Just in case you needed a bit extra today.
Filed under Amazing Animals, love
This wonderful photo and our weather are at war for who can make me melt into a puddle first. I say the sweet puppy, but our heat index will be 110 degrees F. today… UGH.
I’ve really been enjoying the time in my art room. I may finish the Christmas presents today. It’s so much fun to try to make things my friends will enjoy. They’re so good to me, and I want to give them at least a little something back. So there are lots of warm feelings, memories, appreciation and smiles in that room lately. The time there really helps me keep my cool about the rest of the stuff happening in the world and in my life. too.
Our dog has quite a sense of humor. She now thinks it’s funny to wake us up in the middle of the night barking at what my husband calls, “ghost gophers.” When we get up to check on things, there is never anything there. We don’t know if she smells something on the deck, or in the garage, is dreaming, or what, but it’s irritating when we are in the middle of some good rest and are jolted awake. Sometimes my husband goes downstairs and threatens her verbally. Sometimes we can ignore it and she stops. This morning it was closer to the time we normally wake up and she only did it for a few minutes, so we were able to catch a few more zzzz’s. It’s a good thing, with our own ‘old people’s weird sleep patterns’ plus Amber’s sense of humor, that we can take a nap during the day if needed.
Hoping for a quiet Sunday.
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” – Groucho Marx
“No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does.” – Christopher Morley
“My fashion philosophy is, if you’re not covered in dog hair, your life is empty.” – Elayne Boosler
“Dogs have boundless enthusiasm but no sense of shame. I should have a dog as a life coach.” – Moby
“All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog.” – Charles M Schulz
“They [dogs] never talk about themselves but listen to you while you talk about yourself, and keep up an appearance of being interested in the conversation.” – Jerome K. Jerome
“The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.” – Samuel Butler
“Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made.” – Roger A. Caras
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Quotes
awwwwww.
Filed under Amazing Animals, love, your 'awwww' for the day
“Perhaps he does not want to be friends with you until he knows what you are like. With owls, it is never easy-come-easy-go.” – T.H. White.
“There’s always a hidden owl in ‘knowledge’.” -E.I. Jane
“An owl is the wisest of all birds because the more it sees the the less it talks.” – Christie Watson.
“The little owls call to each other with tremulous, quavering voices throughout the livelong night, as they sit in the creaking trees.” – Theodore Roosevelt.
“Don’t count your owls before they are delivered.” – J. K. Rowling.
“Owl hasn’t exactly got Brain, but he knows things.” – A. A. Milne.
Filed under Amazing Animals
We got this postcard in the mail yesterday from our veterinarian’s office. The back reminded us that we need to take Amber for her rabies shot. I think this is inspired on the vet’s part, and a happy way to make sure our animals get the care they deserve.
Since Amber isn’t on a leash often, and is SOOOOO strong, I asked for the time of day today when they tend to be the least busy. I’ll dash in to see that the coast is clear before we try to bring Amber inside. We’ll weigh her, get her shot, and come home again.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, Funny Signs - Humor
This is Amber and my husband. Actually, she has gotten larger since this picture was taken, but it gives you a reasonable idea of her size. She weighs about 90 pounds.
I spend a lot of time loving her each day. She has her ‘rituals’ during the day and it’s very hard to distract her from them. For example, she comes to me when I’m at the computer, getting my attention and then staring across me toward my right pocket, where she knows I carry dog treats. She doesn’t have a subtle bone in her body. It’s very clear that she isn’t worried about ME, wanting love, or wanting to go out, or anything else – just a cookie.
This morning I was slow to respond to her drama. She climbed up – the front half of her in my lap – and nibbled on my ear. When I laughed, she used her front paw to encourage me further, catching me just below my neck with a couple of claws. She really got my attention with THAT. I’m not sure if I’ll have marks or not, but she did NOT get a cookie for that.
Yesterday she was jumping up and down beside the truck, as if she were on a trampoline, waiting for me to open the door for her so she could jump in. I started to open the door and she came down with both feet on MY feet. I was in sandals, so I really felt all 90 pounds of her. I now have bruises on the tops of both feet.
I have learned the lesson well that when she is in the yard with me, I need to pay attention. She suddenly decides she should join me. If she is across the yard, she starts running. I try to either get beside a tree, get up against something, or at least turn to the side so she doesn’t run smack into me, knocking me flat on my back. Kneeling down doesn’t help – it just allows me to fall down from a lower spot.
Amber will either keep me young or put me in the hospital. It’s never boring.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
Filed under Amazing Animals
We wanted to get our trash down to the bottom of the driveway this morning for pickup, but as I told you, we’re trapped up here, with a humongous pile of crusher dust in the driveway at the point we wanted the guy to spread it on down the driveway. It is impassable.
SO – my husband backed the truck down about 1/4 of the 650 foot+ steep driveway. We each took a trash bag and started walking down to the bottom. I have seriously thought about buying some football cleats to wear when trying to walk up and down our driveway. The gravel rolls, making it really hard to walk without falling on my head. I walk down on the edge on one side where there is a bit of grass for more traction.
Anyway, I got down to the bottom with my bag, then took the smaller bag I had brought in order to gather several days worth of mail from our box. I started up and saw my husband trying to gather stuff. His bag had ripped, spilling stuff all over. I went up and we gathered it up, and each took part back down the driveway. We got things bagged up for the trash men and started up again. It’s MUCH harder to walk UP the steep driveway than come down!
