Loralee Lewis and Covia JeffJett
I love owls. There is something about them that speaks to me. I collect them. I try to draw and paint them. I have owl earrings and a necklace. I’m drawn to them everywhere I go. I realize this might be weird, but seeing one lifts my spirits. This lovely owl created with feathers by Loralee Lewis and Covia JeffJett I think is simply stunning.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Encouragement
Amber took advantage in the rain let-up for a minute to take a swim in her clean kiddie pool, thanks to my scrubbing it out yesterday and refilling it. She is now wet and happily sprawled out in the foyer, taking a nap. I took some pics last night that I wanted to share. She has taken to sleeping upside down, back legs sprawled, half-on and half-off her bed n the evenings while we watch TV or a movie.
She won’t let you come up to her, no matter how soundly she seems to be asleep. I even had to turn on the camera in the office and get the flash ready before I came out to the living room to get these pics, but she will stay like this for a LONG time, very comfortably sleeping.
She has such a hard life. Don’t you feel sorry for her?
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
email from Bill Lites
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, Friendship
Amber in the Cat Bed
We have two large dog beds that are about 3 feet x 4 feet and another that is about 2 feet x 3 feet. We also have two cat beds – one is 13 inches x 20 inches, and the other is round a quite a bit smaller.
Everyone loves the bed above – the cat bed that is 13 inches by 20 inches. I’m not sure why, when everyone seems to travel from bed to bed or just sprawl wherever it seems good at the time all over the house. The picture above shows 95 pound Amber in the cat bed. She has to really work, going around and around and pulling all parts in to even TRY to get into this bed, but she was doing it this morning while Smoke was sprawling all over my writing area and calendar beside my computer.
Here is Molly sprawled out now in the same bed, snoring. While the doggies are vying for this one, the cats sprawl out in the middle of each of the humongous dog beds, daring the dogs to try to share.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
Ben Williams via email from Bill Lites
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Quotes
We got a new food and water bowl set up, and then put a tray under it, trying to get Amber to give up her ‘play-in-the-water-dish’ game. So far, it has worked pretty well. Having the water bowl up in the air seems to take it out of the toy category. Fingers are crossed that this continues. Meanwhile, Smoke decided this morning that this was a grand new place to sleep! She even stayed there as Amber stuck her head down through the hole where her food dish goes to check Smoke out.
I would think that having Amber slurping water right over her head would be disconcerting, but Smoke didn’t seem to be bothered at all.
Maybe this allows Smoke to be trampled by the ‘playing-dog-fight’ between Amber and Molly t one less time during the day.
As I walked to the office after taking these pictures, Smoke followed me and is now asleep on the shelves beside me, on top of my calendar and to-do list…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
I really like my fish. They don’t do tricks. They don’t say anything. They’re even quite a lot of work, since I’ve been having trouble coming up with a filtering system that was the right size to fit nicely in my aquarium and do the job it’s supposed to do. I enjoy speaking to them, especially when I feed them twice a day. The four fish all get in the upper corner on the right side when they see I’m ready to feed them. They wriggle like crazy and I swear they smile as they anticipate the fish flakes coming into the water.
That said, I bought a different design filter today. This is for aquariums from 5 to 15 gallons, so I’m at the extreme low-end of the scale. I took EVERYTHING out today, including all the gravel. I completely drained the water, washed the inside of the glass, scrubbed everything that went back in and then filled the tank again with the treated water I fix for them so that my tap water doesn’t bother them. (I have 4 gallon jugs of treated water that is room temperature.) I put in the new filter pump with a new filter cartridge.
The newly cleaned tank has been running for about an hour now and is looking pretty good. The fish seem happy, and were even trying to convince me that it was time to feed them – gathering in the corner, wriggling, and smiling.
