In this week’s cartoon caption contest, we’re giving you the chance to re-caption the drawing that Elaine submitted to The New Yorker on an episode of “Seinfeld”.
Elaine’s caption: “I wish I were taller.”
Entries accepted through Sunday, July 22nd: http://nyr.kr/SBR1jQ
(Obviously the contest date has past but I thought the cartoon was funny.)
Several years ago, at the end of the summer, we found this broken bear fountain at a local garden center. We love to shop for things at the end of the season because we can find wonderful things at prices we can afford, So what if they have some pieces missing or are a little chipped or ragged, they would get that way around here pretty quickly anyway. So Bear has been a summer time favorite of ours for many summers. The pieces that hold him up in the water are not the original ones and are 3 broken shards of pottery, so every year we spend hours trying to get the bear to sit just right and then adjust the pump to not spray out of the bowl. It is a ritual of sorts. I finally figured out if I put a piece of pottery at the end of the stream, than the splash seems to stay in the bowl instead of all over the deck, unless of course the wind is blowing. We have fountains all over the property and inside the house as well. I guess it is very Feng Shui to have water strategically positioned, but we did it because we really enjoy the calming sound (and the effects of the negative ions generated by the constant running water (you knew that of course)). The fountain at the top of the stairs is the cat drinking fountain. I am sure they think we installed it for them. We have fountains at every entrance.
2006: Peanut & Squash
On the front steps with fountain
I remember when the kids were little and a frog decided to live in the big fountain by the front door and it croaked all night right outside Peanut’s window. For a really long time the kids could not figure out what the noise was and they were afraid there was a cricket trapped in the wall.
Now that I am thinking about it, Squash used to drink directly out of the Bear Fountain because he was tall enough; Lulu and Sofie, can’t drink from it but like to play around it.
Water is such an incredible part of my life. Astrologically, I am a triple Pisces. What that means is 3 of my major planets were in the constellation Pisces when I was born. It has been said I am like water, I take the form of those things around me. What is weird is how true that has been all my life. Maybe that is why I am so good with the animals, I just flow along with them.
Water represents the contemplative side of a person, the search for inner self and deeper meanings, but it also represents unleashed chaos and uncertainty without goals. “Water, in opposition to the stability of Earth, stands for inspiration, for creation, for giving birth to ideas, longings and hopes, for moving and for changing, Because if Water stands still, it will rot.” One must stay humble to the power of water, it gives life, but, as we know, it can also cause great damage (I guess that is the unleashed chaos part).
I am sad to report that the Bear Fountain did not make it out of storage this summer, because we never got the shade cover to the deck area up, which meant we did not have shade, and we always but him in the shade so he does not grow algae to fast. Now we are starting to close up the pool and turn over the gardens, and Bear will have to wait until next summer. No wonder I couldn’t get anything started this season, I was missing my inspiration.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤ 
Last year, I guess it was last year but maybe it was longer ago, both Noel and Muffin slept in my office under the window in their beds. As Muffin has gotten much frailer (he is 19 or 20 now I think), he does not come on my desk much anymore (accept late in the day sometimes when he wants to chew on my phone cord to tell me that he is hungry). Muffy mostly sleeps on the glass coffee table in the living room these days (I assume because it is central and cool and low to the ground). Noel mostly sleeps alone in my office. She gets to decide which bed she wants. Today she is in Muffy’s red (manly) bed, but mostly she is in the her pink (girly) bed. I have noticed that since my return from Australia she often sleeps in the next room (my den) on the couch during the day (I think it is much cooler in the den than my office, with all my equipment and lights. Also my office is the hottest corner of the house (of course it would be)). I like that she has branched out (at least one room over). Noel doesn’t get involved in the stupidness that goes on in the house with the other animals. Mostly, she is ABOVE it. Even the humans steer clear of her since she is not very approachable! The only one she lets pick her up is me. I pick her up like I did when she was a baby (upside down) and rock her in my arms and pet her face and her paws. She and I are pretty close I guess. She is my office cat. Everyone should have an office cat.
Noel and Muffy in the office window
April 2010
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Late Breaking News as I finish the post: OMG! Kitty is on my desk because no other cats are here (this never happened before).
