Yesterday the sun came out and it was so pretty that I bugged and bugged my mom to take me somewhere fun.
I would just like to point out how beautiful my fur is.
So she did! We went over to a park in Rose Township. Usually we don’t see anyone over there, but since the day was so beautiful we saw quite a few people walking in the woods.
Really mom? You want me to SIT??!
That’s OK, Mom just asked me to sit and watch her while other people and their dogs went by, so I did. Apparently mom and I are very slow walkers.
This is a very scary horse dung bucket. I barked at it a lot.
We went up and down some hills in the woods and I wasn’t scared at all about being under the trees! I guess that’s because it wasn’t windy and nothing weird was blowing around. You know, like leaves and stuff.
Hey Mom! I jumped over the rock, you got that on film, right?
Then we walked beside a couple of pretty ponds. Mom was using a compass on her phone to check out where Southeast is in relation to the bridges we were standing on.
Sure is pretty around here!
Apparently the Milky Way core is visible again and at this time of the year, the SE is where to find it.
Whatever, mom.
On the way back to the car she let me pick which trail to follow. She was sorta glad I picked the shorter one, especially after a fat tire bike went by and I got the zoomies.
This is me being crazy. Mom was not amused.
Mom says zoomies in the woods are not as fun as zoomies in the living room.
I beg to differ.
OK, I’ll be serious if I have to be. For a moment anyway.
Just stopping in to tell you that mom has been sick. She got that covid thing and she’s been mostly in bed for a week.
I felt like Rin-Tin-Tin on these rocks at a rest stop!
Being the loyal canine I am I’ve mostly been in bed all week too.
At least she didn’t ask me to actually slide down this thing!
Even when mom had a fever and kept pushing me away cause she said I was too hot I pressed up against her cause I know what she really needed in order to feel better is more of me.
Mom says she has a picture of Katie in this same field.
Cause she couldn’t be out and about we haven’t had any adventures lately, but the pictures here are from my last set of adventures.
Mom said the light was really good here. I guess so. I only care about the treats.
Mom says we’ll get back on the road again in a few days. She says she’s mostly still tired.
Come on mom, stop messing with the camera!
Me? I not tired at all! I’m ready to go as soon as mom says the word.
What’s that over there, mom?
Until then, I remain mom’s heating pad. Whether she wants one or not.
Mom told me you were all waiting for me to tell you about my day(s) of adventure. I thought I had delegated that to her, but you know how hard it is to get good help these days.
You have to cross the railroad track to get to my park!
So I guess I best get to the telling.
Mom?Are you going to take pictures of me all day?
Mom and Dad are having some work done in the food room. Given that’s my favorite room in the whole house I tend to keep a very close watch on things going on in there.
Mom says I get under everybody’s feet and somebody’s going to get hurt.
It was a windy morning!That made me kind of nervous.
Plus did I mention I bark very loudly and for a long time if anyone uses a power tool in my vicinity? Uh huh. So Mom decided she and I needed to go on an adventure all day, or until the nice men with the power tools vacated my property.
Mom said in addition to the wind, the light was really beautiful.Huh. I thought it was ME that was beautiful.
We went out early in the morning and our first stop was MY park! Did mom tell you I have a park named after me?
What is it with mom and wanting me to sit on stuff?
Well, it’s not official or anything. Not yet anyway. I know Katie has a park, and I’m really happy that now I do too! It’s a new part of a big park, and you have to walk over a railroad track to get to it.
Mom doesn’t like crossing railroad tracks.
That creeps mom out, but I told her not to fixate on it and just keep moving. Geeze. Sometimes mom is a wimp.
There’s a pretty little kettle lake back here.
It was windy the morning we were there, and cold, but I was having a great time exploring until mom tried to walk with me into the woods. I’ve told her and told her I don’t really like being in the woods. And that day there were leaves blowing all around and trees creaking and stuff.
Did I hear something back there?
Well mom finally got the idea that I wasn’t happy there and we went back out to an open part. I liked that much better. But the wind was getting worse and it was cold and mom said we needed to move on.
We spent some time in the car warming up and then mom took me over to 7 Lakes State Park. It’s about 15 minutes from our house and a park mom has never explored before.
Mom found lots of interesting stuff to photograph at this park!
A sign there said it was called 7 Lakes because a developer dammed up a river and it flooded 7 small lakes into two bigger lakes. Then the developer decided not to build on the property and sold it to the state for a park.
This is a real pretty state park!
