A Holy War

Last weekend, while I was raking leaves and leaping into them, the dogs were at loose ends.  Everyone was in the yard, but nobody wanted to play!  What kind of world were we living in, anyway?  Who do I talk to about this?  IF I HAD TWO THUMBS AND THE RIGHT TO VOTE I WOULD WRITE MY SENATOR ABOUT THIS.

And then they found the Holy Grail of Sticks.

The Battle of Stick raged for years, dragging on as bleak days became endless, cold nights.

Pax was called just twice, once when they dropped it in some leaves and briefly could not find it, and a second time because, well, even in wartime, butts need to be scratched.

Finally, at long last, a victor emerged:

And so began the process of reconstruction for this poor, war-torn land.

Mo' Pets, Mo' Problems

One of the reasons I've been playing absentee from the internet lately is because every single one of our dogs has had health problems.  All of them.  All three.  Thing 1 injured her leg and had to be carried up and down stairs (Thing 1 weighs 45 lbs and has long, gangly legs).  Thing 2 required a million billion expensive vaccinations for things we never had to deal with in the mountains (no heart worm!  no parasites!  only fleas and ticks in July and August!), and the series of shots left her tired, achy, and nauseous.  Thing 3 had ear infections in BOTH ears which resulted in nerve damage and partial paralysis to the right side of her face (she can no long close that eye and has a perpetual head tilt), and during the treatment we stumbled across a heart murmur which, one very expensive trip to the pet cardiologist later, we learned would require agressive treatment.

His Highness the Cat just has hairballs.

But everyone is up and about again these days, though Summer remains a little tilted.  We spent all day raking leaves and playing with sticks in the yard, and I actually remembered to grab my camera!  Those will go up soon.

Comic by clever Canadian Ryan Pequin.

a report on the galapagos

I went to the Galapagos Islands, and you should too!  I'll be honest, I did not have a clear idea how this trip would go, mainly because I'm an art historian and when I travel it's generally to visit art, ruins, monuments; things that man built.  The Galapagos, by necessity, is pretty man-free (only 4 islands in the archipelago are inhabited and only one has what one might term a town).  Well, happily, the trip surprised me and I would be willing to go back again and again and once more forever and ever.

There is just something so freeing about being in a place so free of man's influence, populated by fearless animals who clearly view you as something not even remotely approaching a threat to them.  Some of the wildlife was curious, some wary, but for the most part they just didn't care.  "Eh, you've seen one awkward, two-legged ape thing, you've seen them all," you could clearly see the Marine Iguanas thinking.

But now here's what you came to see: the beasties.

Galapagos Sea Lions.  These were EVERYWHERE.  We saw lots and lots of pups, too, and got to witness the classic "MAMA FEED ME" tactics every creature must employ.

Lava Lizard.  Saw lots of these, too, but they have different colors on different islands.  This guy was on San Cristobal.

Marine Iguana.  The only ones with these gorgeous colors were on Espanola Island.  Everywhere else, they were the same inky black as the lava rocks.

Sally Lightfoot Crab.  We saw these all over, too.  The adults were all this fantastic red, and the babies were pure black (you can see one in the lower right of this photo).  This camouflages the young from the adults, as (fun fact!) they are all cannibalistic.

Of course, the famous Blue-footed Boobies.

This is a juvenile Nazca, or Masked, Booby.  He was right on the path on Espanola, and was as curious about us as we were about him.  Love those big bug eyes.

And adult Nazca Booby on Genovesa.  These guys were my favourite of the boobies.

Red-footed Boobies on Genovesa.  These guys are the only ones which perch in trees--they've developed a prehensile toe in order to do so.

A Giant Tortoise, of course!  There are very few of these guys in the wild, as they were hunted nearly to extinction (entirely to extinction on some islands).  This guy was in the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz.

We made friends.

A Land Iguana, also on Santa Cruz.  These guys were GORGEOUS.

There is a very small flamingo population in the Galapagos, and they can be hard to spot.  We saw three, including this guy, who flew in over our heads to land in a lagoon.

There is also a very small (less that 1,000) penguin population--we saw about 20, which was quite a treat.  We even snorkeled with them!

We saw lots of amazing things underwater, but most moved too quickly to get good shots of.  I sort of stalked this Sea Turtle in order the snap this.

Here's the ship!  The National Geographic Endeavour.  We were quite fond of it.

My fantastic Aunt Anne and me on Bartolome, with lots of volcanic outcroppings behind us.  We only visited the older islands, so we didn't see any of the young, active volcanos on the western islands.

All in all, it was the trip of a lifetime and I'm SO grateful that I had a chance to go.  We traveled with Lindblad, which has a partnership with National Geographic.  Our experience was wonderful--the ship was great, the excursions were great, and the naturalists were downright wonderful.  And--always good--the food was fantastic.  I'll recommend this trip to anyone who'll listen, and if I had all the money in the world, I would definitely take other Lindblad cruises (like one of their Arctic ones, for example).  I know some people have mixed feelings about cruises, but this was nothing like my first cruise experience, where we were essentially in a gigantic floating hotel.  Lindblad ships are much, much smaller, and the whole experience feels so much friendlier and more intimate (in our case, the staff and crew outnumbered the guests).

