Our dogs are pretty popular here in town. I can’t decide if it’s because they’re cute (well, they are), because they look so happy when we are out walking, or just because there are three of them, which is sort of rare.
I often get comments like “boy, you have your hands full!” And more than once I’ve been asked if I am a professional dog walker, if I work for animal control, why I have three dogs…
It’s funny.
Because I have been walking them for a while now, observing the different reactions from folks we encounter, I have learned to spot the people who just aren’t “dog people.” They’re the ones who don’t even glance at us or crack a smile.
They don’t know what they are missing.
Our dogs are a never-ending source of entertainment.
Sometimes, I think they do stuff just to make us laugh.
Other times, I think they are just being dogs.
I came across a cool dog-cartoon site as I was looking for some interesting clip art to add to this post.
Every time I thought to myself, “Okay, this is the last one I’ll share…” I saw another I just had to include.
The site, a blog, I think, is FunnyFidos.com. I think there’s more than just cartoons there. But I’ll have to check it out further some other time. Because I already wasted enough time scrolling through the cartoons.
What I really wanted to do was share some recent shots of our girls. Because I know at least one of my followers really looks forward to dog pictures.
Remember what I said about them being entertaining? Like kids, sometimes these dogs do the darnedest things.
Belle
Hubby was playing with Belle the other night. She plopped into her bed at one point and he put one of the other beds on top of her. She likes being in and under things, so she stayed like that for a while.
Hubby and Belle
After Hubby left, K and Belle were knocking the beds around (they are very light). One ended up, upside-down in the doorway of my office. I was on the phone, so I just left it that way. A little while later, I noticed the bed was occupied.
K on the Upside-Down Bed
Belle and K are really funny together. They love to wrestle and play. One of these days I’ll have to get a video of them playing in what seems to have become the wrastling room.
Oh, and I can’t forget to mention Meg. She doesn’t enjoy playing as much as the younguns, but she’s still funny.
Meg
That’s one of Meg’s favorite sleeping positions.
And that concludes my dog post for the day.
Almost.
Are you a dog person? Not sure? Take a look at THIS CHECKLIST to find out.
After what has seemed like days/weeks of rainy/cold/otherwise crappy weather, today’s weather is picture-perfect. Yesterday was, too, as you’ll see in the images I have shared below.
Happy Easter!
I may have started with “all is right in the world” except for one thing. We got word yesterday that my Dad’s oldest brother, Bob, passed away. We knew it was coming (based on other news we’d received earlier in the week), but it is still very sad. My heart is definitely heavy on this lovely Easter morning.
We’re at the WV Place (surprised?). We spent most of the day yesterday trying to finish up all the little projects hanging over our heads. Hubby did the last bit of drywall finishing because he got tired of hearing me whine about it. I started hanging the slate tiles on the half wall that flanks the kitchen. There’s one little spot remaining on that wall, and then there’s another little piece of wall to do. I’ll finish that today before heading back to MD.
Hubby made me a fabulous breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns, and biscuits. It was delicious. Isn’t it funny how food always tastes so much better when someone else cooks it for you?
All of my girls are waiting patiently for their morning stroll. And it’s such a nice day, I’m pretty anxious to get out there myself. But first, here are some very Spring pictures I captured yesterday…
Redbud
(I hope you’re not tired of seeing the Redbuds yet!)
Dogwood TreeTurkey Hollow Road (our "street")
Dogwood & RedbudsDogwood
Here a a couple good pictures of the girls. (Post wouldn’t be complete without them!)
Meg (it was her turn to get dirty this weekend)K and Belle
We didn’t come to the WV Place last weekend (one of Shannon’s girlfriends, who we’d never met, came to the MD house to visit). So I was looking doubly forward to this weekend to see what changes the coming of Spring had wrought.
One of my favorite things to do is walk through the woods, looking, listening, and just observing all the subtle natural changes.
I was delighted to see the trees have started blooming.
"Hello, Spring!"
I was especially happy to see the Redbuds have started blooming. That’s when you know Spring is really here.
Rudbud Tree Starting to Bloom
I was also very tickled to see this little butterfly (or moth). It was only about an inch and a half long.
"Hello, little butterfly!"
Another of my favorite pastimes is watching the dogs enjoying their freedom in the woods. Each and every one of them absolutely LOVE the WV place.
K in one of her rare moments without her head buried in something.
