Happy Christmas from Patrick and JJ

As it's the season of peace and goodwill to all dogs and humans, I thought you might want to see some of the latest Christmas photos of me and Patrick.

Happy Christmas Everyone!!

Happy Christmas to all my readers

I like Christmas. There are lots of good things to eat that are specially for dogs, and some of my canine pals from around the USA and I exchange cards and phone calls.

I said hello to Emma, the little terrier who lives next door (we have to talk through the fence) and I also had a look at a teeny-tiny Yorkie which was chasing round with some little humans in the house where Lucy the Poodle lives.

I have also heard and exchanged noises with the Shelties who live a couple of houses away.

Anyway let me wish all of you a Happy Christmas and Peaceful New Year.

Straw Inspection #2

The straw is pretty good stuff - there seem to be lots of ears of wheat or something in it. Patrick knows a bit more about that because he's a farm dog. He may have only been on the farm for the first six or seven weeks of his life but Big Guy says "You can take the dog out of the farm but you can't take the farm out of the dog"

Here we are checking out the bales they brought back.


You can also see the bricks that Big Lady put down in front of the dog fence. There was a lot of mud there but there's not so much now - or at least the bricks are on top of it.



We also suspect there may have been some critters in contact with the straw at some point. This is why you need to make sure it gets thoroughly inspected just in case there are surprises in store for Big Guy and Big Lady when they come to scatter it round the backyard.

Straw!

The weather has been getting worse - so the Big Lady and the Big Guy went out and bought some straw to scatter in the backyard where Paddy and I have been playing and making it look like Lambeau Field on a wet Sunday night (that's what the Big Guy says). I don't know what Lambeau Field is. Maybe it's a place where Patrick and I could play a really good game of Wild Dog, which is one of our favorites.

Anyway here's the straw going through quality conrol by me.

Bunny Sighting

Contrary to what I said previously - Bunny is still around. The trouble is neither Paddy or I saw him - although we were all out in the backyard at the time.

Big Guy was sitting on the steps watching us one evening when the Bunny raced past in the darkness. We missed it completely and Big Guy was amused.

I don't know what to say about this. I feel my reputation as the chaser of small critters has been tarnished somehow.

Fall is in the air!

Fall is in the air in my backyard and I am busy watching birds scamper for food. Big lady picked the last of the tomatoes just this past week. Still we have cilantro and parsley, rosemary and rue. The last of the wild chrysanthemums still carry on with vivid colors.

Bunny appears to be long gone, although occasionally Patrick and I think we see him under the garden shed or near the compost pile. Or perhaps it is just the ghost of Bunny. The mice, however, three of them, none blind, race between sparrows for a morsel of bird food whenever possible. It will be a long winter for them if they don't figure out how to get inside before the storms come.



We have settled into a comfortable routine, Patrick and I. Sleeping in the sun on most days makes for a comfortable fall. Big Lady keeps tending the remaining flowers, stretching their color as long as she can in the house and garden. It will soon be bleak, but not today.

Mouse!

Well, it has been an exciting week. Patrick and I discovered three tiny field mice who have been having fun scooting from under one bird feeder to another. This is so cool! They are sooooo! fast! They run along the stringers on the fence, and we just love to chase them and see where they've gone!.

Now, Patrick, being a little slower than I, didn't have much luck initially until I stalked one out and gave it to him, but when I dazed it a little, Patrick decided it was the best throw toy in the world, tossing it up in the air and setting it back down, and tossing it again high over his head and catching it in mid-air, and whoo-boy! We have had some fun today.

Big Lady was not at all amused. She came out with us and brought a wal-mart sack and some paper towels and told us to go away, but she never found the mouse. I think it must be a bionic mouse that loves to be tossed into the air and fly! Big Lady finally sighed and got out the camera phone and took pictures of the flowers. I think it calmed her nerves. :_)

Found the Bunny!

Big Guy and Big Lady keep telling Patrick and me to quit tearing around the yard looking for Bunny. We've knocked down corn and bricks and dug holes and leapt over grass and vinca and almost dug up the daylillies. We were very sure that Bunny was still in the yard. Then, it went quiet, and we wondered if we'd chased Bunny away! But oh, no, Bunny is still around. Big Lady caught him napping near the wheelie-bin the other afternoon, can you see him? He's just a tiny Bunny, but boy is he fun to chase!

Steven's Hummingbirds

My friend Steven from the United Kingdom came to visit last week, but had to leave today to fly up to Ohio. I bet he wished he could be a bird and fly over everything, including St. Louis, and skip the airport and the layover and the possibility of getting stuck there again like he did last week during the great storm and power outage. But we hear tonight he's safe in Columbus, and already has birding glasses on.

Now, while he was here, Steven and I spent many hours on the deck outside watching birds in my backyard. Here are two pictures my Big Guy took this afternoon after Steven left, of a family of hummingbirds coming to look for Steven at the feeder and wondering, like me, where he'd gone and when he will come back to visit us again!

Vegetables!

The tomatoes and eggplants are in full swing in our garden. Big Guy and Big Lady did a smart thing this year... they planted all the vegetables in big whiskey barrels so that Patrick and I couldn't knock them down. The tomatoes are a lot of fun to watch and poke at with my nose. And Big Guy and Big Lady say the romas taste really good. Patrick and I aren't much for salads unless you pour a whole lot of salad dressing on everything. Considering the heat we've had lately which has made us very hot dogs, we really like the tomatoes. When Big Guy and Big Lady come out to water them every night, we still chase around the barrels and Patrick especially likes to chase the water stream everywhere, and then he becomes a wet dog instead of a hot dog. I will get photos of him sometime when he's like that, but Big Lady doesn't like to use the Digital Camera around Patrick when he shakes all his water off.

Hal's gone!

Hal has left! He stayed with us for a week, but now he's gone, and we are so sad! Even England winning in the World Cup games didn't cheer us up this weekend!

Hal's Here!

Hal's here! He's our new friend from Australia who's come to visit us! Oh boyoboyoboyoboy! We LOVE new visitors to our house! Here's Patrick making friends with Hal on our sofa,
don't believe for a minute that Patrick was playing hard-to-get!

My Buddy

Patrick says he wants his photo on Blogger, too, and as he's my best buddy when it comes to tearing around the yard and chasing and playing stick and leaping up and down the stairs (and even on the sofa inside sometimes when Big Guy and Big Lady aren't watching!), well, here you go, Patrick.

Spring!

It's spring, it's spring it's spring, and do you know, there ARE rabbits under the shed? And there is mud everywhere, and flowers, and roses, sooooo many scents to chase down and leap over and tell Big Lady and Big Guy about! Even Patrick absolutely loves to run around and chase me around the garden shed and leap over all the barricades that Big Guy thought would keep us from running pell-mell into the tomatoes and the mint! Yay, it's spring!