Football Season

It's that time of year...

I think we might have another case of DeflateGate on our hands.

Copy Cat

This was made the day after the picture in the previous post. Kitty had never done this before.

Snuggles

One leg over mine - this is as close to snuggling as Brea gets.

Here's Brea!

Brea came out of seclusion this morning and showed everyone that she can still run circles around Siri. That and she had to go to the bathroom.

Things I've Found While Walking the Dogs

I've put in hundreds and hundreds of miles walking dogs over the years, and from time to time I've found some interesting things, including knives, tools, toys, and money.  About three weeks ago we came across some exercise equipment that someone had put out for the trash.  There was an old weight bench with torn padding, an incline situp bench (in good condition) and a set of iron weights, pictured below.

Iron weights can rust but they don't wear out. I got my workout that day carrying these home.

I'd never heard of Hollywood Healthways.

York Barbell Company is famous.

Where's Brea?

Brea was sleeping on my bed - on fresh, clean sheets.  So Siri and I took an extra long walk and played on the ball field.

Finally, A Day Without Rain

It feels like we've had one of the rainiest summers on record - definitely the wettest I can remember - and the ball field has been too wet to use for the past few weeks.  Yesterday was mostly dry and the city cut the grass so we went out to play this morning.

After a short time playing with her rope toy Brea left it to Siri and just ran in circles around the field, apparently happy just to be there.  The outfield was still kind of soggy and there were puddles and weeds on the infield but it was good to be out there.

West Virginia Trip

Brea and Siri took a few days off so that Mary T. and I could go exploring.

We really did walk almost all the way to the top.

The hike to the observation deck was an easy 1.5 miles.

View from the observation deck.

The obligatory selfie.

We were not tempted to go any farther.

The observation deck is the dark shadow in the left third of the picture.

The deck is at the extreme left of the picture.

We could hear some climbers but not see them.

Mary T. at Blackwater Falls State Park

View from the road on the way to the top of Spruce Knob

It was very cool and windy up here

Found. Lost.

We found this small, perfect egg lying in the grass, whole and intact, not near any tree or nest.  

Mid Winter Break

Brea and Siri recently took a few days off so I could check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando.  Here are a few pictures from our trip...

Outside Hogsmeade Village, somewhere in Scotland (not found on any map).

Dragon escaping from Gringott's Bank, Diagon Alley

Unclaimed packages at the Owl Post, Hogsmeade

Hogs Head Pub, Hogsmeade

Three Broomsticks Inn, Hogsmeade

Hogsmeade

Hogwarts Castle

Special Walk

It's about 3:00 in the morning and Siri and I just returned from a long walk.  About an hour ago she decided that I'd had enough sleep and it was time to go outside.  Brea stayed in bed.  I put Siri's harness with the blinky light on her and attached a twenty foot lead and we went out into the mixed rain and snow and started walking.

No nighttime photography tonight - Siri at Bee Tree Park near St. Louis in 2013.

Siri seemed so happy!  Moving a lot more freely than she can on a 6-foot leash, she ran circles around me and onto lawns to sniff things she normally can't reach, never pulling hard like she usually does on the short line.  I was able to keep up a pretty good pace.  Walking one dog this way is definitely easier than walking two.  It was a good walk for both of us.

By the way - when I made these pictures Siri weighed about seventy pounds.  Last week I took her in for her checkup and for some vaccinations and she now weighs 100 pounds.

Cold Morning

The temperature was 5 degrees this morning.  Brea let me put her booties on her, and her coat, without any problem, but Siri wasn't having any part of it.  Rather than waste any more time, I gave up - the booties that I bought last year look kind of small now anyway - and we started our walk.  From the very start Siri pulled and pranced and limped and was generally very difficult to handle.  How do you tell a dog, "I told you so"?  So our walk was very short.  Brea was calm the whole time.

By early this afternoon the temperature had risen into the low 20s, so we went out to the ballfield to run and play.  At one point I looked over and saw Neighbor Cat sitting on home plate, watching the dogs.

"Stop what you're doing and pay attention to me!"