Petedge.com still has the best price on a 50-pack of pressed 4″ bones. I also tried to research the differences between porkhide and rawhide, but the general impression I get is that porkhide is simply tastier. Still, I’m not fond of the carpet-staining selection of smoked porkhide that I’ve purchased previously. Plus, I don’t think the puppies are too fond of the taste.
Now if only they’d get rid of that $6.99 minimum charge…!
After the February crash of my server box, I lost many posts written up to this time. I am considering redesigning the site and perhaps move it to a paid hosting solution. We’ll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I hope that the Internet Archive will soon have some copies of this site available for me to recapture some of the lost data.
I neglected to mention that Foxie found a home in the DFW area late last month. There was some doubt that her hoomom’s friend could take her into an apartment situation. Luckily, her hoomom’s coworker volunteered to take her in and was won over by her winning personality. Foxie really is a beautiful, gentle-natured dog who deserves the best after such a rough life. I will definitely miss her.