I don’t mind changing the filter cartridge more than once a month, but I don’t like having to change it every three DAYS as I was before, and it wasn’t even keeping the water clear! FINGERS CROSSED that what I did today results in the water staying clear for longer.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
Ambrose Bierce via Email from Bill Lites
We got a kiddie pool for Amber last year. She was a cute MUCH SMALLER puppy last summer and was a little intimidated by the water. We finally got her to walk around and drink some of the water, but she didn’t want to actually swim in it much.
Now, since the weather is so beastly hot already here – and it’s not even officially summer yet – I let Amber out and she comes back sopping wet. She heads for the pool immediately, leaps in, walks around, drinks some of the water, then lies down in the middle, saying, “Ahhhhhh!” She may do this several times while she’s out. Then she barks at the door, wanting to come in. She’s 93 pounds of bull-in-a-china-shop wet puppy – and exuberant in her (1) wish for a cookie for barking when she wants to come in, and (2) wish to snuggle with her people.
I now keep dog towels at the front door and at the garage door so that I can at LEAST keep her from dripping all over everything. I’ll make this a routine until our weather cools off – hopefully in October – scrubbing out and refilling the pool every 3 days or so. She LOVES her kiddie pool now. She really doesn’t understand why we don’t care to snuggle with her until she dries off….
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
M. Facklamemail via Facebook/FortheLoveoftheDog via email from Bill Lites
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, Favorite Quotes
Corey Ford via email from Bill Lites
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Quotes, Friendship
Our pets play “musical dog bed” as we used to play “musical chairs.”
The dog bed is technically Molly’s.
Molly-June2018
This is a small bed. Molly is about 25 lbs. She is a Cocker Spaniel/Schnauzer cross. She often gets run over or chewed on by our 93 lb Yellow Lab Retriever, Amber, and needs a break.
I just took this picture of Abby, one of two cats who love this dog bed, too. Abby takes great joy in spreading out as much as possible so that neither Smoke, our second cat, nor Molly, can share.
Earlier today, Amber decided that SHE wanted to get into the bed, but was only able to manage her back half.
After working at it quite a bit, she was finally able to get most of her into the bed. The picture doesn’t show it, but Abby sat a few feet away, watching, and Molly spread out on the bare floor next to my computer chair.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
My goldfish seem happier with the new filter. Even though the filter itself is smaller, the design of the pump with a tube basically sucking the water through the pump seems to be working well.
The fish didn’t actually SAY anything, but they’re swimming around with great enthusiasm. Can fish smile?
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance
Jean Little – via email from Bill Lites
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
Facebook.com/ForTheLoveoftheDog via email from Bill Lites
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Quotes
This is Smoke, keeping my husband company while he works at the computer. She calmly jumps from the floor to my husband’s lap. If he’s accommodating, she settles down right there. If not, she then walks across the keyboard, creating some havoc, to find a comfortable spot to take a nap.
She certainly knows how to relax.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
One of the many challenges we’ve had with our SWEET 15-month-old, 93-pound Yellow Labrador Retriever PUPPY, Amber, is that to say ‘she is a water dog’ is one of the biggest understatements out there. When I scrubbed out her kiddie pool a couple of days ago and was refilling it, she wouldn’t even wait for the water to start filling the pool before she was in and out, barking at the spray head on the hose and playing in the water.
This love of playing in the water translates INSIDE, as well, to our aggravation. We try to have water bowls readily available inside and outside for our dogs and cats. Everyone ELSE just goes over and quietly drinks from the large plastic bowl we had. Since Amber delights in putting a paw or two in the bowl and happily spreading the water all over the floor, we switched from the plastic bowl to a large untippable stainless steel bowl. She doesn’t dump it, but manages to splash the water everywhere on a regular basis.
Today we got a new set up we ordered, hoping to solve the problem. This is a food and water bowls combo. The bowls fit into the table-like top, and the top fits onto legs. The table and legs are made of heavy-duty plastic. Since we know our dog well, we found a stud in the wall and screwed the whole thing into the stud. This is a super-sturdy set-up.
