Pet Pride: grass is for naps, not nibbles

Photo by Richard Schear, June, 2012

Posted for Pet Pride
hosted by Lindy's friend Bozo and his family
in Mumbai, India, at their Pets Forever blog

Lindy says, "Hi, Bozo! My mom says she read that you like nibbling on grass when your tummy is upset. She says lots of dogs do that. I don't, but maybe I should try it, because I like eating green things. I like broccoli (especially the stems, because they're crunchy) and green bell peppers (after my dad removes the seeds) and many other vegetables, but I usually lie down on grass, and wait for my people to feed me a treat."

Pet Pride: Lindy and the missing bunny

Lindy has two squeaky toys, which she squeaks to indicate how happy she is, because she knows better than to bark in the house. However, she does like to take her toys outside, and sometimes they don't come back.
We haven't seen the bunny for a while, and the piggy disappeared last week during the packing-up for the kitchen renovation.
But here is Lindy in happier times, while her bunny was still in the picture, so to speak. We don't talk about her squeaky cow, which met a lawnmower a couple of years ago, because it makes Lindy and her mom sad.

Posted for
Pet Pride
hosted by Lindy's friend Bozo and his family in Mumbai, India, at their blog, Pets Forever. Lots of Lindy's friends are there.
Lindy says, "Hi, Bozo, this used to be my favourite squeaky toy until I lost it. Do you like squeaky toys? My mom doesn't like me to bark in the house, but I make lots of hungry noises, and why-is-Daddy-working-I-miss-him noises, and my squeaky toys make happy noises for me."

Saturday Photo Hunting: local streets

Our friend Gattina in Belgium, on her Keyhole Pictures blog, hosts Saturday Photo Hunting, and this weekend's theme is local streets.
I didn't get out today, because we had a cold hard rain, followed by mixed rain and snow (yes, after my Nanking Cherry blossomed) but fortunately I had these photos I took last year. My husband was driving and we were trying to beat a summer storm home from Medicine Hat.

Leaving Medicine Hat.

Our town's main thoroughfare, Broadway Avenue.

Turning onto our street.

Lindy is the welcoming committee. Here she is ignoring my camera and watching her daddy.
Kay Davies photos, 2011

Skywatch Friday: blossoms under blue sky

Our dog Lindy is as oblivious to the beauty of my blossoming Nanking Cherry as she is to our lovely blue sky, or the ugly duct tape trying (not very successfully) to hold up my honeysuckle arch.

Photo by Richard Schear, April, 2012

Posted for
SkyWatch Friday

SkyWatch Friday + Saturday Photo Hunting

Well, I'm fresh out of groundhog photos, so I thought I'd see what I had...and I found one of Lindy last year on Groundhog Day. She can see her shadow, and a bit of sky above the greenhouses near our house. (Our little town in southeastern Alberta is known as The Greenhouse Capital of the Prairies.)

This winter has been the opposite of last year. As seen above and below, we had a lot of snow last winter. Now we've had so many above-freezing days in January, and the beginning of February, we're afraid some of our trees and shrubs will start leafing out, only to be hit later with the area's normal -20 to -30 Celsius temperatures (4 below and 22 below zero Fahrenheit). Of course, if that happens, we could be losing some of our greenery, which is a serious matter in the desert part of the prairie.

Below, there is still plenty of fruit on our ornamental crabapple tree because we've had so little snow the deer haven't had to come to our yard to eat very often. The larger deer can reach the fruit quite high up the tree when they stand on their hind legs. It's amazing to watch.

© Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear    

Posted for
SkyWatch Friday
To see other skies from around the world, please click  HERE!
Oh, and Groundhog Day? According to what I've read so far, opinions seem to be split amongst Canada's and the USA's most popular underground predictors. So, it will either be an early spring, or another six weeks of winter. Time will tell.
*
Last photo also posted for the theme "twigs" at Gattina's meme
Saturday Photo Hunting

Our World Tuesday: where's Lindy?

There was lots of snow and hoar frost in our world early in January.

This dog was waiting for Lindy.

He remembered seeing her in December, but she wouldn't look at him then.

There she is! There's Lindy! She's investigating something in the grass,
and she still won't look at her not-so-secret admirer.

