Dogs That Play “Rough and Tumble” (click photos to enlarge)

Thinking and watching

Perfect desert

This berry looks just right

A quiet watch from the beautyberry shrub

Rocket (Border Collie), “Those dogs are disgusting”.

Molly, “That pup is a butt biter. I am not a cow.”

Molly, “I’ll get even with that oaf.”

I shall choose just the right one

Rocket, “I will not look at dumb dogs.”

Molly, “That pip squeak meeds to go home,now!”

Molly in sepia color

 

Three of my dogs love playtime which is several times a day. Lately they’ve had a visitor, Zoey, to play with who REALLY likes to play rough. She is becoming well socialized with other dogs and people. In fact, maybe she is too socialized, as far as her dog friends are concerned. There is one problem when she plays. Zoey, the none chocolate dog in the photos, happens to be an Australian Cattle Dog. This dog breed herds cattle by biting or nipping at the heels/butt of any cow that is not moving along with the herd. So, given the nature of this little dog, she bites the other dogs as she plays. The bites are almost always on the rump. I have watched the dogs play and she gets down and dirty with the two labs. Puppy, the other chocolate colored dog is a Border Collie and Australian Shepherd cross who is very nimble and is smart enough to stay out of her way. 

 

Puppy, is the smartest dog that I have ever had the privilege of owning. I have taught him several tricks that have people laughing and wanting to know how I taught him  one particular trick. One day, when I am brave enough to attempt a video with my camera, I will try to capture his best “bark forward.”   

I decided to see what some of the photos would look like posted with captions, so this will be my first attempt trying something different.    

Readers/ viewers please excuse typo under one photo which came out as (meeds instead of needs). I worked and worked to correct the error BUT, it ain’t (isn’t) easy for someone that had one short crash course in how to post pics- It is difficult to explain  the process of getting the photos over to the admin. section and then getting them into a thumbnail gallery plus trying to line them up which causes me a great deal of anxiety and frustration. Anyooooo, I hope to soon get a better handle on this admin. section. Please be tolerant of ignorance.  That old saying of “ignorance is bliss” it just not true in my case.  I am not joking. I have gotten tension headaches from working on this blog. I learned how to work in the admin section with one short tutoring session and the cotton-picking thing will just not behave.  Could I just blame it on my computer? 

Now I just committed another error which I have no idea how to get rid of. Folks, all of  my nutiness is making me really angry. I have no idea how I managed to get a Molly sepia photo in the gallery group of dogs. I can not get rid of it tonight and I am now too tired to keep trying.

Post and photographs Yvonne Daniel

 

 

Alert: Keep Your Black Cat Safe At Halloween

Coley age 14-15 years

Halloween will soon be here. If you have a black cat and happen to be one who allows your cat/s acccess to the outdoors, I strongly encourage you to go the extra mile, get a litter box and keep your cat confined in the house at least a week (the longer the better) prior to Halloween). Many people do not realize that devil worshippers and other occult individuals steal, pick up or take— what ever you choose to call it- black cats to SACRIFICE on Halloween. Yes, sad to say but these people are all around you and you will never suspect who or where they are. Most animal shelters now do not allow black cats to be adopted during October or at the very least, no adoptions of black cats are done a week  or two prior to Halloween. If a devil worshipper can not get a black cat they sometimes jsut resort to a cat of any color- So please keep your kitties safe. This is not a joke!!!!!  

But back to black cats. I love any cat color but I happen to love my 3 solid back cats a bunch. The little cat in the photograph is very shy most of the time.  She sleeps next to me at night along with several other cats. Coley is sort of a talker. She squeaks as she “talks” looking me directly in the eyes.  I trapped her and her 3 litter mates when they were about 4-5 months old. They were all wilder than March hares- I trapped their mother as well. Everybody was spayed or neutered- whatever the case and vaccinated. They could not be returned to their former stomping grounds so they all became my pets.This little black cat has remained just a bit on the feral  side. I’ve never been able to medicate her by mouth. So I either crush her meds or use an injectable antibiotic .  This past summer Coley had some teeth extracted and the other teeth were cleaned. She needed an antibiotic for a kidney infection (oral Senequin) and also Clindamycin for the anaerobe bacteria in the mouth and gums. I gave sub cu  fluids and the Clindamycin between the shoulder blades once daily x 2 weeks.  I thought I did a good job of disguising the oral medication but she would only take a few bites and that was all she wrote. Also she did not want to eat the prescription diet( Purina NF) so I finally gave up on the oral med and the Rx diet. She was just too “slick” for me. I finished up the injections but she still gets sub cu Ringers’ Lactate about 2-3 times weekly becasue her kidneys are not in good shape. The extra fluids will prolong her life since there is less stress on the kidneys. More about kidney disease in older cats in another post. 

