Category Archives: Saturday’s Critters

Christmas 2023

Christmas and the end of the year buzzed by really quickly this year. Sorry I have been incommunicado all the sudden but hey, I’m back. So I’ll bring you up to speed.

A few days before Christmas we joined another couple for a Christmas music show at historic Cain’s Ballroom featuring several very talented local singers and musicians.

Isaac Hanson, of Hanson, showed up and played a couple of songs. Heather and I remember when he was just a little boy and played for free at local events with his brothers. He’s all growns up now and has a whole bunch of kids of his own.

Heather made her traditional gingerbread cookies. They are always a hit.

They go fast.

We made a visit to my brother Bob at his residence.

And gathered around the tree.

On Christmas Day we went to my MIL’s house and we opened gifts and had steak and baked potatoes for Christmas dinner. Bad blogger me, didn’t get any family photos.

A couple days later Heather, son Logan, Kodi, and I drove a roundabout route to Colorado Springs. My sister and BIL were hosting their family for Christmas. We hadn’t seen them for years so they graciously assented to our presence.

They are an active and fun loving bunch. If you are going to hang with them you better get up early and be prepared to stay late. They were very welcoming to us crashing the party.

Here is Logan with my sister and BIL’s dogs. The little dog is Maisey and is very sweet the big dog is Aspen. Aspen kept trying to play with our little dog, Kodi but Kodi was intimidated.

Sister and her husband treated us all to the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs. It was great. There are lots of things to look at and videos of past performances and artifacts like the costume above worn by Peggy Flemming who won the Gold Medal in figure skating at the 1968 Winter Olympics. I always thought she was classy and elegant.

Back at my sister’s house, Kodi went for a walk and got to meet Jasper the horse and get sniffed and inspected really good by the horse. I think our city dog thinks he doesn’t want become a ranch dog.

On the drive back to Tulsa Kodi found an earth cache. A specialized form of a geocache. So now I call him Kodi the Geodog.

I also got a shadow photo of Kodi so I guess he is a shadow dog as well.

So anyway, that was our whirlwind trip!!

I am linking with Skywatch Friday, Saturday’s Critters, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, and My Corner of the World

Saturday’s Critters – In the Woods, On the Water, Covered with Leaves

I went on a hike the other day and encountered some deer. I love seeing deer. They are so beautiful and graceful. They are not hunted on Turkey Mountain and so are not skittish at all.

I went geocaching at a local park and saw some ducks paddling around on a pond.

Kodi and I were playing in the backyard and he decided to take a little rest break in the leaves.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!!

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Saturday’s Critters – Tiger

This week I have a Tiger from the Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls, ID some years ago. I had a minor procedure done on my ear early this week and I had to take it easy a few days so I didn’t get out and about. So I’m bringing this photo from a trip to see my father way back when. Idaho Falls’ Zoo is small but mighty!! I love how it is so chilled out and relaxed.

I am linking with Saturday’s Critters

Kodi and Lizzie

Here’s Lizzie, our Christmas kitten. She has always loved Christmas. She likes to lay under the tree when the lights are on. When she is younger she used to climb up into the tree and so we had to perform a “Catectomy” pulling out of the tree.

And Kodi the Pomeranian. He loves to play.

He loves my wife. This is what he does when she leaves the house for any reason.

He loves walking so we do that a lot.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters

From the Trailcam

Sometimes I set up the trailcam and leave it out for a week or two without checking on it and then I go pull the chip to see what is on it. The last time I did it there were hundreds of images but really nothing to see. It is tripped by motion and Oklahoma is windy so shadows and waving branches trigger it.

The only other images I got were of our dog Kodi, and sometimes me and or my wife in the backyard. Here’s Kodi lurking around at night.

He likes to chase tennis balls so sometimes we have late night play sessions.

He loves chase but he doesn’t bring it back to me.

And here he is lurking around in the daylight.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters

Lizzie the Cat

I didn’t have any new critter pics this week and was about to check out the archives when Lizzie the cat jumped up on the coffee table and said what about me? So I took her photo. So she is my Saturday Critter this week since it is Caturday, right?

