The skeleton crew of DogDaz Zoo is taking over the feed. There is so much going on. One day it is hot, then cold, then windy, then raining. Mom says, it must be fall. We love October and the spooky times. Not a lot of houses have fun decorations yet this year. Maybe it is because here in the US people are just not in the mood to smile. We like to smile and play though.
We got our fall hair/fur cuts. Mom says we look great! This is our 2025 ‘school’ picture. Does your Mom make you take photo ops? We don’t usually sit for very long. She has to catch us when she can.
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Next stop – Spooky Towne, then Turkey time! See you in November. Stay well and keep licking!
I love to walk in the crunchy leaves, but all that autumn fun makes me itchy. Then I start biting my paws, which makes Mommy worried. I had my Cytopoint shot last month, and take Benadryl every day, but Mom says it’s not really helping. I really hope I don’t need another shot.
Still, the fall plants are beautiful, and we’re enjoying our morning walks. Mom say’s she’ll take more pictures if she has a hand free (we’ll see about that).
Mini Cooper
Mini minus a K9
Mini Cooper had a rough time with a bad tooth.
She had to have one of her canine teeth pulled. (Funny that they call it a Canine tooth when she is a Feline, right?). She is doing much better now.
She was yapping and yapping for a while, and we couldn’t figure out what she was trying to say. When you have a chatty cat, it can be harder to interpret their conversations.
The anesthesia – or maybe the painkiller shot – had her loopy for about 3 days. But once it wore off, she was back to being her usual Mini self. The photos above? That’s her yelling at Mom to start their daily laser tag game.
Want Cookies!
Playing in the dirt
Who me?
Give us cookies, or else!
Walk?
Fall is Mom’s favorite time of year.
Not just because Halloween is coming (her all favorite holiday), but because she loves the autumnal equinox too. She says it’s when the Earth “tilts to fall” here in the Northern Hemisphere and it marks the start of the new year in her heart and for her people.
It’s her time to count all her blessings, clean her slate, and start fresh. She says we get to start fresh too – more apples and honey for everyone! (Except me. I hate fruit. And I hate veggies. I am a pretty picky eater for a dog.)
Oh – and Mom went to the Maryland Renaissance Faire with Peanut
Peanut loves cosplay. She makes her own costumes and even her own chainmail. She is one of our other favorite humans.
Warrior Peanut 2025
When they came home Mom gave us new names.(Don’t ask, just roll with it.) Jolie, the Magnificant and Bearnard, the Brave.
Jolie here – wait until you hear my summer story. The last few weeks have not been fun here at the DogDaz Zoo. Everyone is doing OK, but we are suffering through terrible summer lightening storms (almost every day), and our house took a lightening strike the afternoon/evening of July 14. Mom says thankfully we did not burn to the ground, so everything else is just a nausance. (Mom lost her home to fire when she was 10, so she is really freaked about house fires.)
The power went out before dinner, but the generator kicked in and everything seemed to be cruising along on back-up power. A few hours after dinner, we were in the living room watching TV when there was a bolt of lighening right outside the big window. Mom thought it hit ‘Big Tree’ in the back, but there was no fire. I ran into my hiding place in Mom’s office and Bear jumped into her lap. Then everything changed. The generator was still on but the TVs were dead, the air conditioning was not working, and everything seemed to move in slow motion for a while.
None of this is supposed to happen because we have this whole house generator and it had days of propane in the tank. We were all confused about why the AC and TV were not working. It took 48 hours before the electric company came to fix the lines which are right outside Mom’s office window. They came and then the crews left, and then they would come back, and there were lots of trucks with flying service people. It took a long time to get electricity back.
Of course, these had to be some of the hottest days of the summer so far. It felt like 104 outside, and almost the same in the house. This was no fun. You can see the thermometer in Mom’s office says that it is 91 outside and 90 inside. Did I say this was NOT FUN!!!
Jolie Day Napping
Mini Day Napping
Because Mom works remotely she had to go to K8’s to teach her class. She did have help from Henry and Freddie, her grandcats. She could not bring us because the cats do not know dogs and Mom was worried that they would be mean to us. It was all very chaotic.
Sadly, when the power came back on, many things didn’t. Mom has something called a whole house surge protector on the power system coming from the electric company (thanks to V’s smart thinking) that was supposed to protect us from all this disruption. But still, the surge fried the board on the new heat pump/air conditioning system. It burned up the main contol unit for the fiber optic internet/cable system; that burned up the DVR and all the little boxes that controls the cable in each of the rooms, and 2 TVs, the big one and the one in Stella’s room (she likes Animal Planet), and the landline home phone (that Mom uses for something called faxes). It burned up the electric panel on the range, the jelly fish aquirium, and a whole bunch of lights and odd stuff. Thankfully, Mom recently had a GFI special switch installed in the electric box for the pool. Otherwise, she thinks the pump would have fried too. At least something worked!
