So I'm innocently eating lunch at my desk in the caviary. DH is out walking our grandpuppy we are babysitting, a half-grown Doberman.

Just now, DH comes in with the dog, turning him loose. Dog apparently suprised the cat, who was doing whatever in the laundry room by the back door. Dog lunges, cat screams and runs into kitchen, dog in hot pursuit. Cat leaps onto the counter; dirty breakfast frying pans and silverware clatter to the floor, probably beaning the dog, who has to skid to a stop by the caviary door.

Cat leaps from counter over the gate, into the caviary (where he's not allowed), stampeding the poor piggies who more freaked by the clattering cutlery than a cat dashing by. Cat spies me and continues running, out the other caviary door and up the stairs (where he's also not allowed.) I drop lunch, run around the desk and manage to partially gate the stairs while I run screaming up the stairs after the cat. Dog knocks aside the gate and runs up the stairs (I think DH was trailing this parade, yelling obscenities or whatever).

Just as I nab the cat, dog barges in and cat is snarling and spitting in my arms, trying to hook the dog. I manage somehow to kick the dog's ass down the stairs where DH nabs the leash the dog has been dragging. I'm still carrying yowling, spitting cat and I toss him over the gate as I again gate the stairs and caviary. (You can get to the stairs from the caviary but not into the caviary, without crossing a gate.)

Cat lands near dog, whom DH is trying to shove into a crate near the stairway. Dog breaks away and chases cat who runs onto the wood stove (good thing it was nearly out), then makes a mad dash past the dog, who is finally caught by DH and shoved into his crate. Meanwhile I and the cat head for the bathroom...

...where I had left both toilet seat and lid up after scrubbing the toilet with cleanser just before lunch. As I get to the bathroom, the cat flies out of the toilet where he'd leaped without realizing the seat was up, spattering me with cleanser, which I was NOT happy about. He ran out and I think ended up back in the laundry room I cleaned mopped up the bathroom, now a lot cleaner than I thought I'd had time for.

And then I ate my now-soggy salad.

Yeah, uh-huh,  I feel less stressed.

We did pretty well. Got BOS with a partially-chewed Texel I only brought to pad the entry, LOL. I'm glad because he has two legs already and once he got barbered I figured that was it for his show career. I THINK that was a third leg.

BOB went to a little TSW sow I bred, who now lives in Ontario with ther new owner. Pretty cool!

In Teddies we didn't do anything exciting. My best sow who has been winning was too preg to show and my boar came in 2nd. I had a bunch of barely-juniors entered for lack of anything better to show and my cream roan boar won best junior so that's kind of cool. The judge called him "very promising." We'll see. I'm not crazy about cream roan but his roaning is very even and I can use that.

Lori Rogers of Big R Piggery has the cutest red roan sow with a freckled face that she NEEDS to give me!! She went BOS in Teddies.

Sold all my for sale pigs for now. I have one litter almost ready I need to put on my For Sale page, and maybe a sow or two I'll cull also.

I SO didn't want to drag my ass out to buy bedding today. I bought two bags of shavings at the show. So today I told myself, "Self, if you promise to buy wood pellets, I'll treat you to an ice cream cone." So I had the cone and headed for WalMart. Wally world has them for $5.39 a bag, compared to $5.99 at TSC and another store. I found a close parking spot, went in the "outdoor" section door, grabbed a flat cart, loaded up 10 bags, and paid at the checkout. Relatively painless, really. Checkout chick asked me if I needed a guy to unload them for me.

I said "well, I got them all on the damn cart by myself."

She said "well I'll call someone."

I said "fine, if he gets outside before I'm done loading them all, he can do the rest."

Needless to say I got them all in the cart and the cart returned and saw nary a soul. Then I went to the grocery store and blew $200 bucks but I "saved $30 today and get 50 cents off my gas." Then I unloaded it all and put it all away myself too. Ugh. Bedtime!

Made some more cull decisions. I have quite a few babies left to place, and then I'll be deciding on some of the sows. I've pretty much culled all the boars for now. My new boar Cashew is growing like a weed. His coat is super thick and kinky like his dad's. Too bad he's a broken roan, but since his dad is TSW, well, we're halfway to all roan, LOL.

Seriously I doubt I'll ever see the end of the dreaded white spotting gene in my lifetime, but I couldn't find really good roans to start with, I had to take what I could find to start with, which was a so-so roan and a couple really nice brokens. So yeah I get too many blotchies, but overall I think we're doing OK.

