Category: pets

When I was in the house washing breakfast dishes yesterday morning, a whole flock of Juncos stopped by for a visit. They were thirsty. But our birdbath was frozen solid.

Back before we stopped living in Maryland on weekends, I used to spend a lot of time in the yard. I had bird houses and bird feeders. I even had a pond for a while until I got tired of cleaning out the black-water swamp every Spring.

Juncos are happy little birds that winter in these parts. They usually show up in mid-November and stay until maybe April or early May (can’t remember). There are lots of them at our West Virginia place, too.

I felt sorry for them. It was as if some of them were saying, “I know there used to be water here. Food, too.” So I dug around the garage for the birdbath heater. It was the least I could do.

I sat it on top of the ice, added some warm water, and weighted it down with a rock to speed the thawing. Before long, there was a big hole in the middle of the ice block, which made it possible for me to pick the chunk of ice up like a doughnut and toss it onto the ground.

The birds haven’t come back yet. But they will. And I figure they’ll not only entertain me, but the dogs and cats, too. Brittanys are, after all, bird dogs.

In the meantime, speaking of entertainment, when Belle stumbled upon the ice, you’d have thought she discovered gold.

Having her here is like having a toddler in residence. Every day, she discovers something new to be excited about. (You should have seen the look on her face when I gave her a glob of peanut butter to eat!)

She was so excited about the ice, she started carrying pieces around the yard.

It was rather comical to watch.

When she got tired of running with it, she’d stop and crunch on it for a while.

Here’s the now unfrozen birdbath. I’ll try to keep the camera handy to get pictures of the birds when they return. They will return. I guarantee it.

Our first weekend in WV for 2009 was a cold one. Saturday morning dawned cold, but dry. Which was good. It was Belle’s first weekend there and the last thing I wanted was to be trudging around in the rain. Snow I can handle. But rain is just no fun.

Wondering how Belle did at the WV place? She was fabulous. Except that we didn’t take her blankie. And we soon learned the she won’t sleep without one.

It didn’t take long at all for Belle to discover what began as a deer trail behind our house. It runs pretty much from the corner of our back patio to the back of our property. Our dogs have always used it as a main thoroughfare. At that back corner of the property is a fence. On the other side of the fence is the Price estate. That’s where Buddy lives.

Buddy is the big, friendly Golden Retriever owned by Jean and Jim Price, our WV neighbors. Our dogs love to play together. Buddy comes to visit regularly, and our dogs go to visit him, too. When he showed up on Saturday, his size (I think) scared Belle, so she hid in the house.

We walked down to visit on Saturday afternoon, but it started to rain. Cold, freezing rain. So we came back home. But not before discovering this bit of grossness at the back of our property.

My guess is, it was wounded by a hunter before coming into the woods here to die. The dogs, of course, thought they’d discovered gold. It wasn’t too hard to get them away from it, though.

Belle makes a great lap-warmer.

Sunday morning’s walk was a bit treacherous. There was ice everywhere. But it didn’t slow the dogs down.

And we actually made it down to the Price place so Belle could meet Buddy. The following sequence of shots shows how fast Belle is and how much fun the dogs were having.

#1 – Belle, in the lead, as the dogs race around the house.

#2 – She’s a bit of a blur because she moves very fast.

#3 – Meg and Buddy were running, too, just not nearly as fast.

Wanna see all the pictures I posted from the weekend? I added comments there, too, mainly so Belle’s foster family, who are going through serious Belle withdrawal, can keep track of how she’s doing with us.

Here’s one last picture to close this post, just so you know Hubby was in WV with us, too.

He may not look particularly happy here, but he is. Belle has proven to be a very welcome addition to the family. It’s only been a week, but it already feels like she’s been here much longer.

I continue to be amazed at how well Belle, who just joined the family on January 3, and Moses, reigning queen cat, who just happens to be about 19-20 years old, are getting along.

To understand the degree of my incredulity, you need a little bit of history.

Moses, pictured above with all hackles raised, has long struck fear in the hearts of all animals, and even some people, who have been in her presence.

In the foreground of the above shot is Champ, a pit bull, who would literally have to be carried into our house due to his fear of Moses. Even well after he became a big, fearsome-looking adult dog.

Moses has always, ALWAYS, been queen of this domain. You can see her here overseeing the disbursement of treats to Emmie (former foster dog) and C (our recently departed little girl).

She’s even managed to hold her people captive at times.

Can’t you just hear her thinking, “Move, buddy, and I’ll kill you”?

In the past, if a dog was in its bed and Moses climbed in, said dog would rise carefully, so as not to disturb the queen, and slink off to lay on some cold, hard space.

Now, for whatever reason, Moses is actually willing to SHARE the dog bed. Maybe it’s the warm, fluffy blankie Belle came equipped with?

Who knows? I’ll just stop questioning and start enjoying it.

Moses and Belle seem to have become buddies. This despite the fact that Belle chases Moses and Muffin whenever an opportunity presents itself.

I’ll enjoy the peace while it lasts. You can, too, ’cause it sure makes for some cute pictures. In this shot, Belle is even using Moses as a pillow!

Of all the pets in my house — we have four — Muffin gets the least amount of press.

She’s just so quiet and laid back, she tends to get overlooked. There’s not a demanding bone in her body. Moses, on the other hand, drives me CRAZY with her meowing.

The only bad thing about Muffin is that she refuses, for whatever reason, to bury her poo. So when she goes, you know.

I’m not really trying to give Muffin away. I just thought she deserved to be mentioned.

The most difficult part of having a Blog is deciding what to write about. It’s sort of like cooking. The process is simple enough, and the result is usually good, it’s just always having to decide what to make that is frustrating.

Not that blogging is frustrating. Au contraire. It’s fun. I get to write about whatever I want, whenever I want. I get to post cool pictures, too. It’s my link with the outside world. It’s my way of keeping friends and family up-to-date with happenings in my life.

The latest happening is, of course, Belle’s arrival.

Is she the cutest little dog you’ve ever seen? She’s just as sweet as she is cute. And she’s just a baby (18 months). In fact, she’s just a month older than our grandson, Joey.

Belle, like our other dogs, Meg and C (recently departed), is a Brittany we adopted through American Brittany Rescue (ABR). There’s a contest of sorts running right now where you can help your favorite shelter/rescue group win $10,000. Of course, ABR is my favorite rescue organization. So I voted for them.

If you love my dogs, too. Will you VOTE FOR ABR? Please? It’s easy. And doing so can help save some wonderful dogs. Dogs like my Meg and Belle…

They’re great dogs. And there are lots more like them. ABR helped place over 1,000 dogs last year alone.

Look at that face! Without ABR, this little pumpkin could well have ended up in a shelter. It’ll just take you a minute to VOTE NOW.

Tell your friends to vote, too. Please. Pretty please?

Thanks. And Happy Wednesday!

All is well at the ToadMama abode. I survived yesterday’s jump back into reality (the world of work). Barely. It would have been worse if I didn’t have a cool boss who took care of a large chunk of the mess on Friday as I was off enjoying my holiday.

Because yesterday was crazy-busy, I didn’t get many dog pics. So you’ll just have to trust me when I say Belle is fitting right in.

She is the cutest little girly-girl dog. As you can see in the above image, she’s tiny. She can run like the wind, though, which has been frustrating old Meg. Nevertheless, Meg is teaching her the ropes.

For whatever reason, all dogs who pass through my yard become quickly obsessed hunting for critter poo (squirrel and/or rabbit). That’s what they are doing in the picture above.

I’ll try to get some better pics today.

Happy Tuesday!