News - Thundering Paws Farm

Tick Season 2026 Is Here!

Ticks reappeared with Tax Day 2026. In from a day out with the dogs, there was a nymph …very, very small… crawling on my wrist while eating dinner.

**Dogs around the north pond** **at Thundering Paws Farm**

I recommend Bravecto for ticks and fleas, a 3 month (12 week) treatment that really works. The ticks I see on a dog taking Bravecto are already dead.

Gail Goes to a Maine Sheep Farm

3 year old Gail joins Kristian on his sheep farm in Maine. Gail is one of the nicest and most talented dogs to leave the farm. She needed / wanted / deserved a one-on-one relationship with a kind human …and sheep.

Work began immediately for Gail …and she is just fine with that! The dog who always has a smile on her face has reason to smile.

A Tax Day Surprise

**Nature threw me a curve that I didn’t see coming… until today**
**She was *supposed* to wait for Cap in 2027**
🙏🏻 **Enter… Lucy & Jim to help manage this unexpected development**

Bye-Bye Snow

10-April-2026. The dogs are enjoying snow-free fields again. Winter is over. We are waiting for spring to arrive. The 5-month-old pups are in heaven! It has been snow and cold since they were born on 25-October-2025.

**Patch – naturally talented, slowly warming to me (and humans)**

**Nova – who got a (successful) remedial lesson in who is boss.**

**Mindi – my little housemate** **and future working dog**

…and my #1, Peter. I can never take too many photos of this dog.

April Snow

A Free Press

In a country with a free press, new is whatever people deem it to be. I didn’t need this kind of ‘publicity’. However, for all its shortcomings of a ‘free press’, it better than the alternative. News of the Groundhog Day Missing Puppies from Thundering Paws Farm was the talk of the Vermont side of the Upper Valley. Only 2 months later did I see that the story hit the local newspaper. I was too busy trying to make sure the puppies didn’t escape …again. With 60 cm of snow on the fields, running down the 1/2 mile driveway to seek adventure was almost irresistible.

Mystery of the Lost & Found Puppies of Taylor Valley

Vermont Leads the Nation!

Trump approval / disapproval rates by state

A metaphor for the Trump presidency

End of March

March is still a cold month in Vermont. Temps down in the teens at night. After a long, cold winter, the fields are mostly clear of snow this last day of March 2026.

**5 month old Nova sleeping, curled up on the patio to conserve heat, hoping for a little sunshine to warm her**

Leif Off to a Horse Farm in NH

A friend of 9 months here on the farm left today with Sabine and Geoff to their horse farm in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. Sabine and Geoff lost their 13 month-old pup during a routine neutering operation this month. Devastated, they sought to rill and indescribable gap …and found Leif, one of the sweetest dogs I have ever bred.