The Tulip Bed

Mum takes a lot of pride in her tulip beds. She was hard at work last Fall, planting in the bulbs, and she's been quite consistent, making sure we don't dig them out, or run in the beds and break the tulip stalks. But sometimes, we run too fast and get so overwhelmed in our play, we just dash through the beds. Well, I don't do that, but Rummy does, and it drives Mum mad.

Me and Mum's special tulips

I do my best not to run through the tulips but as you can see, Rummy doesn't really care.

Rummy says "hey Mum, what? Don't stand on your tulip bed? I can't hear you."

Rummy standing in between Mum's precious tulips. He has been responsible for many broken stalks.

Me on the other hand, I keep clear always, and stay on the edge. I'm the good one you see..

And with regards to the Chicks, here's an update. The chicks have tripled in size in the last month, and they now have twice the space to roam, with both halves of my crate being used as home. 

Rummy still loves to watch them, and he licks them whenever he can stick his tongue and reach them.

Keeping watch over his chicks. Rob thinks he wants to eat them, but we'll see. 

The chicks stick their heads up to reach him, they peck on his nose, his tongue and pull on his fur. We guess that maybe they think he's their mum, which is why they come close and peck at him for food. 

Head Rubs,

Kimi

Rummy's Bad Habit

As you may all know by now, Gromit lived with us over Christmas last year, and Rummy learned a really bad habit from him. It is shredding toys that have stuffing inside.

Rummy finds himself a toy, uses his teeth to create a gap, and will take his leisurely time, pulling out the stuffing. The disemboweling is the goal of the game, and he's really good at it.

Sometimes, Rummy likes to chew on the stuffing, but he never swallows. He leaves it out for the humans to pick up after him. What a nice gesture..and what a mess!

Nope, no guilty faces here.

Disemboweling is allowed at our house now. The humans don't seem to mind, Rummy fine tunes his gift of disemboweling, and improves his "hand, eye, mouth" coordination skills. We consider it a gift here at our pack.

Rummy says, thank you Mum for letting me shred in the open. I am happy and content as can be.

Beautiful Rummy Cub

I then decided to chew on my brother's jowls. That's my game.. far better than chewing on a soft toy... 

Head rubs and Wet kisses,

Kimi

Update with Rummy's Chicks

This is an update blog entry about Rummy's experience with his chicks. 

Our chicks have grown double in size, and now they like Rummy!!

They are not afraid of him, even when he sticks out his tongue to lick them. 

All the chicks love Rummy, and take turns going up to him, and peck on his nose, they pull his fur too.

All 4 chicks taking turns and gazing at Rummy. This is a cute twist, from the inside looking out, and outside looking in. 

We still aren't sure if Rummy is trying to eat them, or if he pushes his nose as close as possible toward them so he can be close to them.. He loves to go up as close as his nose can push through the gaps and let the chicks peck him. It is very cute to watch. I think he enjoys the interaction.

Our chicks are growing so fast. We have to keep them indoors till the weather warms up, then the humans will start introducing them to the outdoors and let them stay out a few hours each day to get acclimatized to Seattle's Spring and Summer.

This chick just pulled on Rummy's fur... can you see? It is lucky it doesn't get a wet tongue licking it.

The chicks are clearly saying something to each other.. "oh, its the big black nose and furry monster again... let's peck at him"

That's our last remaining hen from last year. She survived winter, coyote attacks and being alone for so long without chicken buddies. Soon, our chicks will join her, and they can be a big happy feathered family. 

 She gets her own bird food, and pieces of fruit when she comes to our porch. Most of the time, she likes to eat bugs and insects from the yard.

After she was done eating, Rummy decided to chomp on some chicken feed. Eeewww...

"Oh hi mum, yes I'm eating bird food he he he..."

Headrubs and wet kisses,

Kimi

Rummy and His 1st Snake

Rummy caught himself a garden snake today. His very first one. The weather was nice and sunny and the snake must have wanted to enjoy the sunshine as much as we did.

Rummy's 1st Snake

The poor snake must have never have expected that the furry Airedale would be able to catch it weaving in and out of the grass. Who would have thought?

That's the snake laying dead by his right leg. See Rummy's smile? He was very happy and proud of himself with his catch of the day.

Having a good old sniff

Rummy didn't seem to want to eat the reptile, he simply wanted to catch it for fun. None of us saw him kill it, but he took it with him and laid by it on the front porch. Good thing he didn't sneak it into the house, because Mum would have had a heart attack.

