A Link and Two Photos

Yeah, not very creative, I know.

I have Monday and Tuesday and next Friday off. Light is out of school on Mon and Tues and on Fri, she has a field trip that I wanted to go on, so I'm looking forward to next week.

On Tuesday, she is going to the eye doctor. She seems to be having problems seeing the board at school. Since literally EVERY ONE in our family has glasses, it's inevtible. I just wanted to hold off for a few more years.

Oh, well, at least she looks cute in glasses. At least she looks cute in mine when she tries them on.

***************

The Flip Flop Queen posted a new blog post over at Flip Flops in the Sun.

Go check it out. It's really cute and fun. I had post it for her this morning but she told me what to say and how to post it.

Bossy little thing!

***************

Here's a pic of Nikki taken last night.

She's still a dream dog.


And here's my favorite little man, Max. The original dream dog.

What have y'all got planned for the weekend? Anything fun?

Later,

Foxey, She Was A Good Dog

I know I said I was taking a break, and I am, but I had to get this out.

My heart is hurting today.

Last night, we went to go visit a friend of ours. We didn't leave her house until after nine last night. When we approached the driveway to our house, we saw a prone figure right past the drive. It was small and furry.

I knew something had gotten hit in front of our house, but we live out in the country. It's normal to see dead animals in the road all the time.

However, something told me that this wasn't an armadillo or a fox or a cat.

Something told me it was Foxey.

For those of you who don't know Foxey, she is our neighbors dog. The cutest little thing you've ever seen. She's always been an outside dog and when Max, our dog, came along, they hit it off right away. Foxey was at our house almost as much as she was at hers. I saw that dog EVERY DAY.

She had a way of begging for a belly rub by looking at you with those brown eyes and then flopping on her back and exposing her belly.

It was so cute, you couldn't help but oblige.

Even my mom gave in. And she's not a big "petter" of animals.

She was such a smart dog, too. I know that in the end a car got her, but she really was pretty car smart. There were occasions of near misses, but you get that a lot around here.

When we pulled in the driveway and got out of the car, Max came up to me and was whining. He usually greets us with some very enthusiastic fully body twists or by jumping up on us, but this time, he made his way to me and sat near me and whined.

That was my second clue that it was Foxey lying there in the road.

I told my mom and LOML to go inside the house and wait until after I had a chance to take a look. I went and grabbed my flashlight and walked to the road.

As soon as I saw the red flea collar, I knew.

And I cried. I cried like a baby while standing over her wee body.

I cried for this little furry bundle of love.

I cried for the two girls across the road who just lost a pet.

I cried for Max who was obviously missing his companion.

I cried for LOML who loves all animals.

I cried for myself. I loved that little dog like she was my own.

It was so rare to not see Max and Foxey together. They barked and growled at each other. Max nipped at her. Foxey would bite back. Two seconds later, they would start chasing each other around and then they'd come up on on the porch and lay down next to each other.

They were friends.

And she will be missed.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Trifecta

Pee.

Poop.

Barf.


I had a %()&*^(&*%%$&)*) morning.

I woke up LATE to the sound of Mike barfing. He was on the edge of my bed. Sooooo grateful he has a good aim and completely missed the bed. Soooooo not grateful it splattered everywhere.

Then, my mom informs me that J.D. pissed all over the bathroom floor. Right by the toilet. 8 inches from the litter box.

THEN, my mom further informs me that someone (either J.D. or Mike but most likely J.D.) POOPED in the dining room.

THEN, she pointed out more barf that Mike apparently had leftover and decided to let loose in the living room.

4 rooms, 3 bodily functions.

It's days like this that make me want to pack up a suitcase and get the hell out of dodge.

However, despite the J.D.'s apparent lack of use of the litter box, how can you be mad at this:

You can't. So, I just suck it up, clean it up and move on.

In more animal news, Max has this cleanliness fetish. He HAS to get every bit of trash that's thrown out of moving vehicles that land in our yard or the neighbors yard or the other neighbors yard or, well, any trash at all in a mile radius.

Even if it's buried.

So, it's nothing to walk outside in the morning to find bits of lime green Styrofoam or broken glass jars with dirt on them or torn to shred soda cans in the yard.

However, this morning?

He stumped me.

Yeah, that's a sweet potato. And not a rotten one. And not one covered in dirt.

Where the hell did he get a sweet potato?

This, people, is REAL LIFE.

And some days, it's just too much.

I just have to keep telling myself, "One month, one week and two days."