How hot was it? It was so hot, that one night Mom took us to a hotel because we were dying from the heat, but they wanted lots of money for 2 dogs, so we all stayed in the car air conditioning instead in the driveway to try not to fry our little brains. Here are some videos of us in Mom’s car.
The electric company people came and said their surge protector worked fine and that it was not from the street power. We took a lightening ground strike. Mom and I looked but we did not find any burned spots near the house, so we don’t know what actually got hit. She had a second surger protector installed the other day in the electric box in the house just to be double safe and bought a whole bunch of new surge protectors for all the house equipment. We have new TVs (she said it is a royal pain to set up all these streaming services). The AC people were able to get a new circuit board after 3 days, and it took a long time for the house to regain its cool. It is taking Mom and V much longer however.
Almost everything has been replaced except the oven (but who needs to cook in the summer).
Make sure your humans ground your dog house and unplug important things in a storm. How was your week?
I know that we don’t get spring anymore in the mid-Atlantic, but it seems like we went straight from freezing to boiling in one day. They say we are under something called a ‘heat dome’ this week and that the temperature will be hot-hot-hot. Mom thinks it is best to stay inside. We like to nap in the warm grass in the sunshine but she doesn’t let us do that for more than a few minutes at a time. She is especially afraid that I will get a sunburn because I have a short haircut and my skin is exposed. But even Bearnard, the black fur monster, loves to lay in the sun. Doesn’t he get hot?
K8 caught some pictures of me talking to Mom in her office. I like to get on the ottoman, right behind her desk chair, and paw at her to pay attention to me. Beary would not be so bold. I have to do it for the both of us. “Please, Mom. Stop what you are doing and play with us. Or better, give us cookies!!”
The summer is now upon us, as we have passed the Summer Solistice this week. These long days are confusing, as I want to go to bed but it is still light out. And, it is so hot in the mornings, that Mom has to walk us way early so our paws don’t burn. And also because we littles over heat qiuckly. The other day she had to carry me twice because I just didn’t want to walk any more. I am a delicate flower. Bearnard is too, but he refuses to admit it. When he gets home from a walk he drinks a whole bowl of water. Me? I just eat more cookies.
It is already mid-May, WOW, time is flying, We want to wish you all the wonders that May flowers, pollen, and bugs bring, Yes, Bugs!! They are Bearnard’s favorite thing. Our annual cicadas are brooding. These are not the big 17-year cicadas (click link to read about them), but he still has a great time jumping and stomping. At night, he never wants to come inside because he waits for any movement on the ground, so he can bounce.
I can’t get a video of his antics because it is too dark at night to see them on screen, so here is a cute video of the tail-wagging Goofballs instead!
Enjoy your spring!!!
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Comments Off on DogDaz Zoo: A Tail of 2 Doggies and Bugs
Mom tries very hard to get good seasonal pictures of us, but just like our DogDaz little brother in heaven, Charles, we littles do not like to pose. Mom says that she is a little dog failure because the big dogs used to pose nicely and made it easy to get great shots.
Louise & Sofie 2016
Watch as Charles does his own thing, as usual (Bark out loud!!)
We wish you a lovely change of season. One day it’s 80 degrees, and the next it is freezing. The last few days it won’t stop raining (but we need it because we are in a significant drought). We hate to get wet! Spring weather is just so crazy! Maybe we should tell Mom to move.
Enjoy each day no matter what. Your friends – Jojo and Beary
There is a great deal that goes on at the DogDaz Zoo from month to month. We sleep; we eat; we walk; we nap; we find the sun rays; we eat snacks; we sleep; we walk – you get the idea. The wonderful thing is that we do it together. Yesterday was the IDES of MARCH. They say that you need to beware because people could be out to kill you. Being little, we think people and things are always out to kill us; I guess it was no different than any other day.
Today is Mommy’s birthday so we are giving her lots of hugs and love. She was born between the Ides of March and Saint Patrick’s day. Does that make her a Roman Mastiff or an Irish Wolfhound? Either way, she is the best dog Mommy in the universe. She gives us lots of everything and in return we cuddle and lick her endlessly.
Next week is finally SPRING. It has been a cold winter and we are done with it! We are ready to move on to the flowers and the bees.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day – let’s party like a leprechaun.
It is hard to believe how fast time flies with this wonderful, silly, little creature. She came to us when she was 6-1/2 years old but it feels like she has always been here.
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Almost everything has been replaced except the oven (but who needs to cook in the summer).
DogDaz Zoo 