Sunday, December 21, 2008

Winter Wonderland

All month long here the snow has been coming and going, coming and going. We'll have a glorious blanket of fresh snow one day, then the next day it's gone. I have learned to go outside right away after a snowfall and play in it as much as I can before it melts.

Last weekend, Laura and I went hiking in our special place. It had snowed the day before, but only some of the snow had melted, leaving the ground pretty slippery. Laura fell splat, right on her bum. I ran back to see if she was okay, but Laura just lay on the ground laughing. I am teaching her to enjoy playing in the snow too!

I ran all over the park: down to the river, through the woods and back through the sleeping wildflower meadow -- and I didn't fall down once. Sometimes having four little legs is an advantage over two big tall ones!

Alas, a couple of days later, all of that beautiful snow had melted away again, but this Friday it came back. It snowed and it snowed and it snowed. By dinnertime, the snow in our yard was so deep, it came up to my head! I had a fun time scooting and digging and tunneling through the snow. Then I came inside and made Laura play towel games with me. I bet all of that snow won't be able to melt away in any hurry!

Yesterday, Laura and I had our Yule Party. I was a bit apprehensive about the party because Laura said my friend Claire wasn't coming -- and what is the point of having a party without Claire?

The last time Laura had a party, I didn't know any of the people who came, and they all just sat around talking about writing things all afternoon, and no one wanted to play with me. It was very boring.

Laura said this would be a good party, however, and she turned out to be correct. I made two new friends called Alex and Jennifer. They sat and talked to me all night, and I had a good time -- even though Laura wouldn't let me sit on the futon!

Before the party, Laura had taken the futon cover downstairs where there's that noisy machine. Every time Laura brings clothing and blankets and stuff back up from that machine, they smell funny. I was trying to do my part once Laura put the cover back on the futon to make it smell nice again for our guests, but Laura kicked me off. Then she put her guitar on the futon, right in the middle so it was taking up almost all of the space, and I couldn't get back on. I don't know why she did that. Her guitar didn't do anything to make the futon smell nice, and when our guests arrived, they had to sit on it with it still smelling all soapy!

No one seemed to mind, however, and I got to sit on my throne all night, with my new friends beside me, so everyone was happy. I hope Alex and Jennifer will come to our next party too!

Anyhow... Laura says it is bedtime, so I will sign off for now and say good night and happy solstice everybody! Have fun in the snow!

Friday, November 28, 2008

River Pictures

Finally. November is almost over and I get a chance to get back on the computer. (Laura is finished her 50K for NaNoWriMo already. She is supposed to be working on her term paper for class today, but instead she is making soup, so I get the computer!)

I want to show you some more pictures of the special place where Laura and I go hiking near our home. These are pictures from one of our fall trips there. (Once Laura is done her classes for this term, maybe we can go back and take some winter pictures.)

You all know how much my friend Laura loves the water. Well, look at where we can walk to, right from our home:

We can walk here from our home!


I like the river too, because it is a good place to have a drink. (Laura hikes very far, and that makes me thirsty!)

Good Place to Drink


In some places, the river isn't so quiet.

River Rapids


I can do this.

I can do this!


I am so brave!

I am so brave!


Hey! Don't laugh! That was a big stream for a little puppy like me to cross all by herself!

Crossing the Stream


You're still laughing, aren't you. I can hear you naysayers, betting that I won't do it, that I won't cross the big river...

Exploring the River


... well, I'll show you!

Exploring the River


That's me in that picture. Me. Princess Kendal. Fording the rapids.

Come on in, Laura! The water's nice and cool and it tickles my feet!

Exploring the River


That was fun!

Exploring the River


Once you are done playing in the water, you should shake really hard to get dry. If your human was too afraid to go in the water with you, be sure to stand really close to her when you shake. That way, she will at least be able to enjoy the river's watery goodness second hand.

Shake!


I think I'll lie here for a bit now and rest.

I think I'll lie here for a bit

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Bathroom Blessing

Here is another video from our new home Blessing Party.

