August 2, All In The Family

This is Zepp, short for the mega rock group Led Zeppelin. He’s trying to figure out what these other little creatures are that moved into his house. He was really gentle with the chick though, a big lug indeed.

Please show me a photo of what family means to you! You can win a 16 x 20 canvas from the wonderful people at Hello Canvas. Find out how here.

Posted on Tracey’s Best Shot Monday.

The Pet Parade – Sheba Style

I’ve been waiting for the Pet Parade! I’m playing along with my good friend Gayle (who I just love) and the talented ELK over at Shutter Sisters. It’s a family affair!

My doggie of choice is Sheba, our neighbor for the last 7 years. Seven years for a dog is a long time and Sheba was a young pup back then. Now she’s an old dame. Gray, slow, and calm.

She watches over the kids. A much younger and more energetic dog has moved into her house…poor her. But she’s taking it well.

What a good old dog…

Please enter a photo in my Hello Love – Family contest! You can win a free canvas for your photo. I would love to see all your submissions…

What Deer?

I don’t have the most observant dog.

Lets face it, if I quit my job and stayed home every day, I would drive you crazy.  Still resting I am.

Welcome To The Neighborhood Frau Greta

This is a sad story…so if you are feeling particularly tender today, don’t read anymore.

But for those of you tough folks with great intestinal fortitude…well, go ahead, live dangerously.

I was walking the dog as I am wont to do every morning that I’m semi-awake. Every morning I pass by Neighbor Vince’s house and on this particular morning he was outside with a wheelbarrow and shovel. He looked up as I walked by and he threw his shovel down and turned and walked about 20 paces away from me and started to sob.

These weren’t just tears, they were body racking sobs.

The dog started walking to him and I followed. I was greatly concerned and a little bit befuddled. After all I hadn’t had my tea yet (my compassion can be overwhelming at times.)

Neighbor Vince knelt down and hugged the dog and buried his head in hers. My thoughts immediately went to the worse case scenario. It’s the way I am.

“Is it Mikey ?” I ask. I immediately think of the kids…it’s my worse nightmare.

He chuckled/sobbed and said, “No it’s not Mikey.”

“Is it Teri?” I ask. I wasn’t leaving until I found out what it was, whether he wanted to tell me or not.

“You’re not a very good detective are you?” he says.

At which point, I looked at the ditch he was digging and I thought, “OMG, he’s going to bury a body.”

And right behind my fence too.

At which point, he put me out of my misery and said that Bubba, his Chesapeake Lab was in a bad way. And that he was going to bury him. I was alternately relieved and horrified…it’s wasn’t his kids or his wife, but it was his dog! There’s no love lost between Bubba and I but I have to say, I felt so badly for him.

I gave him a big hug and told him that I would get the husband to come out and help him dig. He said no.

I guess a man really has to do some things by himself.

The other night Neighbors Vince and Teri came by with this…their new puppy! She’s from the pound…and absolutely adorable! There’s no better way to heal than to pour your love into another being who needs it!

So now we – I mean they – have to name her…they want to give her a cute feminine German name. Does anyone know of one?

I think Greta…yeah, Greta. It’s a step up from Bubba I think.

Posted on Love Thursday. What a love story huh?

A Photographer’s Life

Actually, I wouldn’t know what the life of a real photographer is like. I only know what it is like to be me as I attempt a “photo shoot.”

I loved these beautiful tulips from my garden. I posted what I thought the best of the shots this morning. Then a curious someone tries to eat them.

Yum, tulips.

These beautiful daffodils were at the base of my neighbor’s mailbox.

Then someone wanted to know how they smelled. And they smelled good enough to relieve oneself on. I got the shot before that happened by the way.

Sniff…these smell good enough to…never mind.

The cat stayed in one place long enough for me to get a shot of some great sunflare.

Hey! What cha doing? What cha doing? Huh? Huh?

As my boss said to me the other day, “Le sigh.”

Bow-Legged Randomness

Tuk Tuk is very bow-legged but he’s only about four inches off the ground so I really don’t notice until I get really low. I don’t know what that look is all about either. Eeeekkk. Lighten up dude, it’s Friday.

All my bloggy BFFs are doing this random thing today…so I will too. However I normally don’t get very far before I bore myself (I can’t imagine what it’s doing to you) so lets see how far I get…

1. My garage door opener in my car is broken. I never realized now much it means to have a garage open on demand until it’s not opening on demand.

