Category: k

Friday was my last day at the WV place. It was a pretty busy day. It was pretty odd, too.

First, the weather. It rained off and on in the morning. So every time the dogs went outside, they brought some mud back inside.

The floor looked like this by late morning. It was pretty bad. And I had just cleaned the floor on Monday night. The bedroom is the only place that the floor was sort of clean.

The cool thing about a concrete floor is, it cleans up pretty easy.

Before I started working, I did a post about Belle the bone thief. She stole K’s bone. I wasn’t overly concerned though because bones had been showing up all week.

Do you remember me ending that post with, “I don’t even want to picture the carcass that is the source of all these bones.” There’s definitely a pile of bones somewhere on our property. I’m not sure if it can still be called a carcass though because it has no head.

How do I know it has no head?

Because someone deposited it on the ground outside my kitchen window. I don’t know which of the girls delivered that little treasure, but I am pretty sure it was Meg. I really was very busy so I ran outside, lifted the skull with a grocery bag and hung the bag on our porch post. A little while later, I just had to stop to get a shot of this…

I happened to look outside at 2:45 while I was fixing my lunch and dang if there weren’t more bones. I decided I’d better collect them. After all, the girls had been showing up with bones all week. And boy, did those bones ever make those dogs STINK. Shortly after they ate the bones, you could smell it on their faces and feet. A few hours later, you could smell it in the air. With dogs, if it smells bad going in, it usually smells much worse coming out. Especially if expelled in gas form.

By the time I was through for the day, I felt like I’d done an archaeological dig.

You wouldn’t think my sweet little angels would do such a thing, would you?

Don’t let those faces fool you for a second.

And now, for something completely and utterly unrelated to anything I just said, look at this cool moon picture.

I snapped that shot while taking the girls on our final stroll, just before heading back to MD. Which is where I am now, all ready (sort of) for another very busy work week.

The other day I wrote about how K had finally started to smile. If you didn’t see that post, go back and check it out. There’s pictorial proof.

Moments after publishing that post, I had to take the dogs down the hill. Seriously, they insist. Belle pokes me repeatedly with her nose. K hits my shoulder with both front feet at once then looks at me all serious and issues one long, plaintive “woof”. Meg circles and whines, looking at me hopefully the whole time. Then she starts growling and barking.

It doesn’t stop until I take them down the hill, which essentially just means to the end of our driveway. Further, if I have time, which that day I didn’t.

Anyway… while I was standing near the end of our driveway, K was exploring in the woods on my right. Soon enough, she found a bone. (Looking back, I’m pretty sure one of the dogs must’ve hidden it there earlier.)

Not long after that, Belle discovered that K had found a bone.

Well, Belle wanted that bone.

Click on the image at left for a larger view to see Belle trying to get K’s bone.

I watched them for a little while, but I had to get back to work. So I headed toward the house.

Not long after that Belle, who must have tired of trying to outmaneuver K, joined me. A couple of minutes later, K followed. She must have hidden her bone for later (she tires of gnawing faster than the other dogs).

Well… the very second Belle saw K boneless, off she ran. Directly to the spot where K had left the bone.

This was the scene shortly thereafter.

K was not happy. Her expression in the next shot totally says, “That bitch stole my bone!”

Belle, at times, can really be a brat. She’s top dog at our house and she flaunts it. She chooses which bed she sleeps in every night. She chooses whether or not a dog can play with a particular toy. She tries stealing everyone else’s chewies. And so on.

Hubby and I often say, “It’s a good thing she’s so cute.” Really. How can you get really, really mad at a dog with a face like that one? Especially when she looks at you like this?

I could have intervened, like I often do at home, but I didn’t want to touch that bone. And watching them was sort of funny.

As a quick aside… isn’t it weird how K looks like a goat in that picture?

I did sort of feel sorry for K. But I had to get to work. I knew she’d get it back eventually. Besides, there are quite a few bones laying around the yard here.

