Our dogs are sick. (Ft. Automatic Driveway Gate Install)

Nearly our whole pack is infected with Kennel Cough, which was introduced to the family via the foster dog I had, Fox. Poor Fox got sick quickly, and I had to ship her to another foster (a home without any other dogs), but the toothpaste was out of the tube. Within 2-3 days my dogs began to show symptoms, and for the past week and a half they've been fighting the infection. The poor things have been so sick, it's been a bit stressful and a lot of work trying to keep them as comfortable as possible. We're at the tail end of it now, though Riley (our 16 year old guy) is still suffering the worst right now. The adoption of Tank was definitely a hard pill for me to swallow for the first few days, because I had no say in it and I'm the one who is the main caretaker for everyone. With an already full plate, I wouldn't have taken on another big hound. But I just had to deal with it, and luckily, aside from him being horrible with Southgate (the cat), he's quite a good boy. A great addition to the family, and a sad realization/reminder of how many amazing dogs get put down just because there's no home for them, or people don't want to take a chance on a rescue. (and a hound). My nose being turned up did, however, light a fire under Steve's butt in terms of some of the 'dog' chores around the place: the first thing to happen was to increase the size of our fenced in dog pen (Stalag 13), and the second was to install the gates that I bought last year. I had made some temporary ones, which honestly did the job just fine, but Steve wanted something nicer and he wanted automatic opening and closing ones as well. That whole system cost us less than $2000 CAD, and if you check on Wayfair, or any other site, more than likely gates and the automatic opening and closing system costs more like $5000-$7000 CAD. You know me, I love deals and saving where we can! We still have to wash the gates, cut off the rest of the tops, and touch up the paint, but you get the idea! We're both pretty happy how it turned out, and a huge pat on the back to Steve for doing the lions share of that project! Thanks for watching and see you in the next one! M 💝