Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

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Need an adventure

Hey Mama!

Hey Mama!

Katie here.  Mama’s busy working on that truck stuff so I figured I could get a little blog in while she wasn’t looking.  Shouldn’t be hard, she doesn’t pay attention to me much anyway.  She works works works and then she comes home all tired and stuff and doesn’t want to play with my pig or my cow or my elephant.  I bring them to her and she doesn’t even realize until my dad tells her that I want to play.  Good thing he’s around to make sure I get the attention a princess deserves.

I really want to go on an adventure with my mama, but all she will say is not now baby.  Maybe the weekend baby.  It’s almost summer baby and then we’ll go camping.  Sure mama.   Whatever.

So for now I just focus on doing my job.  I let my mama know when it’s 9 at night and time to go to bed.  I start huffing at her at exactly 8:48.  I have to start early because, as I’ve said, she’s not paying much attention to me.  I keep huffing and stomping my feet and if that doesn’t work I poke her really hard.  That usually gets her attention.  Then she checks the time and is usually grateful that I’ve reminded her to go to bed.

Once she gets settled in for the night I vigilantly watch over her for about 4 seconds and then I crash myself.  My mama’s a big girl, she can sleep without me checking on her.  Plus I need to get my beauty sleep you know.

Then sometime between 5 a.m. and 5:02 a.m. I make sure she’s up!  Oh yes, I know her alarm isn’t set to go off until 6, but I’m saving her the stress of having to hurry in the morning.  I can’t remember the last time that silly alarm even had to go off.  She doesn’t need it.  She has me!

As soon as I’m sure she’s wide awake, (sometimes I have to bark at her quite a bit to get her fully awake, and I find a good walk in the rain helps too), I go to my favorite spot, curl up and go to sleep.  That way my mama can get ready for work without any interference from me.  I’m thoughtful like that.

So anyway.  Don’t you think she should reward me for all my hard work and take me somewhere fun?  Soon?  I think it would do us both good.

Yes I do.

Pay attention Mama!

Pay attention Mama!

 


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She owed me

sunKatie here.  So most of you know that my mama works all day during the week but the weekends are supposed to be for me.  Just me.  Well, sometimes me and my daddy, but mostly me.  Well this weekend my mama went to work on Saturday morning!  She had me so confused!  I thought I had miscounted the days and it was only Friday!  But I was pretty sure I didn’t count wrong, and besides she didn’t take her lunch bucket, so I was suspicious.    I kind of thought she might be cheating on me!  But when she came back from work she didn’t smell like any other doggies, she smelled like she does every night, so I figured she had to go to that work thingy.

The rest of Saturday afternoon and evening I made her life miserable just to make her pay.  I wanted attention, attention, attention!  I wanted to play!  I wanted my supper!  And how about a treat mama?  Want to play in the tunnel?  Huh?  Huh?  HUH!?!?!  Yep I made her nuts.   And just to be really sure I made my point I got her up at 3:30 in the morning so we could go outside and wander around in the soggy yard and sniff stuff.  My mama really likes to sniff stuff in the middle of the night.  Yep.  I’m a good girl.

So this morning when she asked if I wanted to go on an adventure I knew she had gotten the point and I said “YES PLEASE MAMA!  HOW ABOUT RIGHT NOW?!?!”   And away we went!  We went down to Ann Arbor because mama wanted a photograph of something for some photo challenge.  I’m sure you’ll all see that soon.  I was bored during that part cause she parked and left me in the car.  Geeze!  Then she got lost on the way to my park and it took a gazillion million years, so I told her off.  She said she was sorry.  Mama should focus more.

Finally we got there!  Not much snow and lots of good sniffing!  And the sun came out too, it was perfect!  Some of you saw the video of us walking along the boardwalk with the birds singing.  That was the cleanest I was.  After that we were in mud and leaves and ice and snow.

I think I am the dirtiest I have ever been!  Feels wonderful! Mama never lets me get this bad, don’t know why she isn’t worried about it this time.  It’s not like I have a groomer appointment for next Friday or anything.  Do I mama?  Hey!  Mama!!  So anyway, we walked back into the hills and even climbed up to the top of this big hill.  Those leaves were slippery, but I found the best way up and mama followed.

I climbed to the top!

