nWhoops... I did the news article on Saturday and got sidetracked and forgot the daily doggie---- how could I forget.... it's easy

I was sidetracked by the topic of heat ----some of you may find it interesting what I have gone through over the last 20 years on the topic of trying to keep all the animals under my control as comfortable as I could make them... my perfect example is somewhere. in an old computer there is a photograph of my  Dignified husband. standing in his shorts shaving with 100 baby chickens running around his feet... because our bathroom was the only place I could crank up the heat enough for the required baby chickens...  

Historically there has never been a question in anybody's mind around here---- if it is possible to improve an animal situation I will do it.. at great cost or great inconvenience..   there was a time. About 2015 when I was managing service dog project and we had fifty puppies in one year...   this was probably the year that I ended up with four letters in the house which remained absolutely spotless. and odorless all it took was more people but we managed.

Having the four litters on the House undid the concept of gracious living-- cocktail hours and things like that... we managed the puppies... and we had a good time doing it plus the fact I got a night sleep usually because if there was a disaster I could get up and deal with it and go back to bed without having to go to the barn or somewhere else..

Heat and keeping the puppies warm was one of my major concerns---so even when I did move them down to the kennel 9 and 10 I went through great gyrations to make sure they were comfortable.... namely...

 

During the time when brownie was still around----brownie was a great tall Merle lovely dog---I used him for a model and trying to build what I consider an ideal kennel with an upstairs sleeping loft... it was during the Betty Quadros episode----she was  the first one to sleep on the floor with me tp  baby sit puppies and was around for several years very active volunteer.. we used brownie to determine the height of these sleeping lofts and the size and shape of the doors necessary for the dogs to get out again... and we built the whole thing out of cardboard to get the design right and we have pictures of that somewhere....  these sleeping lofts not only took advantage of the fact that three or four feet off the floor was considerably warmer then the floor itself I believe my numbers were approximately 20° ----heat rises ---- and it is significantly difficult to push heat downwards..  I did have in the back of all these sleeping lofts a six inch pipe to blow the heat all the way down to kennels 9 and 10... and as it passed through the other kettles I drilled  a hole or several holes to tap some of the heat blowing through that pipe so that all the way along the way the dog could lay up against the pipe and have some warm air blowing on them... it worked

in addition to that I wanted to be able the sit at the house and see if the heat was working at all ---so I found a funny little gizmo I believe made by Honeywell.  into which you could plug a light. and cause the thing to turn a light on if the temperature got below a certain degree my choice was 55° so in many places--- the feed room --9 and 10--the deagle house-- the nut house-- laundry building all had a light bulb basically plugged into these units set  to go on if the temperature fell. to 55 degrees.. just to be sure that there was like electricity to begin with I had to put a second light bulb in all these windows to be sure that the electricity was on  at all ---it worked very well..  however in the course of remodeling the kennels and the last six months or whatever they seem to have torn out all of those warning signs....  which mind you were not just for the heat of the puppies or dogs but also the water pipes that go right through the same area//. My sleepy lofts were also arranged so that each dog also had a window to lookout..   But the frozen water dishes remain the number one indicator of the temperature of that floor as winter progresses.. 

because I know full well that the dogs water dishes on the floor we'll have a coating of ice on them most of the winter yet the sleeping lofts will remain above 55°...  that was until they got torn down

 

so I'm terribly concerned about the health and welfare of puppies who are basically caged at 5:00 in the afternoon and forced to live in kennels where I am sure the water will freeze,,, I have seen it.     these puppies are forced to stay on that flooring--- or one very inadequate coranda bed 6 inches off the floor until 7:00 the next morning that's 14 hours,,, 

 

 Since I am no longer allowed to go in the barn to check on anything. I don't know but I'm hoping that the six kennles on the other side of the barn still have their  lofts ----if that is the case these dogs should immediately be changed to the other side and get off this   cement floor.

 

I cannot think of a worse situation for any of my dogs then they are  forced to live 14 hours a day in the dark no window no heat...  someone needs to look into this in great depth...   and it cannot be me but do not be blinded by someone who says oh it's OK.   it is not OK