Sunday Morning Reflections

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.  ~~ Roger Caras

Foto Friday

September Sunset

Samson's Caught Between Two Jailbirds

Samson: Bitches, bitches......
Mommy: What did you just say? Don't you know that's a bad word?
Samson: Is not!!
Mommy: It is so.

Samson: I'm talking about Gracie and Puddles I guess you humans don't know that girl dogs are called bitches?!
Mommy: I forgot, sorry. So what's up with them?
Samson: Well, Gracie just went back to jail and saw that SamPson with a P dog. She said he was following her all around. Wonder why he's still there....he may be a lifer for all I know.

Mommy: I think lifers go to prison, not jail. Jail's like a temporary thing.
Samson: Whatever!
Mommy: So what else did Gracie say in her sweet note to you?
Samson: She said that I'm her one and only Samson, her one any only love. I don't know if she said love, actually, but I know she cares about me lots. I can feel it on the virtual airwaves, from satellite to satellite.
Mommy: Well then, so what's the problem?

Samson: I kind of like Puddles too. She's just so funny! You know, the way she talks and her blue toenails. And now I'm finding out that she's going to jail too!!! Maybe, unless that lawyer she hired can get her off. So I was just wondering what's wrong with me ~~ why do I like jailbirds so much? 

Mommy: I don't know, Samson, but I think you should stay with Gracie, it's clear she loves you lots. And, if you really think about it, you love her too. I agree about Puddles, she's definitely the coolest and funniest dog we've met in Bloggyland or Blogville, which is where she lives. But you know, you can just go on and like her as a friend, OK?

Samson: Thank you mommy, I really love my Gracie. I just got a bit worried.

Mommy: I'm sure you don't have to worry any longer. 
Samson: OK, mommy, thank you for listening.
Mommy: You're welcome, any time.


Posted by Samson, the Samoyed Pup



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Samson Says: If you are new here, please click on these links to see the blogs that belong to Gracie and Puddles. You will love getting to know them, even if you are a cat lover. 

fishducky's art corner

It's time for fishducky's art. ~ Enjoy!

Pen and ink drawings by fishducky. 

To see more of fishducky's art, her house, and her elevator that my hubby built, go to Popular Posts in my sidebar and click on: This is a Post About a Brilliant Idea.....

And to read her blog, go to: http://fishducky.blogspot.com/

You will get a kick out of her, I promise you.

And thank you so much, those of you who added your signatures to the petition to stop the donkey roping event. We were able to stop one donkey roping event earlier in the summer thanks to bloggers and other social media. I hope the states involved will make this act of animal cruelty illegal. I believe people are working to make that happen.

You guys are the best and I really appreciate your friendship.

A Donkey Thank You, Again!

I am so grateful, and so would the donkeys be if they knew, that so many of you signed the petition against the donkey roping event to be held on September 29, 2012 in Eden, TX. 

I'm posting the link again below in case others who read this post may want to sign the petition. Thank you so much if you can help.


At these events, cattle prods are used on the donkey to make it run and then be roped. Donkeys are not built like cattle, their necks will get severely injured, their bones will break, and many will die. This is an extremely cruel event put on to entertain people. Donkeys are highly intelligent animals, they are loving, loyal, and so sweet. Please help stop this event. You don't have to be a U.S. citizen to sign. Thank you so much for caring.


http://www.change.org/petitions/eden-tx-chamber-of-commerce-stop-burro-roping-event-9-29-12-in-eden-texas#share 

If you signed it last week, I hope you will enjoy a few funny donkey pictures that I took when I worked at the donkey rescue. The guy at the top was one of my favorites. His name is Apache, and he never met a camera he didn't like. Here are a few other clowns:

Thank you so much again, you guys are the best!

This & That From The Canyon & Diabetes Support Group Meeting Notes

On Thursday, I went to the diabetes support group meeting to listen to a visiting podiatrist who talked about how to take care of our diabetic feet. He began by going over all the various foot problems that can develop in all of us, but are particularly difficult to deal with in people with diabetes. He also gave us some advice on how to best take care of our feet.

But the thing was, this doc wanted to scare us  straight! He said as much, then he followed through. First he provided some gruesome statistics: Every 6 seconds, someone gets a foot amputated somewhere in the world,  and diabetes is usually the culprit.  Plus this: There are two kinds of gangrene, wet and dry. Dry gangrene is not considered an emergency because the affected body part, say a toe, will eventually just break off! It’s the wet kind that will rush you in for emergency surgery. 