I don’t even want to picture the carcass that is the source of all these bones…

I looked outside a little while later, and they were still at it. Belle chewing (i.e., gloating) and K stewing.

It all worked out in the end. Later that same day, K was back to romping and smiling.

Are you wondering about Meg? Are you? Feeling sorry for her, thinking she got all left out?

Don’t.

A short time later, she showed up with a new bone of her own.

Let me reiterate… I don’t even want to picture the carcass that is the source of all these bones.

These dogs always keep me entertained (and a little grossed out at times, too).

I had to laugh at myself this morning. Actually, “chuckle” is a better way to describe it. Admittedly, this will make me sound really geeky. I have gotten to the point where I can recognize birds by their song/call. This morning at 6:15, while I was standing at the end of our driveway watching K sniff around, I heard a bird. It was sort of distant, so I couldn’t hear it very well. But I could hear it well enough to know that I didn’t recognize its call.

“Is it an owl?” I asked myself. “Maybe it’s one of those big woodpeckers. Or some sort of hawk. Or a strange migrant on his way north.”

I was starting to get excited, thinking there may be a new bird in the neighborhood. I listened more closely as it sounded off pretty regularly.

That’s when I realized what it was.

A rooster. I really am quite the nature girl, aren’t I?

Back to the walk thing. I do enjoy going for walks on the “roads” (dirt and gravel paths) and in the woods around our WV place. I like it just because it’s always great to be outside. But I also like it because I get to see all of our dogs REALLY enjoying life.

They LOVE being able to walk around and explore without being tethered to a human. They LOVE running freely through the woods, in the swamps, through the streams. Whenever I see my girls running around up here, practically drunk with happiness, I think about all of the poor dogs who have to live their lives in kennels. Or outside, in all weather, tied to a tree.  That’s no way to live!

Anyway, because said dogs were waiting for me to hurry up and finish this blog post, I decided just to give you a pictorial journey. So you can see how much the girls enjoy our little outings.

So, do you think they enjoy our walks?

Some of you may remember that the last time we visited the WV Place, K found some “treasure” buried in the snow.

For those who don’t remember, she dug up a box turtle. I am pretty sure it was dead, but I didn’t want the dogs eating it so I stashed it somewhere safely out of their reach.

Later, when I told Hubby the story, he said it was probably hibernating. And he said that poor turtle was going to wake up come Spring, find himself upside down in a tree and wonder what the heck kind of mischief he’d been into before nodding off to sleep.

I still think it was dead. Its face was all dried up and shriveled looking.

But how many times do you think that turtle crossed my mind over the last couple of weeks? I didn’t count, but I thought of him a lot. Especially after a friend’s husband, upon hearing the story, said he too thought the thing was hibernating.

I was sure all the crazy winds we had a week or so ago would’ve knocked the turtle out of that tree. So imagine my surprise last night when Belle discovered the turtle STILL in the tree.

And he looks exactly the same way he did when I put him there.

He’s dead, I tell you.

But just to make sure, I’m going to take him down and put him somewhere safe where the girls can’t dig him up so we can see what happens to him.

On another note… the girls were sure glad to get back to the WV place.

Is there any doubt these two are buddies?

K just loves walking around sniffing everything.

Belle loves running. I mean, she really loves it. Everywhere she goes, she runs. Here she is running to catch up with K and me. Meg had already ditched us to go visit Buddy.

I was really happy to see this pine tree survived this season’s multiple snowstorms. It’s an important tree. Not only did it shelter a bunch of deer (or a few deer for a bunch of days) during the blizzards, it is also a favorite hangout for the various little birds that live in the woods around here.

K was doing so good sticking with us that we stayed out walking for about an hour. Well, Belle was running. K and I were walking. Though K was walking fast, wide circles around me sniffing everything.

This was the scene at our place shortly after we got back from our adventure…

There’s still snow on the ground here. It’s melting slowly, but surely. Maybe by the next time we come for a visit it will all be gone. Time will tell, I guess.