Security is a big comfy bed and permission to use it! (Click on any photo to increase the size of images.)
Today’s weekly photo prompt is a photo that represents security.
Security is . . .
9 Replies
Category Archives: images of dogs
The Couch Potato’s Creed
The Couch Potato’s Creed
Though he who hesitates is lost,
impetuosity has its cost.
You should look before you leap,
because still waters might run deep.
Though early birds might get the worm,
rash actions trip up the infirm.
So all-in-all I think it’s better
if you aren’t a go-getter.
I guess the moral to this tale
is lest you lose or lest you flail,
you’re up against the proverbial wall.
It’s best you do nothing at all!
I’ve discovered an interesting fact about Morrie. He frequently sleeps with his eyes wide open! In the above photo, he’s on the sofa, but I snapped the below photos one morning when he had usurped my bed as well:
The boy knows how to make himself comfortable.
The prompt today was “hesitate.”
Look Up! (Eulogy for a Good, Good Girl)
Look Up!
She used to chase the shadows of birds across the ground
and dig where they disappeared
and never once thought to look up,
no matter how many times I tried to tell her to.
Chasing light across the pool, she’d pace
back and forth, along its further edge.
Her first playmates the cats,
she could not follow them up into the trees,
but stood instead, barking at the bark they clung to.
Thinking herself a cat, perhaps,
or all of them some new species in between,
she followed wherever it was possible to go.
Up the broad steps to the second floor,
across the terraza and just a small leap
to the ledge of the high sloping dome of the roof.
Up to its top to lie or stand and bark at all who trudged up our mountain
to intrude into her world.
She could see for blocks,
turning like a sundial with the sun
to change her focus, but usually starting at the point,
southward, that most invaders came from.
Neighbors led by unwelcome dogs on leashes
passed below her on their morning walks,
or farmers carrying hoes or machetes
up to the fields above.
Lines of burros plodding beneath her, facing uphill,
small herds of cattle
flooding down to the lake for water—
none escaped the attention of this reina,
who would bark directions to be on their way, fast,
and not to loiter.
No creature had greater staying power than she.
The cats, bored with the high view,
moved to the bushes and trees to hunt possums, squirrels and salamanders.
Only she stayed true to her original position
as she looked ever down from that high dome,
only deserting it a year ago,
when I locked the gate that blocked her progress up—
not because I judged it unsafe for a dog grown arthritic and less sure of her step,
but because of the new puppy,
untrained by cats and with feet less experienced than hers.
Feeling punished, perhaps, she traded her high domain
for a place beneath the terrace table
from which she watched the two upstarts
speed by to cavort in the lower garden
where she once chased bird shadows in the grass.
She exercised her staying power one last time
as, looking down on a world reduced to only me,
never once blinking, she stared into my eyes
as I crouched beside the vet’s high table,
and looked straight back up into them,
the closest I’d ever been to her.
That table’s surface, straight and gleaming stainless steel,
was where she lay with her front legs spread-eagled
for the long hour it took to finally climb up that high dome again.
I wonder if she heard me as,
“Good girl,” I told her a hundred times that final hour, and meant it.
“Good, good girl. Look up now. And go on.
You were always such a good, good girl, watching out for us.
But now, look up. Go on.”
The prompt word today is “Original.”
Coming or Going? Cee’s Which Way Challenge Oct. 5, 2016
This Way or That Way? Coming or Going?
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/10/05/cees-which-way-photo-challenge-october-5-2016/
Newest Bloom: Flower of the Day, Oct. 8, 2016
Can anyone identify this newest bloom in my flowerpot? It has taken this perch for its own, for some reason, although it doesn’t look like it can be too comfortable. He is usually lying down in it, tennis ball in his jaws. The rest of the act is to drop his tennis ball into the pool from it and then dive in after it, swim to the side and haul himself out, then repeat. And repeat. And repeat. He did this 11 times in one hour the other day when I was in the pool exercising… then another 5 times when I was inside at my computer. He noses the ball closer and closer and lets it roll back a bit each time, then suddenly rolls it enough to tip the balance and it goes into the pool. Then if I don’t retrieve and throw it for him, he jumps in and retrieves it himself. This is what you do when your mom won’t throw more than 30 pitches for you in a row. https://ceenphotography.com/2016/10/07/flower-of-the-day-october-8-2016-dahlia/
Morrie Takes off and Brings the Road Home with Him!!!!
Morrie Takes off and Brings the Road Home with Him!!!!
It’s true. When Pepe came to give me my massage today, he opened the door and all three dogs ran out! After two months of never escaping when the construction guys were in and out dozens of times a day, suddenly they asserted themselves and were long gone–not a whisper of a tailfeather was in view in any direction by the time I got out in the street to call for them. I didn’t know whether to fear that they’d gone up the mountain or to be glad. No cars up there and fewer dogs than in the streets. So, nothing to be done. I decided to leave them alone ’til they came home, wagging their tails behind them. An hour and a half later, that’s what they did. The first two to enter were fine, but this is what I saw when Morrie entered!
First thing he did was make right for the water bowl.
A one-and-a-half-hour run in the mountains sure makes a Laird thirsty!!!
I couldn’t help but notice the splint-like accumulation on his leg.
not to mention the sizeable limb of some sticky weed, complete with tiny tenacious bristles all over it and flower abloom.
Oh yes, those little decorations all over his head were sticky as well, and had no desire to be shed.
Contrast Morrie to his brother’s pristine coat!