 The first bee I ever managed to capture with my point and shoot camera. I am happy!

But it didn’t end there, he proceeded to show us photos of every kind of diseased foot you could possibly imagine. There was a parade of fungi, corns, callouses, hammer toes, bunions, and gangrene. There was a diabetic foot that had stepped on a nail and it’s person had no knowledge of this, but walked around with the nail in his foot, only to be discovered by this doctor in a routine foot exam. There was a poor foot, whose person had walked barefoot to his mailbox, in the Tucson, Arizona summer, no less. I imagine on very  hot asphalt or concrete. That poor foot was severely burned. Neither of these two guys felt a thing due to diabetic nerve and other damage to their feet. 

I can still feel my feet so I don't pay too much attention to them. I never walk barefoot and I never wear open toed shoes or sandals. I fear injuring my feet too much. After this, I believe I will pay a bit more attention. The best advice he gave was for us to check our feet every day, use a mirror if you can't see your feet properly. If you have diabetes, you must see your doctor for any little thing that happens to your feet. Just to be safe. 

I was worried, but I was able to sleep without nightmare images of these terrible feet showing up in my dreams. For that I'm grateful!

A canyon update: First, the weather -- it's around 42 - 46F when I wake up at five a.m., so it's pleasant for a few hours. Just right for walking the dogs and working outside. But when the afternoon comes around, it gets hot again. I heard it may change by next week. I hope so. 

As you can see, the gray rabbit brush is in full bloom. Native Americans in this area made tea from the rabbit brush and used it for medicinal purposes. While pretty for a few weeks each fall, it's a fast spreading weed. Being busy with other things, we have let it get out of hand. Basically, you need some heavy machinery to remove the bushes, which we don't have right now. What we do have though is me! See below. 

Our other predominant plant here in the canyon, the juniper tree is bearing fruit. The juniper tree is a tree that looks like a bush and it has berries that are not berries at all, but cones, like tiny pine cones, covered in blue skin. Go figure! Coyotes and other wild animals will come and feast on these cones after they fall to the ground. Bears like them too and we once had a bear strip a juniper of a lot of branches, eat the berries, and throw the stripped branches under the tree. 

I have always wanted a field of my own and now I have this one, the near field in the picture. It's fenced, but not used for anything except for me to walk through, look at, or sit in. The rabbit brush has now spread into my field and I don't like it. So I have a new morning chore: Cutting back the rabbit brush. Too bad I'm doing it while it's flowering, thus spreading the seeds, but it can't be helped. They have to go. So far, I've cut back about 10 bushes and at last count I have another 13 to go in the field. It's slow going, these guys are big. They are sort of dried out at the bottom and break off easily, which is great.

I can only do about one bush a morning. Then I sit back, rest, and enjoy the soft desert wind as it wraps itself around me. I watch the marvelous little birds that have been around all summer long. Huge flocks of them fly up from the field to perch on the wires, then one of two drop off, and soon they all fly down into the field again, twittering all along. Peace comes over me. How could it not? 

Yesterday, as I opened the front door, I saw a huge plane flying over the canyon, very slowly and making a droning noise. At first I became concerned, what was it? Was it in trouble? Then I remembered the Endeavor, but I didn't know it was coming. They actually did a fly-over here, over our canyon! Then the plane turned, flew over Tehachapi, and on out over the San Joaquin valley to Sacramento and San Francisco before turning back to Los Angeles, where it will have a permanent home at the Science Center. It was wonderful that I just happened to see it and I'm still excited about it.

Have a great day everyone.

Foto Friday

From archives.


Please sign the petition below to stop yet another donkey roping event to be held in Eden, TX on September 29, 2012. At these events, cattle prods are used on the donkey to make it run and then be roped. Donkeys are not built like cattle, their necks will get severely injured, their bones will break, and many will die. This is an extremely cruel event put on to entertain people. It is beyond me how anyone can sit and laugh, teach their children to laugh, at these poor animals. Donkeys are highly intelligent animals, they are loving, loyal, and so sweet. Please help stop this event. You don't have to be a U.S. citizen to sign. About another 6,000 signatures are needed. Thank you so much for caring.

http://www.change.org/petitions/eden-tx-chamber-of-commerce-stop-burro-roping-event-9-29-12-in-eden-texas#share

Welcome Back Blackbirds!

They used to come every fall, in large numbers, gathering on the wires, then settling in the junipers for the night. They would hang around for a few weeks then take off.