Laura and my Mum and our friends Loretta and Tammy and my best friend Claire are all blessing the bathroom.



Now, if you are ever visiting us and you have occasion to use the bathroom, and you notice how great the energy is in there, you will know why!

Tee-Hee

Here is a funny video from the blessing party for Laura and my new home.

That little boy who is always coming around was at the party, and while he was here, he went poop in the toilet. Apparently, this is a big deal for humans. I'm not sure what the attraction is. Those toilet things look scary and not at all comfortable. Me, I prefer a nice piece of soft grass. Anyhow...

Using the toilet is, as I've said, a big deal for humans. This little boy was so proud of himself that he made John sing and dance to celebrate:

Friday, October 31, 2008

It's Back

You may not have been following my friend Laura's writing blog lately -- because she's not been too active on it since last November -- but she's back now. And you know why: That frightful NaNoWriMo thing is rearing its ugly head again.

Laura has been planning for almost two months now, scribbling down notes on little pieces of card. She's also been planning to leave me home alone while she goes out and about on the town, meeting up with other NaNo participants in our city. Isn't it bad enough that she spends every waking moment sitting at her computer in November? Does she really need to go out socializing too? (Last year Laura attended "write-ins" online. She didn't need to leave our home to go to them and I got to sit right beside her. This year, however, she says she is going to "real world" write-ins. She says they are better. Humph!)

Anyhow, Laura does as Laura will, and she's doing NaNo again, so I apologize if I don't get much time on the computer in the next month to update my blog!

She did at least take me to my favourite park tonight. We didn't go last weekend, because Laura had a major paper to write for school, but we went tonight once it was nice and quiet. It was dark too, but I didn't mind that. I have a good nose and can sniff out the good paths!

Before the nice park, however, Laura made me go to that puppy park again. She really wants me to be friends with those rambunctious little ankle-biters for some reason. I just don't see the attraction. They are always horsing around. And they poke at my bum. Somebody should teach them better manners! There are nice people in the puppy park though. They stroke my ears and say what a good dog I am, and they tell the puppies not to bother me. I don't mind going to the puppy park so much when I get to visit with my nice human friends there.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

New Friend

Hi everybody!

This is just a quick update, because we have limited access to the Internet at the moment, and Laura needs to use it for her work, but I wanted to let you know that we have been exploring in our favourite park again, and Laura finally remembered to bring the camera!

I don't have time to show you all of the pictures today, but I wanted to introduce you to my new friend:

New Friend


This is me and my new friend Tuque.

Laura and I were resting in a quiet place at the water's edge, when Tuque came running through the forest to meet us. I knew right away that she was a nice dog, so I ran straight up to her to say hello.

Tuque didn't bark at me or try to climb on top of me or run into me or do any of those other rude things that some of the dogs Laura wants me to be friends with do, and I wasn't afraid of her at all.

Tuque has her own page on the Web too! You can view it here.
I hope that I will get to play with Tuque again soon!

I will try to post more photos soon.
(If you want a sneak peak, you can view them here.)

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Out and About

Last weekend Laura went to a concert that was twenty-five kilometres away.
She went there on her bicycle.

"Isn't it great that we live so close to all of these wonderful events now?" Laura said.

I don't know about that. I liked it when we lived in the middle of nowhere so there was nowhere to go and Laura stayed home with me all the time. I mean, I'm sure the concert was fun. My friend Tannis was there. I would have liked to see her. And Katherine. I've never met her, but I like her music. And Wendell was there too. Remember how Ashton wanted to be a cowdog in Wendell's band? Poor Ashton never got to realize that dream, but maybe if I get to meet Wendell someday I could at least tell him what a big fan Ashton was. But twenty-five kilometres is a bit far for me. I mean, I could walk that far, but then I would be too tired to walk home again afterwards. And no way am I getting on one of those scary bicycle things. They look dangerous!

Laura doesn't ride her bicycle everyday though. Some days she stays closer to home, and there are lots of nice places we can walk to together. (Not like the last place we lived where the only places to walk were on the road with the cars or in that marsh with the scary bullfrogs!)

