So, maybe the five S method hasn’t been the way to go all of these years…
Spider Solution
Critters
Saturdays With Shadow
I love these paws!
Happy Birthday Shadow!
Eight years ago today, a sweet little black lab puppy was born. A short two years after that, Shadow wiggled his way into my life. Happy 8th birthday!
Meet Chip
Yesterday I needed to head to Petco to get some dog food and saw a really cute “indestructible” chipmunk that we named Chip. Or so the label said. We pretty much know that no toy is safe with Shadow, but I keep trying. I have visions of him snuggled up with his little *insert cute animal here*.
This was the longest one of these has lasted – it took about half an hour for him to get the stuffing (and squeaker) out. That really is some sort of record – normally it’s about 30 seconds before the stuffing is flying. Once all of the stuffing is out, he likes to move it around for a couple of days, tearing off a tail or an ear every now and then. He doesn’t eat any of it – just pulls and spits.
Today he ate Chip’s face off. So much for that sweet dream.
It’s Good To Be A Dog
It does not suck to be a pet in the Blankenheim household.
Adopted Horse
As many of you know, I have a pretty decent commute to work… right around an hour each way. Just before I get to work, I head down a little country road that has tons of livestock on all sides. Just around a bend there is always this magnificent horse – he’s seriously huge. In my head, I’ve named him Lou. You can’t tell from the picture below, but he’s in a pretty big area – like an entire hillside. It’s not like he’s fenced in a tiny pasture and that’s the only place for him to hang out. I don’t know why he likes to come stand by the road, but he does (the road is just below him). When I go home, he’s never there.
It makes me smile to see him every morning – and I keep wondering what he’s thinking about while staring at the road.
Neurotic Eating
Sometimes I really do wish my dog could talk. Those of you who have labs know that they’re notorious chow hounds. As in some people have to get special bowls to slow their dogs down.
My dog, on the other hand, thinks a little more about his food. He’s always done it. When Mike was working at the fire station and gone for several days in a row Shadow would go on a hunger strike. Sometimes he takes bits of food, carries them to a random part of the room, spits them out, and eats them later.
This is what his bowl looked like when I left for work this morning… I swear, I did not touch it at all. That’s right, he ate it right down the center. I wonder what he’s thinking!
Does anyone else out there have a dog who does this? Do you have any solutions? I don’t even know if it’s something that necessarily needs to be fixed – he’s healthy and happy, but I feel terrible when I leave for work and he hasn’t eaten all of his food!
Someone Has A Boo Boo
Every year we host a big New Years party. And every year, Shadow has the pleasure of spending the night at Gold Country Pet Resort (Sidenote: if you live in Amador County or anywhere near it, this is the ONLY place to board your pet. I’m pretty sure Shadow doesn’t want to come home because he has such a great time there!). I do this for a variety of reasons – there are people in and out of the house all night and I worry someone will let him out, he’ll get fed WAY too much food he shouldn’t eat, etc. Probably more peace of mind for me than anything.
This stay was no exception – he had a fantastic time and I picked him up at 5pm on New Years Day. It was dark by the time we got home, and I only pulled about halfway down the driveway because I still had some things in the garage to clean up before I was going to put my car in. I opened the back door of my car and unlocked Shadow’s crate. He jumped out like he normally does, but either tripped or was expecting to be on flat ground (instead of the slant of the driveway). He landed smack on his face. Like really hard. It actually scared me a little bit. He jumped up and shook it off, but I know how those sneaky labs can be, so I took him in to check him out. Teeth are all intact, nothing seemed to hurt to touch, but I did find a gigantic raspberry that was bleeding on his chin. Poor little fella!
I gave him a bath (he really did have a fun time at the kennel) and cleaned it up a bit. Here’s what it looks like today…
I feel so bad! At least it’s healing and nothing else was hurt! Poor Shadow!
Snuggle Time
Mike and I were just watching a movie (review to come tomorrow when I’m not so tired) and I commented that the birds were really quiet. I headed downstairs to cover them up (I do at night so they don’t get too cold) and discovered them snuggled up together in the tiki hut:
Trust me, it was really adorable.
Nature Photography
This morning I wandered down to check our game camera and spent a big chunk of the walk wishing I had brought my Canon. We didn’t have much that was too exciting on the game camera – although we did get a pretty cool young buck with fuzzy antlers. That was back at the end of July… the camera batteries died around mid-August. I guess we need to get down there a little more often!
I hiked back up to the house and decided to grab my camera and hike back down to take some property pictures. I figured it would be a good chance for me to practice playing with lighting and different settings. Here are some of the pictures I took – if you want to see them larger, just click on them.
I love that you can actually see the spider web on this one… when I took the picture I was just trying to get close up to see the greenery! Not bad when your camera picks up things you didn’t see with your naked eye!
This picture is the whole reason I went back to get my camera – I spotted this on the other side of the creek when I was putting the batteries in the game camera. They had such a cool color to them and the lighting was just perfect!
The creek bed is lined with oak and other various trees – they have these great vines hanging from them that grow all the way down to the ground. In the spring it’s pretty spectacular, but they’re kinda neat to see in the winter when they’re really exposed.
I love the trees that grow funky… this is one the good ones – this oak just keeps bending! I love all of the greenery around it too! Well, that’s about it for my photo blog today. It was so nice to get outside and take a closer look at our land… I need to do this more often!
Down The Road I Go 