They haven't been around for a few years now, so when we saw them last night, I had to grab the camera and snap a few pictures. Not the best, it was getting dark, and there were so many birds, it was impossible to catch them all.

Tuesday's Treasures and Things

Central Stockholm is built on fourteen islands and in the surrounding waters, there are many smaller islands and islets. Pictured above are four little islands, called Fjaderholmarna, or the Feather Islets.

A few pretty old wooden houses, painted in the traditional red with white trim, dot the island, reminders of its past.

The main island is now a tourist destination, with a boat museum, an aquarium, featuring fish from the Baltic Sea, and a marina. There are also a couple of good restaurants and several arts and crafts shops.

It was to the shops that my friend Inga and I headed when I was in Stockholm last. You take a small boat from Stockholm and after 20 -25 minutes you arrive at the island. We spent a wonderful day there, browsing the shops, enjoying the beauty of Swedish handcraft and art, as well as the beauty of the day. 

It was there, in one of the shops, I found my moose bag. Some creative person went wild decorating the moose, who I believe may now have replaced the Dala horse as the number one symbol of Sweden, at least as far as tourists go. I swear, you see moose in all shapes, forms, and colors everywhere in the tourist shops of Stockholm. But I had never seen moose like these before, so I just had to have the bag.

I have received more compliments and questions about this bag than anything I else I own, now or ever. The latest was a very cute woman who came up to me in our local K-Mart, grabbed me and said in a rushed manner: "I just had to tell you, I love your bag, I love mooses so much!" And off she went. Mooses (?) I thought, hmmm, I don't think so, but I had to smile, she was really cute and she did inspire me to write this post. And to remember back on a lovely Swedish summer day spent with a good friend. 




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Samson Says: Thank You for your nice comments on my and Soldier's snoozing skills. 
Inger: I'm glad you liked my glasses. I wasn't sure if I did myself, but with my hair shorter, I think they will be just fine. And yes, thank you so much for your compliments on how I look. At my age that means a lot. Now all I need is a new tooth!!!

Samson's Making Up For Missing Napping 101

Samson Says:

Auntie Mad Snapper said it was OK for me to show my  followers how we nap around here. 

OK, so we all missed the nap class 101 cause we were probably snoozing anyway. That's something we're awfully good at. Wanna see how it's done? First I yawn, like this.

Then I turn over on my back and before you know it, these loud sounds come out of me: ZZZZZ, ZZZZZ, ZZZZZ, it's called snoring. Few dogs know how to it, but I know -- trick is you've got to sleep on your back.

When I was little, I'd sleep with my second mommy, Angel. I heard she never slept most of her life until I came around. She was busy keeping watch and guarding my other mommy. But I played so hard with her, cause I was little then, so she got tired and slept with me.

 

Here we are, a big pile of dogs. And again below here. Of course, Angel is gone now. She went over the Rainbow Bridge mommy told me. I don't know where that is but I for sure miss her lots.

So now it's just Soldier and me. When I had hormones, testy something hormones, all of a sudden Soldier would get on my nerves, so I just had to beat him up. But then I injured him badly and everyone was mad at me. And he got presents and stuff, all the way from Colorado, special EXPRESS  delivery and all, and I got NOTHING!  

Mommy said it was all daddy's fault and I had to get fixed. I didn't know what that was all about, but then I found out. I got fixed all right, don't ask me about it. Now I love Soldier again, but I'm not being trusted -- I guess I have to prove myself before we can be together again like this. We walk together fine and I kiss Soldier lots then, but not to sleep like this. Sorry Soldier.

But this was about sleeping -- I, what's it called again? Digress...  Soldier is the sleeping expert around here. 

Just look at him! He could teach Napping 101 any time if you could just manage to wake him up.

Sometimes he plays chicken without a head! He looks sooo funny!

Sometimes he grabs mommy's slipper and hugs it in his sleep. Boy, I tell you this dog can SLEEP!

Me, well here I am guarding my bone and no one dares to take it away from me while I sleep. That's all for now about our sleeping habits around here.

Have a nice day everyone!

P. S. (That means more to come) And looks who's here! 

It's mommy in her new haircut auntie Rachael gave her. And her new glasses she bought herself. The reason she looks funny is cause she's still missing that tooth on the front side of her mouth. She says she's self-conscious cause she can't smile properly cause then it will show. I say, who cares? 

