Little Miss Mischief

Doesn’t she just have the look of mischief?

She is a non-stop ball of fire and I have to admit she does make me laugh quite often.   Frankie is exhausted from the day, but little Miss Billie has the look that she will get up and going in a second!   The Purple Martins are busy tending to their young and I was able to capture one of the baby birds on film.   As soon as the mother saw me, she flew right at the baby bird and guided it quickly back into the bird house.

Then she sat glaring at me protecting her babies from the click of the camera!

This Red-headed Woodpecker was hopping around in the cucumber patch and stopped to give me a quick pose before flying off.

The Bluebird has to be one of my favorites – their color is so blue and they always make me think of “the bluebird of happiness” … a happy thought!

Now the cicadas are still out there humming along but their noise is not as intense as it was a few weeks back – thank goodness these guys don’t bite.   We have decided we need to obtain some Guineas to assist in bug control – that may not happen until next spring, but it needs to happen.   The weather has been very stormy both in Southern Illinois and Northern all week and I am hoping it will let up a bit.   Rain, rain go away … I need to do some serious weeding.

Tough Doggy Day

I wanted to share this story so others can avoid the same terrible mishap happening to their own precious pets.   Anyone who owns a dog or cat and had some type of surgery knows the all too familiar and hated “cone” that the poor patient has to wear for what seems an eternity.   Well, here is Frankie and the hated cone after a heart wrenching day.   The poor guy is still not sure what happened – but I was there and can tell the story.

We have four dogs – Frankie and Augie are good pals and get along very well.   They do wrestle around as dogs do and usually I end up yelling for them to “Stop”!  The other two Billie and Sarge are small and although Billie will start to mess with the bigger dogs it really is not a good idea.  

What occurred today (and one time previous) is as they were wrestling around Frankie got his claw nail caught in Augie’s chain collar.   Bad scene and now Frankie has many stitches in his front paw and a punctured lip and nose.   We still don’t know the extent of the repair but he will either need a root canal or a pulled tooth.   He came down in the struggle and landed on the ceramic tile … tooth first.

So the bottom line – if you have more than one pet who needs a collar, do not use chain link collars.   I should have figured this out the first time it happened, but sometimes we don’t realize there is an issue until tragedy strikes.   Everyone is still a bit shook up, but we will all recover and hopefully someone out there will avoid this same crisis.

poor Frankie 😦  

Pound Puppy Feature!

How can you resist such a cute face?   Meet Billie Girl …. she just turned 1 year and is our latest puppy from an animal shelter.   I decided to showcase my pound puppies on this Feature Friday.   Not just my own puppies, but the people and places that put their heart and soul into caring for these animals that come to the shelters hungry, homeless and most times neglected.

Meet Augie and Frankie … this photo is close to 3 years old, so these pups are quite a bit bigger now and they are as lovable today as the day we brought them home.   I remember when we decided on a shelter to visit, I would spend hours browsing their website looking at all the puppies they had at the time.   Most shelters have some type of rules and a contract along with a fee for adopting a pet.

Each of my pups definitely has their own unique personality.   Here Frankie was a bit confused and thought the kitchen table was where he should take a nap.   He still likes to sit in the chair and keep an eye on things.

Animal Shelter.org is another website where you can locate a shelter near you.   I am very happy with our family of dogs and most certainly recommend checking your local animal shelter if you are considering adding a dog or cat to your family.

Augie loves running the property, while Frankie and Billie take time to enjoy the fireplace.

Frankie’s unique personality

Dogs definitely have unique charming personalities all their own!  Our family of canines includes Frankie, Augie and Sarge – quite the characters.  Both Frankie and Augie were discovered and taken home from our local animal shelter and Sarge, well, he’s been around for ages … 13 years now – our miniature dachshund.  I just had to take the opportunity this morning to share a part of Frankie’s personality with you all.  He is a mix of some sort and definitely part Coonhound – he has that distinctive howl of the hound and he drools.  For the most part he is rather standoffish but oh SO loving!  He likes his space and is very protective – he would scare off a thousand burglars, but when it comes to little things like a feather blowing in the wind or a leaf rustling on the sidewalk he will stand and bark, but jumps away when the object makes a move!  It’s quite comical.  I now know “that bark” and in the past I would come running to see the commotion thinking there was a tragedy ready to erupt.  Now I figure he is just making his presence known to some mouse running through the garage or a flower blowing in the wind.

One of Frankie’s very unusual traits is – he loves to lay on the kitchen table.  It catches you off guard each and every time and we do try to discourage this behavior as best we can … since, it’s just not normal for an 80 lb. dog to rest on one’s kitchen table.  From day one he has found his spot around the kitchen table – most days he will just sit in the chair and look around.  I try to push all the chairs in but we forget and when we do … Up he goes!

 Yes, I am quite comfortable

 Alright, alright I’ll move

 I’m sorry

 I’ll just sit here then

 Gotta love Frankie the dog!