Visit the kelpforest....

I have not been walking after lunch regularly since my walking buddy VT went out on maternity leave around Thanksgiving, but I just looked out the window and noticed one of the neighborhood dog walkers we would see often when we did. An older man with an Australian shepherd, we come across them as we circle back around the building - the lawn surrounding it adjoins a dog park behind the building, and lots of people and canines from the neighborhood from across the street use the grass as a good place for playing fetch. No exception, the man has one of those diamond-shaped fabric with weighted corners, meant for dogs to chase. This dog apparently takes that literally - he runs in a crouch typical of shepherds, may stretch out in a jump to catch it but just as often lets it fall to the ground. Then he collapses to his belly next to it, staring at his human intensely as if to say, "Ok, I stopped it, it's not going anywhere else; my job's done and it's YOUR TURN." And waits all SRS BSNS, panting tensely, until the man approaches to pick it up and throw it again. And the cycle repeats, until they work their way across the grass and go back home across the street.

I chuckled at him once, observing the dog makes him get a workout, too. It's only fair. He laughed back, "Yeah, he keeps me busy!" Serious business, indeed.

Farewell to my brother's sweet dog...



Having a nap with my dad, about three years ago.

We actually went to the human cemetery today, but were surprised to find the gate locked; I would've thought it would been open at least until sunset. Then we checked out the pet cemetery, where in a corner we found what I took below. However, in the end I decided the above meant a little more to me. These rocks mark the spot in our side yard where my good buddy Bob is interred; the best cat who thought he was a dog who ever consented to live with me. He's kept company by Termite, not the smartest, but the sweetest. We miss them both immensely. The back rock is actually light green and sparkly, but I could not get the phone's white balance to record it properly. The front one is obsidian with red veins.

( To serve and protect... )

24. Gravestone ♥

Thought I'd waymark the Dog Beach so I stopped by to take a few pics of some canines and their humans.

Dog Beach
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
14 October 2009

( +1 )

Sitting here sort of spacing out - about to go home as I did docks this morning - and then I heard panting and someone saying "hey, hey, settle down. Want your ball?" Peaked aroung my cube wall and there's a female warden in the hallway with a German shepard. He just barked and startled me; getting a little antsy from being indoors and behaving himself, I suppose. Seems like he's an official dog; I believe I just heard her call him "Reno," although I'm not sure why a dog working for the State of California is named after a city in Nevada... ;)

Yikes, it's 100°F here, and smoky. Thought it would cool down as it gets later and it's just getting hotter. I seldom see three digits on that little widget on my desktop...

I am going to post my own stuff soon, honest, as soon as my brain wakes up and starts working, but I just spent a few minutes looking at this, courtesy megthelegend:

Flying cats...

With the amount of fully extended claws in that slideshow, it's a wonder the photographer isn't sliced to ribbons! XD

Bob had a tail like the tabby in those pics. And he used to chase my brother's dog, an Italian grayhound whom he outweighed by about 10 lbs., with big spread-out paws like that. Before they knew each other well, she would yelp just to run past him as fast as possible while he was asleep on a chair in the living room. He would open eye, and look at her like, "What the hell is your problem, dog?" Later, after they got to know each other, she'd run up behind him and bark, then turn tail and run as he chased her. Looked like a deer and a tiger playing tag. Galumph, galumph. Heh.

Yesterday's entry in Dooce gives an hilarious accounting of Heather's dog finally passing a corndog stick he ate quite a while ago. Hilarious to me and other parents, I guess, who have not quite passed the obsession with poop that develops when you have un-pottytrained children. What really got me though, was that at the bottom of the article, complete with photo of the offending object that had made a complete migration through a dog's entire digestive system, were the ubiquitous Google ads - for corndog fryers, and corndog equipment.

Another mother who had to make an awful choice -- but thankfully, the dog came through for her.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/02/india.hero.dog.ap/

( story )

We were just talking about dogs, and how we both miss having one. This story really makes me want one more.