Posted for

Our World Tuesday

Pet Pride: batting her eyelashes

"Come on, Dad, let's go for a walk. Let's go now. It's almost time for the sun to set. You know how you love sunset photos. Let's go!" says Lindy, batting her long eyelashes at her daddy. Lindy's mom and dad sometimes wonder what she likes best: food, or a walk, or a ride in the car.

"There! Now isn't this better? I'll rest here while you take your pictures, then we'll walk some more!"
*
Posted for  Pet Pride
hosted by Lindy's friend Bozo and his family in Mumbai, India, on their Pets Forever blog where you can see other pets as their families see them.
*
Lindy says: "Hi, Bozo, I hope you're feeling better. Do you feel well enough to go walking? I sure hope so. We want you to have a happy and healthy new year!"

SkyWatch Friday: one photo says it all

© Photo by Richard Schear

Our Southern Alberta sky turned the color of a harvest moon this week, for the last SkyWatch Friday of the year. My intrepid photographer, with strict orders to bring me new photos of Lindy, went walking with the long lens on his camera—perfect for this year-end sunset, not so good for a dog at the end of a leash.

Posted for

SkyWatch Friday

To see how the sky is ending the year in other parts of the planet, please click

HERE!

Pet Pride: no pride when my dish is empty!

There's no yogurt in my white bowl. There are no vegetables in my red bowl. Sure, there's some water in the green bowl, but who wants water? I prefer soup. It's just as wet as water, but it tastes better.

Posted for
Pet Pride
hosted by Lindy's good buddy Bozo in Mumbai, India, at Pets Forever.
"Hi, Bozo," says Lindy. "I'm sure glad you're home from the dog hospital, you and your big heart. It's sure a good thing the doctors know about your big heart now. Sometimes they just don't know everything, until they do doctor-tests. I've had some doctor-tests, too, so I understand."
To see other pets as their owners see them, please click  HERE!

Pet Pride, Shadow Shot Sunday: sunbathing

Before her curls grew back, when just a few leaves were falling from the trees, on days when the temperature wasn't too hot, Lindy loved sunbathing. Her hip made shadows on her side and the lawn, her head made shadows on her neck, even her ear made shadows. She was also glad the trees were making shadows on the lawn, just in case she decided to take a break from her sunbathing.

© Photos by Kay Davies and Richard Schear

Posted for  Pet Pride

hosted by Lindy's buddy Bozo (Hi, Bozo, this is Lindy! Glad you're feeling better! xoxo) and his family in Mumbai, at Pets Forever,

and for  Shadow Shot Sunday

hosted by Tracy in Brisbane, at Hey Harriet!

Coffee Klatch Friday: grateful for 7 things

Vicki, who hosts Coffee Klatch Friday on her blog The Tapestry of Life, asked us last week if we could post 7 photos today, showing 7 things for which we are grateful. Of course I'm grateful for my husband, for his daughters, and for their children who let me be an extra grandmother to them, as well as for my own extended family, most of whom are in British Columbia, but the photos aren't of them. Maybe another time.

I am very grateful we have Lindy, who will cuddle up to my feet when I'm in my computer chair.

I'm grateful for these shelves above my computer. On the top is an angel my best friend gave me, and to the right of it a photo of my late parents when they were 80. Below is their wedding picture, from 1946. The first of the two larger black & white photos is of me with my sister and brother the only year we were all teenagers: I was 19, he was 17 and she was 13. Then the two in sailor suits: my brothers: one was 20 and in the navy, and one 9 months and in diapers. I'm so grateful Mom had the youngest.

I'm grateful to have one tidy, pretty corner in our cluttered house, featuring the antique flip-front desk my dad bought me when I was 14. The dealer said it was 85 years old then. It's much older now. 

I'm grateful to have photos like this of the ornamental crabapple tree in our front yard, especially today with the season's first snowfall outside and the thought of many more to come.

I'm grateful for the juicer I bought at half price. Lindy and I are enjoying the juice. She loves the pulp that comes out the other side of the machine, so I give her some, and make soup with the rest of it.

