I have drawn the winner of my Dog Halloween Costume Contest through random.org.

                                 And the winner is:
Phoebe as Witchey Poo!  Congratulations Phoebe!!!  You can see all the other cute contestants here.


Thanks to everyone who entered!  All entries are entered into the big contest.  You can go and vote on your favorite pup here.
 

My sweet Sugar dressed up as a witch this year

If you've been around here long, you know that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays!  I love to dress up and have fun.  Sometimes even my chihuahua, gets dressed up for the occasion!

Today I have a great contest for all you dog owners out there!  I'm giving away a $25 gift card to Target!

To enter: all you have to do is email me a picture of your doggie in their Halloween costume (it doesn't have to be this years).  Please send your entry to southernblessings@gmail.com with the subject: Dog Costume Contest.  Pictures must be received by me no later than November 1st at midnight. 

Please only send me photos that are your own.  I will update this post with the pictures of all the dogs as they come in.  **By sending me your pic you are giving me and the sponsor permission to post the photo online**

All photos entered at each individual blog will go on to phase 2 of the contest which will be hosted at the sponsor's site.  Once posted there, the pics may be voted on until November 12th and the winner will receive a $500 Target gift card!  How cool is that?  This contest is sponsored by the Dog Fence DIY.

Hope everyone has a fun, spooky, Halloween with their pups!

Here are the entries so far:
 

Entry #1: Phoebe as a Devil

Entry #2: Phoebe as Witchey Poo

Entry # 3: Leo as SpongeBob SquarePants

Entry #4: Cocoa as a Pumpkin

Entry #5: Leo as a Vampire

Entry #6: The Gumfather as a Bee

Entry#7: Molly as a Witch

Entry #8: Patches and Molly as Bride and Groom

I am one of many blogs hosting phase 1 of this contest.  For being a hostess I will receive a $25 Target gift card.  All opinions are my own. Winner will be picked by random drawing from all photos received.

Sugar

From the first time I held a chihuahua, I fell in love!  They are just so small and you can carry them around with you anywhere.  Plus, they're too short to put their paws on the table and since they are small they shed a lot less than bigger dogs.  They also take up less room in the bed, so they can sleep with you, without pushing you out of the bed.

My husband had chihuahuas growing up and he loved them also.  When we got a chance to adopt one, we of course said yes!  That was many years ago and that particular dog has since passed away.  After him, I knew that I would always want one in my life.

Sugar begging

I met the dog I have now about 5 years ago.  Her name is Sugar.  She was living with a cousin of mine at the time.  Sugar ran up to me and was barking and nipping at my heels just like a typical chihuahua.  She bit me so hard one time that she made my ankle bleed.

For a couple of years Sugar wouldn't even come near me unless she was biting me, lol!  Then about 3 years ago my cousins decided they weren't able to keep her anymore and asked us if we wanted her.  I knew my husband would, but I wasn't really thrilled about the idea since I knew she didn't even like me.  But, I gave in for my husband.

Ronnie's other love, Sugar

Chihuahuas usually bond with only one person, so for the first week I didn't even hold her because she was going to be my husband's dog.  But since he works and I'm a stay-at-home mom, Sugar didn't get any loving during the day.  One day she just hopped up in the chair with me.  I was surprised and a little scared, lol!  I wasn't sure if she was going to bite me or what?  It was then that I started learning how much of a people person she really is.  She needs to be touching someone all the time, weather in the bed or on the couch.  If she's not touching you, she'll move over until she is.

Since then, Sugar has warmed up to everyone in our family.  She doesn't even bite Hunter like a normal chihuahua would when he aggravates her.  When Barb still lived with us, Sugar could not stand Barb's dog Zoe.  It was funny because if Sugar was sitting with someone and Zoe came up, Sugar would bite whoever was near her.  Which was usually Barb, but no one was immune.  She even bit me a couple times.  I never could figure out why she just didn't bite Zoe instead of the people around her.

Sugar barking at Zoe

The change in Sugar since she moved in with us has been incredible!  She seems happier and calmer most of the time than she did in her last home.  Sugar is everyone's dog now.  Something that I didn't even think was possible!  She's the best napping companion and will hop in the bed whenever I'm ready to sleep.

Waking up from her nap

She's such a different dog today than the dog I met 5 years ago.  Even though it wasn't love at first sight, I cannot imagine my life without Sugar in it.

Me and my Sugar booger

I'm ashamed of not blogging in so long!

I can't believe I haven't blogged in forever!  I have lots of excuses, but no real reason.  About a month or so ago my husband's laptop died.  One day it just went off and wouldn't come back on.  They think it's the motherboard, but who knows?  It makes me mad because it was only 3 months out of warranty.  Oh well!

Then, a few weeks after that, my laptop died.  I started smelling something burning, and it was my laptop!  We looked and the motherboard was singed black.  I got really lucky, though.  It came back on for about 15 minutes, which was long enough for me to be able to download all my pictures I had saved on it.  I am very thankful for that!  So, please remember to back-up your pictures and important files.  I used to be good about it, then I had gotten slack again in the last year or so.  I would have been very sad if I wasn't able to get my pictures off my old laptop.

New Laptop

We didn't have the money to get a new laptop for either of us, but luckily our telephone co-op let us get a laptop and spread our payments out over 1 year.  My husband was sweet enough to let me get the laptop, even though his had been broken longer.  I chose one that wasn't too expensive, but still had enough power to multi-task.  I got another Gateway since I liked my last one so good.  I'm still trying to find all my old sites I used to visit and programs I need to download to be up-to-date.  The new one is Windows 7, so I'm getting used to that too.  I've missed y'all!

