Thursday, June 30, 2011

Pesticide


A gate -- pesticide of a benign form for protection against four legged, furry, big eared pests.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Chief of Fun Police on Furlow*

As I mentioned on the previous post, Darby sometimes acts like a self-appointed Chief of Fun Police.  Romping usually can only take place if she is the one to instigate it and it seems to need to follow her rules as well.

Sunday afternoon, she temporarily hung up her badge.









* Get it? Fur - low. Like Sarge says, sometimes I crack myself up!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Color Week over at Poppytalk

5:21 a.m. update: I just have to brag and report that TWO MORE of my "Yellow" photos were spotlighted on Poppytalk!  The Niece-in-a-Balloon and the yellow road stripe were included in the daily summary.  The people over at Poppytalk have such wonderful taste and style -- I'm very excited that they noticed my photos!

One of my all-time favorite blogs is Poppytalk.  And one of my favorite themes on Poppytalk is Color Week.  This week is Summer Color Week and I am THRILLED that another one of my submissions was chosen to be included in their Color Week post yesterday! (Photos of Darby's pink tongue and green eye shine were chosen during previous Color Weeks.)

Yesterday's color was yellow and this photo of Pumpkin and her rabies tag was chosen!


Here are some of the other photos I submitted:

Feverfew
Photo taken by Erika.
Birthday wishes written in glass crayon on my patio door by my little nephew.
Preserved lemon.
Log cabin quilt.
More feverfew.  It's everywhere.
Chapel at Naval Academy, Anapolis
Rainy road outside Fredericksburg, VA
 

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Differences

Pumpkin runs outside the instant I give her the nod after opening the back door.
      Darby wants to know if I am coming outside -- and STAYING outside before she goes out.

Darby does the corgi sprawl a big part of the time when she is lying down.  
     Pumpkin doesn't so much.

Darby has to inhibit her bite when she takes food from my fingers.
     Pumpkin has a very soft mouth and almost lips the food from my fingers.

Pumpkin sleeps on her back a lot.
     Darby not as much.

Darby makes eye contact -- looks, really looks at me.  The words "soul searching" come to mind.
     Pumpkin takes shy, quick glances for the most part.

Pumpkin seems happy-go-lucky.
     Darby seems slightly worried.

Pumpkin is playful -- she happily engages Darby, Glenn and me in a romp around the backyard.
     Darby is Chief of the Fun Police.*  Romping, unless it was her idea and she is doing it, is to be discouraged.

They both eat ANYTHING put in front of them.


Pumpkin's tongue hangs out a lot.
     Darby's doesn't.

Darby seems to truly enjoy playing at agility -- JUMP! TUNNEL!
     Pumpkin seems to just go along 'cuz everyone else is doing it.  It's OK to step on the bar, right??

Pumpkin alert barks more than Darby does.
     Darby has a bigger bark the Pumpkin does.

Pumpkin happy wiggles when she is petted.
     Darby has places on her body where she doesn't like to be petted and she softly growls to let you know about it.

Darby seems to intuit what I want her to do in many cases.
     Pumpkin has to be told.

Pumpkin yodels when she wants to be let out or otherwise needs attention.
     Darby never developed a yodel; she growls instead and is sometimes misunderstood!

Pumpkin happily hangs out by herself in the backyard. 
     Darby wants to be where I am.  If I'm not here, another human will do.

Darby loves, loves, LOVES tennis balls.
     Pumpkin loves, loves, LOVES bones.
     (They both like both things, but each has a definite favorite.)

Pumpkin is sweet.
     Darby is serious.

Darby LIVES to please me.
     Pumpkin draws the line at some things.
      
Pumpkin's coat is softer than Darby's.
     Darby's tail is thicker and fuller.

Darby seems to understand posing for the camera.
     Pumpkin wants to make friends with the camera.

Darby grunts and sighs like an old man when she settles down to sleep.
     Pumpkin does not.

Darby runs and jumps in her crate at night, waiting for me to give her a treat.
     Pumpkin wants to see the treat first and only jumps in the crate if I'm standing next to the door.

Pumpkin wakes up first and nudges the crate door until she gets a reaction from me.
     Darby waits patiently and quietly.
     But they both wake up un-Godly early, so I see a lot of these: 




I only had one child, but now I understand how a person can love multiple children the same and different!


* I swiped the expression "Fun Police" from Wendy, Darby's mom's human.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Hmmm

Do you see a pattern developing here? 



Of course, it is our stupid fault for continuing to leave the remote where The Lil' Shitski can get it.  Even multiple applications of "Bitter Yuck" haven't deterred her!  The only thing that will stop her is to keep it out of her reach.  And, now that we've made it into a game that all three of us seem to enjoy, that probably won't happen!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

When one falls behind the potato bin



Lovely centerpiece, no?

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Noses and toes

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Wash day

Monday, June 20, 2011

What remote?

Uh, oh! The One Who Doesn't Feed Us is looking for the remote, and The One Who Feeds Us just said "Maybe Pumpkin has it."  If I run upstairs and lie in front of it, maybe they won't notice.


Hi, One Who Feeds Us.  I'm just hangin' out here on the steps -- and it isn't even Saturday

Yeah -- yawn -- I'm just chillin' here on the steps.

I'm afraid to look...is the One Who Feeds Us still standing there pointing that Big Black Clicking thing at me?  Yup!  There she is. 

Maybe if I refuse to make eye contact, she'll go away and I can sneak away and pretend like I didn't have anything to do with the remote being on the stairs.  I have a feeling that They are going to spray it with that bad tasting stuff again.  I wonder when they're gonna figure out that I don't think it tastes so bad??

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Friday, June 17, 2011

End of a good week

It's strange and wonderful for me to think that I started this week in Virginia and ended it in California. 
Virginia Bonnie
Virginia plant -- hydrangea?
Virginia glass, Virginia hydrangea
Annapolis Virginia flags
California crossed legs
California romping
 
More California romping
California flowers
California sunset