That's me, I decided to get up close to investigate what it was. I've never caught any snakes in our yard before. Rummy has a much stronger prey drive than I do.

Brothers with the snake

A closer shot of the dead snake

Rummy

The weather was really perfect today. Rummy munches on a twig as he enjoys the sunshine.

The weather was pretty good too, for a game of tug. 

And playbiting...

Me and Rummy (right)

black and tan

See my brother showing off his scary canine fangs?

Rummy and the teddy toy. It was my favorite puppy toy, it is a blue bunny soft toy.

Rummy chomping on a twig

Me and Rummy (right) sharing the twig

Me

Rummy

Rummy (left) and I

Rummy is only 8 months old now, but as you can see, he is fast growing, and he is almost the same size as I, and I am turning 5 this Thanksgiving.  How time flies. I can barely remember the time when I was his age, I was also very rambunctious and fun. Now, I have mellowed out a lot, and I am calmer and more self assured. Age and maturity has made me who I am today, and I feel happy and content. 

Hugs,

Kimi

Chick TV

Who would have thought? Rob and Mum got Rummy and I a wonderful surprise. Well, perhaps not so much for us, but more for our hen in our yard. After all the coyote visits, we have only 1 hen left. After the fences were put up, it is much safer now, for our hen and for us too. Mum felt that she'd be happier if she had a friend or two, so we got chicks! 6 cute tiny 1 week old chicks.

Rob and Rummy at his first glance of the chicks

After Rob set up the chick enclosure, we got to say hi. They used my old crate and turned it upside down to make it the chick house, and it works well.

As you can imagine, we were both so excited to see this new thing in the house, we dashed straight in toward the crate barking when we saw tiny things moving here and there. They were also making chirping noises.

We were so curious, we just kept staring and looking. Rummy tried scraping the side of the crate and Mum corrected him harshly. Ok, no scraping and no pawing the crate walls. When I barked at them, I got corrected too. Ok, no barking either. Seems like the only thing we're allowed to do, is watch the chickies... yes, that's what Mum is calling these furry creatures.

After a while, I got a little bored, but Rummy couldn't peel his eyes away.

The chickies are very cute. Are they for food? Are they toys that move?

Very early on, we have now established that chickies are not my thing. They are Rummy's little pets. He just loves watching them move around, making their little bird sounds.

Rummy and I with our pet chicks

Rummy (left) and I (right). Rummy grins up at mum and says thanks for getting us chicks.

Ok, I'm not really into staring at chicks for hours on end.

Rummy and Rob gazing at chicks

From left, Me, Rummy and Rob

Rummy tries to sneak around to the other side to have a peek.

Me

From left, myself and my brother Rummy. Do you know how to tell us apart? I am older, so I have a more established beard and a more grown up look. 

Since it is the first night the chickies are with us, we just couldn't keep our curiosity in check.

Rummy loved his chicks so much, he even took naps by the crate.

Mum is trying to nurture the protective instincts in Rummy and I, so that instead of seeing the chickies as our meals, we would try to protect them as part of our pack... that is a tough challenge, especially because Rummy's prey drive is much stronger than mine. If the chicks grow up into hens and they start running, it will be practically impossible to stop us from chasing them. Mum will just have to work really hard at flooding us with the chicks and building the bond across species, and put in a lot of effort in this project. At the end of the day, if Rummy or I eat a hen or two, then so be it. We can't help it, it is in our nature. We are terriers. We hunt things.

Evening time.... Rummy with the chicks

Night time.... Rummy with the chicks

Late late night time .... Rummy with the chicks

Rob thinks Rummy wants to eat the chicks, but Mum doesn't think so. His gaze is not a predator's gaze, it is one of amusement and curiosity, one could even guess affection. He just loves gazing at the chicks, and now we call it the "Chick TV".

Wee early in the morning, the first thing Rummy checks on are his chicks.

He checks on them from all sides, to make sure they are all well.

The chickies

Daytime checking

Me

A head shot of me.

Myself and Rummy gazing at our chicks

 Me (Left), and Rummy

It will be very interesting to see if we manage to raise the chickies, and stop ourselves from eating them. We haven't had the chance to smell them yet, but Mum says in a few days, we'll get to smell our chicks. Yummmy... oh sorry Mum. I will try not to eat our pet chickies. Yay for more yardbirds.

Hugs,

Kimi