Katy here again. (If you didn’t read it, I did the previous post too. Just saying.)
I bugged and bugged mama this morning, whining to go outside. At 6 a.m. In the rain.
And because of me she got to see this. It lasted less than a minute.
You can thank me later. She already did. As is appropriate.
Your gal, the damp but still beautiful Katie-girl.
Katie here. Mama says I can show you a little bit from my back yard. She and I went ‘sploring out there this afternoon.
A bit of sunbathing in my yard.
At first I was reluctant to go out with her cause I thought she was going to put me in my kennel. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time in my kennel, but only when I want to be out there, not just cause she’s tired of my whining politely requesting treats.
Looks like this little bug was out exploring too!
Mama and I love spring, so many subtle colors! And then there are the brilliant colors of spring. I like those too!
I’ve got hearts on my shoulder mama, and forget-me-nots at my feet!
I think my folks have done a pretty good job of keeping my yard looking nice. I should probably appreciate them more.
Isn’t this pretty? It’s a quince blossom.
This week mama and I weeded one of the gardens. I was the motivator and she was the labor. Every time she stood up to stretch I barked at her to get back to work. She said I’m something of a taskmaster!
I love this color, don’t you?
I told her that as a princess I expected the best out of my people. She sort of nodded wearily.
More pretty color!
We have lots more gardens to weed, I hope she maintains my high expectations.
This evening mama took me to a neighbor’s land again. We got to run through the woods and I had a wonderful time, but it sort of wore me out, so I’ll have to share that adventure another time.
Sometimes a run in your own backyard is the perfect way to enjoy an afternoon.
I hope you all are enjoying spring wherever you are!
Talk later, your gal Katie.
It’s harder, some weeks, to find a reason to smile, and this week has been one of those. What with the deaths of Tim Conway and Doris Day, the fall and hip fracture of former President Jimmy Carter, some health issues within my family and a semi crash not far from me that has critically injured two people just today, it seems there’s not a lot to smile about.
But if I take a moment (and a deep breath) I know the truth, that there’s always something to smile about. You just have to pay attention.
For instance – today the sun came out.
Really mama? Can’t we just get on with our walk?
To those of you living in Florida or Arizona or California that might not seem like a big deal. Now that I think about it, maybe all of you in those far away states are sun hoarders, unwilling to share a little light with us in the northern, damp and bleak states. Well, today the sun came out and we reached 70 degrees.
And Katie and I reveled in it.
The neighbors have a beautiful pond.
We took a walk, my girl and I, on a neighbor’s land across the street. I let her off her leash and she trotted along the pond, nose to the ground, then up and down hills so happy to be free to sniff all the good stuff.
Come on mama, there’s good smells over here!
I was happy to be free of the wet dripping rain.
And it was enough, this one day of sun, to make me smile.
Spring pushes winter out of the way.
Katie and I hope you have something to smile about too. Let us know what’s making you happy and put a comment in Trent’s Weekly Smile post (pingbacks aren’t working at the moment.
We look forward to reading all about your smiles.
Big thanks to our neighbors for letting us wander in their yard!
Katie here.
You’re going to think I’m being repetitive if every time you hear from me it’s to complain about mama. Yet here I am once again having to deal with a mama that obviously doesn’t think about me before she goes off and has a good time.
This time it was even worse because she came home after being gone a whole week and she smelled like my boyfriend Reilly! Can you believe that?
Denny and Reilly my boyfriend at the beach.
She went to visit Reilly and his little brother Denny and she didn’t take me!
OK. So yes she flew and yes I would not like flying. And yes I didn’t have to go to camp and yes my daddy was with me and yes daddy and I had a great time.
So maybe it wasn’t all that bad. I guess.
She came home Wednesday night and I made sure to get her up very early Thursday so that we could spend lots and lots of quality minutes together.
She was very appreciative.
Red skies early in the morning.
