We got this postcard in the mail yesterday from our veterinarian’s office. The back reminded us that we need to take Amber for her rabies shot. I think this is inspired on the vet’s part, and a happy way to make sure our animals get the care they deserve.
Since Amber isn’t on a leash often, and is SOOOOO strong, I asked for the time of day today when they tend to be the least busy. I’ll dash in to see that the coast is clear before we try to bring Amber inside. We’ll weigh her, get her shot, and come home again.
This is Amber and my husband. Actually, she has gotten larger since this picture was taken, but it gives you a reasonable idea of her size. She weighs about 90 pounds.
I spend a lot of time loving her each day. She has her ‘rituals’ during the day and it’s very hard to distract her from them. For example, she comes to me when I’m at the computer, getting my attention and then staring across me toward my right pocket, where she knows I carry dog treats. She doesn’t have a subtle bone in her body. It’s very clear that she isn’t worried about ME, wanting love, or wanting to go out, or anything else – just a cookie.
This morning I was slow to respond to her drama. She climbed up – the front half of her in my lap – and nibbled on my ear. When I laughed, she used her front paw to encourage me further, catching me just below my neck with a couple of claws. She really got my attention with THAT. I’m not sure if I’ll have marks or not, but she did NOT get a cookie for that.
Yesterday she was jumping up and down beside the truck, as if she were on a trampoline, waiting for me to open the door for her so she could jump in. I started to open the door and she came down with both feet on MY feet. I was in sandals, so I really felt all 90 pounds of her. I now have bruises on the tops of both feet.
I have learned the lesson well that when she is in the yard with me, I need to pay attention. She suddenly decides she should join me. If she is across the yard, she starts running. I try to either get beside a tree, get up against something, or at least turn to the side so she doesn’t run smack into me, knocking me flat on my back. Kneeling down doesn’t help – it just allows me to fall down from a lower spot.
Amber will either keep me young or put me in the hospital. It’s never boring.
We wanted to get our trash down to the bottom of the driveway this morning for pickup, but as I told you, we’re trapped up here, with a humongous pile of crusher dust in the driveway at the point we wanted the guy to spread it on down the driveway. It is impassable.
SO – my husband backed the truck down about 1/4 of the 650 foot+ steep driveway. We each took a trash bag and started walking down to the bottom. I have seriously thought about buying some football cleats to wear when trying to walk up and down our driveway. The gravel rolls, making it really hard to walk without falling on my head. I walk down on the edge on one side where there is a bit of grass for more traction.
Anyway, I got down to the bottom with my bag, then took the smaller bag I had brought in order to gather several days worth of mail from our box. I started up and saw my husband trying to gather stuff. His bag had ripped, spilling stuff all over. I went up and we gathered it up, and each took part back down the driveway. We got things bagged up for the trash men and started up again. It’s MUCH harder to walk UP the steep driveway than come down!
I had to stop three times on the way back to the truck to catch my breath. Since thunderstorms are imminent, the humidity is fierce today, too. I guess this is showing me I need to do this much more often in my efforts to get healthier – if it doesn’t kill me first… :0)
The truck is back in the garage now, safe and sound from the coming storms, which are forecast to last until about 2pm today and then start up again this evening. Oh, GOOD!
wildremoval.com
We caught raccoon #6 overnight, OF COURSE, when we are unable to get out to relocate him. We’re trying to decide if we should simply let him out of the cage or what.
Another piece of news is that our dog, Amber, was barking like a nut at our trailer we have by the shop. GUESS WHAT! We have a mama SKUNK and her babies under there. My husband managed to get Amber back in the house without her getting ‘skunked,’ thank goodness. We’re not sure what to do about the skunk family, either. This may have happened before, but we’re not aware of it.
The rain has started. It’s quite dark and ominous-looking now. I’ll close the garage door soon, but we’ll leave our front and back doors open as long as we can so we can enjoy a possible cool-down as the storms move through. It would be good if we don’t get any damage from the storm. We have enough on our plate already, thank you very much.
