A new direction

Mom and I often sit in our lanai chatting about this that and other - it is one of the joys of being a supremely intelligent if not modest dog :) Of coarse I am also a Ph.d (profoundly hairy dog) which also adds to my intelligence :) Anyhoo - Mom and I have decided to shake up our blog a little by adding some different content now and again - it could be about a movie we watched recently, something that has happened in the news or just a random thought we want to throw out and share. It will of coarse all be written from my point of view so don't worry - it is still MY blog although I MAY - occasionally even let "The Dweeb" (my brother Denny) have a say (I wouldn't hold my breath on that one though :) Let the fun begin!

Shrimp Boats

Today at the beach we saw something different - the shrimp boats were out trawling just off shore and we got to watch them - well at least Mom did - we were to busy busy sniffing :)  Looks like they were getting a good catch given all the birds flying around. These shrimp when caught go straight to the "Safe Harbor Seafood Company" and will be on the menu by lunch time. Safe Harbor Seafood Company also has a restaurant right there on the dock where the shrimp boats drop off their catch and it is one of Mom's favorite places to go for lunch and luckily for her - it is only a 5 minute drive away.

Beach Day

Our temps have finally started cooling off and it has been in the low 70's in the mornings and 80's in the afternoon which makes it totally perfect for us to go to the beach any time of day - although we still prefer the cooler mornings. First we head through the palm trees and along the board walk to the beach - stopping to sniff EACH and EVERY post as we go :) Then we go galloping down to the sand where today we got to run with our invisible leashes because we the only ones on the whole beach! Mom says we were both acting like puppies running around like crazy and checking out all the new smells. Life is good today for two Cowspotdogs :)

Wordy Wednesday

Today was finally a good day! Poor Mom has basically been in bed since Friday last week when the chronic fatigue from the shingles kicked in big time. Today is the first time she says she felt she could stay awake for more than an hour so off we went and sat at MY Hanna Cowspotdog Park Lake and watched the fish jumping.

Water and Walkies

Mom took some video of the big freight ship yesterday and also our walkies. If you watch you can see there are three tugs working the ship, one way out in front, one at the back and one at the side. Mom says it is hard to imagine this thing out on the open ocean it is just so big and square and it doesn't look like it could cut through the waves. We also went for a walk in MY own little jungle - Mom says it is like stepping back in time and you could almost imagine a dinosaur passing by :)

A good day

First - we want to say a HUGE thank you for all the POTP you have been sending our Mom - we appreciate it so much and know for sure it helps - thank you thank you thank you. Paws crossed the changes to her pain medication seem to be helping and today she actually had a good day - one where we were able to get out and enjoy some sunshine. We headed off to MY Fort Caroline Cowspotdog Park and had a nice walk among the palms trees. We also stopped to check out the old oven that was built at the Fort Caroline by the Timucuan Indians - Mom said she would like it in our back yard as it would be awesome for making some fresh bread or even wood fire pizza. We also stopped to watch one of the freight ships being pulled  down the St John river towards the open ocean - it had 3 tugs boats pulling it and Mom said it must be fully loaded to need that many.

Windy Wednesday

We are just giving a quick update - Mom spent the weekend in the ER after another severe bout of pain but on Monday visited the pain clinic where they changed her medicine and we have our paws crossed this will help. She did manage to take us to beach for a few minutes last week when Hurricane Joaquin  was close by - it was a grey and windy day but we enjoyed it anyway. We miss you all so much and hope you won't forget us and hope things will soon get back to normal.

A timely reminder

Mom just can't seem to get a break at the moment - on top of the pain she has been coping with from intestinal adhesion's - last night she had to go to the ER for a painful rash she has on one side - from her back around to the front of her ribs - it turns out she has Shingles. Please - if you are 55 and older make sure you get the Shingles vaccine (you can get it any pharmacy along with your flue shot). Mom asked about it last year at Walgreens in Arkansas and they told her she had to above 55 (which turns out to be a falsehood as anyone above 50 can get it) Sadly both Mom and Dad were planning on getting it next week when she they went for their flue shot but fate had other plans.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Selfie

We are sorry we haven't been around much and hope to catch up with everyone when Mom is feeling better. If you can spare some POTP for her it would be much appreciated.

Avast me hearties

Ahoy all you land lubbers. Shiver me timbers if it isn't another 'talk like a pirate day'. Captain Reilly Black Beard and Long John Denny here to let you know we will be cruisin the shores lookin for any unprotected buried treasures - so hand over all ye treats and bones or we will be having you walk the plank or swinging from the yardarm!

"S" is for silly

I am not a happy chappy at the moment - for some reason the "S" key on my Yaptop has decided not to work properly.  I can be typing away and look up to check what I have written only to find a whole paragraph of goobly gook because all the words that use them - are missing the "s" letters (Mom chuckles when she reads what I have written as it can make for some interesting and funny words when the "S's" are missing.) Mom has cleaned the keyboard using a soft brush and condensed air..... she even went online and found out how to remove and replace the key so she could check there wasn't anything caught under it - can you believe she implied there was probably dog hair caught under it and that was what was causing the problem. Alas the silly "S" continues to work intermittently and adding to the problem now the letters are stating to disappear from the keys - just like what happened to Ernie and Frankies keypad - our letter "T' is also fading away.