She did get to see the sunrise because of me. She said it was pretty. I guess it probably was, I don’t know because I went back to sleep as soon as she was up and moving around.
She did take me to my favorite park Thursday afternoon and we even got to watch some guys do a managed burn at one of my other parks!
This was at one of my parks!
I’ve never seen that before, it would have been scary if I hadn’t been in my car with my mom right by me. Mom thought it was very interesting even though emotionally she has a hard time with something burning up right in front of her eyes.
Me at my park, with the burned area right across the creek.
Mama said she liked the bits of spring she found better than all the smoke and flames across the way.
Hope buds eternal.
And she says we better enjoy it while we can because those weather people are predicting snow this weekend.
So anyway…I’m thinking maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on mama. My Mr. Reilly wanted her to visit for a few days and she went to take care of him, and I’m thankful she could do that, cause Mr. Reilly is a very very special guy.
I hear the boys are very good at asking for treats too.
The fact that mama got to walk on the beach without me is something I will just have to forgive. Forgiving will be easier if there are treats involved. You, my faithful readers, may want to remind mama of that important detail.
Guess who forgot to bring treats on this walk?
She seems to have forgotten that part of our contract.
Talk later,
Your gal Katie, patience is my middle name.
Yea. Right.
You can’t hide treats from me mama!
Katie here.
Mama took me to one of my parks to celebrate National Pet Day yesterday. I didn’t expect her to remember, because, as you all know, she’s pretty ancient and remembering things never was easy for her even back when I was little and she was younger.
Beat you up the hill mama!
She must have written it on her calendar or something.
Anyway, she was going to take me to this one park with a long trail through the woods, but on the way she noticed another park that had been closed all winter was open! Even though there was snow on the ground she said this was a sign that it was really spring!
Perfect weather for a sheltie-girl!
But of course she wanted to capture the image of our (hopefully) last snow, so she made me sit in it.
You better have good treats mama, cause this is worth at least two of them.
Really mama. I didn’t want to sit in it. Cause I don’t like getting wet, and of course I did get wet. So I refused to walk at all until she got that snow off of my behind.
How embarrassing. Now she’s showing the world my behind.
Mama is not always the sharpest knife in the drawer, you know what I mean?
People had been through this park over the winter and cleaned out a lot of underbrush. I don’t know why, but it did make seeing our town easier.
Our little town.
Yep, that’s our town. It’s only one block long and most of the stores are empty. When mama tells people we don’t live near anything she’s telling the truth! Personally I like it that way, makes it easier to get to my parks! Plus traffic makes me bark.
Mama and I went up and down a lot of hills, mama was looking for fun stuff to photograph that wasn’t me.
These were weird, they looked like treats but mama wouldn’t let me eat any.
She found a bunch of stuff, but I figured that each time the shutter clicked I should get a treat whether or not I was the subject. I think that’s in my contract – one click one treat. Nothing in there says I have to be the center of every photo. I don’t think. Maybe I should check that…I might need an addendum attached.
By the time we turned back almost all the snow was gone. Mama could only find little bits of it in odd places.
A little snow caught in the hollows of a branch.
I was happy because she didn’t make me sit in it again, but I wasn’t happy about heading back to the car. We only went one mile mama!
I’m sitting right here until you reconsider ending our walk.
But in the end I guess the mama knows best. After all I’m twelve now, and sometimes I over do and then I end up at the vet. Plus she promised me we’d go to another park soon.
I just hope she wrote it on her calendar.
Signing off for now, your park explorer girl Katie.
Feeling hopeful.
She is my sunshine.
Katie here!
It’s boring around here.
I figured I should bring you up to speed, since last time I stopped by mama had thoroughly disappointed me by not doing anything much of anything for my Gotcha Day. Then she made me sit in the yard with a bunch of rubber ducks. I was not amused. But I’m happy that some of you found it cute.
Ahem.
Well, mama’s been a disappointment all month. Thursday she actually sent me to the groomer and then, while I was there, she went for a walk without me! She said it was really muddy and she was glad she didn’t have me with her.