The “limb” looked like a sunbather using Morrie’s coat to attract the sun’s rays–a sort of solar hothouse!
Ah, Morrie. Always a new thrill. I got the limb off, in pieces, before he took off to tussle with Diego. When I fed them, I got a few more pieces removed, then noticed that some scraped off as Diego and Morrie rolled and growled and wrestled and did their usual hi-jinx. I went back to party preparations. (Pictures to follow.)
I have neglected to say that the doggie domain is almost finished. Today they primed the walls and they reflect so much light into the hall now that I’m tempted to leave the walls white. Dare I? It looks beautiful, even in the chalky transluscent white of the primer. I put the fridge in and the two cages with beds inside and Frida’s bed which almost entirely take up all the floor room. I left the outside door to it open and a half hour ago, heard noises and went in to find Diego in Frida’s bed and Morrie in Diego’s bed in Diego’s cage! I couldn’t persuade them to switch back to their own bunks, so we’ll see what happens when Frida comes in. No lights connected, so I can’t take a picture! Perhaps I’ll try with flash.
Happy Thanksgiving! Tomorrow before the guests come, I plan to put Diego in the doggie domain, Morrie (and his bed) in the little dog run outside the spare bedroom and Frida in the garage with her bed while the guests are here. One guest asked if she could bring her dog and I said I thought there would be pandemonium enough with my three.
Morrie’s New Adventure–Epilogue, Continued.
Looks innocent, doesn’t he?
Morrie’s New Adventure–Epilogue, Continued.
(To see earlier episodes of the adventures of Morrie, go HERE and HERE.) When last we saw our furry fiend, uh, friend, there were three mysteries left unresolved: why were the curtains tied up in a knot, why was the sewing machine now out in the hall, and what was in his mouth? I just need to add three more elements to the mystery. 
Why are the handmade dolls formerly hanging from the curtain rod now lying in a heap on an upper shelf?
Why is the CD player/radio Yolanda listens to while ironing
in the (former) guest bedroom now in the bathroom?
and just what is this in the waste paper basket?
My old style phone that I use when the electricity goes out? What is it doing there? All of these mysteries will be solved as you get a look at the scene that faced me when I opened Morrie’s door last night. (For those of you who haven’t seen earlier episodes, Morrie needed to be put in seclusion following surgery of a delicate nature that we won’t go into here. Suffice it to say that the doctor suggested I keep him quiet and away from the other dogs, so I cleared out the guest room [more or less] and had an extra gate put up on the side of this room to afford him a small exercise area and since he easily fits through the security bars, I left the door and screen cracked to let him in and out.)
Okay, back to our story. The time is early yesterday evening and yes, I was blogging. I heard a very loud BANG and surprise! It was coming from the direction of Morrie’s room.
This is the scene that greeted me when I opened the door.
The curtains were down.
As was the very heavy copper rod that held them up.
The dolls formerly hanging from the rod were in a heap on the floor
As was the telephone,
Which, thanks to Morrie, I have now retired.
(You’ve already seen the final resting place for the phone.)
Eyeing the cord to the sewing machine and Yolanda’s radio/CD player, I knew they could only be next, so the boom box was relegated to the bathroom and as you know, the sewing machine was relegated to the hall. And this is how the room’s contents shrunk by yet another third. 
Are you sorry for this, Morrie? Morrie?
Morrie seems to be heading for something, but I’m not sure what. Okay, Morrie, time out. Want to come to bed with your mom for awhile and KEEP OUT OF TROUBLE?
Okay, I know you didn’t mean to do it, so let’s have a little loving and then Mom needs to get back to work on her blog, okay? 
You just stay down there and no more licking, okay? You already licked all the lotion off my face and neck and hands..but I’m kind of squeamish, so no more licking? okay? We’ll play again after I get the blog posted! 
Uh, Morrie? I can’t see the computer with your head there, okay? Can you watch me from just a little further away? Okay, just one more rub and then . . . 
Go lie a little further away, okay? And stay there okay? Are you okay with that, Morrie? Feeling happy to be in bed with Mom? Isn’t that enough, Morrie? 
Okay, boy, you’re getting a little too close for comfort again, and ooops! There goes my computer, let me just grab it here, and. . .
Okay, fine. Lick my feet for awhile. Just don’t come up here
and drool on my computer again, okay?
And–here he is again! Do you have any hint about why it is taking me two days to post this post?
Okay, Morrie, let’s go find you a toy! How about my rubber duck with a cowboy hat, Morrie? What do you think about him? Your toys all seem to be gone!
Ah, you like him, huh, Morrie? That’s right. Lick the duck!!!!
But, don’t eat him, okay, Morrie?
Did you hear what I said, Morrie? Do what my mother used to tell us to do with gum, and just hold him in your mouth!!
Morrie! Look what you’ve done!
You’ve not only bitten off cowboy duck’s cowboy hat, you’ve chewed off his whole head! Where is it, Morrie? Oh my God! Did you eat it?
Okay, Morrie, you’re looking kind of crazy, now. Calm down and give it here! Morrie! 
Morrie! Don’t snap at your mother!!! Give it here!!!
Oh, poor rubber duckie. Nothing left but his kerchief and vest!
So you feed bad about what, Morrie? Because you killed the rubber duck
or because you didn’t get to finish him off?
Definitely, not innocent!!!
THE END????
I’m hoping these pictures are odd enough to qualify for Cee’s oddball challenge this week. See her own and other oddballs HERE.
