So Much for Smiling

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.

The Chase is On

The Chase Continues

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

I. Want. 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.

The Cute Little Brat

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 Want My Bone

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.

I Want My Bone. Really.
"Mama, she won't give me my bone."

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

For Serious. I Want My Bone Back.
Can I Have My Bone Back Please?

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…

Still Waiting for My Bone

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.

Nyah, Nyah. I Got My Own Bone.

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).

Revisiting “The Nose Game”

I was just checking out my YouTube videos and noticed this one only had 180 views. It is one of my favorites. That’s mainly because CeCe is in it and I can see the goofy way she used to bark when Hubby came home (her whole front end lifted with each “woof”!).

Meg is the all-time Nose Game champ, but Belle and K are learning.

Why’d You Take a Picture of That?

Every now and then Quite frequently, Hubby will come across a picture I have taken and say, “Why’d you take a picture of that?”

He’s an engineer. Things I do rarely make sense to him.

He has a screen saver that cycles through all of the pictures on our network. So I hear questions often…

  • “Who are these people?”
  • “What dog is that?”
  • “Do you really need to keep ten different versions of the same picture?”

I can’t explain what motivates me, really. Because it’s different things. Sometimes it’s color, like with this ham and cabbage casserole I was cooking one night.

Ham and Cabbage Casserole

Once the cabbage cooks for awhile, it loses most of the green coloring. But for a while there, it was a striking casserole.

Dramatic sky colors really catch my eye. Not just the sunrise and sunset shots, either. I also think the sky looks interesting before and after storms.

After the Storm

Don’t get me wrong, I like sunsets, too. A lot. Not just seeing the sun dip below the horizon, but watching as the sky turns a lot of different colors over a very brief period of time.

Most of you have seen the following picture, but I am not sure if I ever shared the story behind it. I was actually standing on the sidewalk in front of our house taking pictures of the sky one afternoon. When I turned around, I saw the girls sitting there looking all cute with this awesome reflection of the sunset visible on the glass.

Go Ahead, Knock. I Triple Dog Dare You.

That will always be one of my absolute favorite doggie pics.

Speaking of dogs, they catch my eye a lot, too. Not because of their coloring, but just because they make me smile. The faces Belle makes, as captured in many of my images, really tickle me. It’s doubly impressive when I get an action shot AND a goofy face at the same time.

Obsessed with Speed

Each of our dogs has different little quirks that are unique to the individual. One of K’s quirks is the way she sits on the steps. Her butt and back feet are usually on one step and her front feet are on a lower step. When Belle and Meg are ready to come in from outside, Belle looks in through the door and Meg looks for a bit, but also scratches. K just sits on the step with her back to the door. The image you see below is a common sight.

Ready to Come Inside

Speaking of Meg, I just love her face. She has one of the most expressive doggy faces ever.

Meg in My Face

I took this close-up one evening when she was sitting on my lap.

I do admit, though, that Meg’s unique coloring has inspired quite a few photos.

There’s that color thing again. I just like colors.

Blue Moon with Craquelure Effect

Colors are fun to look at AND colorful pics make for some great experiments with photo processing software.

Soon, nature will be a riot of color. I can’t wait.

On Nature Walks

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.

Meg and K walking down the driveway.
Meg checking the air for scent.
K hunting.
K and Belle digging as a team.
K and Belle take a break from digging.
Belle runs everywhere she goes. This dog really, really, really loves to run.
Belle also loves finding stuff, like this backbone from a large mammal.
K wanted that bone. Belle was enjoying their little game of keepaway.
K faked Belle into thinking she wanted to wrastle just so she could get the bone.
Belle trying to get her bone back.
Having succeeded, Belle decided to gnaw for a bit.
Belle was sad when K lost interest.
Meg likes rolling in the snow.
Meg shaking off the snow.

So, do you think they enjoy our walks?

Slowly But Surely

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

One Turtle, Safely Out of the Dogs' Reach

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.

Dead or Hibernating? You Be the Judge.

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.

K and Belle Running Together

Is there any doubt these two are buddies?

So Much to Sniff, So Little Time

K just loves walking around sniffing everything.

Wait for Me!

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.

Perfectly Healthy Pine Tree

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.

The Three Amigos

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…

Belle
K
Meg

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.

You Capture – Hopeful

This week’s theme was “hopeful,” which for me is VERY appropriate. I am really HOPEFUL someone looks at my pics since I’m all late posting them. I took these dang pictures days and days ago. Then last night I went to bed at like 8:30. And when I woke up this morning, I forgot it was You Capture day.

I’m posting them anyway. Because I took every single picture with this week’s theme in mind. Really.

You can read more about You Capture if you like. It’s basically a project where quite a few other people  post pictures each Thursday inspired by a predefined theme. I love checking out all of the other pics to see how different people interpreted the theme.

There are a lot of Moms who participate. And every week, no matter what the theme, it seems I see a lot of baby feet. That’s cool, because I love baby feet. But I’m sort of jealous. I don’t have any baby feet just laying around to photograph.

Not any human baby feet anyway.

I am HOPEFUL not too many people make fun of me for taking a picture of one of my furbabies’ feet. Doesn’t she have pretty feet though?

One of the "Baby" Feet We See Around Here

I found it interesting, after our last pitiful dusting of snow, the see the ground under the bird feeders covered in bird footprints. I know you can’t really get a sense of scale from this shot, but I know they are sort of large prints left by the gazillion Grackles that have been visiting our feeders. This is evidence that on this day there were a lot of birds HOPEFUL for castoff seeds and/or crumbs.

Grackle Prints

Speaking of under the bird feeders… this cat has stood guard out there for years, HOPEFULly watching the birds come and go.

Hopeful Cat Statue

Look closely at the bottom right-hand corner of this shot and you’ll see Belle’s foot. She was helping me look for bird prints, HOPEFUL that she would catch a bird. She is a bird dog (Brittany) after all.

In case you are wondering, these prints, which are much smaller than those shown previously, are  from a Dark-eyed Junco.

Bird Dog in Action

While we’re talking about Belle, here’s a shot of her with her head on my keyboard HOPEFUL that I’ll turn the computer off and take her outside.

Can We Go Out Now?

Once you have dogs, you realize they communicate extremely well. They just use body language, whines and barks. In the next pic, you see K sitting in front of me looking at the door. She’d look at me then look at the door. Look at me, then the door. She was HOPEFUL I’d get up and let her outside.

Let Me Out

Finally, this next shot shows all of the dogs HOPEFUL that Hubby, who just got home from somewhere, will hurry up and open the door.

Dad's Home

That’s it for this week. I am very HOPEFUL that next week’s shots are more interesting. And posted in a more timely fashion.