This would have been a disaster if I had been with mama!
I have to agree, it wasn’t a princess worthy walk. I don’t like the groomer, but I guess it was better that I was there than getting my feet wet and dirty!
Then on Friday mama left me home and took herself off to her favorite park and walked around there for more than two hours! Without me!! I don’t understand what is the matter with her brain!? She still owed me something for my Gotcha Day! And she takes off with the camera and leaves her sheltie at home??
Well! After she got home and made my dinner daddy suggested that maybe I would like to go for a walk. Daddy is brilliant, though he maybe suggested it because I was huffing at him and bugging him and he figured he’d pawn me off on mama.
Let’s get going mama!
But it worked! Mama said sure baby-girl! Let’s go to your park! It was such a nice evening, and you know what? The sun came out while we were there! Just for us cause no one else was out there.
Look mama! It’s the SUN!
We had such a nice walk that I’ve decided to forgive mama for her lapses in judgement. It was the perfect length, not too long, not too short. And mama and I sat together on a little hill and cuddled for a little bit too. Don’t tell my dad, he might get jealous.
Let’s just sit here for awhile mama!
I guess mama and daddy really do love me, even if sometimes they forget important days, they always make it up to me. Cause I don’t let them off the hook.
Signing off for now, one happy sheltie-girl.
Thanks mama! I think we’re even now!
I decided to go literal with this photo challenge.
Really mama??
Katie didn’t find it particularly funny, but it made me smile.
Not surprisingly we had snow on March 31st. This is Michigan after all, where winter doesn’t go quietly.
We only got this much snow, but it sure was pretty!
Oh no, winter around here is much more sneaky than that.
After beautiful days earlier in the week those pesky weather people predicted snow, and they were right. It started Friday evening, by Saturday morning the yard was stunning. And when the sun peeked through the clouds (for only a few minutes, but still) it was spectacular.
A moment of sun early in the morning made it all sparkle.
I told Katie I arranged for snow just for her Gotcha Day. I don’t think she bought it, but she was kind enough not to laugh.
I’d rather not sit here mama, can we go back inside now?
Even she seemed to think it was pretty cold, wet and windy when we toured the yard. She said snow was not enough to get me off the hook for the lack of celebration on her big day. I had to promise something special for later. I think camping might do it, but don’t tell her.
Seriously mama, I’m cold and wet.
Meanwhile the birds were crazy. I have so many cute shots of them crowding around the feeders, that they will have to be in a separate post.
It was crazy around the feeders!
And of course Katie will be posting about her day and her expectations for future adventures. I might be in a bit of trouble there. We’ll see.
Waiting his turn at the feeder. Classy gent.
Hi everybody, Katie here!
I can’t believe another year has flown by and it’s my Gotcha Day again! Yep, March 31, 2007 was the day I came home with mama and daddy. That’s a really long time ago!
My very first walk in my yard!
I have to say I was one cute puppy! Mama and daddy fell in love with me right away. I thought they were OK too, but back then I wasn’t real sure about new people. In fact I stayed shy for a lot of years, but mama and daddy worked really hard to get me more comfortable with people.
Spring has always been my favorite season.
That’s good because over the years tons of people have wanted to pet me, and now I let them even if they don’t have a treat.
Mama has taken me on lots of adventures and I’m wondering what she has planned for my Gotcha Day. I hope she’s figured something out because to be honest, laying around here at home is getting to be a bit boring even though I like to sleep a lot these days.
Zzzzzzzzzzz…
Last year she completely forgot it was a special day, but that worked out cause we were adventuring down South. This winter we didn’t go anywhere so I think I am due something amazing!
Mama, standing on a big dot is not an adventure!
I will wait patiently to see what she has planned. Well, as patient as any sheltie can be. Which is to say there better be something good waiting for me!
I’m waiting mama…
Change Is Hard 