Spring activities and sights around our new home

Spring means getting outside - Miss Fatcat Eleia has started her exercise program including climbing trees to see where Mr. Chippy might be hiding, or Mr. Squirrel? She's a busy girl but definitely needs to reduce and shape up.

Christopher on the other hand, figures he is older and requires more sleep and his activities as you can see by the dust on his coat and bits of grass includes more rolling around on the lane or lawn to expose his tummy for petting and scratching. Which I admit, he gets lots of. He usually prefers to snooze in one of the deck chairs.

This set of birdfeeders is well attended as you can tell by their emptiness... the scarlet/orange crest of a red-bellied woodpecker can be seen on the edge of the suet feeder. Lately it has proven attractive to a pair of orioles. I'm hoping they will mate, nest and stick around for a while - such lovely colour. I put out orange sections now - they carry them off - so I'm optimistic.

This set of feeders hanging from the clothesline is very popular with the American goldfinches. There are only a few seen here, but often there are up to 30 or so fluttering like gold pennies around the yard.

Bloodroot suddenly appear amidst the detritus left behind by Hydro crews scouring the landscape underneath power lines... so pretty but gone within a week as summer visits briefly and has them wide open and then gone leaving only their leaves.

The dogs rest in the shade alongside the newly planted beginnings of a garden restoration. This is a favourite afternoon spot with lots of damp black earth to scratch into hollows to cool hot tummies. Not hopeful for planting grass... maybe I leave that space as a dog parking place?

Finally the day glows to an end across the lake - the sun moving northward along the north-western edge of this beautiful area. There are many beautiful views around here, but I haven't yet discovered the opportunities to find wildlife where I can get close enough to photograph them.

Hope you are having a wonderful spring - and thank you to all of you who keep checking back to this blog and encouraging me to get back to writing... So at least once a week, more often if possible - I'll be here.

A new driver

Yesterday a friend of mine decided she wanted to go with me to see the parrots when I picked up my pump and filter for the fish pond. We had a beautiful sunny day and were in the mood for a bit of a road trip.

When we came out of the pet shop we looked up to see three others who were in the mood for a road trip as well it seemed.

We laughed and laughed at the three musketeers who told us off in no uncertain terms for not taking their attempts to get the car going in the right direction seriously.

Some days our natural world just hands you a good chuckle when you least expect it.

The licence plate on this vehicle, by the way, said RDY 2GO - someone has a great sense of humour!

May your days be filled with laughter.

Memory lane - more old friends

Lately I've been reviewing and reorganizing some old photographs and I came across this one of three old friends. Yesterday I posted an image of a colt getting to know a black lab pup. Well here is the mother Molly in the back ground with that pup and her friend Muffet wearing a big smile.

Molly came to me one day out of the blue. She stayed for a while then disappeared, then came back. Eventually I found out that she really was part of a family that lived on the other side of town which is where she went when she disappeared. That family finally decided to give her to me (along with a vet bill I had to pay but that's another story.) Funny that after that happened, Molly never disappeared again.

She did, however, eventually go walkabout with a large black lab and a Chesapeake Bay retriever... and three months later brought forth nine little pups (I believe I've told part of this story before). Anyway, the lab in the foreground is the pup that we kept... my youngest son named him LSD - Little S*** Disturber. He was well named - he chewed everything he could find including shoes and underwear. He lived dangerously sometimes. We eventually ended up calling him Ook - another story...

In the middle is Muffet. She was one of two puppies that we got as a family a few years before Molly came to me. Muffie was the sweetest little dog - you can see by her smile in this picture that she's eagerly awaiting something. She was also a wonderful caring "auntie" to all the puppies, helping Molly take care of them and playing with them until they went to their new homes.

All three of these dogs were my canine companions through a tumultuous time in my life, moving from the country to the city and then out to the country again among other things, never complaining about being locked up all day when I went to work or the fact that they couldn't roam the apple orchards as they had when living in the country.

Dogs are special creatures aren't they?  No matter what their size, breed or mixture. They are loyal loving friends wanting only to be with you and part of whatever you're doing. I consider myself very blessed that the ones that have touched my life have been so very special... these three pals from the past are no exception.

QC

This adorable little dog was part of my friends/neighbours' family. She lived with two huge Alaskan Malemutes as her four-legged companions. My friends adopted her when their daughter who lives in Toronto realized the little dog needed more running room.  They live on fifty acres surrounded by Invisible Fence - with a lovely valley and woods to run in and pond for swimming.

She was named QC because my friend's daughter is a lawyer... Queen's Counsel is what QC stands for in British colonies and countries.

QC loved to run, and kept the malemutes in shape by leading them on great hunting expeditions into the valley. When my friends were away, I would take care of the dogs, crossing the county road on which both our properties front and going up their long driveway to be greeted by two huge dogs waiting for their cookie and walk - they knew the routine well - and this little part terrier part what? Spaniel? Beagle? Hunting dog? No idea.

After cookies and much greeting and petting all round, we would head out into the woods and valley for a long walk and invariably QC would be the one that would scent a rabbit,squirrel or raccoon  and off she'd go yipping and yipe-ing and generally having a wonderful time. The Mals would quietly gallop along after her - they didn't voice their approval in a hunt, only when they were howling at coyotes at night.

QC was a terrific little dog, enthusiastic and loving. And boy did she have a great life in the country - perfect for a creature that loves to run and be free.

