Baladi Air Conditioning

On a hot afternoon, the dogs really appreciate the fact that we have an old refrigerator that needs defrosting every now and then. Our puppy, Mozza (which means a very cute girl in Egyptian slang) decided that the best thing was to alternate licking the ice and sleeping on it. 

King Of The Mountain

During the summer, especially during Ramadan that is our July this year, the farm is a great place to relax and enjoy the denizens. Google, our Nubian/Alpine buck likes to regard his domain from the top of the wall. Mindy, the Dane, on the other hand, is either curious about what he's doing or trying to encourage him to get down. Google, quite clearly, is having none of it.

Cooling Off

It's been hot lately and after trailing these stupid sheep around all day while they trim the foliage along the canals. So what's a guy to do? Let them eat their heads off, I'm going into the water.

Are You My Mother?

 A mother crow was feeding her baby on top of the hay pile. Mom had to go find more food and the baby decided to ask a passerby for a meal. She's lucky that she found Buffy who is a sucker for any kind of baby.

Supervisors

My housekeeper's son was playing in the garden this afternoon and I noticed that four of the dogs had lined up next to each other and were watching him carefully. I couldn't resist the photo, but my moving over to take it did distract his oldest watcher at the left end.

Curiosity Almost Saddled The Dog

 We were painting the tack room as part of renovations here so all our saddles came outside for a while. Horse equipment has to be imported to Egypt for the most part as our local saddle makers still don't make decent saddles. Ours comes from the US, Italy, Germany, the UK, Argentina, Australia and South Africa, among other places. Mindy the Dane came out to look around and Kelly couldn't resist trying out the little donkey saddle on her. She wasn't impressed. It's one thing to let the baby pretend to ride for a second, but this was just too much.

Exploring Water With a Friend

We were doing some watering today using a diesel pump attached to the well and a used firehose. I think "flooding" is really the right word. The resident infant was playing on the grass and one of my larger dogs walked in front of him and stood there looking noble for a couple of minutes after which I realised that the toddler I'd been watching was nowhere to be seen. I walked around the aviary to find him happily sitting in a flowing stream of well water while another one of the dogs supervised his explorations. This is a lucky kid. Not that many have this much  clean water to play in.

Supervising the Workman

Time for a cute overload.  Nadim, my housekeeper's son, has learned how to crawl and is working on walking, which has its hazards in a house with stone floors, so we dump him in the garden at every opportunity to take his tumbles on sand and soft grass. Yesterday he discovered a shovel left behind by the men who are plastering the upper floors of the house and was determined to pick it up, much like he does with a broom in the house. Needless to say, more work is needed. I'm sure he will be much less eager to wield a shovel when he gets older. One of the Danes and our Pit cross decided to lie on the sandpile to supervise...and, in the case of the Pit, to apply frequent licks to clean sand off his face.

A Girl and Her Dogs

 

Christmas is chaotic anywhere anytime. My daughter and I decided that a walk in the desert would help to clear our heads. A couple of the dogs agreed.

The Cleaning Crew

My housekeeper has been bringing her now almost 6 month old son to work since he was two weeks old. I was worried at first about how the dogs would handle a baby since this is really the first one they've had much contact with. There have been visitors with babies but this little guy lives with us for about 6 hours a day. As you can see, I didn't have much to worry about. Our newest dog, 5 month old Dillah ("shady" in Arabic) has appointed herself the after meal baby car cleaner and is not averse to quickly wiping a spot on his cheek as well. The baby, in turn, babbles away at her and buries his head in her cheek. This is one village boy who won't be afraid of dogs.

Camouflage

A year or so ago some friends gave me a fleece blanket for Christmas that happened to be white with black spots. Oddly enough, I have a dog just that colour and when she crept onto the bed on morning for a nap, I almost didn't see her.

Positive and Negative

Our Great Dane and our Dalmation decided to sneak a nap on a low sofa against the bedouin pillows.

Summer Is Coming In

and hair is coming out. Almost enough there to knit a new dog.

Snack Time

A group of puppies were sleeping in the afternoon sun when a little girl brought a plate of scraps out. There was a scramble of dogs and cats but no aggression.

Homecoming

It's Christmas and all over the world people are trying to get home to their families. My daughter was on her way home to Egypt for the holidays and got stuck for two days in New York when Frankfurt airport was closed. We finally got her back from the airport today and the dogs who had grown up with her were ecstatic to see her.

Sometimes A Pillow Is Nice

When Finn, our over-sized baladi dog decided to nap with the others on the bench by the tack room, he used our oldest Rat Terrier, Terra, as a convenient pillow. His head is almost the same size as her body but she didn't seem to mind.

Georgia O'Keefe Would Love These

While on a ride out in the desert, we cut back home through the area fondly known as the Boneyard...a place where the Antiquities Department at Sakkara dumps excavation debris. You never know what you'll find there. This time there was a row of four canine skulls neatly lined up on an old plank of wood in the sand. They could be dogs; they could be jackals. We had no way of knowing. Kelly got the shot.

Jog Dogs

A while back a running addict friend of mine was staying with me and we went out into the desert so that she could run and I could take photos. It was NOT during the summer. Misu, the terrier who seems to be suspended in the air, was not like that because of hot feet.

Decisions, Decisions

One of the nice things about New York is that New Yorkers like dogs. They take them shopping at the Farmers' Markets, take them to dog parks, and basically really enjoy their dogs. This guy decided to bring his chew toy on a trip to the Farmers' Market in Union Square but about halfway through the morning was kind of wishing he'd left it home.

Getting A Dog Fix

Most kids, rich and poor, live in apartments in Cairo. What most people don't realise that the usable land in Egypt is roughly the size of Holland with a population of 80 million. This weekend we hosted our annual Girl Scout campout at the farm. One of the biggest attractions was our seventeen dogs who think that 35 girls to 17 dogs is a great ratio. Things are actually better for the rural kids who, while they live in apartments, have open space in which to play.