animals — Page 24

Potpourri Thursday

January 3, 2013 at 9:21 am by Claudia

snowtracks1

snowtracks2

It’s been busy out there on my front lawn. Lots of activity. And, no, those aren’t my tracks. One thing I love about the snow in the winter is that I can see the evidence of the animals that live with us here on the property. Mostly deer, I suspect, but also bunny rabbits and other mysterious critters. I have a feeling they might have been munching on my boxwood – that seems to be the direction in which those tracks are headed.

It is very cold here. Very cold. I need to hack at some of the ice on the driveway but I haven’t as of yet. My neighbor did a great job of snow blowing the driveway so I could get home on Sunday night. Thanks, Fred! What a relief it was to be able to drive up, park the car and make my way up to the house (relatively) easily.

msscout

Someone didn’t do well with boarding. I think that the techs at the animal hospital thought she was doing okay because she was relatively still and wasn’t barking much. But when I got her home on Monday morning, she was extremely agitated and nervous and it took several hours to calm her down. She wasn’t herself. And I noticed a large area of red skin on her elbow where she had been chewing – something she has started to do when she is anxious. I know my girl and she was very upset. I quickly came to the conclusion that, at the age of 14 and after years of never being boarded, she just can’t handle it. She lost her brother this year. She was very sick twice. Her dad is away. It’s too much for her. So I will take her with me next week. Gulp. We’ll be staying in an apartment building. She’ll have to do her business on walks in the park. I’ve arranged for an apprentice to sit with her during the time I have to be at Tech/Dress and 1st Preview – so that she has some company and doesn’t bark out of anxiety.

It will be an adventure.

afghan

Last night, I started weaving in all the ends of yarn in the afghan. I think I’ll crochet some sort of edging and then it will be finished. I’m awaiting a delivery of quilt batting and backing fabric. Once that arrives, I’ll baste the 3 layers together and my next project will officially be the hand quilting of our bed quilt. I need something to work on in the evenings with Don away.

As I wove in yarn ends last night, I watched Platinum Blonde on TCM. Have you ever seen that movie? It stars Jean Harlow, Loretta Young, and Robert Williams. Who is Robert Williams, you say? That’s what Don and I said the first time we watched this wonderful film directed by Frank Capra. This guy was one of the best film actors I’ve ever seen. Simply one of the best. I was stunned the first time I saw him. Naturally, I wondered why I had never heard of him. The tragedy is that this was his first starring role in a film and everyone involved with it knew he would become a star. He steals the film from everyone else on the screen. This was going to be his big break. The powers-that-be were grooming him for stardom. Three days after the film opened, at the age of 37, his appendix ruptured and he died of peritonitis.

Heartbreaking. And Jean Harlow would be dead 6 years later from renal failure. Such talent, both of them, and gone so young. I find this sort of loss haunting. Such untimely deaths with so much potential unrealized. If you can ever watch Platinum Blonde, do. Williams was brilliant. What a tragic loss. Thank goodness this brilliant performance is preserved on film. At least he has that. And we have that.

tripod

I’ve been playing around with my new tripod. That was the present from Don that I opened via Skype on Christmas morning. This one is pretty fancy and I look forward to more tripod adventures. I used it to take that photo of Scout.

I haven’t taken down my Christmas decorations yet, mostly because I have to go out to the shed to get the boxes. Did I mention it was cold, icy and slippery? I may do it today.

We’ll see.

Happy Thursday.

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A Walk, A Gift, An Update, A Party

August 27, 2012 at 9:15 am by Claudia

Lately, we’ve been taking long walks on our local rail trail. We don’t take nearly enough advantage of it. We’re trying to change that. A brisk walk is good for the soul, the body and the mind.

The sun was bright – it was high noon – and I was shooting with my iPhone – so there’s a bit of graininess.

A couple of days earlier, these beauties were off in the distance; yesterday they were right by the fence.

Could that baby be any more adorable? And mom had the most beautiful eyes. I’m glad I’m a vegetarian.

That’s the ridge in the background. We have that same view, especially in the wintertime, from our little cottage.

