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Our Princess SCORED!

Faithful readers know all about Belle by now. Our cute little princess of a dog that is super sweet. And cuddly. And charming. And really very special. She’s just a neat little dog.

And boy is she ever fast. She loves nothing more than running around the yard, playing with Meg and chasing critters.

She spends most of her day laying at the kitchen door, watching the many birds and squirrels that frequent our yard. She sits, waiting patiently, watching. She lives for the moment when I emerge from what has started to feel like my cave of hibernation (aka “office”) and open the door for her. That’s when the fun really begins. When all the little critters scatter in fear as Belle flies around the yard.

Today, something different happened.

Today our little princess caught a squirrel.

I’ll warn you now, the squirrel did not survive the encounter. In this picture, it is actually still alive. Barely.

And when Meg went to investigate, it grabbed her. She yelped. I was laughing hysterically, of course, and didn’t manage to capture that particular Kodak moment.

Belle promptly grabbed the squirrel and shook the rest of the life out of it.

She was quite proud of her squirrel. She was prancing all around the yard, head held high. It was pretty funny. Until I realized, that is, that I was going to have to get the thing away from her.

She was really prancing. Just look at her.

I called Hubby, gave him the scoop. I was thinking he might have some ideas on what to do.

First, he said, “Don’t let her take it in the house.”

He followed that bit of wisdom with, “You are taking pictures, right?”

I’m sure glad I called him.

Lucky for me, I do have a brain. Sometimes I even use it. I just grabbed a plastic grocery bag, grabbed Belle, and managed to get the bag around the squirrel.

That’s when things got a bit gross. She didn’t want to let it go. So I had to really grip the thing to make her let it go.

Ew, ew, ew!

There was a bag around it. But still.

She was not happy about giving up her new toy. And I was stuck with a dead squirrel in a grocery bag. What to do? Set it aside until later, of course.

The top of the gas grill seemed like a safe spot.

Apparently Belle has a brain, too. And a nose.

Turns out that wasn’t such a great spot after all.

Are you thinking, “At least the grill wasn’t on?”

Unfortunately, it was. I’d used it to cook dinner the night before and had forgotten to turn it off.

At least the squirrel wasn’t all cold and stiff when I went and retrieved him half an hour later. That’s the bright side.

I’m still left with a dead squirrel in a grocery bag, though.

Know any good recipes for squirrel? No hurry. He’s safely ensconced in the freezer for now. Just let me know when you have found a good recipe or two.

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"My" Volcano Erupted

My Mom called me last night. She knows I don’t want TV hence am not always on top of current events. “I just wanted to make sure you knew your volcano erupted,” she said.

I’ve mentioned Alaska’s Redoubt volcano here previously. It’s been acting up for months now. I was amazed that it didn’t warrant much news coverage here in the lower 48. But this time, it has actually been discussed on CNN.

Because it erupted. Like five times. Spewing a cloud of ash and steam 60,000 feet into the atmosphere.

People aren’t panicking. They have masks. They know what precautions to take. It’s just another fact of life in wild and wonderful Alaska.

I did check-in on my favorite photographer couple who have become virtual pen pals over the past year. All is well. They live about 60 miles from Redoubt across the Cook Inlet. Their biggest fear is that it will remain cloudy and disrupt their upcoming trip south to Homer to take Eagle pictures. These folks have taken some of the best Eagle images I have ever seen. So I, too, hope the ash continues to move away from them.

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Spring? Really?

The first day of Spring arrived officially on Friday. You wouldn’t know it from the weather though.

The bushes and trees are slowly starting to bloom. Despite nighttime temps in the 20s. Yep, twenties. It was cold. Look closely and you’ll see the frost on the tender new leaves.

Saturday morning was a good time for indoor relaxation. Belle is a total lap dog when she’s inside.

The cold didn’t stop Mike from working, though. Here he is adding some finishing touches around the garage door. Meg is helping.

Belle may be a lap dog when she is inside, but the girl loves to run. We didn’t think it possible that we’d end up with a dog that likes to run more than Meg. But we did. This girl is constant motion when outside. She really, really enjoys cavorting through the woods and around our property in WV.