 And back to my original message of this post: KEEP YOUR BACK CAT SAFE AT HALLOWEEN.   

Post and photograph    Yvonne Daniel 

Frostweed: The Great Butterfly Attracter

Monarch butterfly on frostweed, fall native nectar source for many species of butterflies

Butterfly attracter, frostweed

      

 

 

 

 

 

I wrote and re-wrote several paragraphs about the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly. When I clicked on spell check check, well the spell check had a “spell” and refused to stop checking as in the little toggle thing that spins around would not stop spinning. This went on for about 10 minutes and I finally gave up and somehow managed to get out of “checking” for spelling errors. However, when I got out of the THING, all of my hard work was erased but the photos remained. For that I am most grateful.       

So, at the moment I am sick and tired of writing about the Monarch. I thought I would give a shot writing about this great native wildflower that grows so effortlessly in our yard. I can’t remember a time that Frostweed was not present here. It is a perennial that readily self seeds. It grows in full sun and partial shade. The plant really doesn’t require extra water but this past summer it was withering in some places so I gave the many plants a boost as I watered all of the Live Oak and other native trees and shrubs that I absolutely did not want to lose. My water bill for July and August was over $600 but I deemed these huge old trees as a priority to keep them from stressing and thus hopefully preventing a disease attack.       

 As I promised, I took a few photographs of the Frostweed.   This is an improvement- I think!!! In some areas of the yard it grows at least 6-7  feet tall. In spots where the plants did not receive as  much moisture, they grew to around 3, 4, and 5 tall.    

Later in the year, I’ll explain why this plant is called Frostweed. There will be photographs, for seeing is believing. We’ll need some freezing weather so that I can show you why it is so aptly called Frostweed.     

Attempting Sepia: Adobe Photo Shop 9

Muddy "On Alert"

 

Molly watching the squirrels

 Muddy, the lab in the top photo is more black and white and is far, far from sepia. I can edit to create a fair black and white in the program that came with my HP. It was installed by a computer guy  that set up this contraption for me but it will not produce a sepia color. For months I have longed to turn some photographs into the sepia color and in fact I bought the Adobe Photo Shop Elements 9 way back in April. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was at long last, able to sit down with a photo shop expert for about an hour of tutoring. I still need more lessons for other things that can be done in Photo Shop but right now there just is not enough time. Anyhow, I hope to edit more of some of the photos that I feel will be enhanced with sepia or black and white.         

In case anyone is curious, the peculiar looking machine behind Muddy is a gasoline powered post hole digger. My son used it on a job that needed 4×4 inch metal posts to anchor a wrought iron gate.  The soil varies greatly in our area. A few inches past top soil and there is rock called caliche.  Generally, the rock breaks up fairly easily but then there is also solid rock which demands a pick and crow bar. The holes must be at least 2 feet deep or more and the anchor posts (corner) set in concrete that will support a heavy metal gate.       

I’m aware that the last paragraph is totally irrelevant to the photographs of the dogs. Please excuse the aside.       

 Post and photographs by Yvonne Daniel        

Butterflies: Migrating Monarchs (click on image to enlarge)

Monarch on Frostweed, Sept. 26, 2011

An early Migrating Monarch

Monarch butterfly 9/26/11

A few Monarch butterflies began showing up about the third week of September. I saw maybe 10-12 monarchs over a period of about 4 days and since that time I have not seen anymore. I’m sort of worried that maybe this was a bad year for the butterflies and I am hoping that their migration just isn’t in full swing yet. Ordinarily this native wildflower, Frostweed, is covered in Monarchs. And I do mean covered. These beautiful insects absolutely love the Frostweed. It begins unfurling its white blossoms about the second week of September. The blooms last at least 2 months and attracts the honey bees as well. I have a special place in the yard that is splashed with sun for most of the day and it is here that the Frostweed grows up to 5-6 feet tall. After the blooms have opened it falls over to touch the ground. Even though it is no longer majestic, it remains a pretty plant. All that really matters is that it provides nectar for the butterflies and the honey bees.

 

Post and photographs Yvonne Daniel