I'm grateful we (might) have found a solution to the problem of Lindy refusing to go into her dog house. Really. She's had it for two years, as long as we've had her, but she won't use it. So we went outside and made a fort/cave space using the dog house as one wall and the shed as another. We're hoping she will discover, all on her own, that it's a good place to go to get out of the weather when we're not home.

Finally, I'm grateful to have these two fun photos of Mom and Dad when they still had enough vim and vigor to travel, camp, fish, and take photos for Dad's Living Rivers books.

Shadows out a-walking

My intrepid photographer and his faithful canine companion, Lindy, cast long shadows late in the afternoon.

© Photos by Richard Schear

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday hosted by

Tracy at Hey, Harriet! Thanks, Tracy.

To see what kinds of shadows attracted other photo-bloggers, please click

HERE!

Lindy's World, where D is for Dogs

Our Lindy sees several dogs when she's out walking with her daddy. Some of them she ignores, but she seems to have made through-the-fence friends with these two beautiful wavy-haired Portuguese Water Dogs. The black one sat still for the first photo, but was running around their back yard at top speed when Dick snapped the other two. Apparently these adorable critters are genetically very energetic and hard-working. Lindy gets tired just talking to them.

© Photos by Richard Schear

This young, slim, honey-colored Golden Retriever says hi to Lindy during one of her walks with her dad. This has made Lindy decide to lose weight.

Posted for 
My World Tuesday and...

...for ABC Wednesday

Shadows of a lovable lady

Sit? Sure, Dad, I'll sit, no problem.

Stay? Right. I can stay. You don't even have to hold my leash.

In fact, while you mess around with the camera, I think I'll have a nap.

© Photos by Richard Schear

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday, hosted

by Tracy at Hey, Harriet! Thanks, Tracy!

To see shadows as others saw them, please click HERE!

Also posted for Pet Pride, hosted by

Lindy's friend Bozo and his family in Mumbai, India.

"What do you think, Bozo? Doesn't this look like a good place for a nap?"

To see pictures of other pets as their owners see them, please click

HERE!

L is for our Lovely Lindy's Birthday

We don't really know when Lindy was born, we don't even know what year she was born, but we adopted her on September 16, 2009, so Sept. 16 is the day we celebrate Lindy's birthday. The veterinarian thought she was about four years old last year, so now we think she is five. Above, a yam cake decorated with red and green peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrot coins, was a huge hit with Lindy. She got to eat a little bit of the yam cake, and also the rest of the vegetables. Since then, we found out she has gained weight in the past 8 months, so we won't be baking any more cakes for her.

On the left, upside down in front of the cabinet, is Lindy's old favorite toy, a squeaky cow. She was always losing it outside, so her daddy got her a squeaky bunny (you can see its four feet sticking out of her mouth). Right now, both toys are missing, so it's time to do a search of the yard.

Lindy's daddy also bought her a Kong toy, the kind we're supposed to fill with treats for her to work at getting out. She tried and she tried, but she couldn't get the pieces of dog biscuit out of the toy, so her daddy felt sorry for her, took a piece out and gave it to her. Now she doesn't want to play with her toy because nobody is helping her get the treats out!

In the top photo, you can just see part of Lindy's step-stool, a gift from her  mom early this year.   Here is a better picture of the stool, which says "Dog" on it, above a picture of a Lindy-colored puppy. She often uses her step-stool when she is getting up onto, or down from, her window seat (on the right).

Lindy's mommy posted these photos because tomorrow is
ABC Wednesday
and this week's letter is L for Lindy.
Photos by Richard Schear and Kay Davies.

Our flowery and weedy world for Tuesday

I accidentally uploaded these photos in the small format, rather than larger, but I think I like them like this, with the flowers appearing as tiny jewels in the heat and dryness of a prairie/desert landscape. The cactus blossoms are beautiful, but I love thistles, even this nodding thistle which is classified as a noxious weed. The red-stemmed weed (which I've been unable to identify) contrasts nicely with the green and yellow around it.

These photos were taken by my husband, Richard Schear, on his walks with our dog Lindy. I'll be walking with Lindy while Dick is very busy for the next couple of weeks, but our travels will likely take us no farther than the post office, as I don't like to get too far from civilization without another person. I'll be sure to take my cellular phone with me, though, and perhaps I'll remember to take a cane, although I usually forget that. And a camera? I'll need lots of pockets!