Later,

Mama Dawg

Our Easter

Yeah, I don't have a wittier title. Sorry.

We had a nice Easter. On Saturday, LOML went to my aunt's church. They were having an Easter Egg hunt for kids in the neighboring area.

Funny story.....the preacher there (who's new) knew my aunt C back in school. Per her, he was her first kiss.

LOML knows this story and when we were over at my grandmother's house the next day telling my aunt M all about the egg hunt, I mentioned that my aunt C had said that she knew him back in school and LOML spoke up and said in a "knowing" voice, "Mmmm, hmmmm, yeah, we know how they know each other".

I about died!

(LOML is the one with the black leggings)

(Here she is on the jumpy thing. I hate these things.)

Later that night, we came home and dyed Easter eggs.

(Me thinks perhaps the doggies might be a wee bit interested in what she's doing. Look at that concentration.....on LOML AND the dogs!)

(Here's our set up and the blank canvasses, so to speak.)






(This is my favorite egg color...well, at least one of them!)

(Done!)

Later that night, LOML decided that she needed to leave the Easter Bunny a note advising him (her?) that we now have Max the dog and that he (she?) might want to be careful when hiding the eggs.

(Her haul...behind the candy is an I Spy book, Brain Quest 4th grade, socks, a c.d. make-up, notebooks, a new frisbee.....etc...)

(Here she is finding an egg on my car.)

(Here we are all dressed in our Easter finest. Since losing 25+ lbs and going down two dress sizes, I can finally wear a dress again! Yay me! I fell in love with my dress immediately. I adore LOML's as well.)

After church, we headed over to my grandmother's to show off our dresses and to hide eggs with my aunt C.

(Here's LOML finding some hidden plastic eggs.)

(Found another one!)

(My aunt C was sneaky and hid one behind the window screen.)

(Here's one pooped out pup. He was up all the night before chasing that damn bunny!)

Happy Tuesday!

Later,

Mama Dawg

Super Fun Sunday!

Screw the Super Bowl!

LOML and I had a blast on Sunday.

After lunch, we went out to visit my grandmother and decided to take Max down to the creek since he hadn't been there before.

For those of you who have been here for a while, this is the same creek that LOML and I catch fish at.

On the way down, we saw this neato deer track.

Of course, the further we walked, the more we saw!



Here's the creek while I'm standing on the bridge. The water's actually high right now.

Sigh......I could stare in her eyes all day long.

Look how HUGE Max has gotten. He certainly doesn't look like the same bedraggled puppy I took in months ago, does he?

I took this pic while laying down on the bridge. And no, Captain Dumbass, I did not get a splinter in my ass.

I went and got over in near the bank and took this pic of her sitting on the bridge eating her snack.

I'm the Queen of the Hay Bales and you better not forget it!

I also love this pic of her. All rosy cheeked and flush with energy and excitement

Here's LOML up on the hay bale. She had a blast.

Here she is sliding down it.

I have no clue, but it's a cute pic!

She had no clue I was taking this while my tongue was stuck out! She laughed about it later, though.

A girl and her dog. 'Nuff said.

She was so proud of herself for jumping over this "creek". LOL!

And I saved the best for last.

Bear Grylls, eat your heart out!

How was your weekend?

Later,

Mama Dawg

Gross Post

I'm not kidding. If you don't like to see dead animals or the circle of life, please leave now. There's nothing bloody or gory, but still, if you're a bleeding heart like I am, this will not please you.

Warning over.

The below three pics are the reason why I had to resort to using the deathly hallows traps on the mice in my house.

I can not have this happening. I've had to throw away so much food because of these fuckers. I'm so over feeling sorry for the mice.

I'm done.



Yeah, that's an apple. That had to be thrown away. And no, they're not nibbling and spitting. They're eating it.

This was a brand new bag of trail mix. They chewed through the plastic and got to the good stuff. This is a $4 bag of trail mix that I had to toss. I could barely afford it the first time.

This is big ass container of nuts. My mom likes these. I don't. So, no loss for me, but still. They ate through the plastic lid. You can see how full the can is. Practically to the top.

Here's where it gets a little macabre.

Because Max is still a puppy (and really, what dog doesn't), I have to find a place to place the carcasses where he won't go and get them and bring them back to me a few days later. All nasty smelling and dripping post mortem ooze.

So, I put 'em up in a tree.

Yep. A tree.

Guess how many I caught in all?

Just guess.

7.