My favourite place to walk here is the woods. It is quiet there, and there are fields full of pretty flowers and a river you can drink from and lots of interesting paths. And no bicycles!

Well, there is that one bicycle that was abandoned, but it doesn't move, and I stay well away from it. Usually it is the only one. But today, when we got to the park, there were two children there, right at the entrance, on a bicycle! Those are the scariest bicycles of all, the ones with children on them, so I suggested to Laura that we enter the park by a different route.

Laura agreed, and I bet she's glad she did because we found lots of new paths to explore today. I even found a secret path that Laura wouldn't have seen if I hadn't shown it to her. It was a really nice path, covered in a thick layer of rich black mud that felt so good between my toes! It led to a babbling brook where I had a nice long drink and a mud bath. Hmm-mmm! That was fun! Also, we saw a deer! I bet we wouldn't have seen a deer in the part of the park where the children were playing on that bicycle.

I want to post some pictures of how pretty our woods are, but Laura keeps forgetting to bring the camera.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

When she got there the cupboard was bare!



Sorry I haven't written in so long. It's been a crazy summer.

Laura and I have been trying to move house. That meant that Laura was away a lot, looking for a new place to live and getting things ready so that we could move there and when she was home she was packing all of our stuff and loading it up into a big van and then she was gone again. I have to use Laura's computer to post these blog entries and I need Laura's help to do that and she wasn't available much. Anyhow... we are in our new place now, so I'm back.

Laura says this is a good place to live, but I'm not so sure yet.

Yesterday I ate up the last of my nice lamb and rice kibble for my dinner. Laura said not to worry because this is such a good place to live, there is a 24 hour A&P really close by and they sell my yummy dinner there. She said she would pick up a new bag on her way home from class.

Well, Laura went off to her class, and I was a very good dog and guarded the sofa while she was out so no monsters could come and carry it off, and then Laura came back home again -- without any food. They had a sale at the A&P and people had bought up all of my nice dinner.

Laura says this is a good place to live because we have nice neighbours here, but I don't think it was very neighbourly to buy up all of the lamb and rice kibble for themselves and leave none for me!

I try not to be greedy. I don't ask for a lot. But moving house is hard work. I burned up many calories watching Laura carry all of that stuff around. I need to eat something and I'm not so polyphagous as Laura. I'm just a little puppy dog with a sensitive stomach and I need my lamb and rice.

Laura said not to worry. She said she would go back to the store today. Maybe they would have some more food in before dinner time. Then she let me help her make chicken curry, so I wouldn't feel so bad.

I love to help Laura cook, and I am a good helper! Especially when she makes dishes with mango in them.

Mango is very yummy and it smells so good and the squirrels think so too. Mangoes also have a big stone in the middle of them, which you cannot eat. It's difficult to get all of the nice mango flesh off of the stone, but if you put the stone out in the compost with some of the yummy part still on it, the squirrels will smell it and dig through your compost to get it and make a big mess all over the lawn. So I always help Laura when she is cooking with mangoes by making sure that stone is very clean before it goes in the compost. Sometimes it takes a long time to get the stone clean, but I don't mind. Like I said before, I am a good helper, and I always try to do my best.

Chef's Assistant


This morning Laura had some of the yummy chicken curry that I helped her make for her breakfast. Laura said the curry was very good, and I knew she was happy I had helped her because there was no compost on our lawn. Then, this afternoon, Laura went back to the store, just like she had promised, to get some dinner for me.

They still didn't have any of my dinner at the A&P, so Laura went on to Zellers, but they were all sold out too. So Laura went to Canadian Tire. Still no luck. Everywhere had lots of other kinds of dog food, but nobody had my lamb and rice. Laura even hiked out to the No Frills, which is far away for carrying home my big bag of dinner, but Laura loves me so she went the distance. Alas, they didn't have any there either.

Meanwhile, my tummy was starting to get very grumbly. It was seven o'clock and the sky was getting dark and menacing and Laura still wasn't home.