2. I had sushi for lunch and I found a bottle of Japanese plum wine in the refridgerator when I got home today so it’s a Japanese kind of day. Oishi desu!

3. The boy has a cold. Lots of coughing. Poor baby.

4. The girl had a filling this week and it was traumatic so I’m not writing about it. This is a happy place. She’s better now by the way. The one bit of grace is that the boy’s check up this week was squeeky clean so he’s reached the ripe age of 15 without a single cavity. Amen for small things.

4.5. The girl just walked by with gym shorts on and said, “I’m going to work out mama.” Okay.

5. After a horrendous couple of days at work, my boss gave me a wonderful bit of leadership advice today. She said, “You deserve what you tolerate.” I will forever keep that in mind when making decisions in work and life. And I’m starting tomorrow with the girl’s room. I’m not tolerating it anymore:)

6. I’m planning a big, huge, dinner Saturday for the husband who has had an equally hard couple of weeks. He’s my other poor baby.

7. Okay enough of that. I want to leaving you with this little video of troops dancing to Lady Gaga. For some reason it was silly enough to make me laugh.

Happy Friday! I love you!

Half-Breed

Ding Dong!

Who is it?

Landshark.

You’re not a Landshark! You’re Gigi! Come on in!

Those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about are either too young or too intellectual to have watched such banality.

But the rest of us thought it was funny.

Anyway, this post is about the Saturday Night skit. It’s about Gigi, the half-breed who lives down the street. She really not a half-breed per se…she’s a thoroughbred Labra-Doodle. And so lies the weirdness of nature as God designed it.

Maybe we shouldn’t have let her inside.

For you see, dogs can be bred for specific characteristic and behavorial traits. If you want a breed to specifically snif out bombs at an airport, you can breed one in less than four generations. If you want a dog with an acute sense of hearing, you can breed on the same way. All dogs are descendants of the wolf but generations of breeding domesticity into them have completely removed the independent wolf instinct.

Labra-Doodles are a cross between Labradors and Poodles. They are bred to have the easy going, loyal, and disposition of Labradors but have the intelligence and the non-sheddability of Poodles. It means they supposedly don’t shed. I know it’s not a word.

How do I know? I saw it on the National Geographic Channel while on vacation to New Orleans a couple of years ago.

Really.

So my weird mind asks this question. What about other breeds? Cats? Rabbits?….People? Gulp.

Told you my mind works in weird ways.

She’s so cute.

As it turns out, this phenomenon of breeding is confined to just dogs, as far as we know. They’ve tried it with cats to no avail. No one has actually tried on humans, as far as we know.

Sorry to get all Dr. Frankenstein on you…but I know that you’ve thought about it too.

Maybe not.

One thing for sure. Gigi the Labra-Doodle who lives down the street can beat my own sweet dog in a beauty contest any day. Somebody neglected to breed our dog for the “pretty” gene. But she IS ours and we love her shed-like-crazy-bald-headed-stout-big-boned self.

Thank goodness it’s not all about beauty.

Time to go home Gigi. We have enough animals running around here.

Posted on Wordful Wednesday.

It’s Animal Love

It’s not just a celebration of human love this week.

I love the dog too. She’s my companion every morning for our daily walk. And I don’t even have to put her on a leash.

I was going through my old archives and I found these photos of her birthday from last November. We got her an angus burger from McDonald’s for her birthday.

My pastor once asked people to email him with any questions they had about heaven. The most asked question?

“Will my pet go to heaven?”

He says we won’t like the answer. He says that animals don’t have souls like humans do. So they can’t possibly go to heaven. But that heaven is such a place where everthing is perfect so it will be like having our pets with us.

What does he know?

Happy New Year Mosaic Monday

On Tuesday.

Trench Warfare & Christmas Time

One of my favorite Christmas stories ever is a true one. Please forgive me because I’m going by memory. I’m not googling it.

During World War I, the world was at war and the Allie and German troops were conducting trench warfare somewhere in France. On Christmas Day, they put down their arms and celebrated Christmas together. Some people would rather emaphasize the fact that they then went back to warring with each other after that. But I like to take away the fact that there will always be difference, and disputes and well – war.

But on that one day, there was peace. And the peace was bigger than man, country and war. And it came from a place that is not of this earth. Now that’s the true story of Christmas.

We’re on our way home from my parents’ house. I hope that cat and dog are as peaceful with us and each as they were on our way up here.

I may post again when I get home today. For some reason I’m feeling chatty.

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