Tag Archives: Dogs

Weekend Critters – Birds, Dogs, Squirrels, and Snow

We are having it all this past week. We had 80 degree temps, then snow with well below freezing temperatures. Today we are having dry winds that are going to create a fire hazard. Oklahoma weather in the spring is always interesting.

We’ve kept our feeders full. The squirrels dominate the feeders so I’ve been checking the action underneath. Lots of birds play well with others, dove, juncos, sparrows, cardinals they all see to get along. Bluejays and Grackles are more aggressive.

Sorry about all the orange flagging. The telephone company had all the lines relocated.

Them grackles are like a group of noisy teenagers.

Here at the end of the ten second video a bunch of them fly up to the tree.

We got a finch feeder and guess what, finches showed up.

A little bird bath action

And Rascal, our Pomerania shows up to see what all the fuss is about.

Rascal’s thick warm coat comes in handy when it is snowing. Sorry about the bad photo.

We turned our fireplace on for a little bit. LJ loves the fire.

That’s it for this week. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out, lots of great posts there.

Weekend Critters – Around the House

It got cold here on Tuesday or so. Our Lizzy has discovered the fireplace. She toasts both sides evenly. She hasn’t quite figured out why sometimes it’s not warm there. She will lay in front of it when it is not on with a quizzical look on her face.

She also loves reclining on things like a Roman Empress. The foot of the bed, a stack of freshly laundered towels, she loves leaning on stuff.

And she hates being wakened up from a nap. Here she looks like an unmade bed. Talk about grumpy.

All LJ, Lizzie’s brother, cares about is treats. Greenies or deli turkey slices are his favorite. Here is on the back of the sofa standing watch at the refrigerator.

And here is Abby, our happy girl. She loves eating and giving other dogs a good barking.

And Rascal, our rescue Pomeranian (all our animals are rescues). He’s such a diva. He has a hip injury and gets acupuncture and physical therapy. The ladies that run the place love him and he knows it.

Our in the back yard we are continuing to feed flocks of birds. I love the cardinals especially.

Here is a male making a sideways jump. Male cardinals are divas also.

On the ground below the feeder we have a whole other group of birds including mourning doves and bluejays and tons of sparrows.

Squirrels eat more food than all the birds combined.

Some of them are getting very plump.

Lots of snow, ice and cold weather in the USA right now. I hope everybody is staying warm and safe. There is a burger place here in Tulsa that serves coffee in a cup and saucer. Something about that is warming in itself.

Take care everybody. I am linking with Eileen’s Saturday‘s Critters. Come join the party!!

End of the Week Thoughts

I went to the library Thursday to get a new book. “A Time for Mercy” by John Grisham. I’m only in it for a hundred pages or so but I love it so far. Amazing how on some books, even the ones I like, reading is slow and laborious and others one just flies through it.

While at the library I noticed the little symbolic sailboat was flying a pirate flag. Surprised nobody has said anything about it. The flag was flying the pirate flag so I took a video of it. I used the Hyperspektiv App on my iphone. I got lots and lots of photo and video apps and I use them quite a bit.

I took the superdogs Abby and Rascal (above ) to the pet groomer. Oh they hate it. Look at that look on Rascal’s face.

Here’s our Lizzy, the kitten. I know she is not a kitten any longer but that is what we call her and she hates being held but she loves being petted. I petted her when she was laying on the back of the sofa and she ended up crossways. Silly cat!!

Hey I know that I have gone on and on about my jury duty and the case and all that. The other side of the story was that we had really long lunch breaks and so I was eating good. Above is some brisket pho from a new place downtown. Talk about good, and hydrating.

Another day I went to an old favorite and had their prime rib sandwich and tabouli. Marvelous. We got paid $20 per day for duty so I pretty much ate it all up.

I’ve been flying my drone. Here’s an overhead shot of our back yard.

And another shot. Only 8 seconds long. If you watch to the end you get to see the bald spot on my head as I look down at the controls.

So that is pretty much it for what is going on with me.

Goodbye Ginger

We said goodbye to our sweet little dachsund mix Ginger today. She lived a long time and was well loved but she had multiple ailments.

She was always all-in when it came to family activities.

And she always had something to say about a lot of things.

And she put up with a lot!!

We miss you Ginger and will never forget you!!

Saturday’s Critters – Puppy Yoga

Once every six months or so our gym has a special class, “Puppy Yoga” in the courtyard where a non-profit dog shelter brings a bunch of puppies in for a special yoga class, “Puppy Yoga.” The members pay an extra $10 to take the class with the money going to the non-profit.

There is the only other guy in the class. People called me a good sport for some reason. I love puppies, especially other people’s puppies.

The dogs were little beggars. The volunteers were handing out treats to the attendees and we were shook down by the dogs and as soon as we gave them all away then they had nothing to do with us, the little beggars.

Smiles all around everywhere.

The instructor had 26 animal themed yoga poses for us. I don’t remember them all but you know, up dog, down dog, cat, cow, pigeon, crow (for the more adept students, and so on. She made it a lot of fun.

Sometimes if you could grab a puppy you just did the hold puppy pose. This is my wife doing just that.

And then my turn.

Everybody had a lot of fun. The dogs were exhausted at the end. I’ll be back the next time they have it.

Toward the end, a wasp crashed the party and stung me pretty good. Before the night was over my foot swelled up and turned red. My wife rescued me with some antihistamines. I went home and further treated it with a couple of my favorite beers.