This is a trip that I'll be carrying around inside of me for a long time to come, I think.

Note: all photos aside from the adult Nazca Booby and the Sea Turtle taken by Anne Grier (except for the one we're both in, of course).

barnacle whale

How great is this print by Ryan Fowler?  I love the color scheme, the whale's expression, and I really love the barnacles.

goose-spotting

When I was very small, long before my current neighborhood was anything but a copse of trees, Meadowlark Gardens were still the farm they started out as and we knew it as "Feed-the-Ducks Park."  We would take the heels of our loaves of bread with us, sit by the pond, and toss bits to the ducks.  One day, like a black-masked biker gang, the Canada Geese moved in.  They'd crowd us, hissing and snapping, edging the poor ducks out until they abandoned the park entirely.  Eventually, we too left the park.

Now the park is a botanical garden center and we live across the street from it.  We walk the perimeter trail pretty frequently, but rarely venture inside as dogs are not allowed.  On Sunday, during a momentary break in the ominous clouds, we ambled over.  Now that I'm larger than they are, I find I don't mind the geese too much.  This guy was hanging out near his nesting mate.  Sadly, their eggs have probably been compromised to keep them from hatching, so no fuzzy goslings.  Another pond nearby sometimes has goslings, but the only goose left over from the winter flock is a single mate-less fellow I call Lonesome.

Yeah, I don't mind the geese.

sam

Sam is my cat.  I don't talk about him a great deal on here because he is usually off doing cat things--slinking about in the yard or sleeping in the sun--rather than hanging out with me.  He's actually the only animal in the house who truly belongs to me.  I adopted him while living in an apartment in college.  Soon after, I found a place on campus and Sam found a place in my folks' house, where he is quite content.

Sam's had a rough week so far.  On Monday, he went in for a dental cleaning he needed badly, and the vet discovered that 8 of his teeth had been struck by this and would need to be removed.  An x-ray, surgery, and a large vet bill later, he was home with us, drugged, starving, and pissed as hell.  AND we have the great pleasure of having to give him meds.  Orally.  Twice a day.  Sam reacts to this process by flailing his limbs wildly, and the first dose of his painkiller ended up all over me, rather than in him.  Today we tried a new method, with more success.  He actually let me get in his face with my big camera and take photos (he usually hates that camera), so I think he's feeling pretty pain-free.

The point of this post--other than to have an excuse to post photos of my cat, who is admittedly pretty awesome--is to caution pet owners to stay on top of their pet's dental health.  This thing hit us out of nowhere, but in retrospect, we really should have looked after his teeth better.  Dr. V of Pawcurious has devoted her last two posts to the subject, as February is National Pet Dental Health Month.  If you're worried about your pet's teeth, now is a good time to make an appointment for a cleaning, most vets have discounted dental rates during the month of February.

Sam's used to spending a couple hours a day wandering outside, and even with the snow he still likes to slip out and scout about.  However, he's housebound until he's fully recovered.  For the next month, if you go looking for him, you'll probably find him like this: wistfully gazing out the window.

mwah!

I Love You More Than Applesauce

by Jack Prelutsky

I love you more than applesauce,

than peaches and a plum,

than chocolate hearts and cherry tarts

and berry bubblegum.

I love you more than lemonade

and seven-layer cakes,

then lollipops and candy drops

and thick vanilla shakes.

I love you more than marzipan,

than marmalade on toast,

oh I love pies of any size,

but I love YOU the most.

This is my favourite poem, which I share with you each year on Valentine's Day!  It comes from It's Valentine's Day, a fantastic book of poems.  I hope your day is filled with hugs, sweets, and (take a note from the critters*) lots of smooches!

*My mom is a small mammal interpreter (her actual title) at the National Zoo, and they like to include the animals in holidays. Here are a couple naked mole rats (my mother's favourite) enjoying a little heart of frozen fruit.

cleverer than she looks

This is Summer, or, as she is affectionately called, "the dumb one."  Summer fears many things: balloons, the cat, your feet, boxes of crackers, leaves blowing in the wind.  However, the things she fears above all else are storm drains.

It's odd, too.  The other stuff she's feared most of her life, but the storm drain thing is recent.  Like, she finally got around to reading It or something.  As soon as she spots a storm drain, she turns and runs in the opposite direction.  Which can be problematic if you're walking more than one dog.  However, I've spent the last few months coaching her, and now she knows to get up on the curb before we reach the storm drain, that way she'll walk over it, which is not scary at all.  In fact, she gets this little spring in her step, as if she knows she's defeated something and darn if it doesn't feel good. 

Right now, we have a few inches of snow on the ground, with more falling as I type.  All of the storm drains are covered by the snow the plows pushed to the curb, so I didn't think about them at all as I set out to walk the dogs this afternoon.  Summer, however, is evidently cleverer than she looks.  She knows those storm drains are there, even if she can't see them.  So, as we approached the first storm drain on our walk, she plowed into the snow on the side of the road.  Summer is not a likes-to-get-her-feet-week kind of dog, so this was odd, to say the least.