It’s rainy this morning and very dark outside. It looks like the perfect day to spend with the covers pulled up over my head, probably snoring.
npr.brightspotcdn.com-WESA-Meeko
We caught raccoon # 5 overnight, so we’ll need to relocate him later today. I really hope we get to the end of this ‘family’ of raccoons who have found our deck and sunflower seeds. So far, though, they have all been relatively quiet, so no worries about rabies or danger to our dog, Amber, or our cat, Abby. Another good thing – the raccoons always make a mess inside and outside the cage on the deck when we catch them. My husband used the new pressure water sprayer thingie I got recently, and he said it did a good job! If it ever quits raining, I’ll look forward to using it to clean some things up.
Since we’ve started a new month, it means that I need to do bank statements, May bookkeeping, filing, etc. I’ll need to intersperse a bunch of online exercising, getting up to do stuff, and more to keep myself from nodding off…
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I made the experimental kielbasa casserole for dinner last night. My husband said it wasn’t his favorite, but encouraged me to keep up the efforts to get us both to eat more veggies. Next time I’ll try a more usual tuna casserole and see if he likes it better.
“Hallo, Rabbit,” he said, “is that you?” “Let’s pretend it isn’t,” said Rabbit, “and see what happens.” ― A. A. Milne
marbleinspiration.co.uk
“Bunnies will always have a special place in my heart. They are often discredited as being good pets because they don’t ‘do anything’—ask any rabbit owner and watch how they laugh!” – Shenita Etwaroo
marbleinspiration.co.uk
“The other day when I was walking through the woods, I saw a rabbit standing in front of a candle making shadows of people on a tree.” – Steven Wright
Zsuzanna Manczal
“I’ll give you three guesses, Rabbit. Digging holes in the ground? Wrong. Leaping from branch to branch of a young oak tree? Wrong. Waiting for somebody to help me out of the river? Right. Give Rabbit time, and he’ll always get the answer.” – A. A. Milne, ‘The House At Pooh Corner’
passion-ceramique.blogspot.fr
“We are very fond of books. You can learn nearly everything from them that rabbits can’t teach you.” – Alan Snow, ‘Here Be Monsters!’
This season we have a trail of raccoons from the woods around our house to our feeders on the deck. We caught another one last night. A big one. We’ll have to ‘relocate’ him later.
Sufan – Amazon.com
I wish we could teach them to SHARE the sunflower seeds we put out. We don’t mind putting out more to accommodate both birds AND raccoons, but NOOOOOO – the raccoons insist on not only eating every single seed, but also damaging or trashing the feeders, as well.
Many times they also trash the humane trap we use to catch them, too. We have a small plastic bowl screwed to the trap at the far end. Many times they break THAT and we have to replace it.
I insisted on the humane trap because I WANT to think we’re giving them another chance to be happy raccoons frolicking in the rural areas about 5 miles from our house, enjoying the little stream off the road and the pasture lands. I LIKE to think they reunite with others we’ve relocated, creating happy families and living their lives.
Whatever the reality of the situation, at least we TRY to give them another chance. I hope that there isn’t a memo with a map out there that they read and study before they make the trip back…
Natural Resources Council of Maine – Photo by Jayne Winters
A critter like this was caught in our humane trap overnight. My husband just returned from taking our trash down to the bottom of the driveway and ‘relocating’ the raccoon about 5 miles away from us, hoping he won’t return. I stayed here to get chili started in the slow cooker for tonight and to answer a call or meet the driveway guy coming to our house.
Yesterday we decided that we really need to do what we can to improve our driveway.
I’ve told you it’s long (650+feet), quite steep, and graveled (or ‘chat-ed.’) Having a concrete or asphalt drive would take our winning the lottery. The last time we priced it (about 15 years ago) it would have cost $15,000+ at the bare minimum. Actually, the gravel gives us more traction when it’s icy or snowy, so it’s fine with us.
When we get the washing, heavy rains we’ve gotten lately, though, the top 1/4 to 1/3 of the driveway stays fine. It’s the rest of it – steeper as it goes down to the road that runs in front of the house – that gets ‘washed’ badly, causing ruts, bumps, etc. making it harder to negotiate.
We arranged for a guy to come with a big truckload of chat. He can leave the top alone, and then ‘tail-gate’ the chat, letting some out slowly and gradually as he drives down our driveway. We’re hoping that ONE truckload will be enough because chat, like everything else, has gone way up in price.
