So I refrained from making a post about this before this happened, it’s funner this way! I take the blame. 
After I decided this, then I became late in making the post. Blame again. *blame piling up in the closet* 
But now to business….
We got the only animal that we don’t have, and need. A dog. Even better, a puppy. (note: just because I’m not using exclamation points doesn’t mean I’m not excited!) Even better a female. 
Just keeps getting better! (there is your exclamation point)
One really cool thing is that we’re not the only ones on our road that don’t have a dog now! My opinion: we’ve got the cutest! Proof:
This is the puppy and me. Sorry for my cut-off face. Hmph. The puppy is a Boerboel/Kangal cross, the Kangal being the dad and Boerboel being the mom. I’d never heard of this breed until Baba showed the dog to me (the website, actually ).
When we got the puppy, the whole litter had fleas. Andrew, the breeder we got her from, explained that they had slept in an old shelter and probably gotten the fleas from there. He’d been treating them, but they hadn’t all died yet. When we got her home, we rubbed her with DE (Datamations Earth), which might have killed a couple, but not all of them. We rubbed more on the next day, and they still didn’t die. The day after that, we were visiting a friend and had to bring the pup because she couldn’t be left alone with the goats and ducks yet (she’s a threat to the ducks and the goats are a threat to her. More on that later). We gave her a big bath then. We used soap that had a lemon scent, which was supposed to cause the fleas to leave, and most of them did. Just a couple remained. When we got home, we gave her another bath, this time using a peppermint scent, which was supposed to work better. Hurray, all the fleas are gone! But the poor girl was so scared with the water. 
She clutched at me, because I was in crouched in the tub with her. But finally we rinsed her off, and her scary ordeal was over. I think she’s grateful though, no more frantic scratching!
I just want to give you like the sizes of the mama and dad of our puppy. Oz’s, the dad, back was a little higher then my waist, if he stretched his head up, his nose would be around the top of my shoulder. Really big dog. If he stood up, putting his front paws on Baba’s shoulders, he would be looking Baba in the eye, or looking down at him.
Agressa’s, the mom, back was a little lower then my waist, her head was probably… half-way to my shoulders. She’s quite a bit smaller then Oz, but she was so study and thick (not in terms of stupid, but like… wide… not really, where’s the right word when I need it?!). Anyway, she also loved to be scratched. If you did, she’d follow you and ask for more.
Okay, so now I’ll write about the progress of the pup with goats and ducks. She thinks it’s all a game so far. Goats and ducks take it MUCH more seriously. The puppy likes chasing the ducks when they run, and she likes jumping and running around the goats. We’re still trying to teach her to be more calm around them all. Right now she’ll sit when you say. We’re really working on “stay” and “come”. “Come” is coming along pretty good. “Stay”… well, there’s just to much temptation to run around! She also has a habit of trying to chew on us when we come out in the morning. She opens her mouth and tries to chew on something (a finger mostly). And she doesn’t bite, she just is gentle and just licks, really. We don’t really know if this is just a puppy thing, or she’s trying to do something…
Right now we’re feeding her meaty bones and milk. She really loves the raw meat. We tried an egg this morning and she ate that too. We got her when she was pretty skinny, her ribs showed, but now she’s “beefing” up, thankfully. 
Hmmm, I think that’s all really. I do have more pictures though. 
This is her getting all sleepy at the Big Tree. Me and Haniya were kinda posing her and then snapping pictures.
Can I go to sleep now? 
Ooh, such a cute little puppy!!! Thanks for the pics! Love you!
Aw, what a sweet face. What’s her name?
I know!
We decided on Areli. Pronounced: A-rel-ee. It means ‘Lion of God’. She looks SO much like a lion.
Aaawww! SO cute!
I love her eyes,so big and brown:-)
She is a very beautiful puppy
My family also have a new pet!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45027282@N08/4881159825/
We tell her every day!
Ahhhhh! Have you named her?
Little ducklings are SO adorable… in every way!
How fun, I always figured eventually you’d get a dog, you are such an animal person, frogs and snakes and fish just wouldn’t be enough for you!
I have had good luck with plain ol’ Dr. Bronners soap killing fleas- I think anything sudsy will do it, the key being to leave it on for about 5+ min, so the fleas suffocate. They can hunker down at the base of the fur and ride out being wet for quite a while, but I don’t think they can last through soap suds forever. I switched to making my own dog food more than 10 years ago, and all my flea problems went away after that- so I do think that parasite infestation (and prevention) is largely related to diet and health.
