We buried Gretchen in an old part of the garden. We had dug it out a few years ago, but it had all kinds of house building junk buried there, so we didn’t use it for veggies. I did plant wildflower seed there, and packets of particular flower seed, but nothing much grew and nothing seeded that did grow, and really no flowers bloomed either, so it went to weeds, of course. Well it’s been wet enough the past months that the ground was diggable, but it was still hard work.

Russell helped dig some, we then took a break for a few hours, then went back out and actually buried Gretchen. We’ll be planting perennial wildflowers there this Spring.

I haven’t seen anyone from the house behind ours, and neither have I seen their dogs that did the deed. Maybe they got rid of them right away, that remains to be verified though, of course.

No one worked on the hole, filling it, unfortunately either.

Lothar is very different now that Gretchen isn’t around. I’ve taken him out on the leash several times, and he’s more willing now, than he was last week when I tried to faithfully get him leash trained again (we had stopped using a leash and just let them be in the kennel for awhile, or run around the yard, or be in their spot in the laundry room in the house. Leash training had just never taken, so we gave it up for the time being.)

Lothar seems to know his sister and buddy is gone, but who can tell what he really is thinking or knows. He’s happy to eat, and happy to get “luvins” as we call it.

Now what to do with him is a bit of a dilema, for neither he nor Gretchen, before, liked to play with toys that we gave them. They had balls and a squeeky stuffed white fuzzy thing shaped like a “man” gingerbread-kind-of-shape. So now that stuff is all Lothars, but he is just not interested in the least, same as always, for now.

How to get a dog to like a ball? Chase it, or retrieve it, anything, carry it around, chew it up. Anything at all. But no, the nice size balls for their, oh it’s so hard to stop with the plural dog things … nice size balls for his mouth are purely ignored.

Yes, I need to get some other toys, but mostly I’d like to see if there are any we can make from around the house stuff. Any ideas, anyone? I’m open to suggestions!

What does Lothar like?

So there you have it, he’s a mushy mush of love. Toys for that? Something besides me? Please, help y’all! He was like this before, but always had Gretchen around to compete with, if I had one puppy head in my hands for luvins, another would be thrust in there within a few seconds … now it’s just the one, and he’s loving it to pieces even more.

The nice thing is, with him inside, in the laundry room, without Gretchen, I can keep the door opened. Gretchen would climb out all the time, as soon as you turned your back if you left the door open and just the baby gate left in the doorway. I don’t recall Lothar ever doing that, so this first day of trial, he’s proved thusfar that he stays in. He loves to put his paws up on the gate and get attention, but that ‘s it. No climbing out. So he’s more a part of the family with way. Nice. He’s to be a inside trained dog, but so far we’ve had to totally keep him (and before, Gretchen) contained due to the rummaging constantly for anything they could find on the floor, racing around the whole time too, whenever they’d be free in the house. Mostly it was always something they weren’t supposed to be doing, but we hadn’t found a way to train them to stop it yet.

Puppies that they were. Puppy that Lothar is now. I had Lothar on a leash by my side here while I was on the computer this afternoon, and he stayed on the floor and laid in the sunshine streaming in. (My ‘puter is back in the kitchen by the French Doors to the deck since it’s warmer suddenly and Spring is a-coming.)

So then, Gretchen’s death was a horrid thing, and very much a loss. BUT there is a bright side to it, and now I think Lothar will be more trainable and we’ll have a companion dog sooner, instead of two companion-dogs-maybe later.

Here’s the latest photo I have of Gretchen and Lothar together. I don’t have one of her alone, or a decent shot of her as far as I know. What’s on undeveloped film is another thing though

This was taken on January 19, 2004, the day after our new pullet had “disapeared” and so I took this photo as one in a string of “evidence”. I have a page devoted to that elsewhere. I have it linked in a post here, but I’ll link to it again later here, when I’m up to finding it. Right now I can only stand to type a bit, not find othe stuff. Emotionally I’m done for, for now.

I got the digital camera to work (surprise!) yesterday, and thought I’d taken a picture of Gretchen, well I didn’t. I had tried, but the way digital’s work, it’s a pain … she wasn’t in the picture by the time it was snapped.

I got the camera to work again today, after it not working for awhile last night … it needs to be sent in for repair or replacement, still in warranty, so I’m hopefully going to get a photo of Gretchen before she’s covered with dirt.

I got a couple of Lothar a bit ago, in the laundry room, getting attention over the gate in the doorway. Poor lonely guy. Those photo’s later.

My puppie died in the night. It’s such a beautiful morning, and she’s curled up in her outside basket with her head hanging over the side. My worst realizations came true.

I was so tired last night, and could barely keep my eyes opened, so I could just kick myself for this whole thing, I couldn’t be with her. Oh the poor thing.

She must have had internal injuries, I just have no way of knowing what happened. The guy behind us did come talk to me last night, and he didn’t seem to know what happened in his yard.

Well I have chickens in my yard, so if anyone wants to come and help me dig a hole they just can’t, as then it’d be something on the table for discussion. We have a beautiful sunny day in the 60′s scheduled for today, and another for tomorrow.

Oh for the anonimity and mourning of overcast skies and pelting rain. (Digging mud is easier when you are talking “clay”) The house is a mess, and the last thing I need to do is get someone over here who’ll see the house. I have to dig a hole big enough. I can use the Mantis for some of it, maybe. If it’s ready to run. Haven’t used it since last Autumn.

Well I’ve cried buckets since arising this early am. Not too surprising to feel a migraine coming on, I had two bad nights in a row, sleep-wise.

Last night I dreamed of Gretchen a lot. Reasoning dreams, that she was alright, and would be wagging her tail brightly when I went next to check her. As I awoke this am, I had the sinking feeling that she was gone. I got ready, went out, and that’s that.

Oh, the tangled webs we weave. If only they were better trained, if only that guy didn’t have mean dogs, if only they didn’t dig, if only he filled in the holes, if only my DH filled in the holes, if only his dogs were locked up, if only my dogs would have just peed and come back, as usual. If only.

Recourse, what is there? The things that are recourse are what need to be fixed already, and what the guy said they will be doing: fix the holes, and get rid of the dogs. There’s no interest on my part for anything more.

So 5+ months old Gretchen, thawrted death as a little pup, and found a home with us, with her brother. Only to go on to her death 3 1/2 months later via the resulting injuries of some mangly dark night interlude with two mean dogs in the yard behind ours.

I know how badly the children reacted when Cinnamon died. Now it’s their puppy Gretchen. They’re still asleep. Today is the day their Grandma Meints is being buried. Where is Grandma now? In heaven with God. Where is Gretchen right now? Gone. Will she be in heaven? Child, I have no clue what really happens to our dear animals. It’s one of the mysteries of life.

Can you imagine if all pets of Christians would go to heaven? Now that’s a lot of animals, do stock farm animals count? Chickens, horses, dogs, cats, etc. Well this is a pandora’s box. I’m not going any further.

So now is the first day of Lothar as our only dog. When will he understand. Poor guy has lost his buddy.