Adventuring we will go

Do you remember a few weeks ago we showed you the 'swimming lake' at one of the local State Parks. Every year they empty it and fill it again. Here is the picture of it empty - they were laying new sand in it and then here it is yesterday all full and looking pretty. To help keep it all fresh and clean the water comes down "wishing well waterfall" (seen in the video) and then there is an overflow at the other end of the lake. The water for the swimming lake comes from a huge lake that is on the other side of the road.

Can you believe Mom REALLY wanted to bring that ginger and white thing home?

Tick Fest 2013

Dog oh dog - we have had the most pawsome day - two different parks, a brand new Petsmart store and 3 hours of driving in MY car!!!! Then it all got ruined when we got home - sigh! 

See Mom decided this morning to take us on an adventure all the way to MY other parks in the hopes that it wouldn't be so bad with ticks - WRONG - they were even worse!

Sorry to gross everyone out - but this is what she has found so far and a timely reminder to check your pupsters after EVERY walk!  - Mom says she feels like one of those monkeys that combs through the fur of other monkeys looking for insects - only she doesn't eat them!!!! She drops them into nail polish remover - kills the little buggers instantly! So far she has found 30 - mostly on ME (Reilly) !!!! She found about 5 on Dweeb and one on her herself. We are all too freaked out to post pictures of our adventures today....hopefully tomorrow. Mom says NO MORE WALKS in the park - DEFINITELY NOT and NOT EVEN A MAYBE.

Life being pruned.

This morning when we got up.... after a wild night of
thunderstorms.... we found Mom's most favorite plant - her rose bush - was smashed. During the wild and windy night  the umbrella had fallen over on it (even though it was tied to the railing to stop it from doing just that!!!) Mom was so angry and annoyed because this is a special rose - it reminds our Mom of her Mom who passed away 10 years ago.  Then Mom turned on the TV and heard of all the deaths, injuries and destruction that had occurred from the tornadoes that devastated the central part of country yesterday. Mom's anger disappeared and she thought  about how she could at least prune her rose and it would grow back - but all those lives that had been 'pruned' away by natures forces - they would never grow back.

It got Mom to thinking about a story she read some time back... about a particular African tribe that believes when someone dies they are carried to the great resting place in a canoe and that everyone in the tribe must cry and wail freely so that their tears become a river on which the canoe travels. Today we cry many tears in the hope that those that leave us travel safely to the Rainbow Bridge where they will cross into the 'other' place - a place where the light is always bright, the air is always warm and those that have gone before will be waiting with open arms and wagging tails. Life may have been pruned away in a blink - but be assured the memories of those lives will bloom forever.

Wish we had smell-a-vision

Mom says she wishes we "smell-a-vision" so we could share our walk with you today. The honeysuckle is all in flower at my little park and it STINKS smells wonderful. What I want to know is why we have to stand near that smelly stuff for a photo but Mom won't let us stand near the dead, bloated and wonderfully perfumed squirrel we found and take our picture with that?  What gives?

Here we are checking out the butterfly garden - we saw lots of flowers but no butterflies - hmmm maybe they don't know this is for them?













Some more of the butterfly garden and that STINKY sweet smelling stuff Mom likes - the honeysuckle. Now in MY little park this stuff is like a weed - it is growing EVERYWHERE. Up in the tree tops, along the paths - just everywhere so you can imagine what it smelt like today considering it is very warm and humid.













And here we are up in the tree tops on MY boardwalk and then down on MY other boardwalk across the lake. Can you believe Mom made us stay on the boardwalk instead of going exploring! She said she was worried about ticks and my allergies which are ferrous at the moment!

Musing On Monday #21

OH MY DOG! Mom whipper snippered (weed whacked) a toad!

So there was Mom - she had just finished mowing the lawn with the "Big Red Beastie" and noticed the grass was quite high around the air conditioning unit. It tends to be rather damp around the unit so the grass grows fast there.  So she went and got the "Small Green Whirring Beastie" and started trimming the grass - all of sudden she saw something move but before she could do anything the whipper snipper got it !  Mom was MORTIFIED! A toad - a HUGE toad the size of her palm now lay there minus some toes.

