Thursday, March 31, 2011

They've arrived!  The first two babies for fostering by my daughter.  She is the one that does all the feeding, loving, playing and cleaning of these little beings, along with lots of help from my niece.  The shelter likes our foster babies because they are usually so people friendly.  How could they not be, with three of us always kissing, touching and holding them.

These two are just 24-hours old.  They arrived Tuesday evening still wet from being born, and one even had the after-birth still attached.  They will live here with all the rest of the ones (to come) and at about 12 weeks be returned to Priest River Animal Rescue shelter to be adopted by some very lucky family.

There is no word yet on Dolly.  I can't give up looking for her.  New flyers to be hung on every post and pole around.  Now I'm resorting to driving up to farms and houses asking if anyone has seen her.  That's a lot of territory to cover, but like I said, I can't give up.

I've been dyeing alpaca roving this week.  I dyed some brown alpaca with indigo in spots.  Very interesting and I think I need to card it to distribute the colors throughout.  Then I put white alpaca roving in the nearly-spent dye pot and it came out a very light blue denim.  We'll see.  Pix when I get them spun up.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

This is true love in action.  Bella and my niece certainly love each other and spend every waking hour together.  They are so cute.  And niece keeps Bella on her toes.

Bella is doing her best at being a livestock guard dog these days.  No word yet on Dolly, but I got a phone call today there was an ad on Craigslist about a big white fluffy dog.  I emailed the craigslist address and we went to where the dog had been seen. 

We didn't see any white dogs but talked to a Sheriff and possibly he can pass the word on Dolly.  When I got home there was an email response from the person that put the ad in.  She said a large white dog had walked through their back yard today but she was unable to catch her.  After sending her pictures she thought it had been Dolly! 

Tomorrow we will go back up there and hang flyers on everything we can with Dolly's picture on it.  Hopefully someone will remember seeing her and give us a call.

Our spinning group is still going.  We are meeting twice a month at the Community Center.  Had a call from someome today that may join our group.  Last Saturday we went to the spin-in that is a once a year event.  Its so much fun to see other spinners and weavers, knitters and of course the vendors who have all the 'must have' things for this wonderful art.

I'm currently spinning a blend of black and brown alpaca from my own herd.  Its mostly black with brown highlights and is being spun thick and thin in a somewhat modified woolen type yarn.  Its dark and rich looking, sightly fuzzy and very interesting.  It looks to me like mink or something rich.  Pix when I get a chance.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

This morning I have added a YouTube video my daughter did of our beautiful, funny alpacas.  The four white ones are Harley (the little one), Wasabi, Apollo and Diego who was my first one along with our black alpaca Oso Negro, who has the most beautiful black fiber.  Very soft!  The brown two aren't in there much but are named Coop and Raulito.

She even got the pygoras in there.  Snowball is a sweet little female and has horns.  The other two are wethers, LoverBoy with the red collar and Toby, his twin brother.  We call them the 'naughty boys' because they are!

All these animals have incredibly soft, fine fiber.  Right now I'm blending some brown into Diego's white fiber making really nice, soft, light tan batts for spinning.  These are undyed and all natural.  Unlike wool, which many people are allergic to, these won't cause any discomfort to most folks.  A dream to spin.  These will go on my Etsy shop for sale.  I have the shop set up but nothing for sale yet.  The link will be posted when the shop is ready to go.

No further word on Dolly, our Great Pyrenees.  I am still praying she will find her way home.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

10:00 a.m. Update ... Sorry, it wasn't Dolly.  It was a beautiful white and brown short hair dog ... probably some sort of pit bull mix.  Very large, but not Dolly.  We will keep putting up flyers and praying for her return.

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 A very short post this morning.  Last night someone called to say he thought Dolly has been caught!  THEY MAY HAVE HER!!!  We are so excited.  We are heading up to the water treatment plant in Newport this morning.  Apparently they have a place there where they keep found dogs, and have a contract with the Sheriff's office.  They can only keep them for three days then they turn them over to the main shelter to be euthanized.   You all will be the first to know if its her.