SEVEN fucking mice. Two of them I let go. Y'all read about that.

The other 5? Yeah, deader than doornails.

Count the tails.

Here's the front of them in their tree. Good riddance pestilence.

Speaking of Max and rodents, Sunday night, he caught a mole. He actually dug it up out of the ground and caught it.

He then played with it. All night. Then he hid it where I can't find it. I'm sure I'll smell it soon.

Now, I actually had the opportunity to "save" this mole from Max but chose not to.

Why not you ask?

Cause they dig these tunnels in all over the yard. And when it rains, it softens the dirt to the point that if you're walking in the yard, you start to sink into the ground. I've sprained my ankle a couple of times and nearly fell flat on my ass another.

They're horrible.

You can see the dirt on his nose where he was digging.

Yeah, I declined all doggie kisses Sunday night.

Sorry if you're offended, but I just can't live with these critters any more. I've had to throw away about a dozen shirts and sweaters where they've eaten holes in them or pooped and peed so much, the stains won't come out.

They're a menace.

Later,

Mama Mouse Dawg

Mama Dawg vs. Mighty Mouse Part 2

Well, if you've been a regular reader of mine for a while now, you'll know that round 1 happened quite a while ago. Since that time, we've had several more mice that I've caught in the mean traps (the ones that snap their tiny necks).

People, I just can't care any more about a mouse's life. Yes, they're cute. Yes, they're a distant relative of my favorite mouse in the whole world (Mickey)....but, they're nasty. And they ate an ENTIRE box of whole wheat pasta plus a small bag of sunflower seeds as well some cat food.

Last night, when I got home from work, LOML was so excited because she caught a mouse. She said she was in the kitchen and heard a rustling noise in the dog food bag. When she opened it up, she saw a mouse. She quickly closed the bag so he wouldn't escape and my mom put a clip on the top to keep it sealed.

I went in the kitchen and took a look inside the bag. It was a mouse all right. A baby one at that. Not a newborn, but one that was about 1 1/2 inches long. He was so CUTE!

But, I had to harden my heart.

While I was standing there in the kitchen, I heard the sound of little feet running in the shelves and I knew that there was another mouse somewhere in there.

Even though I knew it was foolish, I started pulling boxes off the shelf and lo and behold! Another baby mouse! Except this one was trapped. And was just young enough to not know to try to escape no matter how desperate the situation was. And because he didn't move, I was able to get the humane trap right in front of him and herded him into the trap! I then added his brother to the mix. I dropped a cube of cheese inside. Since I didn't want them coming back, my MO is to drive farther out to the country than I already am and let them go. Then they can become someone else's problem!

Anyway, here's some pics of the prisoners mice.

Aren't they adorable?

Here's a video of Max and his reaction to these teeny tiny harmless mice.

How's your Thursday so far?

Later,

Mama Dawg

A Dog and His Girl

I don't know if I told you the whole story of how Max came to be part of the Dawg household.

As you know, I'm on the road 2 hours a day with my commute.

I live in the country and have to drive through the country roads to get to my place of employment.

I see lots of dogs on the side of the road that are strays. While my heart tends to go out to them, they look "healthy" enough at a quick glance so I just drive on by.

Back in September (I think it was September), I was driving home from work and had to slow down for some traffic that was turning.

I saw this poor pitiful creature on the side of the road. He was starving so bad, I could see his ribs from where I was....in my car on the road. That's how bad he looked.

I didn't even think, I just pulled over, hopped out of the car and grabbed him up.

I have NEVER done anything like that before. I've thought about it lots of times, but I never went through with it.

I brought him home and immediately fed him.

Funny thing. I've never had a dog before. I don't feed any strays at my house. Yet, I had a bag of dog food in my trunk and a can of wet dog food in my house.

Fate? Maybe.

I put him out on the back porch on a blanket and popped open the can of wet food and gave him a bowl of water.

He was so sweet and had the most trusting eyes. He got to the point that when I would go check on him, he's raise up his head and start thumping his tail at the sight of me.

Yeah, my heart melted.

There was never any doubt from the moment that I picked him up that I would keep him.

Over the course of a couple of months, he's grown and gotten so big. We had initially thought that he might be about 6-8 months old, but when we took him to the vet to get de-wormed, turns out he was a lot younger than that. I had rescued him when he was about 3 MONTHS old!

He's such a puppy. But...he's HUGE. At least HUGE for an almost 6 month old.

He's healthy and happy.