Thankfully it had just caught the end of its leg but STRANGE thoughts flashed through mom - should I take it to the vet - will I be arrested for toad abuse - what if it is an endangered species - how will it be able to sit on a log playing the ukulele now? Mom picked up the toad - it was all squishy feeling and wriggly - EWE! and checked it over. Yep - it was missing two toes but it wasn't bleeding and otherwise looked fine. Mom pondered some more about what to do and then decided to place it some long grass in the corner.

Needless to say she worried all night about the stupid toad and first thing this morning went out to check on it. It was still there and happily munching on a cricket - double EWE - so she figured it hadn't been traumatized to much. Sorry you won't be able to serenade the girlie toads any more Mr Toad.  Did I mention my Mom is WEIRD!

Spring Into Saturday

The Mom LOVES her flowers and growing them so we thought we would start our annual "Spring into Saturday" posts where we will share some of the delights in our garden. Now our garden is no where as nice or as big as as Wyatts or Mitch and Mollies but we hope you will enjoy it anyway :) Things are just starting to bloom and here is what is happening in MY garden at the moment.

The azalias of coarse are blooming - both in pink and white














Mom forgot what this little purple ground cover is called but it is huge this year and so pretty. The Japanese Maple looks so pretty when the sun hits it the afternoon.














And then we have Mom's favorite - her rose which is beautifully scented. Mom had search for ages for find one that actually had a strong perfume. Did you know that that roses actually have 3 distinct scent categories. Floral, Fruity and Musk. For some reason Mom loves "stinky" plants - so of coarse she also has her gardenias in flower at the moment too. Mom was telling me about a carrion cactus she grew back home in Australia. It has the most beautiful leopard patterned star shaped flower - about 2" in size - but smells like dead carrion (rotting meat). Now that is my kind of plant - much better then those stinky things Mom likes!

Fit Friday - Guilt works wonders!

We have been reading about all the doggies doing the "Fit Friday" and we are wondering MOM - why are we sitting inside instead of going to the park?  The converstation went like this

Mom-  I am really busy Reilly
Reilly - doing what Mom?
Mom - I am getting ready to open YOUR store
Reilly - Well who cares about a stupid store - there are walks waiting to happen, smells to sniff and pee mail to leave and read!
Mom - but the store is going to help lots of other doggies and other critters?
Reilly - well what about helping US first - by taking us on a walk? (Insert the Reilly - I am making you feel guilty look here)
Mom - you do know it is raining Reilly - and rain means water and water means getting wet?
Reilly - it won't work MOM! For a walk I would gladly suffer getting wet - well at least a  little.
Mom - Sigh - okay Reilly

Reilly 1000 - Mom 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 (she loses A LOT :)

The World According To Denny

You know - most people's and the BIG DOG think I am just a "weird scared little dude" and YES - they are right BUT I also have another side to me - the mischievous side but don't tell anyone okay - I like to blame it all on that "somedoggy" that hangs around blogville and gets us all in trouble.

So what is it that "somedoggy" gets up to?  Well it appears he LOVES to wait until the peeps have gone to bed and then he goes and empties out the trash can all over the living room rug. Luckily it just is one Mom keeps near her chair for while she is crafting so it is mainly just bits of paper and stuff but SOMETIMES there is a tasty wrapper of some kind in it - or even tissues!!!  Those require VERY thorough shredding into like 87 gazillion tiny pieces that the Mom has to pick up.  Now Mom usually puts the trash can out of reach each night - but she is OLD and sometimes she forget - and "somedoggy" is ALWAYS waiting.

"Somedoggy" also LOVES to steals MY Dad's underwear and takes them outside! Now in all fairness it is Dads fault and he often misses when he throws them into the hamper and they end up on the floor - so what is "somedoggy" supposed to do - but pick them up - right. Mom has lost count of the number of times she has found them outside - usually wet and soggy from the morning dew on the grass. The funniest of all when she found a pair one cold frosty morning and they were frozen flat!!!!

Some doggy also likes it when Dad comes home and takes off his work shoes - somedoggy sticks his head inside them and snuffles and snorts and makes funny noises in them. He has been known to leave the odd bit of kibble in them too.