Magic's Grave

Lastly my son's cat, Magic, who he'd had for over 10 years, up and died.  I think I was more upset for Mitchell, than he was about his cat dying.  I felt bad for him.  So, we buried Magic in a spot Mitchell picked out for her.  Even though it was raining he marked off her grave during the funeral with pieces of wood.

Some of you may remember my son's dog Little Ann.  She is a sweet little dog.  She lives outside and has co-existed happily with our chickens for 3 years.  Well, she did live happily with them.  A couple weeks ago we found one of our Brahma hens hurt.  At first we thought a hawk might have tried to grab it, so we looked around for feathers to try and see where it happened. 


We found a pile of feathers beside Little Ann.  I thought maybe it was just a fluke, she'd never harmed any chickens before, so we put the hurt hen in isolation and gave Little Ann a second chance.  A few days later we found another hen dead.  Strangely enough it was the other Brahma hen we had.  Apparently Little Ann didn't like Brahmas.  You know what they say about dogs getting a taste for blood and wanting more.  I guess it's true.


We knew what we had to do, but it hurt all of us to let Little Ann go.  But, even my son knew it was for the best.  We still have one outside dog that is Little Ann's son, but he's in a kennel type thing.  We would have put Little Ann in there, but she can climb any fence, so it wouldn't have helped.  I just don't understand why she flipped on us?


I hope she has a good life at her new place!

Foraging for bugs

A few of you asked about my guineas I posted a picture of the other day.  Their names are Heckyll and Jeckyll.  Both are boys and they're not chickens or turkeys, lol!  They are fowl, though.  My son says they are relatives of the dinosaur since the have hard helmets on their heads.

Helmet head

They spend most of the day foraging for food.  They require very little purchased food.  They hunt for bugs all day long.  Guineas are great at keeping the flea/tick population under control. They are different from chickens in that they won't tear up a garden.  They will go in to look for and eat bugs, but not to destroy it.  Guineas are also good at flying.  They'll fly in trees to get away from predators. 

Keeping watch during the snow this winter

They do make high pitched sounds.  You can tell if they are males or females by the call they make.  Females make a two syllable sound similar to "buckwheat", while males can only make a one syllable sound.  They will sound their "alarm" if they feel they are being threatened, or if someone new comes in the yard.  They always try and stand by my bedroom window and holler if they think I'm asleep!  Bad boys!

Dust/Sun bathing

If you've read my blog awhile, you may remember that I started out with 12 guineas.  At first they roosted outside at night, that's how 10 of them ended up being killed by coyotes.  These last two have gotten smart and stay in the chicken coop at night.  Thank Goodness, cause I love my boys!

Did you guess about our new arrivals?  Our chihuahua, Sugar, got pregnant unexpectedly!  She's apparently a very fertile dog!  She just had Bear 6 months ago.


Well, last week she had 2 puppies.  A boy and a girl.  The boy is all black with white paws and the girl is black with white on it's head and neck and white paws.


Luckily, we already have homes for them.  Almost everyone I know loves chihuahuas!


Look how little he is compared to his 6 month old brother, Bear!  Aren't they cute?

The other day while cleaning out our big closet beside the master bathroom, I found a Halloween costume with a lot of holes in it.  I looked further and I saw mouse poo!  We had a mouse in the house, and not a cute one like Mickey Mouse!


I was a little scared to keep looking, not wanting to meet the mouse face to face.  I waited on my husband to get home from work, so he could help me.  We had the closet almost all the way cleaned out when I saw the mouse run to the other side of the closet.  I screamed and he ran back the other way.  My husband kept pulling things out and handed me a box.  I looked in the box and the mouse looked right back at me.  I screamed again and threw the box back at my husband.  The mouse ran out of the box while I screamed some more.  He started to run out of the closet when my husband trapped him with the box.  We didn't find any more mice after that.


Our next problem was to find out where the mouse came in the house.  There were no holes in either of the closets.  We have a big garden tub in our bathroom and I had been feeling cool air coming out around the edges.  When we pulled a panel off, we saw this huge hole pictured above!  We bought our home a little over 2 years ago, and I guess this hole has been there ever since then!  I can't believe they didn't cover that up!  That really explains why our room is the coldest one in the house.


We knew we needed to cover that hole if we wanted to be rid of any more mice.  My husband found some hardware cloth and nailed it down over the hole.  Then he covered it with that expanding foam to seal any cracks.  It doesn't look pretty, but it should keep the mice out.  I feel lots better about sleeping in there now!

Y'all remember the puppy that Sugar had?  Can you believe he's already a month old? He is so precious and so tiny!  His name is Bear, like Br'er Bear from one of my favorite rides at Disney World, Splash Mountain.


Sugar has been a very overprotective mother. If anyone comes anywhere near the room her and the puppy sleep in, she rushes towards them and nips.

Bear has gotten so fat, I think that's about the only way he's grown lol! The past week he has gotten really good at walking and can run a little. He's so short his little belly rubs the floor.

For a week or so we had noticed my husband's chihuahua was gaining weight.  We thought she may be pregnant, but weren't sure.  She never got very big.  But, yesterday, she stayed in our room all day, and wouldn't come sit with any of us.  This was very surprising, because she loves being held and petted.


 Last night after we got in bed, she wanted to stay on the floor in a blanket, instead of sleeping with us.  I knew it must be time for her to have puppies.  She was breathing really heavy, and after about  an hour, I heard whimpering.  Of course, I had to get up and check on her.  She was trying to cut the cord, when I went over there.  


She ended up only having one puppy.  It's so tiny and cute!  They said she was in heat before they gave her to us, we had no idea she would end up having a puppy.  So far, Sugar is a really good mama.  She doesn't like it when we take the puppy away from her.  I guess this explains why she has been so snappy lately. She had already had one litter a few years ago, so she knows what she is doing.