I climbed to the top!

Then we had to get down, so we walked down the ridge on this set of stairs.  Do you know what?  I won’t do stairs at home but I had no trouble hopping down these.  I’m hoping mama didn’t notice that I’ve been scamming her.

Really big stairs, no problem!

Really big stairs, no problem!

We stopped at a bench along the river and mama sat for a long time and watched the water go past.  I don’t know what she was doing, but she seemed to need to do it, so I stood around in the snow and let her.  I figured since she brought me on this excellent adventure I could at least let her have a moment of peace.   Then she tied me to the bench and went down to the river to take a picture of the rock out in the middle of the water!  Well!  I did not like that so I barked at her but she said it was too steep and dangerous for me to go with her, and besides if she fell in the river I was supposed to call for help.  Oh.  Well OK then.

 

Lots of water flowing now.

Lots of water flowing now.

After that we walked back to the car and I let this young couple pet me and talk about the lady’s sheltie she had when she was a kid.  She was nice.  She knew all about letting me get to know her first before she reached out to touch me.  She was a smart lady, and I liked her, but I’m glad I’ve got my mama.  She mostly tells people I’m too shy when they want to pet me so I don’t have to worry about it.

We had a wonderful time at the park.  I’m sort of feeling bad that I gave her so much trouble on Saturday night.  But not that bad.

It got me what I wanted.  Right?

 

Me and mama are a team.

Me and mama are a team.


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WordPress photo challenge: Rule of Thirds

Some of you have heard about the rule of thirds; the placement within a composed photo of the point of interest near the intersection of lines drawn dissecting the  entire image into thirds.  It’s one way of adding interest to a photo.    Katie the sheltie-girl and I went out to see what we could find that was fun and interesting.  And though I took plenty of photos of her sitting dutifully in her lower right corner, the photo I like best out of all of them was this, a hurriedly composed shot, with only one chance to get it before he moved out of sight.

 

Going for a walk

Going for a walk

It was the man’s orange hat that caught my eye just as I was putting Katie back in the car.  I rushed her back out into the parking lot and grabbed the shot.  This is not a classic rule of thirds image as the rest of the image surrounding the subject is not empty.   If I’d had more time I’d have raised the camera a bit and had less snow, (you know, about a third of the photograph) in the foreground.    But I only had one split second, and I like the result.

If you go to the original challenge post you’ll see an absolutely beautiful redbud leaf and the description of doing the rule of thirds while also focusing on creating a bokeh, that interesting and beautifully blurred background.  I messed around at home trying for something similar.  This is as close as I got before the afternoon sun sank and my kitchen reverted to uninspiring.

Orange afternoon light.

Orange afternoon light.

This also is not classic.  The background isn’t blurry enough and the subject is certainly taking up more than a third of the foreground.  I’ll be trying this technique again. But still.  I like the color and the warmth and the light.

The fun about these photo challenges is that they make me think a little bit about how to answer creatively before I run out to find the actual image.  I like the adventure of  finding new photos, trying new things, and the challenge both gets me out of the house with the camera (and sometimes the dog) and makes me see the world around me in a slightly different way.   Today while driving I was looking for something that divided into thirds.  This morning at the grocery store I was looking for something interesting for a an indoor bokeh.

Without the photo challenge I’d probably have spent the afternoon doing laundry, and how fun is that?  For more fun rule of thirds images go here, here, here and here.

And this one too.

Katie’s kind of miffed that she’s not the star of this post.  But she’ll get her turn.

She always does.

Never ignore a princess.

Never ignore a princess.

 


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Saturday is all about me.

Princess poses in the sun.

Princess poses in the sun.

Katie here.  What?  You thought Saturday was all about my mama?!  Foolish readers, of course Saturday is all about me.  Cause I’m a…well..you know.  Anyway, the sun is out today and my mama is home and she said to me “Hey baby-girl, it’s a pretty day, want to go outside and play Frisbee?”

Well of course I did!  I got all excited when I saw my Frisbee, and started running around and yipping and doing other un-princessly things.  Mama should learn not to ask me these questions before she’s dressed for the adventure, cause I make it very hard for her to get dressed after she’s introduced the concept of go outside to play to me.  She’s a slow learner; I say that every weekend.  Except maybe last weekend which was extraordinary.  She was on her game then, that’s for sure.

