Calamity Acres Hobby Farm

This is Oscar, dog of my heart, our first dog that Keith and I owned.  He was a pistol.

A purebred Min Pin, he was another rescue... dumped by a family and given to my daughter in law, they already had a dog and offered us one.  We got the best one... he was smart as a whip.

We had to walk him in Leavenworth, because he could get out of the yard, we think going over the fence, and once free, would not be caught until he was ready.  Yes, he scared us MANY a time, as we lived but a block from the river bluff that ended in a drop-off to the Missouri river.

Once he pulled so hard he pulled Keith down on an icy sidewalk, and Keith slid down the walk behind him as Oscar ran.  I know now I should have put a gentle leader on him.

He hated groundhogs, and LIVED for the times they came out from under the neighbor's porch so he could bark at them from the window.

When we moved to Calamity Acres, he and Nick and Gwen were the first pets.

He loved it out here, but was so skinny that he could get through the livestock fence to poop in Troy's yard next door. He was such a naughty boy!  I finally put a padded harness on him to stop that, because we were afraid that someone speeding up our road would get him.

Keith found Ranger dragging himself up a country road five miles or so from here, and after trying for almost two hours, was able to pick him up and put him in the van to bring home.  Despite the fact that neither was a neutered male, Oscar accepted Ranger, and if I get all my pictures out, I might be able to find a picture of Osc and Range laying side by side, chewing on bones.  It would NEVER happen here now.

Sadly, Oscar got out our gate one night when it was inadvertantly left open.  I had been reading, and decided to go out in my nightgown to smell the fresh-falling rain.  Oscar came out with me, and I did not see the gate open in the dark.  A truck came up the road, and Osc followed it out.  He was struck by a car on 24/40, which runs east and west, just 2/10 of a mile from our gate.

We had decided when we moved here that our dogs would not roam.  When I was a child, it was common for people to let their dogs run in Kansas City, Kansas, but little by little, things tightened up.  I am a firm believer in keeping your pets in your own yard, preferably with a fence.  Unfortunately, people still dump their dogs in the country regularly... we believe that's how Bessie came to us. We know people here on our own road that don't believe in fencing their pets, but they have had a remarkable turnover, which hurts us inside for those pets loved and lost.  We ourselves lost a beautiful turkey and many chickens to three neighbor's dogs allowed to run free, and that's one reason that the llamas came here to live with us. Every time we read or hear about one of our friend's dogs being lost, we think "if they had only had a fence". 

Folks.. .fence your dogs... we know they are only dogs, but they ask so little, and want only to love us.... fence them so they know they are loved, and you know they are safe.