Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Katie


by 6 Comments

I’m home!

This is MY house!

This is MY house!

Attention! Attention! Ahem….excuse-moi!
Katie here. I would like to announce that I have been rescued from “camp.” It was a long, grueling two weeks but I made it. Because I am a princess and a princess never shows fear. A princess is strong. And regal. And a princess never forgets. Ever.

I can not believe my mama took me to that place! She had only been home for two days and I wasn’t nearly finished playing with her when suddenly she took me for a ride and left me there!! She said she was really sad when she dropped me off and she even cried in the car after, but I don’t believe it.

I’m not even sure I want to talk to her, though I did howl all the way home from camp. Mama tried to talk to me but I would not listen and would hardly look at her while we were driving home. I didn’t trust her when she said we were going to see daddy.

But then we pulled into my driveway. Mama had opened the windows and I was sniffing (it’s hard to howl and sniff at the same time, I think mama did this on purpose!) and I could tell it was my house so I started pawing at my crate door real hard and mama laughed and let me out. She set me down on the driveway and I ran as fast as I could to the front door and pressed my nose into the wood waiting for my mama to open the door!

As soon as she did I raced inside straight to my daddy and then around and around the living room, and then I raced down the hall to check out the bedrooms and then I ran to the kitchen just to see if it was still there (cause that’s my favorite room) and then I ran back out into the living room and barked at my people. I told them off!

Then I brought my mama a toy and we played for a little bit.

This is my toy!

This is my toy!


Then we went outside so I could pee cause all this running and jumping and barking got me all excited you know. And then we walked all around my back yard so I could check it all out and I flopped down in the shade ready to get back to work guarding my house against anything noisy on my road.

I guess I’ve forgiven mama. She’s sitting out here on my deck with me while I keep watch. I haven’t closed my eyes once since I’ve been home but I’m starting to think a little nap might be in order

I’m glad to be home.

Happy sigh....zzzzzzzzzz...

Happy sigh….zzzzzzzzzz…


by 7 Comments

Bet you miss me!

Katie here. I bet you’ve missed me a whole bunch cause my mama won’t let me blog very often. She says it’s not all about me. Whatever do you think she’s talking about? Everything is all about me! Anyway since she’s sleeping in after our big adventure I thought I’d just hijack this blog and tell you all about it. Hurry, she could wake up any minute!

Last Tuesday mama started packing stuff in the car. Well! Last time she did that she left without me, so I made sure to stay underfoot all the time so she didn’t forget me. And guess what? Next thing I know I’m in my crate and we’re on our way!

Ready for take off mama!

Ready for take off mama!

We didn’t drive for very long and we ended up here at my favorite campground. We had a big campsite all to ourselves, and it had lots of grass for me to sniff! It was a pretty campsite, though not as private as the last place we camped. Still, I liked it a lot. So did my mama.

This is my tent. I let my mama share it.

This is my camp. I let my mama share it.

Mama set up the tent. I have my own bed and pillows. I like pillows on top of my bed because I can see out of my own private window better. And because I’m a princess. But just to make mama laugh I often sleep next to my princess bed. On the floor. Without pillows. Cause I’m a crazy camping girl and always do what I want regardless of what mama thinks is good for me.

What are you looking at?

What are you looking at?


I do that outside too. In the morning when the grass is wet mama gives me a towel to hang out on. Just to prove my point I go lay down somewhere else. In the wet grass. Because I can.

I don't need a towel mama!

I don’t need a towel mama!

I don’t think mama understands me at all.

But anyway. We had a lot of fun. I got to go on lots of walks and take lots of naps…well not really a lot of naps. I stayed awake all the time protecting my mama. Yes I did. A camping dog’s responsibilities are very demanding. You have to be very vigilant!

Just resting my eyes.

Just resting my eyes.

