What To Do When The Router’s Out?

Oil painting of Mom trying to embarrass teen boy by kissing him in front of his girlfriend.

I decided to do a painting!

I haven’t been able to paint since Toby was a puppy.  Shortly after he came here he developed a UTI which led to potty training issues which were replaced by him turning into a naughty dog who loves to play chase more than he likes being good.

This time, though, Toby surprised me by being a little sweetie and lying on the floor beside me while I worked.  Like his brother, though, he likes to be where I put the lid to my Masterson.  I guess it is inevitable that I will have puppies with colorful fur.

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The Cassandra Moth

I have a friend who says that puppies' souls come back to visit their mommies as butterflies.

Yesterday I was in the garden when a moth came around and kept batting itself into me.  No matter how much I shooed it, it kept coming back. Afterward, I delivered a zucchini to a neighbor and mentioned the incident to her.  She said a moth did the same thing to her and even got caught in her hair.  Some believe that moths and butterflies are souls coming back to visit us.  While I appreciated the visit, I didn’t understand what “flap, flap flap” meant.

A little while later I was picking berries when I heard an insistent tapping noise. I looked around and saw that it was a moth in a death struggle with a yellow jacket. They fought and fought for the longest time.   Eventually I turned away to keep picking and lost sight of them. When I went to put more berries in my bucket, though, they fell out of an overhead branch and into bucket. I don’t know how, but the bee had dragged the moth up into the bush. They kept fighting until the bee forced the moth to the bottom of the bucket, then it ate the moth. When the bee flew away, all that was left was a pair of wings.

I’d never seen anything like that before. I wondered if that was the moth that kept hitting my neighbor and me. Perhaps she was Cassandra and knew her fate and was asking for help.

Two Cairn terriers sitting in the grass.

Why didn’t you eat the moth? We would have.

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He Tried It Again

 

Aagh! There's no princess!I told you, man, I'm a dude.

…but this time he failed thanks to my bad knee.  I couldn’t move fast enough, and Toby wasn’t able to catch the toad.

Two summers ago we weren’t so lucky, and Toby did manage to lick a toad.  At first I thought he had eaten a dandelion gone to seed and was shaking the white fluff off his tongue.  Nope.  We had several hours of rinsing his mouth while watching to see if he needed to be rushed to the emergency vet.

So, do puppies learn from their mistakes?  Not my boy!

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Is This What I Think It Is?

Death's Head Hawkmoth

Geordie and Toby’s Grandpa found this today while he was out.  I had never seen one before and looked it up.  It looks like a Death’s Head Hawkmoth.  I read that they sneak into honey bee hives and eat honey.  They get in because they smell like a bee.

Winnie the Pooh should have thought of that.

Update:  A friend showed me that this is actually an Imperial Moth.  I guess Winnie couldn’t have learned anything useful from this guy after all.

 

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Come join Bitey and Toby on a magical adventure in Dream Our World.  In it, Geordie and Toby visit the museum of their dreams.

Cover of the book Dream Our World

Dream Our World is available at Amazon.

First Fruits

Photo of first fruit from the garden this year.

Woo hoo!  The garden has finally started producing something other than weeds!  I had to fight Toby for this cucumber, but eventually I won.  (I cheated.  I threatened to hide Blue Puppy if he didn’t give it up.)

Between my injured knee and all the rain we’ve had, I found it difficult to keep up with the weeds.  Over the weekend, we had two dry days, and I was able to clear out most of what shouldn’t be there.  It was good timing because I found some small zucchini and a couple of cukes which will need close supervision.  Had I waited a few days, I may have ended up with baseball bats instead of veggies.

Toby turned out to be really helpful in the garden.  His favorite food is grass, and he went first for the stuff that had gone to seed.  Had I realized, I would have sent him out there to take care of things and saved myself the sunburn.

Peek-a-boo!

So, I did good?

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Catch Up On My Reading

While I am injured, maybe I can catch up on my reading.

Mom, he keeps stealing my toys! This little twerp is hogging all the sunshine!

Come here so I can beat you up! Yeah, well I'm gonna go pee on your bed!

I'm hungry! When's dinner? I gotta go potty! Then again, maybe I won't.....

Two Cairn terriers asleep on the floor.

Oh come on.  We weren’t that bad!

Yes you were.

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To find out how rotten Cairn terrier brothers can be, pick up a copy of Poopiter!

Bitey Dog and Toby in POOPITER

Poopiter is an illustrated telling of the boys’ first year together.

To find out how good they can be, read Dream Our World.  In Dream Our World,  Geordie and Toby visit the museum of their dreams.

Cover of the book Dream Our World

Both are available at Amazon.

 

Electric Mustard Mulch Puke

Electric mustard colored fungus growing in wood mulch

Bright yellow fungus growing in wood mulch

That is the scientific name for this stuff,  isn’t it?

This is the latest addition to the list of things I need to keep Toby from eating.  So far he has been pretty good about it, but he does keep trying to eat the mulch.  I worry that this might happen again:

Bright red mushrooms

Sketch of brown mushrooms

 

Psychedelic Pup

 

Blecch...This is not the "trip" they promised in the brochure!

Bored terrier lies next to his tennis ball.

Why do you keep picking on me?  I’ve been good lately.

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To catch up on what my stinky boys have been up to when they are not visiting the museum, pick up a copy of PoopiterPoopiter tells the illustrated tales of the meeting of Bitey Dog and Toby and their adventures during their first year together.

Bitey Dog and Toby in POOPITER

Poopiter is available from Amazon.

 

Toby…I Mean Blue Puppy…Strikes Again

Last week I had two jobs come in.  My boys absolutely hate when I have to work and my attention is taken away from them.  Toby, I mean Blue Puppy, had a bit of a meltdown over this.

Tipped over trash can.

Naughty Cairn terrier tears up trash while his toy Blue Puppy watches the carnage.

Blue Puppy lies amid the trash can carnage.

As you can see, Blue Puppy tipped over the trash can and ripped up all the papers while Toby innocently looked on.  At least this was slightly better than when Toby got into the laundry and paraded around the house with dirty undies.

Toy kitty with stuffing ripped out of its head.

Humpty Kitty also fell victim to the carnage.  All of that stuffing used to be her brains.  I guess now she is Zombie Humpty Kitty.

Humpity! Humpity! Humpity!

How did Humpty Kitty get her name? I dunno.  Maybe we should ask Englebert Humpamint.

Given how miserable today was, I am going to hurry and sign off  so I can get some work done while the boys are sleeping.  It’s funny, they are my muses, yet they keep me from getting absolutely anything done.

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What might Virtual Toby and Geordie do as they nap in front of the TV?

I wonder what my boys would do at a museum? ....and so concludes our broadcast of famous museums around the world.

They go to the museum, of course!

Cover of the book Dream Our World

To read more of their adventures, pick up a copy of Dream Our World.

They are available at Amazon.