Still working towards a good showable brindle though. I showed the brindle Chicory when she was a tot. The judges seemed to think her brindling was OK, but DQ'd her for the tiniest spot of white on one foot. Well her dad, Dosh, is the closest I've gotten to a good brindle but had a white blaze. When his coat turned out nice, I just HAD to keep him. He's sired some nice pigs since then and not all are mismarked. I still say there's some genetic tie between excellent coats and mismarks, LOL.

I've updated my Web site with a bunch of new Texel boars for sale. They are red and white; one has pink eyes. Hard to tell on curl right now; mine tend to grow spirals and the curls aren't real pronounced at first. The one with the so-so distribution looks the most promising of course. The one whose markings I really like probably will be straight down the back and shoulders. This is my last Texel litter until spring and I have nothing to show right now; everyone is either chewed or senior and matting.

I went through the tots and juniors and decided who to keep for now and who to show. The little cream roan boar in the boys cage is going to a show this Saturday. Unfortunate color, but his coat seems to be coming in nice and thick and even.

I checked out the dalmatian-y tri roan in the same cage and couldn't decide whether to keep him. He has a sort of piebald face I love, but those spots... His coat is not quite as thick as the cream's. So I looked them up and they are littermates to each other and the roan keeper in the girls cage. So he's going. I don't think you can show a dalmatian with three colors, otherwise he'd be pretty decent. Maybe he'd work out in a dal program because I think he'd throw black and white as well as tris. And his sire has ticked me off for producing spots, but he's already gone.

Fortunately this litter's mom was a really nice roan, so the sow isnt too spotty and the cream had great roaning as a newborn, not that you'll ever be able to see it very well :-(

I'll have to get tri dalmatian's pix on my for sale page, but I thnk I'm gonna wholesale him if he isnt sold by Saturday. I also have a broken senior sow and a (pix not up yet) brindle sow with mostly black. I just made that decision today. I doubt the wholesaler would want her, so she'll be up for awhile.

I also have a 3-week old Teddy litter, but I don't like to let them go until four weeks and they are probably too small to wholesale anyway, so I haven't bothered to give them a good look for possible keepers. I have no idea about coat at this point but kink and density looks decent overall.

THE FEUD

My day wasn't going the best anyway and I suddenly heard a commotion in the closest top cage. Turns out mom and son were fighting! I mean she laid into him and he didn't back off. When I came up and shooed them they separated briefly, teeth chattering and circling, but I managed to grab the little boar who fled when I reched in. I nabbed him avoiding his teeth end but he didn't attempt to bite and had to be calmed; he seemed a bit traumatized.

Well I don't want to add him to either junior boar cage as he'd be odd man out and they're already crowded. So into the ex pen with him and mom. She ran into the hut and he went around sniffing and by day's end they were OK again. I'm just hoping he holds off impregnating his mom until I get him in his own or another boar cage. I haven't seen him mount yet but he purrs and waggles like crazy and I'm sure that's what ticked her off, LOL.

So most of The Shire babies have arrived for this year. I have only two sows in breeding, the red roans Posy and her daughter Primula, two of my best sows. Prim recently won a couple BOBs. One of them is in with Chess and the other is in with Podge I think.

Those four I have trouble with. I should paint their ear numbers on their behinds, LOL, so I dont have to squint at ears. Posy and Prim are mother and daughter. One has a blaze so you'd think it'd be easy to tell them apart but I always forget who has the blaze and have to turn to my Web site!

Begbie and Podge are father and son. Yes, their markings are different enough I can tell them apart, but again, I forget who's who! CRS disease bigtime!! Those two and Chess have really nice coats and Begbie and Podge are big besides.

Then there's the little, um, rape victim, LOL. The self red sow was stupidly put by me into the junior boars' cage and I didn't notice til I heard her screaming. She's old enough that the breeding isn't unduly risky, and the boar is the oldest one, he has a really good coat but is a roaned red broken, so not my ideal choice of colors to put together. In fact I was hoping for an excuse to sell him, but his coat is just too nice and his conformation is good too, and he's out of some of my best pigs. I'll breed him a few times and see what he produces before I place him.

The other boars in that cage are all showable colors and I'm waiting to see how their coats turn out. Then I'll keep and show the best.

The next show coming up is Fulton, NY. I have bunch of baby Texel boars to find homes for, and maybe some Teddies--gotta check who's ready to wean.