Save The Frogs

Woof Bloggers,
One thing Mom loves about Spring, besides the flowers ad greeness, is the sound. All day long we hear the birds singing but in the early morning we hear the turkeys that live behind our fence. Mom says before the fence was built they used to wander thru the yard and even chased the neighbor's cat. In the evening we hear the big old barred owl that lives in the trees behind us. He makes lots of noises and some of them are pretty scary. When he starts yelling we stay close to Mom and Dad. Lately we've had lots of rain so we hear the frogs and toads singing at night. Mom loves froggies and has a huge collection of frog stuff made of glass, metal, cloth, etc.

Yesterday was Save The Frogs Day, but everyday should be. Frogs are important to us. They eat tons of bad bugs that would make us all miserable. We have a little toad house in the yard right near these two toad stools. We started getting so many frogs and toads in the yard that Dad put a big wooden box near the fence and when he lifts the top he sees lots of toads snuggled inside waiting for night when they can go hunting. Mom leaves the back light on for them. It attracts the bugs and makes it easier for the toads to catch them. She tells us to leave the toads and froggies alone.

 We do chase lizards.  Morgan was a champ at catching them and she used to swallow them alive. Mom didn't approve and managed to get a couple of them away from her but Morgan was really fast. Syd has caught several lizards. She plays with them, then rolls on them. I've been trying but I haven't been able to catch one. Those little guys are  quick. Mom say I'm way too slow to catch one but I know I can.

Today I spotted one on the rocks. He went right over there.

I know you're in there.

If I can just stuff my snooter in a couple more inches....

He got away.  Next time I'm going to catch that lizard.
Keep wagging,
Mackey

Earth Day 2019

Woof Bloggers,
 Today we're celebrating Earth Day. First we fed the birds because the the mama and daddy birds are so busy feeding their little chicks that they don't have time to go looking for food. We help them by putting lots of yummy seeds out where they can find them easily.

 Then we enjoyed some of the special things that Earth provides for us. We can sunbathe on the warm stones.

We can rest in the shade of the trees.

 

We can roll down the hill in the cool grass.

We can hunt for lizzards in their favorite hiding places.

I got in some trouble this weekend. You see just like the famous old castles in Europe, our dog castle has gargoyles on the roof. It used to have four of them, but I thought I saw a lizard up there so I pushed a couple of them off.  I broke one and it was Mom's favorite. She put it inside the garage and she put me inside the house. She gave me a long lecture but I wasn't really paying attention.

Our favorite planet is in BIG trouble and needs everyone to pay attention and give it help.We want all the future dogs and kitties to be able to enjoy sunny Spring days playing in the grass too.

 Keep wagging, Mackie

The Hunt Is On

While I got to sleep in a little this morning, Rob and the Easter bunny hid biscuits in the freshly mowed yard. It's a beautiful sunny day for an Easter biscuit hunt.

After fortifying myself with a cup of coffee, we headed for the yard. As we got to the door it hit me how diminished the pack is. I thought back to the years when Morgan, Tsar, Samba, Fudge and six Portie pups were eager to start looking for hidden treats.

Now we have four aging Porties, two incorrigible hounds and a sulky shepherd waiting to find whatever is hidden in the yard.

 

 

As soon as the first biscuit was discovered everyone started hunting. They were all hidden in easy spots this year because arthritic legs don't allow for jumping and climbing as in other years.

 

 

The hunt was a big success. Mackey probably found the most but everyone had plenty of treats.

 

Even Sydney got to play once the initial excitement calmed down.

Where is Sebastian? Well, all last week he wanted to go in the dog castle to sleep in the big hole he's dug in there. He couldn't get in because of the cone on his head and the leash attached to a human.

Now his eye is healed and he spent several hours in his house yesterday. Today he headed straight for the house again and refused to come out to play.  Expecting his reaction, I had tossed a couple biscuits inside and I heard him crunching.

Finally everyone had eaten enough biscuits and started heading toward the house. Several stopped to thank Rob for this fun event.

Sebastian decided after three hours to come inside to cool off.

Another successful biscuit hunt in the books.

Free At Last

Two weeks ago Sebastian had eyelid surgery. It was trickier than we expected because the little cyst on the upper lid had a large hard core hidden inside the lid. It rubbed on his eye every time he blinked. Dr B had to remove a wedge from the eyelid and put in three sutures.

Sebastian has worn the cone of shame for two weeks and for the last few days he's had enough. He's tried rubbing the cone on furniture to remove it. He's begged Rob and me to remove it. For the last few evenings he's plopped the cone in my lap and whimpered. I knew what he wanted but I had to try and reassure him.

Last night he fasted in case he needed sedation for the suture removal this morning. He was excited to be at the hospital as if he knew why he was there.

Dr B was able to remove the sutures with no sedation. Sebastian sat nice and still for the first two but then got a little squirmy. While Nurse Lisa held his head, I stroked his neck and whispered in his ear. Success!