So she finally gets dressed and we go outside.  Did you know I have my very own park outside my back door?  Yes I do and I have it all to myself, which is only right given it’s my castle grounds and all.  What a beautiful day!  Blue skies and white snow and a Frisbee!  She threw it for me a few times (she’s not very good throwing the Frisbee AND taking pictures!) and I ran around and barked at her.   Sometimes I even brought it back to her.

Throw it again mama!

Throw it again mama!

 

Then she made me sit for ‘pretty’ pictures next to the birch trees.  Geeze…that is so boring mama!!!

 

Yea I look pretty.

Yea I look pretty.

And then we played recall where she calls me and I run to her really fast.  (You can click on the picture to make it bigger so you can see beautiful me running!)  Did you know she forgot to bring me any treats?  Big letdown.

Coming mama!

Coming mama!

So she throws the Frisbee again and I run and get it and then I prance it right by her and take it back to the house.  No treats?  No performance mama!

The jig's up mama.

The jig’s up mama.

Told you she’s a slow learner.  Anyway, I hopped right back up on my deck because I just know there’s a chipmunk that lives under there.  He was making me crazy!

I can hear him!

I can hear him!

Then mama said “Leave it, let’s go” and I came right back into the house with her.  Cause I’m a good dog and almost always do what she asks me to do.  She said, “Let’s go write up your adventure in the back yard girl.”  And I said…”No thanks mama, I’ll wait out here in the kitchen in case any treats that I deserve happen my way.”

I'll be in the kitchen mama.

I’ll be in the kitchen mama.

Hint hint.

Geeze.  She’s such a slow learner, my mama.

Sigh.

Sigh.

 

 


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Major adventure

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Afternoon light.

Katie here.    You all know how my mama works too much and is tired all the time and ignores me right?  When she should be focused on me all the time, as due a princess of my standing.  Right.  So anyway, my mama and I haven’t done anything fun in a long time – I think maybe ten thousand dog years.   Well Friday night after work she told me that we were going to go on a big adventure and I was so excited I jumped on her and kissed her face and ran to the door and then she said “Not TONIGHT silly girl!” and I got all sad and depressed and stuff.

But I remembered.

And Saturday morning when my mama said she had to run some errands I jumped all around and cried and wiggled my cute butt and as she was going out the door I yipped at her and made sad puppy eyes and she finally said “Really?  You want to go on errands?  Well OK.”  And I got to GO with my mama!  I was so happy!  This was the adventure I’d been dreaming of!

Or not.

We went and mailed a box, and then we went to the car wash (I’d never been through a car wash before and I was sort of scared, but I didn’t let her know because I was afraid she wouldn’t take me on rides again if I acted like a scared baby) and then we went to the bank, but I was in my crate in the back so I didn’t even get a biscuit, and then finally we went to the store and I got to go inside and we bought two bags of my Blue Buffalo food!  That was fun!  But she seemed to be in a hurry and I didn’t get to walk around the store much, it was in, get the food, and then I’m back in my crate in the car!  Geeze.  Pretty cheesy adventure mama!

But guess what?  That wasn’t really the adventure at all!  That was just stuff mama had to do to get ready to go on the real adventure!  She started packing the car when we got home and pretty soon we were off!

We went up north!  And we got to visit every single rest stop along the way.  I made sure to whine just as we were approaching a rest stop, so she’d stop and I’d get to get out and walk around and read all the pee-mail left by other dogs.  It’s so much fun.  That would have been enough of an adventure all by itself, but it wasn’t the best part!

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A tiny bit of sun came out!

 

The best part was we went to Hartwick Pines, the state park we camped in last summer.  We got to walk on some of the trails that the mosquitoes ran us out of last summer!  No mosquitoes this weekend, no siree!   I even got to see some cross county skiers!  I’d never seen them before.  They thought I was cute.  Well of course.

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What are these people DOING?

 

We walked quite a ways on the trails, but then the sun started to go down and we were both hungry so we went to our hotel!  A hotel!  I’ve never been to one before!  I was so excited!  Except for the stairs.  The lady put us on the second floor and, as most of you know, I don’t do stairs.  Being a princess and all.  So mama huffed and puffed and carried me and all my paraphernalia up the stairs.  I think she packed more for me than she did for her!  She brought a sheet to put over the bedspread, but I mostly slept on the other bed.  Or the floor.  I like my space, don’t you know.