Auntie Rachael came and went in a hurry so there's nothing more to say about that, except she'll be back next month. 



Posted by Samson, the Samoyed Pup.

Foto Friday

From the 8th Floor ~ Glendale, CA ~ August 2012

I included this photo in the post about our trip to Glendale last month. It has lingered in my mind since then so I'm posting it again as a stand alone. I see so many patterns that I didn't see when I actually took the picture. 

Three Anniversaries

September 6,  2006 ~ I move to the canyon  with my crew.

We bought this place in 2005 and my husband lived here on and off for a year, fixing it up. We moved our furniture in June 2006 and then, finally, on September 6, 2006, I moved up here with my crew of three dogs: Bandit, the hound dog mix, Angel, the German shepherd dog, Princess, the Border Collie/Black Lab cross, Sindbad, the cat, and Pippi Birdie, the parakeet. 

Looking back, this was the best matched dog pack we've had since we had Gypsy and Red, the Dobermans we lived with early in our marriage. Everyone got along, Angel was the alpha dog, but Bandit though HE was, and she let him. In her own quiet way, Princess took care of everyone, made sure no one strayed. 

Sindbad, the cat, the great love of my life, moved with us also. He was eighteen years old here and I could feel how he didn't like to move away from the familiar territory he had ruled for so many years. He died at Christmas that year, but he will live in my heart always. 

Angel was so sweet, I love this picture of her and Sindbad. Any animal we brought into her life, she would take care of. She would have been a wonderful mother. 

Bandit keeping an eye on a squirrel in our tree in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the pictures from when we arrived at the ranch are in my broken computer. Bandit loved it here, there were so many things for him to chase and so many smells to smell. He was in hound dog heaven.

Princess was a true country dog who was always at my side. She was the kindest and most helpful dog I have ever known. But they were all wonderful dogs and so great together. 

Pippi Birdie was the final member of our crew that moved to the canyon with me. I don't like caged birds, or the idea of them I should say, but my hubby rescued another parakeet from the L. A. streets and we got Pippi as a companion for her. It didn't take long for this little bundle of bird personality to win my heart. 

And now, only six years later, they are all gone....... 

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Summer/Fall 2007 ~ I meet Soldier for the first time and fall head over heels in love!

I don't remember exactly when my husband rescued Soldier, sometime in the late summer of 2007. They were both living in our Los Angeles house then because my husband still had his business and worked. I will never forget the first time I met Soldier. I drove down there to meet him and I fell in love on the spot. I sensed how needy he was and he still is.  After he moved up here in 2008, it didn't take long for him to become my 77 pound lap dog. He is 12 years old now and in this past year he was severely injured and has gone through a lot. But his previous owners named him well, like a true soldier he marches on. In addition to loving him so very much, I have come to admire his courage this past year.

August 14, 2009 ~ My blog is born as I post my first blog post.

My blog had its third birthday on August 14, 2012. Lately, I have seen people saying Happy Birthday to their blogs, so I will too. I also want to thank my friends, early supporters, and Barbee, my first blogger friend for their encouragement.

I had no idea what I was doing back then, but I slowly began to make friends, new worlds opened up for me, I learned about many new things, both from reading blogs and from doing research for my own posts. I met many cute dogs, cats, and every kind of barnyard critter. I have enjoyed gorgeous photographs from all over the world: fences in Texas, barns in Wisconsin, nature from Norway to Namibia, and flowers from Florida to Alaska; it's amazing how blogging has opened up my mind and my world. 

While I completed the A to Z Challenge of 2011, I met many authors and others who love books as much as I do. It has been interesting to read about the hard work, difficulties, frustrations, and joys involved in writing, editing, and getting a book published. I also began to write book reviews for amazon and for my blog. A new experience for me. 

Blogging has opened my eyes to nature. I have always loved nature, but I see things now that I would not have noticed before. I have become a recorder and reporter of things that happen out there in the canyon or on the road. Point and shoot photography has become a hobby of mine. I say point and shoot, because nature just sort of displays itself, I point my camera, shoot, and hope for the best. All the while enjoying myself tremendously. 

My First Post ~ August 14, 2009

Last Monday was the big day: the Wild Blue satellite arrived and was installed by two guys from Gilroy. They were pretty efficient and got everything working for me. So now that I have high-speed Internet, the time has come for me to finally start my blog. I have discussed this with Princess to see how she feels about having her own Dog Blog and she seems excited about it. You know I'll need a partner in crime and some help with all these new things.