The doc says the eye looks really good and is healed so well that we won't need the cone anymore. We'll still use eyedrops several times a day, but that's no problem.

Sebastian is so happy to be free again. He went for a long walk this afternoon and enjoyed sniffing the trees and bushes up close. Now he's snoring at my feet. He says thank you for all the POTP.   It worked!

Rainy Days Can Be Great

Woof Bloggers,
We've had all four seasons in one week. We had beautiful warm spring days when all the trees blossomed. Then we had summer days when it was in the 80s and we were all panting so Dad turned the air on. Then we had a fallish day when the wind blew really hard and the blossoms from the trees were flying all over the neighborhood.  Then on Sunday morning when we got up it was snowing, the yard was covered. Yesterday it was 80 again and today it's cold and raining. Wow, it almost makes a short dog's head spin.

So what do we do on a rainy yucky day? We stay inside and sniff wonderful smells. You see Dad took this big guy out of the freezer the other day. He's a whopping 26 pounds and took a few days to thaw. Then finally he was ready. Dad got him all ready and stuck him in the oven. 

 Mom put these in a little pot to boil and then Dad cut them to mix with our kibbles. Oh yum!

After about 87 hours the big bird was finished cooking and ready to eat. Dad pulled the meat off the bones and Mom is cooking the bones up to make bone broth for us. It takes about three days to make so we're smelling that wonderful turkey smell as we doze on the couch. Life doesn't get much better.

 Keep wagging, Mackey

National Pet Day

Woof Bloggers,
This is supposed to be National Pet Day. Peeps are so silly. What day isn't National Pet Day? If you have a pet, then it's pet day. If you don't have a pet, it's still pet day, just someone else's pet. Peeps will just never understand these things, they need special reminders.

Well, we couldn't let National Pet Day pass without recognition so we kept telling Mom how much we love her and what a great Mom she is, especially when she cooks for us. It worked. Look what we had for dinner. Enchiladas!

Mom cooked up a big pot of rice and stirred in a mashed up sweet potato. Then she cooked a chicken breast and Dad shredded it and stirred it into the rice. They put it into tortillas, rolled them up and melted cheese on top.

We each got half an enchilada except Me and Syd. We got a quarter because we're littler than the others.  Boy, were they ever good.

We've still got some of the filling left for our next dinner, too. Maybe these silly special days aren't so bad.
Keep wagging, Mackey

Running Late

Winter is over apparently but maybe Spring is too. Since the temperatures are in the high 70s and low 80s, we may have jumped straight into Summer. I certainly hope not. I love Spring and I hope this heat is just a temporary thing. The yard is spotted with color now with lots of these ......

 .....and some of these.

 Inside the house we have some color too, although it's also out of sync. At Christmas 2017 I was given a couple of poinsettias. They flowered for several months, then dropped all their leaves. The empty stalks were still alive so I kept them in the same window and continued to feed them once a week. In late summer they started getting some tiny little new leaves. One of them is still covered with green leaves.

But the other one is now putting out some color. There is this small patch just starting to redden.

And there is this one that is starting to look like a poinsettia. So it's only about five months late. It's OK, no pressure.

While those plants are just starting up, the Christmas cactus is still going strong. This plant started blooming back in the fall and hasn't let up.

I've been working on some special projects but I took time out to make this little guy. Here's the naked  polar bear.

Then he had overalls.

Finally a hoodie and boots.

Check out the fish he caught. That should keep him happy for awhile.

I'll let you in on the special project soon.

POTP For Sebastian

This morning Sebastian reluctantly got in the car for a trip to the hospital. It's been obvious to us for awhile that he's in pain, but we weren't sure where it was coming from.

He acts as if he has headaches but he also had nasty looking teeth and two small cysts on his right eyelids. So today Dr B was ready to remove the cysts and clean his teeth.

When we arrived to pick him up the doctor came out to talk to us. Sebastian's  teeth were all ok but he has gingival hyperplasia The gums grow over his teeth and trap bacteria. As he cleaned the teeth, the gums bled a lot and he had to trim them back a little. Ouch.

But the worst part was the eyelid surgery. The cyst on the lower lid was small and they easily snipped it off. The one on the upper lid looked similar but it had a large deep hard core. They had to remove a wedge of the eyelid and put in sutures. Super OUCH!

Sebastian is home wearing a fancy purple hat. His eye is very ugly with some bloody tear secretion that will last a couple days. He's still pretty much out of it, sleeping and sipping water occasionally.

We don't know where his pain was originating but having a big hard growth rubbing on his eye had to be awful. The gums also were probably sore so maybe when he's healed up in a couple weeks we'll see a happier Sebastian.

His stitches will be removed in two weeks. Until then he'll be on pain meds and antibiotics. He's a very good boy and I expect him to be cooperative during his recovery but he could use a little POTP just the same.