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I’ll take this bed mama, you sleep over there.

 

She brought my water dish and my food dish and a pillow and my supper and my breakfast.  I think she only packed clean underwear and some socks for herself.  I guess that’s because she’s not a princess.

I made her get lots of steps and stairs in each day as I asked to go out several times once we were in our room.  Most notably at 4:30 in the morning.  And again at 6 a.m.  It was really cold out, so once I got out there I wasn’t sure exactly why we were there, which caused me to have to sniff everything in the giant parking lot just to make sure it was safe before I anointed it.  A princess has to be careful you know.

When we left the hotel in the morning, a couple of hours earlier than my mama planned because I was impatient and tired of hanging around, it was zero degrees outside (that’s -17.7 C) and the snow crunched a lot.  Mama wanted to go back to the park and walk on some more trails.  It was going to be a sunny day and she was hoping for blue skies to go with the perfect white snow.  But it was so cold.

 

Morning light.

Morning light.

We walked a little bit and of course my feet were cold, so I held up my paw and asked to be picked up.  My mama picked me up and hugged me and we stood still in the deep woods.  We were the only ones there and there wasn’t another sound at all.  It was totally silent.  So wonderful.  My mama got a bit weepy then.  She said it was just because it was so beautiful and so quiet and she doesn’t have a lot of quiet in her life, and she didn’t want to leave the woods.  I thought maybe she was weepy thinking about carrying me back to the car, so I asked to get down and I pranced all the way back.  Some of the time we were running and laughing.  People would have thought we were crazy, but there was no one there so it didn’t matter.  Besides, they would have been right.

Mama wanted to keep driving north, but she knew we had to come back home.  We couldn’t wait for it to get warmer, and we weren’t sure it would anyway, so we headed back to the freeway.  As soon as we were on the road I fell asleep.  At least mama says I did.  I think I was just resting my eyes.  Shelties never let their guard down you know.  Anyway, I woke up as soon as we were near a rest stop, so I got to stop and explore it, but it was the only one I made her stop at.

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Just as I thought, no pee-mail for me.

 

I can be good when I want to be.

And now we’re home and I’m going to go take a serious nap.  This was just the best adventure I’ve had with my mama since we went camping!  She says she’s already got a camp site reserved on the shores of Lake Michigan for next summer.  She takes me to the best places!

My mama.  Adventure planner extraordinaire!

I think I’ll keep her.

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Where are we going next mama?

 


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WordPress Photo Challenge – Serenity

On a dreary gray winter day in lower Michigan one thing that makes me happy, and yes serene, is a walk in the woods with my girl.

How long do I have to stand here Mama?

How long do I have to stand here Mama?

For this assignment I originally considered a vast ocean or Great Lake beach, the wide open spaces of middle Michigan farm country, cross country skiing in the deep woods, even the ancient porch swing on the family farm.  But when it comes down to it what makes me serenely happy right now, right here at home, was spending time with my Katie-girl in the silent, snowy woods.

You can see other interpretations of serenity at the original post.  Or if you’re short on time and not feeling all that serene, here, here and here are a few of my favorites.   And make sure you look at this one too.  Oh…and don’t miss this one.

OK I’ll stop, even though it’s hard.  What does serenity mean to you?  Share a little of it with us; we can all use as much serenity as we can find.

Don’t you think?

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Sunday afternoon surprise adventure

Katie here!  Hey, bet you didn’t expect to hear from me again so soon!  My mama doesn’t let me have her blog very often you know, but since it’s Christmas and all I guess she’s feeling generous.  Or she doesn’t have anything to say.  Either way it works for me!

In the Arboretum.

In the Arboretum.

So she was lying around the house all weekend.  I was plenty bored but after awhile I just gave up and went off to sleep in my secret places.  But then she turned off the TV and said: “Katie-girl!  Where are you?”  And of course I came running because whenever my mama calls me I get right to her as fast as I can in case she’s handing out treats and such.  Well this time she was still on the sofa and she asked me if I’d like to go for a ride with her.  A ride!  Well OF COURSE MAMA!   I jumped right on top of her and licked her in the face and then I barked and barked and barked and then I jumped off of her and ran to the door and I barked and barked and barked and then I ran around the sofa a bunch, and then around her feet while she was trying to walk and I kept barking.