Good luck with her, I sure can say that our LGDs have made a huge difference in reducing our predation, as well as keeping the deer out of our gardens and fruit trees. With careful training, she’ll be a huge benefit to you!
Michelle
Michelle´s last [type] ..Facial Eczema Survivor
LOL! Yeah… a dog was the only thing that was missing, really. Well, horses and cows (and chickens and pigs) would be nice too…
We’ve actually spotted two more fleas, but none other then that. None of the goats have them though, so that’s good. Yeah, we rubbed her so there were suds.
You have fruit trees? What kind? I can’t wait!
She’s been hanging out with the goats and ducks a little. She’s definitely excepted them, but they haven’t excepted her yet. Hopefully soon. 
We do have fruit trees, many different varieties, but they are all still young and not producing much. This year we have no fruit, I assume because the wet and cold spring impacted the bees and pollination, and then this general population problem we’re having with bees (so sad!). So we need to probably get some mason bees to help out with that next year.
I think a few fleas are not a big deal at all and that healthy animals should be able to tolerate them, if not actually resist them. I think our society somehow got this crazy idea that the goal should be zero fleas in the environment, and that’s just not possible- they are everywhere! The goal should just be to have healthy animals that don’t succumb to major infestation. Wild animals don’t need monthly pills and topicals to keep from chewing themselves to pieces over flea irritation, after all!
Michelle
Michelle´s last [type] ..Facial Eczema Survivor
Mom said that the soap we use is Dr. Bronners, actually!
I think it would be cool to farm bees. Except I don’t like getting stung (who does?), and I hate wasps and yellow jackets and hornets (which all love visiting us! We’re so appreciate of them! NOT.). When we first moved to Oregon, we had a huge hornet nest in some blackberries. The nest was like 6 inches every way. We somehow got it down, I can’t remember how, but we found the queen hornet and all the worker hornets. Every hornet was present and accounted for! We just recently (a few days ago, as a matter of fact) buried a nest of wasps.
Any apple trees? Oh, yeah. Do fruit trees take longer then like pine or fir or cedar or those “normal and popular” trees to grow? I think we’re planning to plant fruit trees, eventually… I hope we plant apple trees. ;D
Areli didn’t have a TON, but she had a fair few. We picked a bunch off too. I never knew what a flea looked like until I saw hers. They’re pretty hard-bodied, aren’t they?
Haha, right.
“Let’s hunt down each and every wild animal and make them take a pill!” 
BTW, did you get any of your dogs as puppies? Areli like to chew (or nip) us, playfully. This is a puppy thing, right?
Naomi, my understanding of honey bees is that they are relatively mellow compared to wild bees & wasps, and pretty easy to work with. I SO want my husband to get into honey bees (I think I can’t handle another hobby!). But we might settle for mason bees for now, which don’t produce honey, but are supposed to be good about pollenating your trees and sticking around. They “nest” in holes drilled in little wood blocks you can make.
We do have apple trees, and got a few apples last year. But the trees are pretty young, it takes about 10 years before they really produce a useful amount. We also have pear, peach, nectarine, Asian pear, cherry, olive, and I dunno what else!
Yeah, fleas are hard-bodied, I think they are an “exoskeleton” insect (is that the right word/spelling?)? They kind of explode when you squish them, bleah.
Yes, every puppy I’ve had is a hand chewer, I think they all do it. It’s important to nip it in the bud, because though it’s not too annoying when they are little, it gets to be annoying when their mouths get bigger! I usually do something to annoy *them* when they try it, either stick my fist all the way into their mouths, or pinch their jaw or hold onto it, or push them away and ignore them, something that convinces them “oh, I don’t like what you do when I mouth you, so I’m gonna stop that.” They learn pretty quick.
Alternatively, I try to teach them that if they want something, that “polite sitting” almost always gets them what they want, to encourage them to offer that as a “request” behavior, rather than demanding behaviors like jumping, barking, pawing, shoving etc. So, whever I see a “polite sit” I always instantly drop what I’m doing and reward and compliment that behavior, to reinforce it as much as possible.
Michelle
Michelle´s last [type] ..Turkey Pair