Somedoggy as also decided he is not fond of the vacuum cleaner and has to tell it off SEVERELY every time it makes an appearance.

And finally - somedoggy is quite an apt gardener and loves to prune Moms potted plants. He is very nimble and just takes the ends off all the branches! Yes - that somedoggy has a mischievous side!

No donga-bashing today

Donga-bashing ----- probably never heard of it have you????

It is one of Mom's weird Aussie words - to go 'donga-bashing' means to go crashing hiking through the bush (shrubby areas - usually where there are no paths or only little used dirt paths.)  We guess it is the same as "getting off the beaten path".  Either way - Mom says we can't do it anymore - so not fair!

You know why - cause of those darn ticks - they are really starting to 'tick' me off! Dad woke Mom up the other night (1.30 am in the morning actually) and said he felt something crawling on his back. Mom turned on the light and sure enough - there was a  tick crawling on Dad. (We had been to the park that day) At least it hadn't bitten him like one did Mom. That meant changing the sheets, checking all over and a very restless sleep because Mom says the mind plays funny tricks and makes you think are are feeling creep crawlies on you even when there isn't anything. Hmmm didn't bother us at all !!!

So now we have to stick to the paved paths - I wonder if the ticks know they are not supposed to be on there???

Musing on Monday # 20

Many of you know that our Mom is an Aussie (from Australia) even though she lives here in the USA now. Many of you may also know that Australia is famous for having the deadliest snakes in the world and if you watch the wild life shows - it makes it seem like they everywhere in Australia. Well our Mom lived most of her life in South Australia's mid north - which is pretty much the desert and prime snake area according to the TV shows - the problem is - in all her years of living there and roaming through the sandhills and bush as a kid - Mom has only ever seen two snakes. Sure you can 'find' them if you go deliberately looking for them but most of the time the snakes sense when something is coming and stay out of the way. So Mom thinks it is kind of funny that she has seen more snakes here in the USA then she ever did back home in Australia. Point being made - look what we saw swimming in MY lake yesterday - yep - a snake. (And no it wasn't a stick - it was definitely a snake and moving fast) It was about 3 foot long (thankfully about 20 feet away from us) but a snake never the less. And look what he was heading for - smorgasbord on a log! We doubt very much the snakes eat the turtles but Mom thought it was funny anyway. We wondered how many more turtles could squeeze themselves onto that log?

Happy Furbaby Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all the furbaby Mommas. We hope you all take your Moms for a nice walk in the park today - cause you know they need the exercise right :) 

And we have a challenge for you - you know we hardly ever get to see those moms who take care of us and sometimes it is nice to put a face to the furbabies. So lets celebrate Mothers Days by sharing our Moms!  Here is our Mom - her name is Bree and like us - she has long hair!!!  They say furbabies and their peeps share commonalities and we guess it must be right :)

You are never going to believe what we got our Mom for Furbaby Mothers Day !  We got her another flashy beast - YIKES - we must of had a  puppy brain malfunction. See - Mom LOVES LOVE LOVES her little camera - an Canon Elph 300 HS. It's one of smallest thinnest camera's you can get and fits easily into jeans pockets - but has a big screen so her old eye sight doesn't have to strain.  It takes awesome photos and videos and she LOVES that high speed burst option - lets you takes a whole bunch of photos really fast - great for action shots. Well Mom has dropped that camera, left it out in the rain, left it sitting in the blazing sun - stood on it, sat on it and basically mistreated it an as many ways as you could think of  (we did suggest she put it in the microwave - but she just glared at us)  and the darn thing just keeps working!!!!!!!!!   But Mom said one of these days it won't and she wanted to get another one because when she KNOWS when she needs a new one they will have discontinued that model so she wanted a second one - just in case. Sigh - it looks like we will trying to avoid that flashy beast for many years to come!  Happy Furbaby Mothers Day Mom and to all the other furbaby Mommas too.

Park Day 2

We are joining in Park Day 2 with Finn and Gizmo cause we love any excuse to go to the park :)

It is simple to join in and lots of fun - just visits Park Day 2 page and grab your bingo card. Then do either a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line. There are lots of cards to choose from so it will be easy for every doggie to join in.