Photos by Richard Schear. Posted by Kay Davies for

My World Tuesday.

"House for sale, never been used."

The photo below, with Lindy casting a dog-shaped shadow down into the coulee, is my favorite for Shadow Shot Sunday.

Today's blog post doesn't have anything to do with travel, but it does have a lot to do with being willing to go to any lengths...

If there's any one thing I love, it's dogs. Of course, if there are any two things I love, those would be dogs and cats. People fit in there somewhere, sure, but the ranking depends upon the day, the person, my health and my mood.

Right now, I'm alone in the house except for our darling dog, Lindy, whom we called Lindimus Maximus when we first adopted her from SOS Pet Rescue, because she had been living wild and eating all the wrong things (i.e. anything she could find) and was even fatter than she is now. So, of course, what I love most of all at the moment is dogs, and specifically our dog.

We've had Lindy for almost a year (September 16) and she becomes more precious to us every day. Today I'm particularly fond of her because she hasn't bothered me to chop up any vegetables for her since 9am. Is she improving in the begging department? Probably not. It's hot, and she's tired, and she misses her daddy, who won't be home for an hour or two.

Last year, when one of Dick's daughters and her family bought a house an easy distance from us, she told her father I could have a dog because she'd be able to dog-sit when we travel. But it didn't work out that way.

We immediately looked at the SOS website and found just what I wanted: an adult female golden retriever. Dick, his daughter, her 3-year-old daughter, and I, all went to see the dog that very day. She was happy enough to see us girls, but she took one look at Dick and she was smitten.

My theory is she belonged to an old man (okay, a distinguished-looking white-haired gentleman) who died, and his heirs abandoned this beautiful dog. It certainly couldn't be that she doesn't like me, now, could it? Harrumph.

No one knows how long she was homeless, poor sweetie, but it was long enough for her to make some extraordinary decisions, one being that facial tissues are good enough to eat. Not a good idea.

We also think she was probably raised to enjoy snacking on vegetables, but she may also have been raiding gardens (as well as garbage) when she was homeless. Nevertheless, we didn't know this about her until we brought in some bags of groceries, mistakenly put them on the floor thinking she wouldn't touch them because they didn't contain meat or dog treats, and went back to the car for more. In the short time it took us to walk 20 feet (7m in Canadian) and back, she had devoured half a large yam. Yes, raw yam, not even sweet-potato fries!

And I can never forget the day Dick phoned me and said, "Help! We're in the field behind Sam's house and Lindy has her head stuck in a hole. I'm afraid she can't breathe." I've had more dog experience than he has, but I'm no bigger and certainly no stronger, so I didn't know what he expected me to do.

Nevertheless, I went. It wasn't far.

It seems she also thought gopher-hunting was a good way to go, and Dick was right, she was 'way down that gopher hole. Turned out all he wanted me to do was hold her leash while he got both arms around her and popped her out with (fortunately) no gopher attached. And I don't even want to talk about the day she found a gopher carcass and... well, he got it away from her, and she didn't get sick, so all's well, etc.

In one of these photos, she is digging a hole outside someone else's fence while walking with Dick. There wasn't a gopher hole there to begin with, but there was certainly a dog hole by the time she finished, and this happened many months after Digger Dog got used to being pampered and petted in our house.

Oh yes, in our house. Shortly after we brought her home, I heard about a local man who made lovely insulated dog houses, so of course we went to look, and there was a Lindy-sized one, all finished with a heavy rubber door flap, just waiting for us. So I paid for it, the man delivered it, and Lindy refused to go into it.

"A dog house? I thought you brought me here to live in your house. In fact, I now regard your house as my house and not as yours any more at all."

Sigh. If we throw treats into the dog house, she'll go inside far enough to reach them, always being careful to leave at least one hind paw outside; then she'll eat the treats and back out of there, looking to us for more.

But what can I say? Love is blind, you know, and we love Lindy Davies-Schear all to little bitty bits. And if we ever have the garage sale Dick always insists we're going to have, it will be a dog house sale as well.

See other beautiful animals, people, and objects cast their shadows at Shadow Shot Sunday.