Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas have a peaceful and relaxing day

Sunrise Saturday

Just taking the time to enjoy the free things in life - one picture from every morning walk this past week.

Monday - One small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day

Tuesday - The happiest people don't have everything but make the best of everything they have.

Wednesday - Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life

Thursday - Difficult roads often lead to amazing destinations

Friday - The first five days after the weekend are always the hardest :)

Oh Christmas Card Tree.........

♪♫ Oh Christmas Card Tree - Oh Christmas Card Tree - How We Love Thee ♪♫

♪♫ And how we are beating the peeps paws down in the card count - US 86 and them three ♪♫

Thank you EVERY one for all the wonderful cards :)

Sunrise Sunday

Me and My Reflection

Watch a new day start

A beautiful day

We are sorry we haven't been visiting much - Mom always struggles at this time of year so we took her off to the beach - can you believe it hit 80 degrees today - the sun was shining, there was a gentle breeze, the sky was blue and we had the entire beach to ourselves. We sat with Mom for a long time on the sand and she felt so much better.

Sunrise Sunday

As the sun slowly rises............

The fishermen head out with hope in their hearts that the 'big' one won't get away :)

A giftie for Mom

Wow wee - Mom got a giftie in the mail from Bacon's Mom June and it made her smile BIG time - look at the beautiful turtle, dolphin and star fish she sent Mom - they are soooooo pretty and Mom loves them - I even let her hang them on MY card tree. Thank you Miss June - you made Mom's day :)

Winter in Florida

Okay - so it is a little unusual for it to be this hot in Florida in December but we would rather have this and our clear sunny blue skies than snow - off to the beach we go :)

Sunrise Sunday

Florida does have the MOST glorious sunrises!

And the longer you watch - the better they get

Scared the bee-gee-bees out of the Mom

Last night just after sunset we wanted to go out and sit on our deck but something caught our attention (Mom thinks it was a cat) and the CHASE was on! We took off into the preserve behind our house and we were gone - something we had never done before. The preserve has been full of water up until now but over the last few days it has finally dried up and if you are wondering - all the fencing material was sitting right there ready to be put up today (which it was). Needless to say Mom was in a panic - she had the flashlight looking for us and Dad drove all the way around the other side of the preserve to see if we came out there. They couldn't follow us into the preserve as it is full of briar vines that have the nastiest thorns all over them - something Mom found out about the hard way. She called and called us and could hear us moving around in the under growth and then FINALLY two houses down from where we live - we finally find our way out. Mom checked us all over to make sure we weren't hurt and then in the scared/angry Mom voice told us to get our fluffy butts home RIGHT now! We did :) :) :)

A Special Note:
We also want to say how sorry we were to read that our buddy Easy left for the rainbow bridge -  he fought hard to stay but sadly when the bridge calls it is hard not to go. Run free big guy - we know there were so many good buddies waiting for you but we also know your Mom and Dad are heartbroken and will miss you so very much.

Just innocently deck sitting

This is the preserve that is part of our back yard.

Sunrise/Sunset Sunday

Watching the surfers watch the sunrise

Fire in the sky - awesome !

Sigh, grumble, and a little whine

Dear Blogger - don't you know I am a senior doggie who is set in my ways - I don't take well to change and now you have gone and redone the side menu making it harder to find things. Oh SURE - I will get use to it in time but  I liked it when my buddies blogs just appeared on the main screen, I liked when comments were easy to find and I LIKED the old setup. Grumble grumble now I have to go hunting for everything - sigh - give an old doggie a break!

Happy Thanksgiving

You know we don't really do the whole thanksgiving thing (or Christmas) at our house - Mom says when you don't have family or kids around there just isn't much point to it. So for us it is just another day BUT we do give thanks every single day when we get to go to MY beach or one of MY parks. Today especially we gave thanks for a walk at MY Jacksonville Cowspotdog Arboretum Gardens and the Little Ravine Loop we went on. It was amazing to see all the big trees that had been blown over in that last big storm and to see how high the creek that runs through the ravine had flooded up to. The pics below show us in front of one the big trees and blew over and then you can see the whole tree and the other on is of us in front of these weird tree roots and then showing a better look at them - why would a tree grow like?

Anyhoo - we sure do wish everyone a wonderful thanksgiving and we hope you all get to spend time with your family and friends and enjoy the get together.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunrise/Sunset Sunday

Mom has a new walking place - she passes by this park and lake every morning and loves to see the sunrise over the water. Some mornings the colors are just amazing and NO we don't get to go which is so unfair. Mom has to walk down a very busy road and under a major highway bypass before she reaches the quiet of the park and she says the traffic would 'freak' us out - personally we don't believe it but some things you jut can't argue with Mom's about! Here are some of the best pics from this past week - why don't you join us next week for Sunrise or Sunset Sunday and share your beautiful pictures too :) Remember you can click on the photo's to see them bigger.

