Tag Archives: nature
9.15.12 The Rubythroated Gifts
Fall weather has come to the Mid-Atlantic. I want to show you my three rusty cats in the garden that hold up the raspberry canes and the late roses. They are very quiet cats and do their job very well.
Photo from Animal Picture Archives
I wish that I could show you the 2 humming birds that keep visiting the rusty cats the last few days. But, alas, I am not fast enough with the smartphone camera, so you will have to be happy with the flowers and a stock picture. These 2 green hummers keep flying together and sniffing the foliage and than twisting into the sky together: swirl, swirl, swirl, than off they go somewhere around the front of the house. I have tried several times to maintain a hummingbird feeder, but the ants take over, and it is just so much work to keep filling it daily with the sweet water, so I gave up. These beauties are a gift when they come to visit in the fall. And, some seem to come every year.
“Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Archilochus colubris, are probably the most common hummingbird in the world. They have the widest distribution of any hummingbird species, ranging from southern and central Canada in summer to as far south as northern Panama in winter. This is the only hummingbird species that breeds in the eastern U.S.” They tend to come visit us in the late summer and then move along.
I love when nature brings me gifts.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤ 
Saturday’s Quetzal
Sometimes the world creates some of the most incredible things and I get to see them because of great photographers and the internet. – DogDaz
Resplendent Quetzal, photo by cloud forest conservation
(Source: fairy-wren, via oceansdream)
Thursday’s Snow Nose
I found this picture of a baby polar tasting snow for the first time – tooooo cute to not reblog. – DogDaz
Source:
Cutest Paw
9.6.12 Tummy Rubs & Scratch Zones
Tummy rubs. My dogs love tummy rubs. I think that humans like backrubs best, but dogs, well they really like tummy rubs. I guess it would just feel to vulnerable to me to have someone rub my tummy. When I was pregnant, total strangers thought they had some weird right to touch my belly. How Rude! I think that is so invasive of a person’s privacy. But my dogs, they love it and ask for it daily. (Since I have never had a pregnant dog, I don’t know how they feel about it, maybe they don’t like it during that time for the same reasons that humans don’t, it is just to vulnerable.) Louise and Sofie are both submissive animals in my pack, so I figure they get on their backs and just sort of say, ‘Hey, aren’t I cute, please don’t hurt me!’ Come to think of it, I do not remember ever having seen The Muffin Man, our old alpha cat, ever, in all his years, show his belly. All the other cats in the pride do, but not him. The other cats lie on their backs and show their bellies very often, but around here, if you want to keep your hand in one piece, I would not try to rub any cat’s underside (S C R A T C H!).
Tummy rubs are a big deal in our house. I tend to give them in the morning before work and definitely find time for some before the pups go to bed. Sofie is a big one to throw herself on the ground and roll over immediately if she thinks she is going to get yelled at (smart dog). 
Rubbing a dog’s tummy is different than scratching (I look at rubbing more like massage). I like to give all my animals a good scratch in some of their favorite ‘scratch zones’ regularly. Have you noticed that most dogs seem to have a scratch trigger spot down near the inside of the back leg (kind of between the ribs and mid-hip). This makes their back leg kick as a reaction to the scratching motion. I think the dogs like it, but I don’t know for sure. Something tells me it is probably a protective response (more so in male dogs) to protect their private regions. (Is that TMI (To Much Information)?) Louise also really likes to be scratched on her flanks and top of her tail (as I watch the short little black hairs fly). I am still exploring Sofie’s scratch zones, but I know she likes her chest done.
Does your furry have a special scratch zone?
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