We did this one


1. Visit a park more then 30 minutes from your home
We went down to the Earl Buss Bayou and Park - it's about an hour from where we live.

2. Hike a woodsy trail
Off to MY little park which as we discovered just recently has so many wonderful woodsy trails & TICKS

3. Park Bench Free Space
Hiking trail at Davidson State Park. This is one of MY favorites but is also about 40 minutes from where we live.

4. Find a monument or sculpture
This was a tough one - we had to go all the way to the Jacksonville State Park to find a monument - this old canon is a monument to the civil war.

5. Find a butterfly
Gosh we spent days waiting for this one - we finally saw one - it's a Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly - and was soo pretty. Poor Mom spent hours trying to find out what type it was. She also tried to get it to land on MY nose but the smart butterfly wasn't having any of that!

Yeah - The Momma loves me!

The Dogtor said my mouth is doing good - no signs of infection and it is healing nicely. The stitches are still visible (they take about 2 weeks t dissolve) and my mouth is still a little sore so this morning Mom went hunting for soft treats just for ME. She got my favorite Blue Dog cookies cause we know they are soft and I need my bedtime cookie so I don't throw up the yellow frothy stuff each morning and she found this new packet of treats made in the USA - all natural SOFT pork strips. Can you believe she made me sit and wait while it was poking out of the bag - dog oh dog - I was drooling!














When she said "okay" word I grabbed it - and BONUS - look what a huge piece it was and NO WAY was I giving any of it back! Notice how well I am learning to chew on my left side now!














Fis is so ood - fanku mom fanku - chew chew slobber slobber. Hey wait a dog-gone minute!! WHAT IS HE DOING GET A PIECE OF MY SOFT TREATS???? Give that back you Dweeb you - you don't deserve ANY of MY treats after scoffing a whole bag of them. NOT FAIR MOM - NOT FAIR. {Mom} - "Now be nice Reilly - he didn't mean to eat all your soft treats" WHAT !!!! Of coarse he meant it - he stole the bag off the table, took the bag outside, figured out a way to get it open - and THEN ATE THEM ALL! - That sure seems like he meant too - to me! Well one is all he gets - OKAY Mom - just one!! The rest are  ALL - MINE MINE MINE!

Chill....relax.....enjoy

Okay - time to chill out - relax and enjoy my back yard (how we wish it really was). Get those cookies ready - plump the doggie bed - Moms or Dads grab a tea or coffee and then just get ready to de-stress - its a longish video but worth watching :)

For those observant ones - Yes - Mr Reilly is a bit slow today - his foot was hurting him but there was no way he was going to be left at home when a walk was involved. For those that don't know Reilly has bad arthritis in his front left foot and some days it hurts more then others.

Some doggy!!!!

Mom took me to Dogtor for a check up following my tooth removal and while we were gone - all of 15 minutes - "Some doggy" who shall remain nameless but is a total DWEEB! found MY packet of soft treats that Finn and Gizmo sent me and he SCOFFED the lot!!!  Now Mom was keeping them just for ME because they were soft and I still have a sore mouth and all our other treats are the crunchy kind so I am NOT happy!

Of coarse he cried and whimpered that it wasn't him and tried blaming it on some troll that appeared from nowhere, got them off the table, took them outside and ate them all. As if - we all know that trolls eat troll treats - not dog treats!!!!!  No - the evidence is against him - now I just need to think up some devious payback - maybe I can convince Mom to give him 2 baths tomorrow - in the middle of the mall - with lots of strangers watching - and who all want to pat him - yeah - that should freak him out sufficiently!!! 

 

Mail Call - Thank You Gizmo & Finn

We entered in Finn and Gizmo's Park Day 1 and won a prize - it arrived today and dog oh dog did I had fun opening it.  Hmmm I smells treats - nice soft ones - perfect for my still sore mouth. Lets see what else there is  - toys. Those must be for the Dweeb - he does love his toys. And....a new poop bag holder - now how is this for perfect timing - the one I have on my leash actually broke on Saturday and Mom was planning to buy a new one - now she doesn't have too!