We tested it with Molly, our 25-pound, elderly Cocker Spaniel/Schnauzer cross, to make sure she can reach the water. She doesn’t like it much yet, but she is able to reach the water and drink.
Amber looked at it, wagged her tail, and went to do other dogly things.
I just checked, and there was water on the floor. So Amber went back sneakily – when we were otherwise occupied – and managed to splash water out. There is still some water for thirsty dogs and cats to drink, however, and the assembly is still in one piece, still firmly anchored. So we’ve made the problem a bit better, but now need to look for something to go under this to catch as much of the water as possible…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
National Geographic – Suzi Eszterhas – http://www.greatbigcanvas.com
Filed under Amazing Animals, animal paintings, Creativity
National Geographic – Michael Nichols – http://www.greatbigcanvas.com
Panoramic Images Collection-www.greatbigcanvas.com
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National Geographic – Mark Ross – http://www.greatbigcanvas.com
Filed under Amazing Animals, animal paintings, Creativity
Milo Burcham-www.greatbigcanvas.com
Filed under Amazing Animals, animal paintings, Creativity
Levi-Jones/Unsplash – photo credit in Birds and Blooms Magazine
Isn’t this a great photo?
We saw our first hummingbird of the season yesterday morning when we were eating breakfast. We have two feeders out, and he checked out both of them, sitting down at one and drinking his fill. He also checked out our hummingbird bird bath, but didn’t stop for it. Maybe tomorrow.
My sister-in-lay, Mary Lou, sent me a subscription for Birds and Blooms Magazine, and I’m enjoying it very much. Today I saw an article titled, “Beyond Feeders: 5 More Ways to Attract Hummingbirds”
The article suggested that you provide a place for them to take a bath, leave the bugs they like to eat alone, let spiderwebs remain, plant sap-rich trees, and provide places for them to sit and rest.
This is the hummingbird bird bath we made.
forums.anandtech.com
And one of the feeders we have is this kind.
I hope the one we saw yesterday comes back with all his friends and relatives!
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Things
My friend Marsha Koenig sent me this piece about Daisy.
I hope this plays for you.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Videos
Amber’s had a really fun, doggy type day and we haven’t even gotten to lunch yet!
It started with a romp in her kiddie pool. Instead of just getting her feet wet, she got down and really cooled off. (That brought a distinct reminder that one of the things we need to do today is scrub out her pool and fill it up again.)
We dried her off as much as possible and let her in. (We can’t leave her out very long because she gets bored, goes onto the front porch or into the garage and finds something wonderful to play with (destroy)).
She then decided to play in her water dish, leaving a pool of water. (I used one of our hair-washing towels to sop it up.)
We’re supposed to have a rainy week, so we decided to get out and do our yard work today before it got super hot. My husband used the riding mower and got the lawn taken care of. While he was doing that, I was going around the yard with the weed eater. I needed to do several sessions, having to drink water and rest in between.
One of the times I came in to rest, I found blobs of fuzz everywhere. Amber had found my neck pillow that I use every day in my yoga practice and had shredded it. (It’s now on the Walmart list for replacement.)
One of the times I was out, my husband let Amber out. She found a mud puddle beside one of the planters because he arranged for the irrigation system to work in the back and side of our yard so that our two tomato planters could be watered on a regular basis. Amber had a WONDERFUL time, coming to greet me in a few minutes with mud all over her – especially on her feet, legs, face and nose. I yelled into the house, asking my husband to hose Amber off and put her on the back porch with the door shut to dry off.
I came in for the last time, having finished the weed whacking and having used the leaf blower to clean off the sidewalks and driveway pad, and there was another pool of water around the water dish. (We are now starting the clothes washer to deal with all the wet towels.)
That’s it for the morning entertainment for Amber. I will be really happy in another 11 months when there is some chance that this 93 lb yellow labrador retriever ‘puppy’ will have calmed down a bit…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
creativeartworksblog 