I actually did a bit of work myself this weekend. Between jaunts with the dogs, of course.

I FINALLY installed door and drawer pulls on the kitchen cabinets. Only because Mike threatened to affix bolts on the cabinet faces if I didn’t get my butt in gear! They work well, too.

When I had finished, the dogs got to run some more. They spend LOTS of time outside in WV. Can you tell how happy Belle is? I love watching her. You can just see how much fun she is having every single second when she’s running outside.

I spent most of the day on Sunday cleaning. My mother-in-law is coming for a visit next weekend. Hubby and I are quite excited. We don’t get many visitors. It’s fun having company. I think my mother-in-law will really enjoy it. Hopefully, my parents will come for a visit once things warm up a bit more.

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Military Order, Magenta Style

As reported here previously, my son-in-law, who is in the Army, is away on Army business. Being a military wife is rubbing off on Amy, I think. Why do I think this?

First, there’s the forced child labor…

Yep, your eyes see properly. My 5-year-old grandson, Gaige, is doing the dishes.

It’s his job (this week) to rinse the dishes and fill the dishwasher.

Klondike is Inspector General.

After the kitchen was all cleaned up, it was time for PT. Don’t know what PT is?

Physical Training.

Here’s General Amy looking on as the boys give her 50 push-ups. Brianna was off in the shower, exempt from PT for the evening.

Joey can’t count to 50. He’s just 20 months old after all. So General Amy got down to his level to help him count.

When PT was finished, Joey got to watch Brianna dry her hair. This is a new routine both boys like to watch for some reason.

After her hair was dry, I told Brianna to strike a pose for me.

Joey wasn’t very happy last night. Amy said it was because he’d missed his afternoon nap. I think it might have been the 50 push-ups. But I’m a softie…

Joey perked up considerably once Aunt Shannon started teaching him how to make funny faces.

He’s got quite a sense of humor.

Speaking of Aunt Shannon… she got her hair dyed. It was supposed to be red. It turned out pink.

Shannon asked Gaige if he noticed anything different about her.

“Um,” he said, studying her carefully. “Your shirt is too small.” (She was wearing a short-cropped jacket over her dress.)

“Anything else?” Shannon prodded.

“Um, you got different shoes.”

“Anything else?” she asked again.

He stared intently, thinking hard. Finally, after a couple of minutes, he said , “You got red hair,” he said.

“Yeah, it’s sort of pink,” Shannon told him.

He studied her carefully again then informed her, “I think that’s magenta.”

And that was Thirsty Third Thursday for March…

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Improvisation

I did something different today. Finally. Life’s been quite predictable lately. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it just makes it hard to come up with blog posts. As evidenced by the fact that I made up that crazy post about Meg that ended up ticking my Mom off and convincing Belle’s foster mother that my vet is a quack. But that’s another story.

As for today… my son-in-law is traveling on some Army business. That means Amy is left home alone to deal with three kids–ages 8, 5 and 20 months–and one very large dog. That alone is enough, but add to the mix that she works full-time and Brianna, the oldest, has lacrosse practice three days a week. One could easily get overwhelmed. So I decided to sit with the boys tonight while Amy and Brianna went off to do the lacrosse practice thing.

So you get to see new pictures! Of the boys anyway…

It was sort of nice today, so we got to play outside. I snapped this one while Gaige and I were playing soccer. He sure looks like a fearsome goalie, doesn’t he?

The funny thing about this picture, which you’d never guess from looking, is how well Joey rides this little tricycle. Except, um, he rides it backwards. But he was having a blast. I’m going to have to get him a rear view mirror though.

I couldn’t leave Klondike out. He is one of the boys after all.

The funniest event of the evening was the look I got from Gaige when I started singing. He was humming and singing the chorus of the Sublime song, What I Got. All he kept repeating were, “Love is, what I got…” So I filled in the rest of the chorus and sang a little more of the song. His mouth dropped open and he looked at me like I had two heads.

“How do you know that song, G?” he asked with his dimpled smile.

“I just do,” I told him. So we sang it together. It was cute.

I’m going back to Amy’s tomorrow for Thirsty Third Thursday. I’ll try to get a shot of Brianna to post.