Tag Archives: bad dogs

Sleeping With Dogs

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Sleeping With Dogs

It is exactly 3 a.m., Sunday morning, January 22, 2023.  Coco just leapt out of bed to deal with some intruder in the yard or on the terrace and came back to bed with hiccups. Zoe, who is too little to leap back up on the bed under her own power, is crying to be boosted up for the second time in 15 minutes, having barely settled herself before following along in her sister’s panic.

I, on the other hand, had just settled into a comfortable position on the small section of bed I’d claimed from the dogs and started the first few steps into my dreamworld when a possum or cat or skunk or mouse or squirrel or the ghost of some former possum or cat or skunk or mouse or squirrel  had deigned to enter the dogs’ domain.

Now all is right in the world and the dogs have settled. I, on the other hand, have again entered the addictive realm of the internet and here I am again, doing that tapdance of fingers on the keys. As though I don’t have enough file cabinets, boxes and folders and blog entries full of words.  What is going to happen to all these words when I die? And why is it even important to me what happens to them? In the world of words, they are also-rans. No one will hear in my words much that they have not heard before. But they are the story of my life, my world, and although it is inevitable that I will vanish, I don’t want them to. My art has gone out into the world and perhaps will continue to once I have left it in the hands of its inheritors, but my words will float back into that great lexicon of the universe to perhaps be given birth in the minds of some future soul who will sort them into a different order and make them their own.

3:14. Lights out, settled again…..and Zoe is off again, high-pitched barks LOUDLY punctuating the night air as she leaps from the bed in an arc, landing on the floor and out the gap between the security bars on the door to search out some other intruder. Once again, I leave my bed to cajole her to come back to bed.  When she finally complies, I shut the glass slider so her next protestations will at least be muffled from the neighbors. She settles herself on my lap which means I am again the prisoner  that I had been previous to rolling Coco off my lap and assuming a more comfortable position. I’ll awaken with a backache from being frozen into one position for the rest of the night, but finallly all seems to be settled. Sleeping with dogs––a bit like living with a newborn. Or two newborns. But the alternative is utter seclusion which can bring other night terrors and certainly different thoughts before finally, blessedly, falling to sleep.

Bad Holiday Attitudes

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I unfortunately didn’t take photos of most of the Christmas ornament devastation described in the below poem, except for the one unfortunate angel found in the yard today, so I will make do with  more of today’s latest.  The pieces of the cushion shown , now collected, were spread over the entire lawn and patio. My day’s exercise was collecting them all and stuffing them back into their cushion, then throwing it away. Luckily the garbage had not been collected so I unstuffed a bit for photo purposes. She also chewed the ties off most of the chair cushions in the garden and the corner off the cushion for the lounge chair.The bedroom duvet is my newest. This is a very recent thing, destroying bedding. Trying to decide what to do. To be fair to Coco, I think most of this devastation is created by Zoe. Pasiano says it is because she’s the smallest and trying to prove her moxie. In that case, she has succeeded.

Bad Holiday Attitudes

My energetic puppies are meddlesome at best.
They seek to alter their milieu with destructive zest.
They create a fizzy ambience on patio and lawn
by spreading lawn chair cushion stuffing all hither and yon.

They parade my Christmas banner throughout my lower yard,
sowing its bits and shreds between the onions and the chard.
No matter at what altitude we hang the decorations,
they seem able to reach them to appease their mastications.

They shred what ornaments they find on tabletop and trees.
climbing up and leaping at whatever they can seize.
A dismembered Santa Claus lies nestled in the hay
where once slept baby Jesus, who’s securely tucked away

beneath the new poinsettia, sadly unidentifiable.
His restoration is, I fear, now totally unviable.
So, unless my naughty canine friends speed up their maturations,
Next year I think that I’ll attempt way fewer decorations.

Prompt words today are fizzy, meddlesome, altitude, milieu, onion and banner.

Doggie Drama

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What are the chances that I would capture this action while I was exercising in the pool? But, I had noticed a large golden-orb weaver spider on my neighbor’s wall and although I knew it was too far away to get a good photo, I was listening to an Audible book and the phone was in reaching distance, so I thought I’d try. Coco and Zoe jogged over to check out my action and this is what resulted. Since i was holding the camera in my hands, I captured most of it, other than the recovery action which meant I had to set the camera down. Please click on photos to enlarge and read the story.