I swear they all run around with big, silly grins on their faces when they are here.
K the Hunter
That’s K in a more-familiar state. If you ever wonder why I post more pictures of Meg and Belle than I do of K, this is why. She’s usually got her head buried under something or is dashing like a crazy dog through the trees sniffing stuff. I think she has some cat blood in her. She’s supposed to be a bird dog, not a rodent hunter.
Belle
Belle is a follower. She and K were just walking along when K decided to stick her head under that stump. Belle stopped and looked back as if to say, “Hey, wait a minute. What’s under there?”
The Tag-Team
Belle just had to go back for a better look. K was by that point shoulder-deep under the stump. And Belle was watching closely to see what she would find.
Bored Tree Cavity
The previous evening, the two young ones had bored out this tree cavity. No rodent is safe in our yard. Not one.
Waiting for Dad
This was Meg earlier in the day, waiting for Hubby to come back from town with lunch. My lunch, not her lunch.
Speaking of Meg, while the young girls were chasing rodents, she was off doing some hunting of her own.
Look what she found…
Meg wins the prize for finding the largest bone EVER.
That is a big bone. I have no idea where she got it. The thing is, it didn’t smell all nasty and decayed like most stuff they drag home. It sorta-kinda smelled like ham. Which makes me think Meg may have robbed one of the neighbor’s smokers.
You should have seen Belle’s eyes light up when she saw Meg walk past with that big-ass bone.
"Can I have some?"
K was too busy hunting to notice the bone right away. But she did finally notice right before I took it from Meg.
They were all looking at me as if to say, “Aw, c’mon, Mama. Where’d you put the bone?”
What sort of Spring changes are happening in your neck of the woods?
What I don’t love is their propensity for getting dirty.
K, Meg, and Belle (l-r)
That picture is from a clean day.
Last weekend was a bit different.
First it was our food-obsessed Meg.
Dirty Meg
I think she was just trying to be helpful by cleaning all the ashes out of the catch-tray under our charcoal grill.
She may not look that bad to you, but check out the paper towel I used to wipe her face.
Yuck
And that was only after one pass.
The next night, at about 11:00 PM, our cute little princess, Belle, went on a mouse hunt.
Belle After the Hunt
She’s not quite 4. That’s not gray hair on her face. It’s dirt.
Fortunately (since there’s no bathtub here) she’s small enough to fit in the sanitary tub we’ve got in the garage.
She was DIRTY.
Tonight’s issue is not dirt. It’s aroma.
I have no idea what the young ones found to roll in, but they stink.It’s rather barnyard-like. Not like steaming, fresh manure. More like sun-dried dung.
Earlier tonight, when Hubby was using his air nailer, which is VERY loud, K HAD to be on my lap.
If I were a kangaroo, she would’ve been WAY down deep in my pouch.
Her smell rubbed off on me.
Ugh.
Do your critters get dirty/stinky, too? Feel free to post picture links in the comments.
It’s never a good sign when you wake up with a headache. I mean, what a crappy way to start a day. Hoping to get rid of the ache, I took some naproxen and then made myself a big plate of blueberry pancakes. No luck so far, but I am still hopeful. At least the pancakes tasted good.
While I ate, I caught up on my blog reading. That’s when I realized I haven’t posted anything for five days. I’ve been collecting various pics to share. But it’s an eclectic collection. So there was nothing driving me to do a posting. Now, however, I think it is time to catch up.
The first couple of shots are from Sunday morning at the WV place. It was in the low 30s when we woke up.
Frosty Window
Doesn’t that just make you want to say, “Brrr?”
Lingering Green
Most of the trees are bare already. Except for the oaks. We have lots of oaks. And they hold on to their leaves for a long time. Apparently some are late in the color-change department, too.
Nakedness
See what I mean about the trees being bare?
Morning in the Woods
This is one of my favorite spots at the WV place. Back before we had Belle and K, we had CeCe and Meg. CeCe was a lot like Belle in that she liked to hang close to Mama during our morning walks. She and I would wait here at the top of the hill on Turkey Hollow Road for Meg to return. Quite a few of CeCe’s cremains were scattered here for that very reason. It’s been almost two years since we lost CeCe and we still miss her.
A Hint of Green
The colors on this green leaf caught my eye. There’s not really anything special about that picture except I thought the leaf was cool. So I am sharing it here.