Our second night mama says we had a visitor to our campsite. She thinks it was a raccoon. Or a camp monster. It stayed around our tent for at least an hour and mama was kinda upset. I slept through most of it until the ugly smell woke me up. I think the racoon monster needed to take a shower. I barked once at it and lunged at my window, but mama held me and said ‘shhhhhhh’ and so I went back to sleep. It appeared she had it under control and I was tired. Mama was sad because she wanted to go outside right about then to watch for meteorites, but she felt like it was easier to control me while we were inside the tent rather than us being outside with the camp monster. Sigh. At least that’s what she says. Personally I think she was just scared.

Don't be scared mama!

Don’t be scared mama!

I love camping. All you doggies out there — I can’t encourage you enough to get your moms and dads to take you camping! You’ll get to spend quality time with them under the night sky and on walks and just hanging out at the campground! You’ll get to meet other dogs too. You won’t believe how many dogs get to go camping! All kinds! And the smells! Amazing! You’ve just got to try it! Even if you do get a little damp!

Damp curls.

Damp curls.

Yep, I had a wonderful time and as always I was sorry when mama took the tent down. But she says we’ll go camping again someday. Now I have to go take a nap. I’m going to dream of sweet green grass and hundreds of stars in the dark sky and the fresh air blowing the leaves on the trees, and special smells, and lots of love.

Until next time!

Until next time!

Cause that’s camping!!

I took mama's chair.

I took mama’s chair.


by 13 Comments

Share Your World

Cee has a new list of questions to answer…want to play along? It’s fun. You can answer these questions on your blog and link back to hers. Here are my own responses.

Collecting tiles that represent different factions of my life

Collecting tiles that represent different factions of my life

Are you a collector of anything?

I collect the art tiles of Pat Custer Denison. For a long time I’ve purchased one tile a year. I have enough now to build a unique coffee table. Maybe someday I will. They just make me smile. Most years I buy the one tile from that year’s collection that represents something I enjoy doing. She does larger wall art too. Check out her website. She has a studio in northern Michigan and someday maybe I’ll visit.

What is your biggest fear or phobia? (no photos please)

I’m afraid of being trapped in a car underwater. I actually know someone that survived that, but I could hardly listen to his story it upset me so much. There’s an ad running on TV right now that has a woman in a car trying to get out. I don’t even know what the ad is for because I have to switch the channel immediately when it comes on. I don’t know how I got this phobia but I’ve had it for years.

Do you prefer reading coffee table books (picture), biographies, fiction, non-fiction, educational?

I mostly read fiction, though I have read many biographies and memoirs that I enjoyed. I also love coffee table books because I love good photography of places I’ve been and others I’ll never see any other way.

In fact I like to poke around in just about any kind of book. I almost always find something fun or interesting, even if I don’t buy the book or read the entire thing. You never know what might interest you unless you explore. This is one of the reasons I like libraries and book stores…you can browse books on either side of the one you thought you wanted. You’ll often find much more than you anticipated when you visit your local library or independent bookseller.

Complete this sentence: If I Must Be Reincarnated, In the Next Life I Want to Be…

Well, obviously, I would want to be reincarnated as a dog at my house! But I suppose if I was being reincarnated then there wouldn’t be my house to be a dog in..right? So if that were the case I guess I would want to be a dog in any of my dog friends’ homes…we all spoil our furkids and wouldn’t have it any other way. I want a place with my own pillow and lots of toys, but where I get to sleep in the human bed at night. A place that feeds me great dog food but also shares a bit of their own food with me. A place where my people take me on adventures and I get to share their world. Yep. In my next life I’m going to shoot for being a spoiled rotten dog.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up

I’m retired; I can’t remember last week. But I think last week I was up north enjoying my favorite lake, Lake Michigan, and the company of good friends. That might have been the week before, but it feels like last week, and I’m getting elderly, so indulge me. This week Katie and I are going camping and I’m looking forward to that so much. Katie doesn’t know yet so she’s not particularly excited. But she will be.

Trust me.

Did you say CAMPING mama?

Did you say CAMPING mama?


by 7 Comments

WordPress Photo Challenge: Beneath Your Feet

My feet have been to many exotic, beautiful, interesting places. But when I think about what’s regularly beneath my feet I can only think of one thing. A fun, silly, and furry girl who is always underfoot.