The picture of the spider was barely worth capturing, but I had to try.
Coco and Zoe trotted over together. to see what I was doing,
Zoe was the first to decide to leave the other side of the pool and to come closer.
Coco was a bit slower in the action.
But after Zoe started out,
Coco soon joined her on my side of the pool.
Zoe had a look around
and moved a bit away from Coco,
but Coco soon joined her
and was up to her usual hijinks.
The problem was, they were a bit too close to the edge of the pool for such antics
with this sad result. Zoe, misbalanced by Coco’s head under her tummy, splashed into the pool
And Coco soon followed her. Coco was able to get herself out of the pool,
but after two failed efforts by Zoe, I lifted her out. Good thing I was there. This is the first time this has happened.

 

 

Canine Grazers

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Canine Grazers

Perhaps it is genetic, this digging in the lawn.
By the time I catch them at it, they look up and they are gone.
I view the damage they have done, and although it is bad,
it’s not as worrisome as the snacks that they have had
burrowing into the soil, moist and rich and black.
The vet says eating soil to gain the nutrients they lack.

I buy them special dogfood, give them cereal for snacks,
buy various healthy dog chews by the box and by the sacks,
but still I view them digging, noses shrouded by the grass.
First just one and then they mine my lawn for sustenance en masse.
Must I invest in stanchions to keep their heads erect
so they’ll only consume the healthy food that I select?

But then I see that Zoe has something in her mouth.
When I move north to see what it may be, she zigzags south,
but finally she gasps for air, releasing something squirmy—
something rolled into a ball, but definitely wormy!
I beat her to the draw and scoop the huge grub up.
Quite a complete mouthful for such a little pup.

I took its picture with my phone and flushed it down the loo,
then tried to figure out the next thing I should do.
They’d infested all my garden, all their feeding sites turned brown,
and much as I despise taking any creature down,
the bacteria they carried could be harmful for a tummy
that could not resist them ’cause they tasted so damn yummy.

I Google it and hours later, finally I find 
that they were a garden grub of the cutworm kind.
Coffee grounds and and eggshells might curb enthusiasms
for these juicy creatures that were cause for all the chasms,
and yet they’d just move elsewhere so I’m off to find cure
that will lead to a solution calculated to endure.

At least the mystery is solved, though still without solution
until I find a natural means that will not cause pollution
that will seep into the water or the tummies of my kids.
A beneficial nematode that doesn’t harm, yet rids
my grass of all these chewers that in turn are being chewed
by dogs-o-mine who’ve discovered they make a yummy food!

Prompts today are soil, viewers, gasp, shroud, cereal, stanchion and genetic. All photos by jdb

 

Yuletide Miracle # 1, Dec 30. 2021

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Miracle #1, Dec 30, 2021: Diego slipped into the house and did not eat these
four raw cookies that I set out on the counter on their way to the oven.

(I didn’t start counting miracles until today thus the rather late #1. Next year, someone remind me to do this from the day after Thanksgiving through Tres Reyes on Jan. 6. (Not every day. Just when and if miracles occur.)

Books and Paper, Paper and Books (for CFFC)

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Morrie is a real scholar. He absolutely devours books.
He even knows how to open dresser drawers to get at more of them.
Books and pizza.–equally necessary.
Paper towels are irreplaceable for mopping up spills
and draining fried tortillas
Judy makes her own handmade kozo paper and then adds black bamboo from her garden to make jewelry.
She used to make paper coverings for Bob’s wood and stone lamps, as well..

Click on photos to enlarge and read captions.

 

And, if that isn’t enough paper for you, here are photos  and the story of the making of amate paper in San Pablito, Mexico:

In Search of the Maestros of Mexico: A Visit to a Hidden Village of Paper Artists

For Cee’s CFFC Challenge: Books and Paper

The Doggone Doggie Blues: dVerse Poets

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First there was Frida, then Diego


The Doggone Doggie Blues

The naughty dogs who leave their marks when jumping up on me.
The naughty bruises that remain, spreading their stains on me.
I cannot stop this rudeness. I cannot find the means.
I cannot stop their tugging at my blouse sleeves and my jeans.

Unruly little denizens of my humble home,
they range wherever they may choose on terrace and on dome.
They jump up in the hammock when I choose to swing.
They jump up on my visitors to see what they might bring.