Finally Laura came back with a big huge bag. It didn't look like my dinner, but Laura said it was still lamb and rice, just a different kind. A more expensive kind -- which is hard right now because we don't have very much income -- but Laura said I am worth it. (And I am!)

So I had my new, special, princess food for dinner tonight -- and it was very yummy!
Maybe this will be a good place to live after all.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Me-Me, On the Beach!

Last week Laura and my Dad and I went to the beach.

Sunday at the Beach


Usually it is difficult for my Dad to go to the beach because of all that sand, but they had a boardwalk at this beach:

Boardwalk to the Beach


and a nice wooden sun deck:

Beach Viewing Platform


Do you see where Laura has left her shoes?

Guess Where Laura Is


And do you know why?

Yep.
She went in the lake.
In May.
And she made me go in too!
It was COLD.

You know how Laura is about water though.

Me, I prefer a nice sunny spot with a cool, clear bowl of water nearby.

I Like the Sun


On our way to the beach, Laura and my Dad wanted to eat at a nearby restaurant, but the waiter there was mean and refused to serve us. I was sad because the waiter said it was my fault, but Laura said not to mind. She said we didn't need that stinky old restaurant anyway.

Laura is a good cook. She makes good food, like this yummy Seafood Linguine that she created tonight. (So there, you mean waiter you! We don't need you! We have better food at home.)

Monday, June 2, 2008

Cheeky

We've been putting oranges out in our yard for the Orioles.

The first orange had orioles at it all day long, and a hummingbird too. Recently, however, we've not seen orioles or hummingbirds in the yard -- yet the oranges were still being picked clean in a day or two.

Surely it wasn't insects sucking up all that juice, we thought.

Now we know!

Cheeky

Monday, May 26, 2008

Oh Laura!

Oh Laura!


Sometimes you have to humour your human.

Laura likes to dance in the rain -- and afterwards she will play fun games with me like tug-o-war with my nice soft towel -- so I try to oblige when she wants me to pose for silly photographs like this one.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

When the Cat's Away...

It's party time at Tyrcuill because my Mum is away on vacation. For two and a half weeks I can make as much mess as I like and no one will yell at me!

I am being good though. I am helping Laura to look after my Dad and I am helping Laura to do her exercises. Take tonight for instance: Laura was doing her usual interpretive dance sort of routine, then she lay down on the floor. Then she sat up again. Then she lay down again. Then she sat up again. Down. Up. Down. Up. Obviously she was having difficulty deciding where she wanted to be, so I went over to help her.

When I got to Laura's side, she said hello, but she kept right on sitting up, lying down, sitting up, lying down. At first I wasn't sure what I could do to help, so I sniffed around a bit to try to figure it out.

Every time Laura lay down, she would raise her arms up over her head. When she did this, I noticed that her arm pits were really sweaty. Ah ah! Now I knew how I could help!

My friend Laura likes to be clean. Obviously she couldn't keep the sweat off her arm pits while she was still trying to figure out if she wanted to be sitting up or lying down, so I decided to clean them for her.

My idea turned out to be a good one because, as soon as I started licking her arm pits, Laura lay back down on the floor and stayed there. Obviously I helped her to decide what to do! Also, once Laura realized she wanted to be lying down, she was so happy she started to laugh. She laughed and she laughed and she couldn't stop for a long time. It is always good to make people laugh.

See how helpful I am?

Monday, May 5, 2008

Shh! Don't tell anyone!

Laura hasn't made me go for a walk for three days!

On Saturday, Laura was out of town at a writers' conference all day. I was sad that she was away, but it meant I got to sleep all day.

Yesterday was our bird watching day. We were busy feeding the birds and then sitting very still to take photographs of them. Then Laura decided that we should have a bonfire so she could jump over it. (Don't ask me what that is all about. Fires are dangerous. I try to stay very far away from them. Humans have funny ideas though, like jumping over the first bonfire of May to ensure prosperity for the coming year. Anyhow, it got me out of having to go hiking for a second day in a row.)