A complicating factor is that you get chat when they will deliver. You can’t say, ‘Oh, it’s due to rain today. Can you deliver it tomorrow instead?” It’s totally up to the guy. He hasn’t called, but he may just be getting the load of chat and coming. He just told us it would be today. Also, he MAY call and want to reschedule due to the coming rain. My second hope is that, if we DO get it delivered and ‘tail-gated’ this morning, the rains don’t immediately wash big ruts into it….
“I have found that when you are deeply troubled, there are things you get from the silent devoted companionship of a dog that you can get from no other source.” – Doris Day
Katya Minkina-dailypaintworks.com
“When an 85-pound mammal licks your tears away, then tries to sit on your lap, it’s hard to feel sad.” –” Kristan Higgins
fulcrumgallery.com
“Happiness is a warm puppy.” – Charles Shultz
Unknown
“Some dogs live for praise. They look at you as if to say “Don’t throw balls… just throw bouquets.” Jhordis Anderson
BrenSparling.com
“A watchdog is a dog kept to guard your home, usually by sleeping where a burglar would awaken the household by falling over him.” ~ unknown
Unknown
“Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear.” Dave Barry
52 Weeks of Marley by Shelley W C on Flickr-6knitter6.tumblr.com-Shelley Castle PhotographyBrody and the Big Stick-MarySueKrueger.comJamesRubyWorks.comJennifer Gennari-instagram.comKimberly Santini-fineartamerica.com
“There’s always a hidden owl in ‘knowledge’.” – E.I. Jane
Photo – Waterloo Fords – flickr.com
“Owl is the grand and rather clever old man of the forest. He can also spell Tuesday.” – A. A. Milne.
Tienda Costa Rica
“Don’t count your owls before they are delivered.” ~ J. K. Rowling.
Traci Dyer Janke
“A wise old owl sat in an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke. The less he spoke, the more he heard. Why can’t we be like that wise old bird?” – Edward Hersey Richards.
“Bunnies will always have a special place in my heart. They are often discredited as being good pets because they don’t ‘do anything’—ask any rabbit owner and watch how they laugh!” Shenita Etwaroo
felting-fireflyandfinch.com
“The other day when I was walking through the woods, I saw a rabbit standing in front of a candle making shadows of people on a tree.” Steven Wright
Kath and Hank
“The dog and the rabbit are telling us not to chase unattainable material goals.” – Kit Williams
nickmackmansculpture.co.uk
“There’s nothing else I would rather do, unless there was a profession that involved cuddling bunny rabbits and kittens all day for money.” – Kat Dennings
Ruth Wallace
“Little rabbits have big ears.” – Virginia C. Andrews
“An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.” -Martin Buber
This is our cat, Abby. She was advertised as a ‘lap cat’ in the paper years ago – an apt description. She has been a part of our family for years now. She tolerates Amber, our yellow lab, allowing her to use her dog beds if she isn’t in the middle of them, taunting her by stretching and yawning and looking as comfortable as only a cat can look. She doesn’t have an audible purr, but if you leave your hand on her, you can FEEL it. :0)
“Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.” ~ Jeff Valdez
Zoran Milutinovic 2013 – via 500pxBlog
“In a cat’s eye, all things belong to cats.” ~ English Proverb
Scientific American
“Dogs come when they’re called; cats take a message and get back to you later.” ~ Mary Bly
Pumpkin Pet Insurance
“Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.” ~ Missy Dizick
Cat Grass Pet Talk-Texas A&M College of Vet Med
“I got rid of my husband. The cat was allergic.” ~ Anonymous
National Today
“As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind.” ~ Cleveland Amory
The Humane Society of the U S
“What greater gift than the love of a cat?” – Charles Dickens
Since our weather is supposed to be sunny and in the 60s this afternoon, I’m planning to spend a lot of time outdoors today. I’ll check on my new spring garden, plus mix and spray as many two-gallon containers of weed killer as I can handle today. (Good exercise, too!)
Mary Braatz_National Wildlife Federation
We caught a raccoon in our humane trap overnight (finally!) so we’ll go out in a bit, get our mail, relocate the raccoon, and hit the store for incidentals on the way home. Hopefully, we can fill up the bird feeders again, unless he’s part of a huge family of raccoons…
creativeartworksblog 