Wordless Wednesday

The Broken Toe

Last Tuesday Dad took his daughter for one last walk to the beach before she headed back to Wisconsin. Now Dad doesn't often watch where he is walking and Mom is ALWAYS telling his to be careful but Mom wasn't there and you guessed it - he stubbed his toe on the boardwalk. He said it hurt a bit but didn't really bother him. On Wednesday he flew to Pennsylvania and on Friday he flew to New Orleans and his toe okay. But today for some reason all his toes and the top of his foot swelled up and lots of bruising appeared across all his toes and Mom finally dragged him to the ER to get it checked out. They poked and prodded and took some X-rays and it showed his toe is broken. So now he is hobbling around wearing an orthopedic boot and will be for the next couple of weeks. Of coarse that Dweeb brother of mine Denny thinks the boot is some kind of monster and every time he sees it barks and growls at it. I guess we will just have to do some extra walking on Dads behalf  :)

Great Escape Snow Freak Saga

We have been reading all about the "Great Escape Snow Freak Saga" today. It seems that while moving from Ohio to Pennsylvania Frankie and Ernies Snow Freak collection escaped and have been causing havoc all over the world. Now personally we would love us some snow freaks as we have been hot all summer we would be happy to cool down the house with some snow freaks. We heard they are pretty sneaky though so we used our special stealth mode which makes us nearly invisable and tried sneaking up on a few to catch them. Sadly the minute we wrap our paws around they start melting !

We will never forget

Fourteen years ago on September 10th Mom arrived in the USA for the very first time. Dad was waiting for her at San Fransisco and they then flew to Detroit where Dad was working. The next day something that none of us will EVER forget happened.

Today we say a special prayer for all those that lost their lives on that day, for all the families that lost loved ones. We also want to give HUGE and heart felt thanks to all the medical staff, firefighters, first responders, military, ambulance drivers, police and all the search and rescue dogs who worked so hard to help in what ever way they could.  

Showing her the sights

We have been having lots of fun showing Dad's daughter all of MY wonderful parks and filling her in on the rules of being a bark ranger. This morning we got up super early at 6.00 am to be ready for the sunrise at 7.00 am but alas there was no pretty colors today. We did however have  a long leisurely walk and we showed Valerie how to do some sand art. Valerie spent a long time looking for shells but one thing our beach just doesn't have is shells. Mom looks for them all the time too but has never found any either. Mom is hoping the next time we have a big storm some will wash up. Now of coarse you can buy bags of assorted shells in just about every other shop but they all been been bleached and cleaned so much they have no sea smell left and mom says what good is a shell that doesn't smell of the sea. We hope you are all had a wonderful weekend.

A visitor

Dad's daughter Valerie (Jackie's Mom) is coming to visit us for the long weekend so we won't be around much as we will be showing her the sights. For those that don't know Jackie.... he is a little dorky (dachshund x yorkie) that Valerie rescued from the shelter and he lived with us on and off over a few years until his Mom moved to Wisconsin. Sadly Jackie couldn't come as his Mom is flying from Wisconsin to Florida so he will be staying with his Aunt. He is the sweetest little guy and both Mom and Dad have a real soft spot for him.....he loves nothing better then snuggling and cuddling. We wish he could of come for a visit too - maybe next time he can. Have a wonderful long labor day weekend for everyone here in the USA and if you are traveling be safe.

Meeting Manny

Today we visited MY Ed Austin Cowspotdog park where they have the awesome leach free dog zone and for a moment we thought we had traveled through  a time warp and ended up in France - because look who we met - Easy!  But then we found out it wasn't Easy at all - his name is Manny and he is a big old baby dog. He snuggled up to MY Mom wanting pats and tummy rubs and when she sat down he tried climbing on her lap and nearly squashed her :) We had lots of fun walking around the park together and even Dweeb seemed to like him.

Back on Patrol

I have so many parks to take care of it was hard deciding which one to go to first - but Mom said - lets go in order of how we first found them - so today we headed off to MY Fort Caroline Cowspotdog Timucuan Preserve. This is the park where I became an official Florida bark ranger. Now we must apologize for the photo's being a little dark - we are still getting the tail end of Tropical Storm Erika so we have lots of grey skies and rain fore casted for the rest of day.

Our first stop was the little Timucuan Indian hut - we are happy to see it survived the winds and rain. Next we checked out the Bark Rangers board - do you see us on there - we are at the very top on the left side - we are after all 'top dogs'.





















We couldn't get down to see the actual fort today as my staff were busy trimming some broken trees and mowing the lawns so instead we headed off down the pier to take in the view of the St John River. Mom loved seeing this sign about the manatees and always hopes we we will see one - but so far they remain pretty elusive. Mom says we were very brave boys as this is actually a floating pier so it moves as you step on it. And the last pictures are for Aunty Yamini - we saw these boats way over the other side of the river at the dock yard - we wondered if they ever make their Scotland. Sadly we couldn't see the boats names to we could check on where there have been.