They dig into my planters and eat the tasty loam.
They even dig into my sleep to bring their mother home
from dreams where she evades them, living her own life
away from doggie pressures, away from doggie strife.

What pleasures might she find anew living all alone?
What pleasures might they miss for which her conscience would atone?
All in all, they make up for the problems that they bring.
All in all, their lonesome howls to sirens are the thing
that swell her heart and make her want to join along and sing.

I wrote this for the dVerse poets Anaphora/Epiphora prompt, but unfortunately missed the deadline. Been there before, will be there again, no doubt. At any rate, here it is for the world at large!

But, just had a brainstorm and posted it on the dVerse Poets Open Link Night, where we can post any poem on any topic. Tardy but still within the law!. Here is a link to others who published poems for Open Link Night.

What Have You Got in Your Mouth???

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Morrie, what do you have in your mouth?

Oh, okay. Good boy. Fetch!

Diego, what did you have in your mouth?

Oh No! Bad boy! Um. Good boy?

Much as I hate to kill anything—even cockroaches and ants—sometimes your own interests have to win out. After suffering an infestation of rats in my laundry room a few years ago, I guess I can’t object too much to Diego’s efforts to protect his house and property. A few more yards and that rat would have been invading the dog or catfood or worse. They ate through a lidded very durable garbage can before to get to the catfood. R.I.P. little rat.

Succulent Planters: FOTD Oct 10, 2020

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I’ve just raided the garden of my neighbors Brad and Dave (with their permission, and accompanied by their gardener) and filled in some spaces in these two little planters by my Studio. Those spaces, formerly occupied by interesting spiral seashells, were harvested by the dogs who removed them all and made an arrangement out of them on the lawn!  Nope, not bones, boys, but it didn’t stop them from their larcenous ways.

Click on photos to enlarge and read captions.

This Moss rose needed some paler companions.
Thanks, Brad and Dave, for filling in the empty spaces!
What did you do, Morrie?

For Cee’s FOTD

Feed the Birds?

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Feed the Birds

I‘ve always preferred to see birds feeding off natural sources in my garden: flowers, trees, plants—(please click on first photo below to enlarge the photos and to read the rest of this tale🙂

but recently it occurred to me that the large slab sculpture next to my pool and directly in my line of vision from my computer desk would be an excellent place to scatter seed so I could watch the birds feed there.
Then, my next brainstorm was that the somewhat leafless plumeria tree next to it would be a great place for a hummingbird feeder. I had one that generous housesitters had bought a few years ago but that I rarely filled, so the first step in this plan was to fill and hang the hummingbird feeder,
then to go buy bird seed for my alternate two ton bird feeder!
Morrie was the first to express interest in the project.
Something in that bag of seed interested him,
and he even offered to help me open the bag.
I scattered the seed and retreated to my desk, hoping to see the first birds descend.
He investigated,
Then there was Morrie,luckily, to join our family, for a few years later, Frida passed away..
Then decided this warranted further investigation.
First a sniff,
then a taste, during which he brushed a few sunflower seeds off onto the stones of the deck.
sniffed around for more,
then found he had no problem at all reaching the seed up on its original level and soon both seemed to be grazing on bird food!!!
Side view of felon
all too soon, they had exhausted the supply of bird food
as quickly as they had scarfed down their own food fifteen minutes before.
But when I returned to the house, the scavengers returned, hoping I’d left more provender.
Morrie, a stubborn little guy, returned to his former feeding place.
I watched from inside the house as Morrie discovered a new potential source of nourishment–the hummingbird feeder! Luckily, it is just out of his reach, but I doubt any hummingbirds will investigate it too closely with him as watchman.
Not quite the feeding frenzy I had expected to watch. Definitely a new species of bird. The End.

In a nutshell: the little dog stands on his hind legs to examine the high stone slab sculpture for evidence of seeds. I’d put them out the morning before for the birds, thinking the three-foot-high stone sculpture placed 20 feet away, but directly in front of my computer table, would be perfect for observing birds. Wrong! Within ten minutes, every single seed was gone–completely eradicated by the vacuum cleaner tongues of Diego and Morrie. On to the next plan! I try again, after having fed the dogs. This is the result. (If you click on the first photo, you can see the photos in a larger form and read the entire story.)