Introducing my Grand-Dog-Niece – Bernice Babootie. She is 10 weeks old. Her parents had her tested because they wanted to know what she was. She is everything wonderful except for those sharp puppy teeth. There is a new spelling of the word trouble – B E R N I E !!!
This is a Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop. Thanks to BlogPaws for the hop. Head over there and see what they are blogging about.
Mom wanted to take a picture of herself dressed up to go out to dinner. She thought maybe if she used the mirror in the hall, the self portrait wouldn’t look as stilted as when she does the camera selfie thing. We thought it would be a good idea to help her. Especially, since she was wearing black and I love to shed on any black clothes I can find (rub rub rub). We think Mom should take more selfies with us. We are the best helpers.
Did you know that this is the earliest spring in our lives. That’s right, thanks to a leap year weirdness the equinox is 2 days earlier (March 19 or 20 depending on your timezone) than it used to be. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac equinoxes and solstices are happening earlier and earlier every year because of how leap year is calculated. When I was little it was always March 21st, this year it was on March 19. That means this was the earliest spring since 1896.
I will let The Almanac explain Why Spring Begins Early This Year
It all happens because the number of days in a year isn’t even. A year lasts 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. Call it 365.2422 days. If only the year were 11 minutes longer, or 365.25000 days, we could simply add one day every fourth year and take care of the fraction forever.
But because Earth spins a hair less than 365 ¼ times per year, we must sometimes omit that extra once‑every‑four‑year day, and that’s what creates all this fussing. Skip three leap years every four centuries and you’re accurate to one day in about 3300 years. (We even deal with THAT little glitch by skipping February 29 in the year 4000.)
A calendar that doesn’t accurately divide days into the year starts going weirdly out of sync. Seasons start happening at odd times. In the previous Julian calendar (where all century years were leap years) the annual 11‑minute error accumulated to where equinoxes were happening around March 11. The Easter Bunny was hopping around in the snow!
The present calendar takes care of everything. This leap year will make 2016 have the earliest seasons of our lives (thus far!).
But Louise and Sofie don’t know that spring was early. They just want to chase the ducks. Have a great day!
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This is a blog hop. I hopped it from MYBrownNewfies. Check them out for more mischief.
Setting the scene: (1) All the cats at the DogDaz Zoo live in the house. We just don’t want to worry about gathering them all up at night and what could happen with the cars, foxes, osprey, etc. (2) Mom had her eye surgery a few Thursday’s ago. The next day was spring warm and sunny, so we had the windows open and the doors screened. Mom was recuperating and mostly sleeping. (Do you sense where this is going?) (3) When Mom is traveling or laid up, the doggies go to Sonya the pet sitter. They were not home.
The scene: V was in the garage in the afternoon and in walked Mini Cooper from the backyard. Mini apparently managed to slide the sliding screen open and V put her back in the house, and that was that.
The panic: But it wasn’t just Mini. Later that day, when Mom went to feed the Zoo, Nine was nowhere to be found!!!! Flash lights, calling, walking the neighborhood. No Nine anywhere. Mom emailed the community and the county website and let them know he was missing (sadly another neighbor’s cat had gone missing the day before).
Saturday: Mom is not allowed to bend down or lift things because they worry about the pressure to her eyes, so she can’t go looking under things for Nine. Though the dogs were supposed to come home Sunday, Mom had Sonya bring them early so that they, especially Sofie, could help her look. Mom talked to all the neighbors and put them on alert. When the dogs got home she started a nose search of neighbors’ yards. Still no Nine.
Everyone was worried as the weather had turned cold and it was raining. Mom did not feel his energy in the yard but knew, with her ‘spidey’ sense, that he was not far. She kept sending Sofie and Louise out to search the yard and call to him in their doggy way.
9 PM Saturday night V hears meowing from the pool area. At first Nine wanted to run, but a nice can of Friskies made him realize he was more hungry than scared and it was time to come home.
Sofie was so happy he returned. Mini wouldn’t let him out of her sight (or the cat bed). He was tired and hungry but no worse for the adventure. He sure knew how to get Mom up and moving before she wanted to be.
– As reported by Noel, the stay at home, I would not leave if you paid me, Christmas Cat
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This is a blog hop. I hopped it from MYBrownNewfies. Check them out for more mischief.
K8 was in the bathroom and my grand-cat, Cricket, aka Kitty, recreated a moment from the movie “The Shining.”
Gosh, how Louise loves to lie in the hot sun.
DogDaz Zoo 