Life At AfterAll

 
The driveway, looking up from the house toward the road.

We often say, "It's all about the dogs!" While we do have several other interests, that quote describes life at AfterAll pretty well. The dogs are a very important part of our days and we do all we can to give them a wonderful life. This poem describes how we feel about each and every one of our dogs:

Grow Old With Dogs

 
 
When I am old...
I will wear soft gray sweatshirts...
and a bandana over my silver hair.....
and I will spend my social security checks on wine and my dogs.
I will sit in my house on my well-worn chair and listen
to my dogs' breathing.
I will sneak out in the middle of a warm summer night
and take my dogs for a run, if my old bones will allow...
When people come to call,
I will smile and nod as I show them my dogs...
and talk of them and about them...
....the ones so beloved of the past
and the ones so beloved of today....

I will still work hard cleaning after them, mopping
and feeding them and whispering their names in a soft loving way.
I will wear the gleaming sweat on my throat, like a
jewel and I will be an embarrassment to all...
especially my family...
who have not yet found the peace
in being free to have dogs as your best friends....

These friends who always wait, at any hour, for your footfall...
and eagerly jump to their feet out of a sound sleep, to
greet you as if you are a God.
With warm eyes full of adoring love and hope that you will always stay,
I'll hug their big strong necks...
I'll kiss their dear sweet heads...
and whisper in their very special company....

I look in the Mirror...
and see I am getting old....
this is the kind of person I am...
and have always been.
Loving dogs is easy,
they are part of me.
Please accept me for who I am.
My dogs appreciate my presence in their lives...
they love my presence in their lives......
When I am old this will be important to me...
you will understand when you are old....
if you have dogs to love too.

~Author Unknown

We live between the villages of Rockton and Roscoe, just 10 minutes from the Wisconsin border. Rockford, a city of about 150,000,  is about 20 minutes away. We feel very fortunate to live on 5.6 heavily wooded acres.

The photo on the left shows what the house looked like in March, 2003. when we moved in. The one on the right was taken early in July of that same year. There is a big pole barn at the far right. We have a small agility training area next to the barn  for our agility equipment. There are two runs next to the barn as holding pens for dogs waiting to train or run a course. Since we lost some of our equipment when a large tree fell, we'll be adding several new "contact" obstacles in the spring/summer of 2007.

The 20' X 35' kennel building is attached to the left side of the house by an enclosed breezeway. Visitors are able to come to the kennel through a separate entrance.

In summer, the area closest to the house has many ferns and hosta, but the exercise yards for the dogs are filled with trees and low growing plants. There are two big pens behind the house and a medium sized pen behind the kennel.

We and the dogs enjoyed spending time all summer and fall in our screened porch which opens off the living room and kitchen. Here Ch. Zoe and Ch. Scout share the loveseat. Scout now lives with dear friends of ours and Zoe left us a year ago but it is nice to see these pictures of them here. 

The screen porch is our favorite place whenever the weather is nice enough, but it's great during a light rainfall too.

A stairway leads down from the screen porch to the deck. We can see it out the kitchen window at left. This is a great, safe place for puppies to play and for us to enjoy a warm day or evening.  There are two gates leading off the deck into the two big exercise yards. There's another gate leading to a smaller, graveled area for dogs in the house.
   

When we searched for a new house, a requirement was that the main living areas could be made "dog friendly. We chose to put in Armstrong laminate flooring here as it holds up better than hardwood to the dogs' wear and tear. We like having nice furniture, but we just throw covers over it so the dogs can be with us. During the day, the dogs in the house use the dog doors to alternate between a sunny spot outside and playing with toys in the living room.  We have the two large, wooded pens and three small graveled areas where we can turn out dogs. In the evening, a dog or two compete to get a spot on the "snuggler" Those who don't end up there usually gather toys and settle in around the room.

There is a small room off the laundry room that is about 7 ft. X 8 ft. It was originally a storage area, but it makes a perfect whelping room and that is where most of our puppies are born. It has the added benefit of being separate from the rest of the house so the puppies' mother can move around the attached laundry room and use a dog door to go outside into a small pen.

Wire Pups in the whelping room

Downstairs,  seven individual pens are in our basement. They range from 6' X 6' to 8' X 12'. While we aren't using them now, they gave us a place for dogs to stay we waited for the kennel to be built.  Those pens remain up even though the kennel is finished. It provides a place for bitches in season or a litter of puppies not ready to join the big dogs. There are six nice windows in the basement, so there is lots of natural light around the pens. We also have access from that area directly to the deck and to the outdoor pens.

 We try to limit ourselves to six dogs so that we can give each of them the attention they deserve. Sometimes we have one or two more, but six is our ideal number. Of course, puppies don't count in the tally!