Today Laura has been busy uploading our photographs to Flickr and adding new recipes to the Polyphagous Dragon and I have been trying to get caught up-to-date on Confessions of a Canine Cyber-Widow and now it is 9:45 p.m. and so far no walk.

Now, now. I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I'm not a lazy dog. Oh, no. It's just that Laura likes to hike so very far -- and she has much longer legs than me! Every day she makes me walk around the local marsh. It is a long walk and it's noisy there. The bull frogs are very loud! I'm surprised they don't scare off the red-winged blackbirds.
Red-Winged Blackbird

The marsh is full of red-winged blackbirds. Laura keeps trying to photograph them, but they are kind of shy. They hide deep in the bullrushes so you cannot see them very well, and they fly away if you get too close.

There are bunny rabbits that live at the marsh too.
What's Up Wabbit?
The bunnies are not as shy. Sometimes they join us for part of our walk -- but they don't walk the whole way with us. Bunnies have strong legs, but they understand that their legs are little and they shouldn't walk as far as Laura!

Gone to the Birds

This weekend was all about the birds.

Laura filled up all of the bird feeders in our yard. She put out sunflower seeds and peanuts (I ate the ones that fell on the ground!) and raisins and corn, and small seeds for the little finches, and she nailed half of a fresh orange onto our cherry tree and half to our rowan tree. The birds had a major feast.

Birds sure can eat, I can tell you that! By the end of the day, they had consumed an enormous amount of food, but we got lots of pretty pictures.

We had three Baltimore Orioles come to visit:
Baltimore Oriole
Baltimore Oriole

This one had his head in the clouds:
Head in the Clouds

Clouds of cherry blossoms, that is. The orioles love our cherry tree:
Oriole

They also loved the orange that Laura put out for them:
Baltimore Oriole
Baltimore Oriole

This rose-breasted grosbeak came to our finch feeder:
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

and this downy woodpecker came to our suet box feeder:
Woodpecker

Laura is sad because the birds love the suet box feeder and the old log that my Dad put out for them, but so far nobody has come to the suet feeder she made for them. This weekend she moved it onto a tree which we know the woodpeckers like, so hopefully they will notice it now. I think it is a very fine feeder. I would lick the suet out of it if I could reach up that high!

The suet-eaters may not appreciate Laura's work, but the cardinals loved the niger seed she put out for them on our tray feeder:
Cardinal

Laura got lots of great photos of this little guy:
Cardinal

We also saw a lady goldfinch:
Female American Goldfinch

a boy goldfinch:
Male American Goldfinch

a red-breasted nuthatch:
Red-Breasted Nuthatch
(they like to eat upside down!)

mourning doves:
Mourning Dove

white-crowned sparrows:
White-Crowned Sparrow

and a chipping sparrow:
Chipping Sparrow

My Dad took this very special photo of a hummingbird:
Hummingbird
You almost never see them sitting still -- even when they are eating they are still flying -- but this one perched on one of our oranges for a drink and let my Dad get a nice picture.

I like bird-watching because you have to sit very still and try not to move at all and we don't even have to leave our own yard to see lots of pretty birds.

At the end of a nice, peaceful day, this cute white-throated sparrow sat out in our yard with us to watch the sunset:
White-Throated Sparrow

Hello Again

I know. It's been a while.

I haven't had a lot of time to work on the computer because Laura has been so busy but I've been having lots of adventures and have many nice photos to show you. I will try to get caught up.

Safe Inside

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday!

I am ten years young!

I was hoping for a big party with lots of loving and attention, but Laura had to go out this morning and then she had work to do on her computer. She has been on the computer all afternoon and all night and now my birthday is almost over and I barely even got a chance to post a birthday message! Laura has been hogging the computer all day and she hasn't even made my favourite cookies yet which she promised to make for my birthday!

I don't understand why humans spend so much time on their computers. I'm much prettier and I'm soft and cuddly and I'm good and smart too!

Laura! Laura, that's enough work for today! It's bed time!