animals-animals-animals: Four-spotted Cup Moth (Doratifera quadriguttata) (by teejaybee)
Someone said it is called the ‘Dancing Dragon Caterpillar’ – isn’t that the coolest name?
Tag Archives: nature
8.28.12 Signs Of Fall
This week has been wonderful for butterflies in the garden. I capture this shot of an Eastern Black Swallowtail on the grape right before Louise tried to eat it. A Yellow Swallowtail actually landed on her and freaked her out a bit (it was cute but I could not get the camera out fast enough).
Butterfly on the Grape
August 2012
Sofie Chasing Butterlies
Both dogs don’t really understand flying insects very well. I see them constantly trying to eat bees and jump after butterflies. We also have these very large furry spiders that kind of encase the house in webs this time of year. I was bringing in groceries the other evening and one swung down over the front door and caused me to drop the case of water that I was carrying and run. I worry that one of the dogs will try to eat one of the spiders and die: they are really scary looking.
V found a whole family of new born mice inside the extra vacuum we store in the garage the other day. This is a sure sign of fall coming our way. Mother Mouse must have come through the bottom bar and up the hose and had her babies in the inside bag (how smart is that?). While V was working in the garage there was this nibble nibble scratch scratch noise and upon closer inspection, unzipped the bag part of the vacuum, and all these little pink babies fell out. They were quickly scooped up and placed back in the bag and brought outside, with the hope that Mother Mouse will move them somewhere else (outside please!). I guess the Black Snake, who always leaves his skin on the garage shelves for us, will tell us where the mice are… because that is life in our garage in the late summer.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤ 
8.22.12 Mourning Forward
I know it happens but I am not exactly sure why, but when cats get old, like really old, like 18 to 20, they waste away it seems. Muffin must be down to 5 lbs (2.2 kg) now, if that. I don’t like it. He was the king. The big Kahuna around here. He was the Alpha and kept everyone, even the humans and the dogs in line. 
The Muffin Man has become a little wisp of himself, and his front paws seem to have splayed out in a funny way that I never noticed before today. He is always hungry (especially at 4 AM) but never seems to eat much. He attacks everyone’s dinner and only wants people or dog food. “What ever you want, Muffy, we will get it for you.” Some nights he does not even come to my bed anymore. I think he starts to, but get tired on way so stops and just sleeps where he is. 
It is hard when your furry friends get so advanced in years. Everyday I check his breathing and kiss him and thank him for the one more day he has given me with him. Muffy’s time is coming – maybe tomorrow – next week – next month – one can not prepare – one can not ready themselves for the hole – the loss – the empty space on the couch. All I can do is try and cuddle his boney self and enjoy the moments of now. The togetherness of the present.
I am not sure if this blog is about Muffy or about my daughter, Peanut, leaving to college at the end of the week: difference is, she has her life ahead, he has his life behind. I am already missing them both in a weird way and they are not even gone yet.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
8.20.12 Change Is In The Air
Squash E Bear
Fall 2007
This weekend I was missing Squash E Bear a great deal. He will be gone 2 years in February. Now you know I love my current dogs. Louise and Sofie, very much, and I have had many wonderful dogs and cats and guinea pigs over the years. But every couple of month I just really miss Squash. I think it is weird because Nikki, my Cocker Spaniel, who I adored, was with me for 18 years, but she does not come to mind with the ‘missing’ that I feel for Squashy. Squash was rescued already middle aged, he was with me only 5 years, and he was a medical handful because of the twice a day insulin shots he needed for his brittle Diabetes and the overall care when he went totally blind. However, I think Squash was so easy. He and I walked off lead most of the time (when he could still see) and he stayed within reach (in the woods he would walk in the trees and I would walk on the trail but we were always in cadence.) Squash never barked unless he had something urgent to say (which was not often) or he was telling a joke (which he liked to do while rolling on his back and laughing). He loved to travel with me and filled the backseat of my Prius with his 90 lbs of fluff and would just lay down and stay there for long rides anywhere. The only time I saw him angry was when my neighbor’s aggressive dog came running out of the house toward a member of the family while he was on leash. Oh yeah, he did like to be a little too dominant at the dog park. He would find one beautiful ‘bitch’ that he liked and then would not let any other dogs near her. Squash would proceed to place his paw over top of any male dog that might come to close. (We did not go to the dog park much for obvious reasons). Ok, so he did have a few quarks. I guess maybe it is the impending changes in my life this week, with Peanut leaving to college for the first time and K8 going back, which means V and I will be ’empty nesters’ for the first time ever – if you can call having 28 paws (7 animals multiplied by 4 paws) to take care of ’empty.’ Or is it just that Squash and I enjoyed our fall walks so much? Change is in the air.
Squash Fall 07
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
8.19.12 Inspiration From A Second-Hand Bear
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 ❤
8.16.12 The Bond & The Balance
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 ❤
8.15.12 The DOGDAZ of Summer
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 ❤