If you remember Miss Constance Kitty had lost her mind and was peeing everywhere. Then she went to a week at the Kitty Spa while we were on vacation in July and she seemed to stop for many weeks after that. But then V and K8 went away last week to the beach, she started up again (pissed that V, the mega snack giver, was not here probably). She peed on both couches and ruined a bunch of stuff. (Just as an aside, I discovered this product they make for kid’s that wet their beds called ‘GoodNight’ bed sheets. They are plastic/paper and adhere at all 4 corners to the bed. I put those on the couch under a blanket to save the cushions.) I also started to lock her in a bathroom with a litter box and her dinner. This helps a little. I think it is the alone time that helps here more than the availability of the box, but V thinks that the dogs and also Nine the kitten, keep her from getting to any of the 4 litter boxes I have throughout the house (maybe, who knows), and she really needs to go, so she does (as you can tell, I am not buying this theory much). I never know when she is going to slip up and what she is going to pee on, but it seems that any changes or commotion seems to set her off. After the major pee fest the first 2 days V was gone, I started locking her in the bathroom, especially if I went out of the house for any period of time. This seemed to help. She did not mis-pee anywhere inappropriate after that, that week. But, as soon as V got home, it started again (commotion?, I missed you? or just plain ‘CRAZY!’) We did get medicine that we are suppose to rub in her ears to calm her down, but I am not sure that that makes much of a difference. I think she takes after that famous actress that said ‘I want to be alone!’ To be continued…..
PS. As I am finishing this post, I hear Sofie wildly barking in the kitchen and cat screaming going on and when I go see what is happening Nine has Miss Kitty pinned on the kitchen counter in a corner, Sofie is on the floor, egging him on, and poor Kitty does not know what to do. Kitty is now in her bathroom having alone time and a nice snack. Ahhhh, life in a zoo.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
My dogs and I are very close. Sometimes I think they actually grow out of my side. They are always with me when I am home, whether in my office, the kitchen, or the bedroom; shucks, they are even in the bathroom with me. If I get up to get a cup of coffee, Sofie is right behind me unless I tell her to ‘stay.’ We move as a pack. On the days that I put the dogs in daycare, like today, the first thing that happens is a child wakes up and says, ‘Where are my puppies?’ Then, around mid-day, I start to feel like something is missing: I don’t get my 1-mile walk when they are not home; I don’t go up and down the stairs a million times to let them outside (my StairMaster exercise); and, I don’t go outside to play. How silly is that? Part of having the dogs for me is to help me stay in balance. I am not very good about that. Working in the virtual world, I sit in front of this computer for hour after hour and sometimes forget to get up, to stretch, to take a break. My dogs help me remember to do that. They also make me a better human. They teach me tolerance and acceptance. They make me a better teacher and their existence has made me into a student of animal nature. I have less freedom because of their daily demands, but that is OK. They keep me grounded. They keep me, well…. human. I can not imagine my life without them.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
How do you keep two young dogs busy in the middle of the day, while you are trying to work, and it is toooo hot out for them to really run around, but they are tired of all their toys and just want human interaction, of which you do not have the time or energy to give them? Louise has started doing something that she used to do when she was little but I thought that I had cured her of: she comes up under my mousing hand while I am at my desk and she keeps pushing my hand with her head so that I can not compute. Cute, but not cute. Sofie just whines at everything. Yes this has been a really long summer and I have been on the road a lot, which means, not home with the furries to keep them in their usual busy routine. I think everyone here is ready for fall to come so that we get back to a later walk in the morning (because it won’t be so hot) and more time for play in the afternoon outside (because it won’t be so hot). Though I play with them in the house in the afternoon, it is just not the same. I bought them new antlers and that seems to keep them occupied for a little, but you can only chew for so long. I guess we are in the DogDaz (pun on dog days – get it?) of summer.
Did you know that the term ‘Dog Days of Summer,’ which people usually relate to hot and humid weather, actually is about the ‘dog’ star Sirius. Sirius, is part of the Northern Hemisphere winter constellation Canis Major, which in latin means ‘greater dog.’ For us here in the north, Sirius is the brightest star in the winter sky. The Romans (you have to love these folks for all the wonderful stories they gave us) thought that Sirius actually produced enough heat to warm the earth because in the summer months it rises and sets with the sun, thus boosting the heat making of the sun and making everything much hotter. So, I am really glad to know that DOGDAZ is part of the ‘greater dog’ and has a really ‘Sirius’ connection to the universe. (Yes, I know puns are the lowest form of humor, but I thought it was funny,)
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
