The current dog members of Six Meadow Farm are quite diverse.  There is not a pattern here.  From oldest to youngest, the members of the dog household include:

Lula-the grande dame of Six Meadow Farm

• Lula, is an eight-year old, miniature dachshund bought for Ally to offset the break-up from her high school boyfriend.  Somehow, Ally has moved on and started her own family with her own dogs, and I have Lula.  Lula is my current favorite.  She goes to the barn with me, rides the horses with me (seriously), hangs out with the cats and puts up with the puppy.  She is tiny but determined and holds her own in a household of mostly bigger dogs. Mickey chased her down and almost stomped her yesterday.  I need to be more careful. I would hate to have something so preventable happen to her.
  

  Sneaky

• Sneaky, is a five-year old, Welsh Corgi bought for Lauren as her bribe for moving away from all of her friends.  Corgis are cute as puppies.  You can hardly walk through a horse show barn without stepping on several.  I am not their biggest fan.  I find Sneaky a little annoying, a little obnoxious and hate all her hair.  I swear I could re-create another Corgi from the hair I sweep up weekly.  On the plus side, she is loyal, compassionate, determined and loves Lauren. She does have a big personality and watches over all that happens on the farm.

Kena

• Kena, is a three year old Doberman and is a very sweet girl.  She loves to please and actually smiles when she is trying her hardest.  Kena needs to go to obedience school, more to socialize than to learn (although that would be a great by-product).  Since we have owned her, there has been so much going on; she hasn’t gotten all the attention and training she really deserves.  Sidenote-it took us about a week to teach the Corgi to sit, lay down and to stay.  My daughter, Amber, taught the Doberman all those things in about an hour.  Just saying…

Muffy

• Muffy, is a two-year old, spaniel mix, and who could resist this face? Obviously not me! Muffy was found in the corn field during one of our rare spells of snowy, icy weather.  She was tiny and sick.  She gave Parvo to Kena even though Kena was inoculated.  She is still scared of her own shadow.  But I found out when she started sleeping in my room after Wally’s death, that she has the sweetest soul.  First thing when I open my eyes, she is waiting quietly for me.  Then she helps me greet the day, cuddling with me, and just delighted that I have awakened. Believe me, no one else cares that much.  She is very special and I have called her my best surprise of 2011.

Browndog

• BrownDog will be two this spring.  She appears to be a Doberman or lab mix.  As a puppy, she showed up in pasture one hot summer day.  Jordyn spotted her and I knew she was there to stay.  We named her Daisy but are more apt to call her “BrownDog” (all one word). She is big now, loves to chew, loves to dig, eats anything, and is a little quirky.  Of all the dogs, I trust her the least.  She is very territorial about her food and apt to snap at any of the other dogs if challenged. If she snaps at Lula or Gia, they will be gone.   She is very sweet to people and would never leave Lauren’s side if given a choice.
• Gia, a three-month old, Yorkshire terrier, was clearly bought when my impulse control was not functioning.  In fact, I bought two of them and gave her brother to Ally.  I was nuts. With that said,  I do like the breed.  They are little but hardy.  Gia takes her walk with the big dogs each night across the pastures.  She keeps up with her little one-inch legs.  She is game for tasting any nasty, dead animal or scat we encounter.  She trees cats three times her size.  I will never forget owning Jessa, a little Yorkie in Florida and taking her to the pet store to buy new bowls for the giant Irish wolfhound.  Three Jessas could have fit in the wolfhound’s water bowls.  Jessa was never intimidated by wolfhound’s size and neither is “Puppy Girl”, as we affectionately call her, intimidated by the giants that surround her.

Gia aka"Puppy Girl".