Cool Colors
Speaking of colors catching my eye, I really liked the way these frosty leaves looked.
Frost
You can see the frost more clearly on these leaves. Quite a few bushes are still green, so the woods aren’t completely colorless.
Belle racing around the corner.
Right before snapping this picture, I’d started walking back toward the house. When Belle realized she couldn’t see me, she came running.
Belle
Here’s one where Belle was waiting with me for the other two girls to come back. As for the other two…
Napping while Mama works.
They did reappear shortly after that picture of Belle was taken. I snapped the above image while I was working. The camera was sitting next to me on the windowsill. My girls always like to be close to Mama. Notice K and Belle sharing that small bed?
K
K is more into sharing than Belle. In this shot, although you can’t see her (the zoom lens was on the camera and I couldn’t fit her into the frame), Belle is pretty much hogging the entire bed. K found a corner to sit on and gave me this look as if to say, “Mama, she won’t share.”
K is truly a Mama's girl.
Belle sits with me in the mornings. It’s rare to see Belle on my lap in the evenings. K on the other hand is all about her evening Mama-time. She’ll come over and give me this certain look. That’s when I say, “You need some Mama love?” Immediately she climbs into my lap.
We did have a bit of excitement on Sunday. Are you ready for this?
The new refrigerator.
We bought a new refrigerator! Now we just need to buy some more food. 🙂
Our kitchen is very small. We never really planned the kitchen. I bought a whole kitchen full of old cabinets and we put them into place. It all works okay, except the door placements are very awkward in a couple of spots. We only had room for an under-the-counter refrigerator. And no room for a dishwasher.
Because Hubby really hates doing dishes, we need a dishwasher. We can’t have a dishwasher unless we re-do the kitchen.
Oh yeah, we have a really cheap, crappy cook top, too. It works, but it is a huge PIA. The burners are super hard to regulate properly. If you turn them back too low, they go out. And they won’t relight unless you put a match to them first. It’s annoying.
Our Little House in the Woods
This is not a great picture since the trailer is sitting in front of the garage. But someone was asking me what our house looks like, so there it is.
Going "down the hill."
The dogs just love it when we walk them down the driveway. They’re all three in the picture, K is just hard to see because she is so far ahead. The girl runs like a Greyhound.
Going back up the hill.
You know what they say… what goes down, must come up. Right? 🙂
And now, for the last picture of the day, we have K.
"Mama, she's not sharing AGAIN."
K is looking a bit pissed off. Is it because Belle is hogging the bed? Or because Mama has no room on her lap at the moment. Or both?
For the record, Belle is wide awake, but she hates having her picture taken. Really. She squints or blinks in most shots unless I catch her off guard.
One of the things I love about having dogs around is that they make me laugh.
Really. Sometimes they just do the goofiest things.
They can do gross stuff, too. Take my Meg as an example. She eats pretty much anything. Poo included. And used Kleenex. She just loves used facial tissue.
Meg’s penchant for eating just about anything got her into a bit of a predicament today.
I was out walking with the girls. K and Belle were in the driveway. Meg walked down toward her friend’s house.
A little while later, Meg came running back out of the woods. She ran past Belle, who immediately started following her. When those two ran past K, she decided to run along, too.
They were all making a beeline for me.
"Mama! Mama! There's something wrong with Meg!" (Ignore the glowing eyes, okay?)
I could see something was amiss, I just wasn’t sure what.
Belle looks on as Meg tries to rid herself of the newly acquired accessory.
When they reached me and I saw what the problem was, I started cracking up.
Somehow or other, Meg had managed to get a plastic shopping back stuck around her neck. She was off digging in someone’s trash no doubt.
She was really quite embarrassed.
How do I know she was embarrassed? She didn’t want to let me take her picture. I had to make her sit three different times before I got this shot…
Meg not even a little bit thrilled to be photographed at that particular moment.
First, she gave me that evil eye you see in the above shot. Then she just refused to look at the camera.
"I am NOT going to look. And quit laughing at me."
Finally, I removed the bag. I felt sorry for her because I know she felt pretty stupid. And maybe I shouldn’t have laughed at her, but she looked pretty stupid, too.
Meg’s a good sport.
Meg looking a bit more regal.
Since she did actually sit still to let me take that picture, I figured I’d post a nice picture of her, too. So you could see that she’s not just a big ole doofus. She’s really very pretty. She is a bit of a character. But that’s part of her charm.