Saturday’s Critters

Saturday’s Critters – at Home

Here’s our one year old pomeranian, Kodi. He was kind of shaggy so he went to the groomer today and he got all trimmed up and got a special Thanksgiving tie to boot. He tore it off very quickly but we got a photo of him.

Here he is in the back yard. He loves picking up acorns and bringing them inside to trade for a treat.

And a black and white cat who shows up when it is dark.

And sometimes in broad daylight.

And a first sighting for this light colored cat.

And of course squirrels. We are inundated with them.

And I’m linking this week with Saturday’s Critters

Saturday’s Critters – Seen on a Bike Ride

I went on a bike ride the other day on Tulsa’s Riverparks Trails during a very unseasonably warm day.

I saw two groups of white pelicans on the river. They were both all hunkered down. I hope that they will get going to where they need to be for the winter.

The canadian geese are here all year long in Tulsa. Many of them still migrate south but I guess the others have figured out what some of politicians haven’t, that global warming is a thing.

And I saw a few great blue herons. They are everywhere. Back in the day when I still worked I was out in the natural gas fields of western Oklahoma and I stopped on a dirt road to make a cell phone call and suddenly noticed in the field next to where I parked there were a bunch of great blue herons. Not in a pond or water, just standing there in a field. I took a pic but it is long gone. Well before the days I knew about storing and tagging and all that other stuff.

I found a bunch of seagulls clear across the river.

I stopped and took a photo of the foliage on Turkey Mountain across the river. I never get tired of seeing it.

Nearby was this plaque commemorating the first Oklahoma Game Ranger killed in the line of duty. He was game ranger murdered in the line of duty in Oklahoma. On Turkey Mountain investigating a poaching case. I don’t think it was ever solved.

Back in the day, Turkey Mountain had a bootleggers, lawmen, oil field hands, ranchers, railroad men, and farmers. I have personally found “shake and bake” meth labs. It has a shady past. So does Tulsa for that matter. Machine gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker. They all have Tulsa ties. Read more about Tulsa’s shady past here.

Oops I digressed. I am continually fascinated by the dichotomy of Tulsa. On the east bank are big companies, operas, ballet companies, symphonies, wonderful museums and on the gritty west side, like Turkey Mountain, refineries, oilfield manufacturing, factories is where the money was made to pay for all the nice stuff. That is where the outlaws hung out.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Oops one more thing,

Excuse my appearance, I’m retired so I get kind of scruffy. That is me, (of course) and Lizzy early in the morning. I read the paper and drink coffee in the morning and she reads over my shoulder. I keep telling her that is rude but she won’t stop.

Mainly Backyard Critters

Here’s a backyard cam of Kodi licking his nose.

And then playing with him.

We have a tennis ball in the back yard. He loves chasing it all over the place.

At night other critters come out. I have seen this bunny during the day.

The way the eyes light up is spooky!!

Lately we have this black and white cat checking things out. We still have people in the neighborhood who turn their cats loose and there are several feral cats outside as well.

Hey, a non-trailcam shot of some geese at a local park.

That’s all I got this week!! I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters

Saturday’s Critters at Oxley Nature Center

Last week I went to Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center. I went in search of otters. The staff reports that they are active on Coal Creek at 8 am in the morning. Well I got out there at 8:30 and I didn’t see them, I don’t think. Near the old beaver lodge which they reportedly have taken over I could see that something was moving under the water chasing fish. I didn’t know if they were otters doing the chasing or if it were bigger fish chasing the smaller fish. So another otter failure but for some reason I didn’t mind.

So I started hiking around looking at what I could see.

Oxley has nice wooded areas, lakes, ponds, streams, and swampy areas. All sorts of terrain and it is pretty flat and the trails are all in good shape so it is easy to move around the preserve.

I saw a great blue heron flying around.

And a closeup, sorry for the fuzziness.

I came upon a limpkin. A tropical wetland bird that has a large range in South America and in the USA in Florida. It is an apple snail eater but they can eat other snails. As apple snails have migrated into south Louisiana the Limpkins followed them. Nobody knows why they are in Oklahoma now. Supposedly Oklahoma has seven of them now, three of them at Oxley. They have been here a few years so I guess they like it. You can read the Cornell Labs writeup here.