And totally in love with Light of My Life.

The feeling is mutual.

Here's the evidence below.




This is his daily ritual. He sits patiently while she disembarks from the bus.

He doesn't move until she calls out his name.

Then his whole body goes into waves of pleasure and he just goes crazy.

He loves her.

And she loves him.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Secret Lover

He’s absolutely gorgeous.

Deep brown eyes.

Black hair.

He’s a big boy.

He listens to my every word (mostly).

He brings me presents.

He's a leg man.

And…he loves sex.

Yes ma’am (or sir).

He sure does.

Wanna see his a picture of him?

Sure you do.

Yeah, it’s my damn dog.

His little balls have dropped and he’s discovered how good it feels to hump my leg.

Time for the vet, I guess.

Sigh……too bad he’s a dog. Otherwise, he was sounding pretty great, huh?

And no, I’m not into lap dogs. You pervs.

Such is my life.

How’s your Tuesday?

Later,

Brief Update on Jesse

"Who Would You Do" can be found here.

Wow, yesterday was very interesting.

Mom and I were heading out to go run errands on Sunday while light of my life was hanging out with the neighborhood "gang". It was a beautiful day and while mom was getting ready to leave, I decided to take Jesse out of his cage and let him get some fresh air outside.

In the past when I've gotten him out, I always gently toss him to the grass so he could get use to the outdoors in case he decides to ever leave us.

Normally when I do this, he immediately starts making a beeline for my feet so he can crawl up my body to perch on my shoulder like a little parrot (he appears to have some sort of identity crisis...where do you go to get squirrels some psychiatric help?).

This time, he just stood there for the longest time. I started to slowly approach him when he all of a sudden took off like a shot...in the opposite direction! He ran about 5 feet up the large oak tree we have in our yard.

He circled it a couple of times and then came to me and crawled up my arm. However, as we approached the house, he scampered down my body and crawled up another tree. ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP!!!

Now, I had been seeing signs of restlessness in him for the past two weeks or so. He had been doing flips in his cage and when I would take him out, he was all crazy like running up and down my body and scrabbling on my neck and shoulders. I knew something was going on with him but I couldn't figure out exactly what it was.

Now I know. He was wanting his freedom.

So, with a sad yet happy heart, I wished him good luck and we left to run our errands. Before we left, I brought his cage outside and left it open, just in case he decided to come back.

When we came back from running our errands, I immediately went to the tree where I saw him last and couldn't find him anywhere. I walked the perimeter of the yard looking for a squirrel carcass (we have several dogs that roam loosely between three houses and they're not exactly known as humane dogs when it comes to animals smaller than themselves) and looking up in trees but didn't see any signs of Jesse.

We went on with our evening. We ate dinner, watched Amazing Race and Cold Case. While light of my life was in her bath, mom took Max outside to let him do his bidness when she came running in saying "It's Jesse, he's back. Max has him treed."

Sure enough, when I went outside and went to the tree where Max was frantically circling, there he was. He was low down enough that I could reach him if I raised my arms up. He sniffed my fingers and let me pet him but wasn't exactly coming to me with open arms if you know what I mean.

I stood there for another couple of minutes and he eventually walked into my hands and up to my shoulder (see, there's that parrot complex again) and nuzzled my ear.

I got some fresh bedding for his cage and a new bowl of food. He greedily ate his sunflower seeds and then snuggled in for the night.

Light of my life had been very understanding when I told her that Jesse had decided to leave us (she got that panicked look in her eye when I told her I had to talk to her about Jesse....poor thing has experienced so many people and animals dying in the past year) but lit up when I told her that he came back!

I've decided that for now, I'm just going to keep him in the cage during the day while I'm at work and when I get home, I'll let him go and we'll see if he keeps coming back.

I'm not gonna force the issue either way. We'll just let it happen organically.

In other news, Max is fattening up quite nicely. I can still feel his ribs when I run my fingers down his sides, but his little belly is filling out and fat has settled in that area on his back to where his spine isn't so sharp. He's starting to get playful with us and is pretty much housebroken. We haven't had an accident in over a week. He's real good about letting us know when he wants/needs to go outside. Of course, any time the door is opened, he thinks its an invitation to go outside. But, that's all right. He comes right back when you call him, so it's not a problem yet.

Anything interesting happen to any of you this weekend?

Later,

Hello, Hello, Turn Your Radio On

$50 million dollars to anyone who can name the group that sang that song.