Those treats sure were good Mom - but I think I may need  to have another one just to make sure I wasn't imagining it. And look, I got a nice card from Gizmo too. Thank you Gizmo - we loved our prize and have already stated our Park Day 2 adventure. If you haven't checked it out yet - pop on over to Finn's or Gizmo's blogs and check it out.

Musing on Monday #19

Are you a right or left sided chewer?  I have to admit I hadn't given this much thought until I had that dreaded tooth out and discovered that yes - I am a right sided chewer. I do indeed tend to chew on that side a lot and of coarse now I am having to learn to chew on the other side which feels quite odd I might add!

Can you believe Mom has been laughing at me as I struggle to find my new chewing rhythm. She says I look like I have a mouthful of peanut butter the way I slobber and try to move food around now (Daaa did you think Mom - it could be that sloppy soft food diet I have been on all week!)  Thank dogness I can start eating normal food again tomorrow!



Oh - now some of you may have been wondering about that other Dweeb that use to live here - you know - the Dorky - erm what was his name - oh yeah Jackeeeeee. We have asked for some photos of him but his Mom never sent any but we did manage to find one on her sisters facebook page. We can tell you all - that YES - he is still a Dweeb - and a cheesehead as well since he lives in Wisconsin now !!!! We hear he is doing fine and enjoys playing with his cousin Max (a boxer who's paw is about about as big as the dweebs head - all the better for 'boxing' him the ears with I say!)

Double MY Parks Walk

The sun finally peeked out this morning and we decided to take advantage of it and head out for a walk  before more rain arrives...so off we went to MY big park. Now it has been raining A LOT here the last few days so we decided to stick to the paved path and we discovered something new AGAIN! We followed the path all the way to the end and guess what - it led right into to MY little park and the best thing of all - MY little park isn't actually open until 1.00pm on Sundays but following the path from one park to the other you can go in and we had MY little all to ourselves! We got to do the tree top walk all alone!













Here we are heading down the steps from the tree tops deck to the lower deck. The little lake is really full and the water is only a couple of feet below it on the lower level. We saw lots of turtles and two pairs of geese today. And this is the view from the new Parks and Fisheries Building they have built in MY little park. It you biggify the picture you can see all the water in the background - that isn't a lake - it is all the rice paddies that are around us or as Mom calls them - Mosquito De Bayou :)  Hope you have all had a wonderful Sunday too.

We are featured in a book!

Our cute synchronized butts have been featured in a book called Sheltie Tails and Tales by  Chula Wula D’Augue.  It is an e-book and you can download it for FREE here 
(note - the books seems to load funny on our laptop - once you go past the first few pages it was fine - but worked fine on the Ipad)

If you haven't seen our synchronized butt wiggles - you can check them out in our video :)

More tree frogs

Ho hum - BORING !!!!!  It is RAINING - non stop and they say we are going to have 3 days of it.  The weather radio has already been issuing flood warnings. As far as we know we are not in a flood area but you can never tell what will happen.  The only ones who seem to be enjoying all this wet  are our tree frogs who have been "quacking" up a storm. And guess what - now you can hear them (hopefully this link works - we have never added an mp3 to our blog before!) Just click on this link (it will take you to our Google storage page) and then click on  "download" and tell it to open with Windows Media player or what ever media player you have like I-tunes or such.
https://sites.google.com/site/cowspotdoggies/media
Mom loves these little guys and was smiling like crazy this morning when she got up - as there was two of them clinging on to the windows  with their cute tiny sucker feet. They seem quite partial to Mom's Gardenia bushes - one if which is flowering already and smells divine (at least to her). Mom thinks they like them because they blend in so well with the leaves. Really MOM - you so need to get a life - who the dog give a woof about frogs!  And the darn things can really make some noise when they get going! Personally I think they sound like one of those duck calling whistle things.  Hmm I wonder how they would feel about a train ride on the Dogville Express or better still - I wonder what would happen if we tied them to the tracks and turn up the trains to their fastest setting - "oh save me - save me - they would be quacking" !!!!!