"What are you doing, dummy?"  I asked her, tugging her back towards me. Summer obediently came.  We got closer to the storm drain.  Next thing I knew, my left arm was yanked behind my back, and Summer, in her desperation to GETAWAYGETAWAYGETAWAY had pulled out of her collar.

And that's why I spent 5 minutes of my life chasing a terrified little dog through the neighborhood.

door of the day

I didn't go to the Memphis Zoo this trip, but if you ever have the chance, I highly recommend it.  And not just because of this door, with its fantastic Haida whale pull.

photo by arr0on

gimme, day 6

a dog of my own

While I live with two dogs, one is my mother's and the other is my brother's.  Leilani is the one I'm closest to, but she's technically Casey's dog, and every time she goes to visit him I'm reminded of just how painful it will be when she (or I) finally leave for good.  I've been brainstorming a fair amount about adopting a dog of my own, which Lani would actually benefit from, as she loves to play and our other dog, Summer, does not.

I love mutts, particularly hounds and bully breeds, but I'm not all that picky.  I just really love dogs.  Pictured here is Truffle, who is a shepherd mix I found on lostdogrescue.org.

have a cow, man

It used to be known far and wide amongst my friends and family that I found cows to be utterly hilarious.  While this remains true, I was eventually forced to distance myself from anything cow-related, simply because every time my birthday or a gift-giving holiday rolled around, I was deluged with cows, cows, cows.  But this guy?  Oh man, this guy changes everything.

Shot by the immensely talented Sharon Montrose.  Prints available in her shop.

ps: check this guy out.  he's pretty much the cutest puppy ever.  and his name is buddha.

polar 500

So, this is my 500th post.  I knew it was coming, and I was actually going to do something sort of special for it, but then I saw this video.  And I thought, what are my silly little blog posts compared to the pure awesomeness that exists in nature?

she has opinions

leilani talks from Kelly Williams on Vimeo.

So, within the last six months or so, my dog has discovered what we call her "talking voice." It started out as something she would use if she was stuck in a part of the house away from us, but has developed into her way of saying PAY ATTENTION TO ME. I've been trying to capture it on camera, and today I finally succeeded. This is a rather short outburst, she's been known to talk at me like this for much longer. Sorry for the camera quality, I was trying to be stealthy.

sugar

This past weekend, I attended a mustache-themed party at the home of my good friends Alex and Marley.  I know you're dying to see photos of my mustache, but sadly there aren't any.  I printed a paper template from the mustache-on-a-stick masters, Something's Hiding in Here.  Their wooden mustaches are The Best, but I do not have one.  I paired my paper mustache with a collapsible top hat that's been in my family forever.  But this post isn't actually about mustaches.  No, it is about sugar gliders.

Alex and Marley have two of the little buggers (named Icarus and Daedalus, which I think is setting them up for some misery but that's just me) and they are ADORABLE.  They have the beadiest little eyes, there is no cure for it.

All photos snagged from Marley's blog.  You should also check out her portfolio, she is a talent behind the camera for sure as certain.

snarky cat

I know, I've been a bad blogger lately.  I'm in a bit of a slump.  Anyways, in the meantime, have a snarky cat.

meet prince

A few weeks ago, I started volunteering at the local adoption days held by the organization HART (Homeless Animal Rescue Team), from which I adopted my cat.  They're a committed no-kill group, and most of their animals are rescued from kill shelters elsewhere in the state.  Each Saturday, I'm paired with a dog for the afternoon, and yesterday it was Prince.

Prince is a mutt.  HART designates him a shepherd/terrier mix, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had some Lab in him somewhere as well.  He is a sweet, sweet boy, although he was a bit nervous at the event.  He is incredibly devoted to his foster mom, but I suspect that devotion would easily shift to the person who feeds him.  He's about a year old and FULL of energy.  He needs lots of exercise, and would do well with another dog, so long as he/she wasn't too dominate.  He's very playful, and loves to tear up sticks.  He's extremely sharp, and would be quite easy to train, especially as he's so food-motivated. 

If you're interested in knowing more about this great guy, check out his HART page.  If you'd like to meet him, come by the Fairfax Petco next Saturday and see us!  The events run from 12-3 pm.

fur ball

***

Tonight I will be attending the 11th Annual Fur Ball in Richmond, VA.  This is an event when people dress to the nines and rub shoulders with rescued mutts in the gorgeous Jefferson Hotel (ie, just my kind of shindig).  It benefits the SPCA in Richmond, which is a seriously awesome organization.  If you've thought about adopting from a shelter, even if you live nowhere near Richmond, I highly recommend taking one of their adoption surveys.  It can give you a good idea of what kind of dog (breed, age, energy level, etc) or cat would be the best fit for you.

Here's hoping tonight's a howlin' good time, but I will report back with photos!

"you are being shagged by a rare parrot"

MAN I love Stephen Fry.