We did a thing yesterday. We went to a dog rescue place and picked out a new dog. Sadie is her name. They had named her Lucky Leprechaun. I liked the Irish theme but didn’t like the name so on the drive home I got a list of Irish female names and we all liked Sadie. She seems okay with it.
Heather and I went first and kind of picked her in a preliminary way then we drove home, got our son and our other dog Kodi and drove back. Logan liked her. Sadie and Kodi made introductions and then kind of ignored each other, so at least there was no blood. Our son Logan liked Sadie as well. We actually spent most of the day at the place talking with the people that worked there making sure that Sadie was the one. She is about 8 months old and came from a shelter somewhere else in the state. She appears to have a very broad gene pool.
So we went all in. We could have taken her home on a trial basis but we felt pretty sure about her. Heather had got us pre-approved earlier in the week so we filled out the forms and paid the fees and now she is ours. She cuddled with me on the drive home.
And after we got home. She seems very confident and is very well behaved. She gets along with the cat. So today there will be a bath, and a walk. This week she’ll visit our vet to get checked out. So far we feel pretty good about our new family member. She is very affectionate and loves to cuddlle. She loves playing and at night she settles down and goes to sleep.
A squirrel with a long tail just chilling on the fence watching me take his photo from inside the house.
A compilation of four videos recently from our ebird camera. A male cardinal, a mourning dove, a squirrel, and a grackle. We have lots of visitors to our feeder.
This week I am going back ten years in my archives for this week’s Saturday’s Critters post. Back when my son was in a therapeutic horseback riding program. He did it weekly for years and got pretty good at it.
Back then I was very experimental with my cameras. I had a film fisheye camera. I loved the fisheye effect. I’ve settled down now. Film is too expensive and I can do fisheye photos on my phone. In this exercise, Logan was supposed to get the horse inside the square and stop. He did it!!
And here is a regular digital photo. Not that great a photo as I’ve cut the horse’s feet off. Part of the reason I call myself a “picture taker” rather than a “photographer.”
We kind of plateaued after a while and got tired of the 36 mile drive every Saturday morning so we dropped it.
I was out and about in Tulsa’s Woodward Park the other day looking for daffodils and tulips when I found this family of cardinals. Dad, at the top, Mom and a couple of chicks.
I had my macro lens on my “good camera” so I got a closeup of dad. I think he is close to needing a touchup.
My wife took our little Kodi the Pomeranian to get groomed and came home with this Kodi the Bear Cub. Kodi loves getting groomed and made a fuss over. Of course he’s a guy and we guys all love feminine attention.
He loves to go swimming. We had a warm day and Heather put some water in his little pool and he just hops in and out and back in again.
Lizzie the Cat is kind of turning into my cat. Here she is sitting on my lap watching the NCAA Basketball Championship Tournament.
We had some pretty cold mornings. Here is a puffed up mourning dove trying to warm up.
A house sparrow looking for a bite to eat at one of our feeders.
Our Pom, Kodi had a date at a neighborhood dog park the other day. We are looking for a bigger female to help calm him down. We met with a foster parent who brought a Pomski (combo Pom and Husky). It didn’t seem like a good match so we’ll just continue looking. It was nice being outside!!
Our tabby Lizzy, continuing her knee healing mission with me. She likes it when I put the ice packs on my knee so she can go lay on me.
On other knee news, I have been released from home health PT. In fact I got cleared for not using the walker any longer, nor a cane. I can just walk. Slowly. The home health nurse said that I was the only one of her patients who got knee replacements the same week I did that is walking on their own. I will say that I worked my butt off on both the pre-surgery exercises and then again on post surgery. So I start at studio PT hopefully next week. Right now I can go to the gym but no submerging the incision in water. They advised me not to drive just yet and I agree with them. I like being chauferred around by my wife. My wife has been a lifesaver on this surgery recovery in a bunch of different ways. I’m a blessed man, what can I say.
Here is our little Kodi Bear, Kodi. He had been ignoring me since I had my surgery and now he is acting more interested and comes and checks on me. I used to play with him a lot but it is kind of hard now since I can’t reach down to the ground very easily to grab his toy and throw it. He has some aggression issues but he is one of the cutest dogs I’ve ever known. The lady that we got him from nailed it. She said he is a little dog with big feelings.
I post photos on instagram a lot and since my surgery I am going to the archives more and re-editing images. This is a llama that some friends of ours had. They got Mrs. Llama to help protect their sheep from feral dogs and coyotes.
And here is a video of my great escape. I’ve been doing PT daily and getting stronger but not at the pace I would like. So the other day when the coast was clear I grabbed my walker and headed out the front door and one of our security cameras captured me as I made my great escape. I only went a quarter mile round trip and it felt great. I am going to build up my distance every day. PT is challenging but it hurts. I love walking outside in the sunshine.
Five Mourning Doves waiting for somebody to refill the bird feeder one chilly morning recently. They kind of puff up to help keep themselves warm is what I read.
Last Monday it was warm, all day. I declared it a shorts day and took a drink, my book, and camera out to the backyard.
Robins were out and about.
This is the same robin only on a fence and turned away. Amazing to me how they look like a completely different bird.
The mourning doves were out and about. They are such calm birds.
I got some golden hour light on this one.
This is a 29 second video summarizing the non-sparrow birds that visit the camera feeder. I’m up to about 220 visits a day. Almosts all of them house sparrows with some juncos thrown in. So what I call interesting birds is not very many. That’s okay.