And look who we found on the path:

It’s been a week now since we lost Riley. Each new day brings a small measure of healing. I’ve been watching Scout closely and I can tell she is not herself. She looks for Riley. She does that nesting thing – pawing at the rug – far more than she used to, and she does it a bit obsessively. She used to do it on the rug in the den. Now she also does it on the rug in the living room where Riley spent most of his time. She’s very clingy. She’s anxious. She doesn’t understand why Riley isn’t here and it is deeply upsetting to her. We are showering her with attention and love. But the poor thing is a bit lost and lonely for her brother. So am I.

My friend Judy sent me a package which arrived on Saturday. Enclosed was a beautiful sympathy card with a little note saying “these might bring a smile to your face.”

You’re darn right they do! You know I love these little elfin creatures called Nisse. If you remember, Judy handmade one for me a few months back when we did a swap. I sent her one of my Obsession Scarves. This was such a wonderful surprise. Thank you, Judy. By the way, Judy has a new blog called 20 North Ora (the same name as her wildly successful Etsy shop) and I know she’d love it if you dropped by.

I hope all of my readers find their way to my new site here on WordPress. If they’ve subscribed via Google Friend Connect, they are not going to get my feed. If you know of someone looking for the blog, please send her/him my way. It’s the same URL and it’s easy to subscribe to my feed.

This Saturday, September 1st, will be the first A Favorite Thing party. I sure hope you can join in. Every week, we will share a favorite thing; whether it’s a cherished antique, a book, a piece of furniture, a vintage find. It could be a camera or a laptop or a new washing machine (goodness knows, my laptop and camera are among my favorite things!) I will post the necessary link information on Friday evening around 8 pm and it will stay open for linking through Sunday.

Quick question: Are these photos too large for you? I’m experimenting – they are a little large for my 13″laptop screen but I know readers like large photos. Let me know what you think. Update: I think they might be too large, so I changed the size.

Have a wonderful Monday.

Foggy Early Morning

August 9, 2012 at 7:28 am by Claudia

Early morning here at the cottage. Early.

The last few mornings here have been foggy and mysterious. I love fog.

It suits my mood lately, which has been a little blue. Too many worries. Too many broken nights of sleep. Allergies haywire. More than a tinge of sadness. At times, a feeling of hopelessness.

I get up a couple of times a night to check on Riley to see if he needs to go outside. Before I go to sleep, I tell myself that I will wake up at a certain time and I usually do. This time is arrived at by a set of calculations: when did he pee last, when did he poop, did he drink a lot of water? I run the numbers in my head and come up with a time I need to wake up. Last night, it was at 3:30 am. Usually, I come downstairs and he is agitated and needs to be helped outside. But this early morning, he was sound asleep. I went back to bed, thinking that I needed to wake again in a couple of hours. And I did. At 5:15. And that was it. I was up for the day.

I’m happy that Riley is able to get up by himself a few times a day. But it presents another problem. He can’t see all that well and he ends up being wedged in a corner or under a table. If I’m here, I quickly extricate him. Yesterday, I ran an errand that took approximately 45 minutes. When I returned, Scout was agitated and Riley was wedged under the coffee table. He must have been trying to get up, most likely barking for me to rescue him. These episodes are hard on him as it takes a lot of energy for him to use his back leg muscles. He was exhausted for the rest of the day. Breaks my heart.

We had a little scare with Scout last week. She suddenly couldn’t put any weight on her back legs. She was clearly in pain; her ears went back, her leg trembled and she looked at me with those big eyes, confused and sore. I gave her a Rimadyl and prayed a lot. The next morning she was a bit better and I could see that the pain was coming from her left rear leg. She was limping. Time has helped and she is doing much better. I imagine it’s arthritis. It’s hard to see my most agile and fearless of dogs become more careful, more hesitant to jump up on the sofa, more cautious when laying down.

This little one was out on the front lawn this morning.

Yesterday, as I was mowing the back forty, I saw a little creature (that I first took to be a large field mouse) scurry under a log, trying to avoid the sound and menace of the lawnmower. It seemed to have somewhat larger ears than normal. I kept on mowing. Then I saw it again, near another log, again scurrying for cover. And I realized it was a tiny baby bunny. Adorable. I usually don’t seen them around here when they’re that young. The lawnmower must have scared the heck out of him. I moved away from that section of the yard quickly, so that the little one’s heart could slow down a bit.

That’s all I’ve got today, my friends. But don’t worry. I’m resilient.

Happy Thursday.

Potpourri Thursday

A Walk, A Gift, An Update, A Party

Foggy Early Morning

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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