I Killed It, Ma!

Cairn terrier stands over slain toy

As you can see, Toby is very proud of his hunting skills. 

I could have used Toby’s killing skills in the garden.  That stinky garden bunny left me only half beans to try to pick for dinner. Then, he pooped out his half of the beans all over the pumpkin patch.  Perhaps I should be grateful for the fertilizer, but I used a very eco-friendly time-released one at planting and did not appreciate his ground raisins.

Next year, Toby, you are on bunny patrol.

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Catch up on the boys’ latest adventure with Dream Our World.  In it, the boys visit the museum of their dreams.

Cover of the book Dream Our World

 

Adoptable Hershey

Hershey, an adoptable Chocolate Labrador Retriever Mix in Alcoa, TN

A friend of mine is in need of a good home. His name is Hershey, and he is an active, healthy, young male pup of possibly lab or Vizsla heritage.  He is a bit too active for his older, smaller siblings and is looking for a new home where he can play and play and play.

I hope I am not breaking any rules by posting a link to his adoption site here, but I wanted to help spread the word about him.  Hershey’s site.

Hershey and his brother and sister play online with Geordie and Toby, so I have known his family for a while.  They are good pups and peeps and only want the best for this little boy.  If you would like to share his story on social media, that would be great.

Two Cairn terriers pant in the sun.

Hershey wants to go for long walks too!

Analepsis

Tiny Cairn terrier puppy loks clueless as he chews his toy.

I was organizing some photos when I came across this one of tiny Toby.  From the time he came into this world, Toby has managed to take goofy pictures.  This one is no exception.

At this age, you can see that his left ear hadn’t entirely stood up, and he had traded his green sweater for a stylish hand-me-down harness from his big brother Geordie.  While I like remembering the puppy he was, I really love the dog he has become.

Thank you for bringing so much fun (and torment) into my life, little one.

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School is starting, and that is a great excuse to escape into an alternate reality.  Come visit Bitey and Toby as they journey to the Museum of the Imagination in Dream Our World

Cover of the book Dream Our World

Toby Finds a New Hobby

Cairn terrier curls up near electrical wires.

Who me?  But I’m totally innocent.

This evening I went to the computer and noticed that the mouse wasn’t working.  I traced the cord back to the port to make sure it was secure and found that it wasn’t plugged in at all.  This was the second time in a week that this has happened.  Looks like Toby has found a new hobby….unplugging Mommy’s peripherals.

 

 

 

 

The Carousel

What do you do when the router is working?  The same thing as when it’s out!

Patrons ride a coorful merry go round at an amusement park.

The theme of my last painting was Emotion.  This one is Happy Memory.  Originally I had wanted to create this painting using impasto and a knife, but the picture kept fighting back until it turned out this way.

Bored terrier lies next to his tennis ball.

Are you done now?  It’s soooo boring when you work.

Toby really, really, really didn’t like me working on this picture.  He positively exhausted himself with all of the stuff he shredded in disapproval.

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Cover of the book Dream Our World

If you’d like to see even more of our artwork, join Bitey and Toby in Dream Our World.  Inside, the two pups visit the museum of their dreams.

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I Need A Phone!

Get free bacon from your phone!

 

Peek-a-boo!

I didn’t realize this was even an option! 

So, is there, like, a dispenser on the side or something?  What if your phone is old?  Would the bacon be stale?  Do you have to rub the phone like a magic lamp?  Inquiring dogs want to know!

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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.

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Bitey’s blogs are likely to be a bit sparse for a while.  After the last painting, I decided to start another.  I had definite plans about what I wanted to do with this one, but the painting had something different in mind.   I don’t know which one of us is going to win, but it promises to be a messy fight.

In the meantime, Toby is bored watching me work, so he has been trashing the house.  I spend as much time picking up little bits of paper off  of the floor as I do painting.

 

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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