I appreciate your post, because I've always had that 'dream' in my head, of living in the country, which I've never done and this is a reminder of the reality of how challenging it is. I don't know how you do it. I just wanted to share that we have a dog and it has not been a problem in the garden at all. This dog is not a digger at all, She enjoys the garden. I have a shrub border edged by grass on 2 sides of the back that she can wander through and look out the back post and rail fence at the next yard. And we have a 30ft mixed border with perennials that has a rock edge, that she was very easy to train to stay out of. She will chase squirrels when she sees them, and that has cut down on their mischief. So the right dog can be a workable solution and a joy as well. Maybe you have friends or family that might consider taking the dog when you go away? You might have to drive to them before your trip, but on the plus side, you might see them more often. :-) Maybe you have a friend with a dog that you could borrow for a weekend to test out how it would work out? We have never had outdoor cats, we have allergies in the family. But if I had rodent problems like you do, I would definitely get some cats right away. There are so many cats in shelters. But you might want to speak to someone about how you judge whether a cat is a good mouser. You said you have raised beds, I wonder if you added hardware cloth to the bottom of them? I would look into that. We just finished building new beds and added 1/4 inch hardware cloth to the bottom. I've been told that makes a big difference. I haven't had a lot of problems. I definitely have a mole in the yard, but not sure about the voles. So I did it as a precaution. It was expensive. I've also had it suggested to me to plant my bulbs in little baskets made of hardware cloth. On the Hosta forum, there was a suggestion to plant Hostas in wire wastebaskets that you can get at the dollar store. I've also seen people build chicken wire tops for their raised beds to keep animals out, although I haven't heard how successful that is. Good luck!

Awww, that is a lot of scary stuff to take in all at once. I think that you are going to have to just take it one thing at a time and concentrate on getting your little Mo the best bed rest you can manage in hope that this will help him to heal. Do you have a crate for him? Except for potty breaks, Mo is in ICU in a tiny cage for now. Just big enough to stand and turn around in. Potty breaks are on leash, and you carry him out to the spot. Got it? Mo is not to jump up on anything and sure is not supposed to jump off of anything. You give the meds as prescribed, take him out to potty every few hours, and have him in a cushioned bed in a cage that he cannot get out of the rest of the time. With great luck, the meds and rest will work and you won't have to be thinking about what to do next. Concentrate on keeping him quiet. For a Jack Russel to stay quiet for three weeks, you are going to have a lot of care to do. You can't trust to put him on a pillow next to you. He could jump off and get hurt worse. If his crate is too big, use a box to make it smaller so that it is just big enough to turn around in. If he is being too active, call the doc and let her know. She may want to sedate him. So you will take care of your baby this way for three weeks and we will be sending you our thoughts and prayers that he improves. During that time, you can take an honest look at your situation. Is there anybody who wants to treat your dog to $6000 of care? Do you have enough friends to donate that much? If not, write a list of questions to ask the vet. Things like - is he in pain? - can he live like this in a doggy wheelchair? If she says no, then you will know that you did your very best in giving Mo the very best care you could for those three weeks. You gave him the chance to get better with all reasonable care. You could not provide extraordinary care, but most pet owners cannot do that. You gave him the medicine and the bed rest and all the love you had during his three weeks of bed rest. You gave him a chance, but he could not get better, and you also gave him an end to his suffering. You will be able to give him mercy and grace if that is what Mo needs. Come back here and talk to us any time. We will support you through this. Maybe someone else here knows more than these basic things that I know.

You may have inadvertantly set yourself up in a very difficult situation. We have known, loved, and bred Jack Russells for many years. The breeder whose male we used as a stud warned us about female-on-female aggression with this breed, but we decided to keep a female from one of our litters anyway. We already had an older, non-alpha, neutered female along with the breeding b*tch, and had experienced some fairly intense "disagreements" between the 2 of them, but all h*ll broke loose once the female pup got to be about a year old. The violence escalated steadily and resulted in many increasingly savage attacks against the older dog. Honestly, the pup was trying to kill her, not "show her who's boss"! It was truly horrifying to experience, and resulted in several expensive and traumatic trips to the emergency vet. The worst attack resulted in a throat torn open with blood a-pumpin' everywhere. We tried everything, from various training techniques, to bringing in a trainer who was recommended for his work with aggressive dogs, to medication. We finally had to install baby gates in several key locations, and rotate dogs in and out of crates, just to keep some semblance of order. Any time I forgot for a MOMENT, the pup would take advantage of my lapse and launch another broadside. The attacks just got nastier and more deadly (when the old dog was safe somewhere, the pup would attack her mother instead), and the lightbulb finally went off the day that my boss took me into his office and said, "I'm really disappointed in your performance lately." I started crying, and it all fell into place - the anguish (this was the pup I planned to grow old with), the anger, the guilt, the fear, the disturbed sleep, the arguments and tension with my husband, the constant watchfulness, the grief that it had all gone so wrong... it was something I will never allow to progress to that point ever again. We hashed out all of our options with our wonderful vet, talked to Russell Rescue, and ultimately decided to put her down. We had the appointment scheduled for a Monday morning, tried to give her a good loving last weekend on earth, and had even dug a hole for her. (All UNBELIEVABLY difficult.) That Sunday night, late, we got a call from the Rescue folks with an offer of a temporary placement and a potential experienced JRT home to send her to. We finally decided to give her one last shot as a single dog with people who were experienced with the breed, who could provide a home with no contact with other dogs, and who understood all of our pup's issues. Understand that when this dog wasn't trying to kill my other 2, she was an absolute dream companion. She just couldn't handle the other dogs. We are now back to just the first 2 dogs, we are done with dog breeding (there are more than enough dogs in the world already), several years have passed, everyone (including us) has calmed down, and the darkness seems to be in the past. But our two still took several years to ultimately calm down to where they were before the whole mess started. Obviously not all dogs are the same, and maybe you can work on this one successfully. But I just wanted to warn you that same-sex aggression is well known with this breed, and females are the worst. I hope you can come up with a solution, but you may have to consider that a female Jack is not the right addition to your little pack. I'd have a long talk with your vet and see what he suggests. But just be aware that this situation can escalate very quickly and you may wind up with an injured or dead dog and your stomach in a permanent knot. Your little nutjob might be a fine pet in single-dog household with EXPERIENCED owners. Susan

These were killer bees. No one wants to adopt them. They are extremely dangerous to be around. They will attack and chase you for a quarter of a mile. What happens, the killer bees cross with regular honey bees, and the only way to tell them apart is microscopically. They are extremely aggressive and dangerous not only to people, but animals as well. I am sure any bee keeper in this area would want to eradicate them because they don't want them taking over their hives. They do produce honey...and that is how they managed to spread. An experiment in Brazil (in 1956, I think) went wrong and they escaped. They were trying to produce a better honey bee by crossing them with African bees. Over the years they have migrated up from South America into the southern states. I am sure people everywhere would want to stop them before they infect hives and continue to spread further.