No, wait, just kidding. All you'll get is a resounding "Wow, so there's actually 2 people who know that song and group. Cool!"

Did y'all miss me?

I know you did. Admit it. You missed me. Just a little, right?

Ahhhhhh....I knew you did.

Wanna know what happened?

It's boring really.

One day last week, my computer gets a virus. It took them 2 DAYS to get a new one set up for me. Why a new one? Well, the contaminated one was old and I needed a new one anyway. Since that was the case, they had to put on all the programs and whatnot on the new one and for some reason, they're really, really slow.

Luckily, they had a spare for me to use, but I was too terrified to go anywhere on the 'net since I didn't know where the virus came from.

It got up and running on Wednesday. I started making my blog rounds and on the SAME DAMN blog that I had visited last before it crashed the first time, it crashed AGAIN.

All I can guess is that my 'puter got a virus from a blog. Is that possible? It was a rootkit virus (or something like that).

It took them a whole day (Friday) to get it back to it's pre-virus condition. I was off of work on Thursday due to a field trip with Light of My Life. We went gambling...kidding! We did go to a casino town, but we went to a museum instead.

So, I'm back. Kinda. I'm sorta terrified to blog again while at work since I don't know what happened or if I did contract the virus from a blog. Maybe it was from an e-mail in my personal account since I keep multiple applications running throughout the day (e-mail, blogs, Disney trivia site, etc...)

I hate being poor and not having a computer at home. I hate not having money. I'm not talking about not having money like "I don't have enough money to buy that Grande Mocha w/no fat whip, blah, blah, blah from Starbucks". I mean I hate not having money like "Which bill do I not pay this month in order to keep my electricity turned on for the next 30 days? Which facility cashes their checks really, really late so I can "float" a check here and I'll get paid before they cash it".

Yeah, that's the kind of poor I am.

So, no home 'puter for me. Even if I had a 'puter, I dont' have the money to pay for the internet service.

So.damn.frustrating.

And, to top it off, Captain Dumbass of Us and Them asked me to guest post on his blog today and I couldn't due to the stupid VIRUS! My first ever invite to guest post. As fast as word gets on the 'net, it's probably already gotten out around "town" that I'm a bad guest and I'll never be invited back. I don't blame them.

I'm currently at my neighbors house using their computer. They let me use it any time I want to. They're cool like that. Shout out to L, B and the girls!

Peeps, so much has happened in this past week.

For real.

No, not really.

I made the local paper. Or, more accurately, Jesse the squirrel made the local paper. I submitted a photo and a little blurb about him and they used my photo (in COLOR, no less) and put it in!

We're so famous! Whoo, hoo!

Oh, and Light of my life did Jr. Cheer camp at school and cheered and danced in Friday nights game! She kicked ASS! She rocks! I'm so proud of her.

Let's see, what else happened? I know something else happened. Just can't put my finger on it.

Oh, wait, I remember.....

Meet Max.



Whoops, sorry. That's not Max. That's just me doing my Daniel-son impression with a green grosgrain ribbon with white polka dots. Very macho.



Nope, still not Max. That's just Light of My Life making fun of me from the pic above. Silly girl.



Ahhhhh....there's my Max.



There he is again.



And...yet again.

Isn't he adorable?

What you can't see in the pics is the fact that when I found him, I could LITERALLY STICK THE ENTIRE TOP HALF OF MY FINGERTIP IN BETWEEN HIS RIBS!!!

Yeah, that's how emaciated he was. Someone has been horribly neglecting this poor puppy. He was so starved for love and food and water.

I found him out near my deceased great aunt's old place.

I took one look at him, pulled over and stuck him in the car and never looked back.

I did this on Wednesday.

Today's Saturday.

I am happy to announce that I can no longer stick half of my fingertip in between his ribs.

He's happy, he's loved, he's getting fat, he's loved, he's getting watered, he's getting loved...did I mention he's getting loved?

Loved from Light of my Life, loved from my mom and most of all, loved by me.

He is the sweetest soul I've ever met.

My neighbor used to raise dogs and he put him at about 6-8 months old and states he seems pretty healthy for being so malnourished.

He also said he's gonna get between 50-60 pounds.

Yikes!

I know, I know. I just got finished saying I have no money.

But how can you resist?

Seriously, how?

I can't. I couldn't.

So....I didn't.

Now, I have a menagerie.

But...that's my life.

And I like it.

And I'm glad I'm back. I missed you guys!

Happy Saturday night y'all!

Later,