I am linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters

Ruby Tuesday – Happy Valentines Day

I found this Valentines Heart painted on a tree on Tulsa’s River Parks trail on Saturday afternoon while son and I were taking a walk in some very unseasonably nice, warm, and sunny weather. I hope that you are all ready for the big day. Cards, Candy, Wine, Jewelry, Dinner Reservations? Get your act together!

Speaking of Jewelry, Rustic Cuff is the big thing in Tulsa. They make very cool bracelets that can be combined in various combinations to form “stacks.” Rustic Cuff has quite a following including my wife who really enjoys her bracelets. The company is a local concern and it has been great watching the owner proceed from working the local craft shows to now four stores in Oklahoma and Texas. They make great reasonably priced gifts.

And this is one of my MIL’s dogs, Reba all outfitted in her Valentines scarf she got after a haircut.

Have a great Valentines Day!!

I’m linking with Ruby Tuesday Too

Community Service Hours at the Animal Rescue Foundation

Son Logan’s school requires their kids to give back to their community via Community Service Hours. Logan has tried various things like the Food Bank and local libraries but he found something that he clicks with.

Tulsa’s Animal Rescue Foundation is a no kill shelter that puts dogs up for adoption. They bring a bunch of them to one of the Petsmart stores every Saturday from 9 to about 4. The need help of all kinds: setting up the tables and crates, helping people who want to look at the dogs and cats, and people to walk the dogs ever now and then to give them a break.

Logan is really liking this and is great watching him like it. He is a dog walking machine. They had about eighteen dogs last week and he walked every one of them, many of them twice during his shift. ARF has lots of teen volunteers and I am impressed with them. They pitch in and help where they can and they all love the dogs and cats.

The dogs vary from old and slow to young and exuberant and Logan gives them all a good walk. Plus many of the dogs appreciate just being held for a little while. Being on display stresses them out. By the end of the day the dogs are exhausted and are sleeping while waiting for their foster “parents” to come retrieve them. Almost all of the dogs are really good dogs who are victims of divorces or other life changes of their owners that are no fault of the pets. You can tell they are really confused about why they are not home.

Anyways, if you live in Tulsa and you are looking for a dog check out the Animal Rescue Foundation.

New Years Critters

Here is LJ the Cat. This time of year if he is not sleeping in front of the fire he is striking poses next to the Christmas tree. Although the tree came down the other day so he is back at the fire place.

And Ginger our rescue dachsund mix (all of our pets are mutts). She freezes all winter. Winter to her here in Oklahoma is from September through May.

Andy Abby our fun loving dog. She is up for anything, scarves, hats, walks, adventure, she loves it all.

And this is Rascal. We didn’t adopt him, he showed up one day and adopted us. We tried really hard for about three hours to find his owner. He is kind of our baby, he is alert, watches everyone and everything, and is in tune with us all the time and is probably the smartest dog we have ever had.

So those are our New Year’s Critters.

Linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters

Saturday Critters Update

This is Cisco, the horse rides at his weekly Therapeutic Horseback Riding lesson. Cisco is a sweet horse but he is a little lazy. If I’m in the arena he always heads for me especially if Logan has zoned out in the saddle. I’ll have to say, “Hey wake up, get your horse off of me!” Oh yeah he says. Teenagers, you know what I mean.

Here are they are in the arena, around and around they go, Logan with a big smile on his face. I’m told that that the horses head being down so low means the horse is relaxed. Sounds good to me!!

The stables had one old kitty who was something else. He slobbered all over everything. He won a fierce fight with a hawk who tried tohaul him off and was a proficient mouser. He died last year and now they have a whole bunch of cats to replace him, all males. This one is either brave or dumb. He likes to get out in the arena and run in amongst the horses feet as they go around and around. I think he is going to be dead and we’ll never know whether he is dumb or brave. He’ll be just as dead either way so I guess that it doesn’t matter.

This is Abby, sound asleep late at night. She is a sweetheart. She loves to eat. She got groomed yesterday so she is not as shaggy now. She is not the smartest dog we have ever had but she is very sweet. She likes to go out frequently and update her Barkbook status. Drives our neighbors crazy, me also.

Here is a collection of photos most of them with our critters, from my new Fuji polaroid style camera. I love the pics but I’m still trying to figure out how best to post the results. It seems a lot of people just strew them similar to what I did. It seems better than scanning them one by one. Anybody else out there have such a camera? What do you do? The black dog that I’m holding is Rascal our very black pomeranian. I have to get do some sort of HDR thing with him in order to keep him from looking like a big black blob.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters today. Go check it out.

Sunday Cold Weather Dog Fashions

It has been unseasonably chilly here in Oklahoma so we have resorted to scarves for our dogs

Abby our white Shih Tzu mix (all our dogs are basically ungrateful rescue dogs) was really rocking Heather’s purple scarf. Ironic as Abby is impervious to cold. She is ready to go out anytime and update her barkbook status with the neighbors. Ginger our Dachsund mix is only warm on one day all year long, July 4th, and shivers the rest of the year. She thinks she needs more than Heather’s scarf. Rascal our black Pomeranian mix wants something different besides my dull scarf.

Have you tried helping your dogs cope with winter cold with scarves. Our experiment didn’t work out well at all.

Saturday’s Critters

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