Whatcha doing mama? Can I come too?

Whatcha doing mama? Can I come too?

Check out a few of my favorite “Beneath Your Feet” offerings here, here and here. And look down right now. Where are your feet? Anywhere interesting? Share it with us!

NOW what are you doing mama?

NOW what are you doing mama?


by 10 Comments

There’s a Christmas card on our bird feeders

I have often thought, as I watch the birds visit our feeders, that it looks like a familiar Christmas card. You know the one…where a different kind of colorful bird peeks out from behind all the letters in “Happy Holidays!’ on the front? Just a few minutes ago I was reminded of that card again and went to get the camera, moving slowly, carefully, quietly.

If I had gotten the shot this is what you would have seen:

A huge bright red male cardinal lording over the flat feeder, the feeder I had just moments ago filled with black oiler seed. A female, or perhaps a juvenile cardinal, a chickadee, a house finch and a titmouse were all sitting on the feeder with him, some grabbing a seed and flying up to a branch to eat before coming back for more. He didn’t move from his spot. A juvenile oriole and another female cardinal sat on the top of Katie’s kennel a few feet away waiting their turn. A small black and white woodpecker slips in, grabs a seed and departs. The bright orange male oriole swoops down from the trees to the oriole feeder. There is no grape jelly left. He hops to the top of the pole and stares into the window, voicing his displeasure with a quick burst of machine gun chirps. The male cardinal, impatient with all the activity on his feeder systematically chases all the smaller birds away. Most go to sit in a line on Katie’s pen. Waiting. When he’s done gorging himself and flies off the activity on the flat feeder picks up again. Bright yellow goldfinches have stuck to the thistle feeder throughout all the antics. They are pigs. And a female hummingbird zig zags nervously around her own private feeder.

Can you imagine all of that? I hope so because I didn’t have a chance to get the shot.

As soon as I moved to the kitchen and picked up the camera, turning slowly back around to head to the living room Katie woke from her spot in the dining room, raced to my reading chair next to the window, leaped up and commenced to barking. Because if mama is grabbing the camera and heading toward the windows there must be something out there!

So you’ll have to be satisfied with a picture of the princess instead. After all, she says, nothing else is as beautiful.

Yes I know I'm beautiful.

Who;s the prettiest one of all?

Sigh.


by 27 Comments

Camping contemplations

Many of you know that Katie the dog and I went camping last week. What you might not have known is that the State Park where we pitched our tent is only one exit and six miles north of home.

This is my campsite!

This is my campsite!


But it’s a world away.

I’ve been thinking the last few days about why we’d go camping so close to home. Why not just pitch the tent in the back yard? (And you know we do that too.) Why go to the trouble of packing up the car with tent and bedroll, pillows, blankets, food, leashes, dog dishes, cameras, tinder, firewood. The dog and her crate.

Got any snacks mama?

Got any snacks mama?

Why walk almost 1500 steps to the bathroom and back in the middle of the night? Why drench yourself and the dog with bug spray and sunblock, sleep in two (or three) layers of clothes under several blankets, wake up with a start at every snapped branch in the woods.

Welcome to my tent!

Welcome to my tent!

Why not just take walks in the woods with your dog during the day and sleep in your own bed safe, sound and warm in your own house every night? Why, as soon as you get home, do you immediately want to plan the next trip?

And here’s what I’ve realized. When you’re out in the woods for hours on end, you slow down. You notice that bird you’ve never seen before. You listen to all the birds begin to sing long before the sun comes up. You read a book. You take a walk. You take a nap. Then you read some more, contemplate the campfire, maybe raise a roasted marshmallow in toast to the memories of camping with family all those years ago.

You relax.

Our perfect private site!

Our perfect private site!

When you camp away from home there is no laundry that should be started, no gardens to weed, no groceries to be found, meals to be cooked. When you camp away from home you find peace and freedom and beauty and quiet joy.

And that’s why Katie and I are already thinking about our next adventure.

Close to home.

Wake up mama!

Wake up mama!