Our latest batch of basset puppies went back home yesterday, leaving the farm a little less warm and wiggly. With such a busy summer on the farm, we think this latest bunch of pups had the most visitors yet. From all six groups of Kids Like Us, to our Head Starters, the many counselor-child pairs from Potomac Case Management, the kids at FCC’s children’s center, the teachers of Laurel Hall, and many other visiting adult groups, so many got the chance to sit cross-legged in a circle with the puppies ricocheting from loving lap to loving lap.
After one group of Kids Like Us middle schoolers walked with the puppies through the pine trails and arboretum, we brainstormed names for these furry babies. With the criteria for names laid out (3 names, 2 syllables, 1 theme, all beginning with N), the kids came up with a splendid sky theme for the puppies. The little girl became Nova. The two boys were named Neptune and Nimbus.
In between visits from kids, the puppies got walks to the pond each morning to investigate the beavers’ latest works, meet our barn cat, Scratch, and generally cause minor havoc across the property. It, at times, became quite the team effort to get them all safely back in their house, away from the allure of yummy horse manure and all the wonderful smells tempting them deeper into the woods.
Now that they’re back in New Jersey, it’s time for them to grow up some more, learning to stay with the pack both out on walks down the lovely dirt roads of New Jersey and in the multiflora rose bushes where their nemesis (the rabbit) lurks.