Another snow day

Spirit (black) and Bliss (blonde) help me feed the birds on another snow day. We went outside about 7 which accounts for the darkness - it's still not completely daylight at that time. Both dogs watch for the Dread Red - the family of little red squirrels that have taken up residence underneath my house and torment the dogs daily by getting into the trees from the feeder faster than the dogs can reach them. I watched one day while a baby ran back and forth under the eaves for about five minutes until it finally lept into a tree, down the trunk and into a hole it knew about but the dogs didn't. Always something going on outside around here it seems.

As you can see it snowed last night. This image of the drive shed (where the original pioneers used to "park" their horses and buggies when they went to church - actually it's only half the size it was in 1870 when it was built) shows how the northeast wind has blown the snow around and up sealing it against the wooden wall.
Snow now covers the clematis vines  hanging onto some netting I'd nailed in place, as well as one of the bird feeders, all the shrubs and dead flower stalks with seeds still on them... and it continues to blow. This was taken from inside my "studio" around 7:30 this morning. Currently there is a mourning dove nestled out of the wind  inside the big feeder on the deck which my cat Eleia uses as her house and hiding place when the weather is better. Other tiny birds try to get seeds, digging them out from the deck where I've put some or where they've fallen from another feeder.

7 a.m. - Outside filling the feeders, and Bliss continues to look for the Dread Red, that naughty little red squirrel has the entrance to its home under my front entry about five feet from where Bliss is standing.

The snow has covered bushes and shrubs that I had cleaned off a couple of days ago to keep them from breaking. This won't be so easy because the snow started as rain and freezing rain yesterday. Tree branches and bushes are bending low under the weight of snow.

Two feeders - suet and seed - on the west side of the church which is my home, hanging in a Scotch pine. It's branches  touch the ground. The snow has blown up about two feet around the trunk and the Blue Spruce tree's lower branches are once again covered. I'll have to go out at least twice today to fill the feeders since the birds are having a hard time finding seed on the ground, it keeps getting blown in.
Many roads and schools are closed and no school buses are running anywhere in three or four counties. It's supposed to continue for another two days.... A typical Georgian Bay three day blow!
I'm staying inside today as much as possible. It's cold out there! but not as cold as my friend's home in Igloolik where her neighbour's home had its wall and most of its front door removed by a bear yesterday afternoon. Now that's winter scary.

It's about rescuing

This is TrixieLU. She is the companion of one of the women I admire a whole lot for their dedication to helping animals in distress and who started C4P animal rescue.

This is Trixie LU's story from the C4P website:  A month after Peter (a lovely old completely emaciated hound whom Michelle rescued prior to Trixie) left us, we got a call from Oakville Humane Society (god bless them) about a little old lady named Trixie. 14-15 years old. 


She had been brought into the shelter 10 months before by a couple who "found her running the Burlington/Oakville border". HOGWASH! (and that's no offense to hogs). Basically, she was dumped in her old age. Another un-adoptable, unattractive, senior medical case. She'd given up hope in the shelter, and was dropping weight steadily. She was skin and bone, and utterly forlorn! They asked oh so nicely, if we could take her. It didn't take much debate, at least not in this household!

TrixieLU came home January 17th, 2010, in her big fuzzy opera coat the shelter gave her, that was two sizes too big. But no matter... she really wasn't at all sure what was going on, but man, it was good! First things first: good food, get some weight on this girl! Second, as soon as she stabilizes, we gotta get those teeth done!  Trixie was really in bad shape - the vet's comment was "one of the worst neglect cases I've seen". We had a few scary weeks with her, where everything went sideways, but Trixie and her vets pulled her through. Today, she's put on 5 lbs and her teeth have been taken care of to the extent that they can. She enjoys going out for walks, she loves stalking small animals, she will not share and she likes to make her own bed, thank you very much! BabyLU is a true member of this family - we hope in true terrier fashion, she lives until she's 20!

***

I first met Michelle during the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans. I'm still not sure how we connected, but I felt it important to help with the rescue efforts that so many people were making for the neglected, lost and abandoned animals that were wondering what happened to their world during that awful time. 

Many Canadians formed teams to go to the city and the county surrounding it to help out. Many dogs were transported by kind and willing truckers up to Canada or across the US to new homes when their owners could not be found. So much hard work continues to be done there since the need hasn't gone away. Michelle or Mitch as she prefers to be called, was spearheading and coordinating a lot of this work. 

She continues to work on behalf of all kinds of animals ( including farm and zoo animals, those used for research - you name it - everywhere and sends out a newsletter every week. Sometimes I can't read it all, it is so heartbreaking. Other times it gets my dander up when I learn of particularly nasty cases of neglect or abuse. And all the time, I tell people about it. So now I post the newsletter onto my Facebook page and try to get others involved. 

If you only take a peek at the newly designed website, or recommend that someone else sign up for the newsletter or even better make a donation or find a forever home (maybe yours) for one of these four-legged friends in need - you have my deepest thanks and all the blessings that can possibly be heaped on you.

If you want to learn more about Cause 4 Paws animal rescue - go to their website. www.c4panimalrescue.com

Who knows, you might find your own animal companion or four-legged friend? 

Ru and Rustle

One of my friends - who is the daughter of a dear friend - lives in California. She is a fine photographer and loves to take pictures of many things including her animals.

This is portrait she took of Ru or Rupert the yellow lab and Rustle who I believe is part or all miniature poodle.

These two had wonderful times with their mum doing lots of things together, and then Roo got sick. So now Rustle travels with his mum everywhere - even coming on the plane all the way up to Canada. But as you can see, while Roo was around - they were inseparable.

Interesting how dogs can bond with each other so closely as well as with people, cats and in some cases the oddest of four-legged friends.

Pals playing in the dog park in California.

Photos courtesy of Rustle and Ru