I guess you get the picture.

 

Grandpa & Grandma's rock

Grandpa & Grandma’s rock

So anyway, my mama took me down to see her Mom and Dad’s rock on the banks of the Huron River.  She’s been missing them lately, what with all the family movies and advertisements and stuff on TV, so she took me for a visit.

I never got to meet them.

I never got to meet them.

I wasn’t the least bit interested in the river or the ducks that she said were “right there baby!”

Ducks are boring!

Ducks are boring!

I was much more interested in the other people and their dogs.   We only stayed at the rock for a moment or two and then we went walking in the hills.  It sure was pretty back there.  I guess they got a little snow, but mostly it was just wet leaves.

A little bit of snow.

A little bit of snow.

As we were climbing up and down the hills my mama kept saying “Easy, easy girl” so I wouldn’t pull her and her camera down into the mud.  Silly mama.  Like I’d ever do that.  When I didn’t have her hanging on to me I was as nimble as a mountain goat!

Running down a hill.

Running down a hill.

We had a really good time.  We talked to a couple of people who were out walking their dogs.  One lady in particular had a dog named Gus and we walked with them for awhile.  The lady was talking to mama about camping with Gus.  Mama wishes she had gotten the lady’s name, she says she thinks we could have had a good time going on walks with them again.

Lots of good sniffing!

Lots of good sniffing!

I slept all the way home, but don’t tell my mama that.  I like her to think I’m always vigilant.

Don’t you know.

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Happy Birthday little girl!

Katie here.

Guess what, Guess What, GUESS WHAT!?!?!

I am eight years old today!  I think there should be a giant party and everybody should come over and tell me how beautiful I am and give me stuff, especially yummy treats, which I would not share with anyone because princesses do not share.

Oh.

Mama says I need to be polite.

OK.  So I’d share with all of you.  Princesses can be gracious if reminded.

I guess.

But Mama has to go to work today so there isn’t going to be a big party for me.  I’ll probably just get my regular dog food too.  Sigh.  It’s so stinkin hard to be a sheltie princess when the mama keeps going off for entire days at a time.  I mean if a girl’s a princess in an empty house and no one sees, is she still a princess?  Huh?  I ask you?  Not fair.  That’s all I’ve got to say about the matter.

The only good thing about today is that my bestest dog walker friend is going to come take me for a walk at lunch!  When my mama has to go away for the day she sometimes gets my friend to come over and play with me.  That’s just so much fun!  She comes with treats too…so I guess my birthday won’t be an entire washout.

And my mama will come home from work eventually and then we’ll play play play!  I hope.   She’s been pretty preoccupied lately.  The whole truck thing last week got her really sad and I had to work double time to cheer her up.  I did my best work at 5:30 in the morning when she seemed to need cheering up the most.  A dog always knows that timing is everything.  She’ll thank me latter when she’s in a better mood.  She seems a bit of a grouchy pants at the moment.

Anyway…because today is my 8th birthday and because she has to work today she took me to my favorite park yesterday afternoon.  It was a gloomy day but I didn’t care, I love going to my park and she lets me sniff as much as I want.  It’s the best present she could give me.  Here’s me next to some beautiful tall grass.  I think I make the grass look even prettier, don’t you?

 

At my park 12-14-14

And just in case you haven’t seen me as an cute little puppy, here’s me my first day at home.  I was 3 mos old and just as cute as could be.  Mama and Daddy fell in love with me the first time they saw me, even though I wasn’t at all sure about them.  I hid behind a big chair at my first mom’s house and watched them.   But then I let mama pick me up and it was OK after that.  I slept upside down all the way to my new house, and it’s been perfect ever since.    I can’t blame them for loving me right away.  Can you?

 

March 31, 2007

First day on my sofa, March 31, 2007

I know, I know…adorable…right?

 

So I think everyone should go get something yummy and treat themselves on me!  Sort of my gift to you from me on my 8th birthday!  Happy Birthday to me!

Enjoy everybody!

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