Sitting on Saturday

We are spending a lot of time sitting on MY new deck - Mom says she had forgotten how much I loved it - when we lived in Arkansas we had a big deck and I would spend hours out there and that is what I am doing now. Our weather is finally cooling down a little (although today is a bright sunny 80 degrees with amazing clear blue skies) - in the mornings though it is getting down to the low 40's and that is totally perfect deck sitting weather.

Sticks !

There was something strange at MY beach this morning - a whole bunch of sticks and branches had been poked into the ground - I am thinking someone knew I would be there today and they built ME my own special fort - what do you think?

Wordless Wednesday

The Smell oF the Salt Air

Mom said she needed to go de-stress and there is nothing better than a walk on the beach and breathing in the fresh salt air to do that - so off we went. We are still surprised every time we go to see how much MY beach has changed since the hurricane - the sand seems to be much finer and there is a lot more of it, the sand dunes and all the pretty grasses that grew on them have gone and the actual shape of the beach has changed - there is also a lot more drift wood on my beach now. We will eventually get use to the new look and eventually it will be more like we remember but until then - it gives us a lot of new places to explore.

Frisbee Golf

Mom has been so busy unpacking and getting things sorted out in our new house we have hardly had any time to go and do MY Bark Ranger  Duties but today I put my paws down and said MOM WE HAVE TO GO - so we did. We went to check out MY Ed Austin Cowspotdog Park. This is a nice little park with a great walking track but it does tend to be very busy as they have a Frisbee Golf there and that seems to be VERY popular amongst the locals. Unfortunately their course tends to crisscross the walking path so it can be hard to avoid them.

The Frisbee Catchers - come on - we dare you to throw it our way :)

Denny's New Hobby

Having a park in front and behind our new house - we have a LOT of local wildlife including some very friendly Green Anole Lizards that love to not only sit on our deck - but constantly seem to find their way into the sunroom. Denny has decided these are great fun to chase and has taken to sitting out on the deck for hours just watching for them.

There's one behind you Mom

And another one over there

And there's one up there in the tree

I the Denny Dog am watching you Mr Anole!

The Culprits

For days we have been wondering what has been digging up our back yard (and leaving tasty little morsels behind - which for some reason MOM screams at us NOT to eat!!!!!!!) Well today Mom caught the culprits. A whole family of little armadillos. These guys are like little bull dozers - they stick their noses in the grass and away they go - digging big holes looking for fat tasty lawn grubs and if they get stuck they use those big old claws on their front feet to rip the grass out. Mom got really close to them and they just didn't seem to notice her all - (Dad calls Mom a super stealthy ninja though as she moves sooooo quietly ALL the time) We have noticed holes in everyone lawns around our little neighborhood so we guess they are pretty busy most nights and early mornings.

The Joy of Moving

It has been a super busy week - Mom and Dad moved most of our stuff themselves - but we did have to hire "College Hunks" to come and move the real heavy stuff like the washer and dryer, lounge and love seat etc. They were awesome and it is so cool to be able to hire college students and give them a helping hand. In between moving they were also cleaning our old rental house and making sure it looked good.

Of coarse this whole thing really stressed us - the dweeb out. He couldn't figure out where the back door was and did the awful runny upset tummy poop on Mom's brand new rug (trust me - she was NOT happy) and then I got stressed had an upset tummy and barfed up yellow frothy stuff and my dinner TWICE - on Mom's brand new rug - she just about had steam coming out of her ears but she knew it wasn't really our fault :) 

Can you believe today Dad said we both smelled doggie (go figure.... considering we ARE dogs) so he gave us both BATHS - the indignity of it I say. At least we now have a nice new deck to go and lay on while we dry off.

My New Deck :)

Guess what - guess what !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mom and Dad went out one evening a few MONTHS ago and came home all excited and whispering about THINGS. That whispering turning to grumbling these past few weeks but FINALLY they told me what the secret was all about.

They have bought ME a new deck - which is attached to a NEW house. The house isn't very big which is what Mom and Dad wanted but it has been completely remodeled inside and out with new bamboo wood floors, new kitchen, new appliances, new AC, new roof, new hot water system, (all of which are energy efficient)  new bathrooms, new closets, new everything -  but the most important thing is it has a huge sunroom and of coarse a huge new deck just for ME - I do so love my deck - it is important to be able to deck sit and survey ones territory :)

And the BEST thing - there is a woodland preserve behind us and the Jacksonville Cowspotdog Arboretum and Gardens in front of us - so the only thing we see when we looks out the front and back windows is woods and palms trees and that view is NEVER going to change! It also has a HUGE backyard and we even have our own well for watering the garden! The house is 4 miles straight down the road from where we were living - so it will be a little further to the beach but that is okay.

Note from Mom - we are totally AMAZED we got this house and so excited to have our offer accepted. Sadly the house was in probate (something the seller nor the real estate agent told us until 4 weeks after we put in our offer -  so we had to wait quite a long time for it to go before the judge and be signed off on.) We have decided this is where we want to retire so although it has taken nearly 4 months to get everything settled to us it was worth the wait and now Casa Cowspotdog is all ours.

We will be MIA for a few days while we move - but will be back soon :)