I had to stop three times on the way back to the truck to catch my breath. Since thunderstorms are imminent, the humidity is fierce today, too. I guess this is showing me I need to do this much more often in my efforts to get healthier – if it doesn’t kill me first… :0)
The truck is back in the garage now, safe and sound from the coming storms, which are forecast to last until about 2pm today and then start up again this evening. Oh, GOOD!
We caught raccoon #6 overnight, OF COURSE, when we are unable to get out to relocate him. We’re trying to decide if we should simply let him out of the cage or what.
Another piece of news is that our dog, Amber, was barking like a nut at our trailer we have by the shop. GUESS WHAT! We have a mama SKUNK and her babies under there. My husband managed to get Amber back in the house without her getting ‘skunked,’ thank goodness. We’re not sure what to do about the skunk family, either. This may have happened before, but we’re not aware of it.
The rain has started. It’s quite dark and ominous-looking now. I’ll close the garage door soon, but we’ll leave our front and back doors open as long as we can so we can enjoy a possible cool-down as the storms move through. It would be good if we don’t get any damage from the storm. We have enough on our plate already, thank you very much.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Challenges, exercise
Filed under Amazing Animals
I want to be a dog with a good home.
“I want to work like a dog, doing what I was born to do with joy and purpose. I want to play like a dog, with total, jolly abandon.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
“The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven not man’s.” ~ Mark Twain
“All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog.” ~ Charles M. Schulz
“Every dog must have his day.” ~ Jonathan Swift
“You can usually tell that a man is good if he has a dog who loves him.” ~ W. Bruce Cameron
“I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive.” ~ Gilda Radner
“My fashion philosophy is, if you’re not covered in dog hair, your life is empty.” ~ Elayne Boosler
Filed under Amazing Animals
It’s rainy this morning and very dark outside. It looks like the perfect day to spend with the covers pulled up over my head, probably snoring.
We caught raccoon # 5 overnight, so we’ll need to relocate him later today. I really hope we get to the end of this ‘family’ of raccoons who have found our deck and sunflower seeds. So far, though, they have all been relatively quiet, so no worries about rabies or danger to our dog, Amber, or our cat, Abby. Another good thing – the raccoons always make a mess inside and outside the cage on the deck when we catch them. My husband used the new pressure water sprayer thingie I got recently, and he said it did a good job! If it ever quits raining, I’ll look forward to using it to clean some things up.
Since we’ve started a new month, it means that I need to do bank statements, May bookkeeping, filing, etc. I’ll need to intersperse a bunch of online exercising, getting up to do stuff, and more to keep myself from nodding off…
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I made the experimental kielbasa casserole for dinner last night. My husband said it wasn’t his favorite, but encouraged me to keep up the efforts to get us both to eat more veggies. Next time I’ll try a more usual tuna casserole and see if he likes it better.
hahahahahahahahahah
I hope you have a happy day.
“Hallo, Rabbit,” he said, “is that you?”
“Let’s pretend it isn’t,” said Rabbit, “and see what happens.”
― A. A. Milne
“Bunnies will always have a special place in my heart. They are often discredited as being good pets because they don’t ‘do anything’—ask any rabbit owner and watch how they laugh!” – Shenita Etwaroo
“The other day when I was walking through the woods, I saw a rabbit standing in front of a candle making shadows of people on a tree.” – Steven Wright
“I’ll give you three guesses, Rabbit. Digging holes in the ground? Wrong. Leaping from branch to branch of a young oak tree? Wrong. Waiting for somebody to help me out of the river? Right. Give Rabbit time, and he’ll always get the answer.” – A. A. Milne, ‘The House At Pooh Corner’
“We are very fond of books. You can learn nearly everything from them that rabbits can’t teach you.” – Alan Snow, ‘Here Be Monsters!’
Filed under Amazing Animals
This season we have a trail of raccoons from the woods around our house to our feeders on the deck. We caught another one last night. A big one. We’ll have to ‘relocate’ him later.
I wish we could teach them to SHARE the sunflower seeds we put out. We don’t mind putting out more to accommodate both birds AND raccoons, but NOOOOOO – the raccoons insist on not only eating every single seed, but also damaging or trashing the feeders, as well.
Many times they also trash the humane trap we use to catch them, too. We have a small plastic bowl screwed to the trap at the far end. Many times they break THAT and we have to replace it.
I insisted on the humane trap because I WANT to think we’re giving them another chance to be happy raccoons frolicking in the rural areas about 5 miles from our house, enjoying the little stream off the road and the pasture lands. I LIKE to think they reunite with others we’ve relocated, creating happy families and living their lives.
Whatever the reality of the situation, at least we TRY to give them another chance. I hope that there isn’t a memo with a map out there that they read and study before they make the trip back…
Filed under Amazing Animals
“I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It’s not. Mine had me trained in two days.” ~ Bill Dana
“Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.” ~ Garrison Keillor
“The cat is above all things, a dramatist.” ~ Margaret Benson
“I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.” ~ Hippolyte Taine
“A happy arrangement: many people prefer cats to other people, and many cats prefer people to other cats.” ~ Mason Cooley
“Way down deep, we’re all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them.” ~ Jim Davis
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Quotes
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