It’s real pretty. There’s lots to explore there, but this time we just walked out on the earthen dam. Mom took lots of pictures that weren’t me.
There was a little island out there with some geese swimming in the open water.
Then on the way off the dam mom asked me to stand on some big rock. I thought it was more fun to stand with just my front feet on the rock. Mom thought I was pretty cute that way too.
There are trails and lots of things to explore at this park. We’ll be back for sure!
Like this, mom?
Then, since the tool guys were still in my food room, mom took me to a third park, about 30 minutes away. It’s near a library where she used to work. We’ve been there once before.
I’m not sure about this bridge mom, there’s water under it!
Somehow this park always gives mom uneasy feelings. She doesn’t know why. She says she never sees any other people there, but the day we were there we met a nice young couple out walking. It was getting late so we only did one small loop. I was getting tired of posing, but I stood on the bridge for her, and then on a log. But I wasn’t happy about it.
I don’t really want to sit here, can we go find some food instead?
I was so happy when dad texted mom that the tool guys were gone and we could go home. I’ve never been to three parks in one day before! It was fun but it was exhausting!
Last picture of me today, mom!Promise?
During the day we drove around a lot too, and mom figured out I’m a pretty good rider on long drives. She says she is glad about that because someday we’ll go on a big adventure together!
Bigger than three parks in one day mom? Wow! I can’t even imagine that!
Mom even managed to find a barn on our adventure!
Oh – it turns out the tool guys weren’t done with the project so mom and I had to leave home again on another day this week. I’ll have to wait to tell you about that day, cause I’m still pretty exhausted and need a nap.
I bet you’re exhausted just reading about our adventure day!
It’s a pretty cool barn, I can understand why she stopped.
It was sunny and cool on Wednesday, the perfect day for a sheltie-girl. Penny and I were walking through the back yard, she focused on her beloved birds flitting among the feeders near the house, me remembering, as I often do when I’m in the back yard, Katie’s last moments there.
I remembered walking with Katie into the house when the vet arrived. I never thought, in the moment, that she and I would never walk into the house together again. I remember walking with her, the vet and my husband, through the backyard to a pretty place under the birch trees, the sky blue like it was yesterday. I never thought, in the moment, that she wouldn’t be there to enjoy her yard ever again.
But now, often when I’m out there, I think about those moments and the bigger picture and I miss her so much.
You OK, mom?
Meanwhile Penny was laying at my feet, intently watching the feeders, when she heard me sniffling and looked over her shoulder at me, concern in her eyes. Then she popped up and put her front feet on my hips, head tilted inquisitively. I reached down and lifted her into my arms for a hug.
My sensitive girl knew.
Then I put her back down and we both ran joyfully back to the house, her attacking my ankles, me laughing. And somewhere over the rainbow bridge Katie smiled.
Dirt roads and pathways are everywhere around here. So when I saw Cee’s challenge I knew I’d find something fresh, some place you haven’t been with us before.
This should do, mom!It’s dirt and it’s a path…right?
Friday Penny and I spent all day exploring. We started out at a new park I’ve renamed Penny’s Park. I’m sure she’ll have a lot to say about it and the other places we visited when she’s recovered from all that exploring!
Mom says you guys don’t need to hear from me so often. She says it’s her blog and shouldn’t be all about me. I like to point out regularly that her life is all about me.
Ahem.
Mom took me to a new park last week before the snow.
Anyway, she’s had a couple important thoughts on her mind and has been meaning to blog about random stuff for awhile now. As you may or may not know, she’s meaning to do a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t get done. So I decided to help her out by putting together a random blog with some of her thoughts and some of my thoughts.
You can judge which thoughts are most important.
Don’t worry mom, I’ll write your blog for you!
No pressure to vote for mine or anything.
So,anyway, she watches a lot of HGTV. Mostly because there isn’t any violence or scary stuff and no one looses anything most of the time. Mom doesn’t like conflict. But she knows that most of it is staged, ’cause there’s no way all those couples can like totally opposite stuff and still be together. One wants to live in a city high-rise and one wants to live on acres in the woods? How’s that supposed to work out?
Me, I think we should all live in the woods!
Don’t you wonder if some of them are still together?
And how come so many of the women come off as so controlling and well…b****y? Sometimes mom has to turn it off because the (mostly) women annoy her so much. And how come the closets are always hers? Where’s he supposed to put his cloths? In the kids’ rooms? Maybe the garage?
Of course mom has her own closet drama. We won’t go there.
Maybe you could store your shoes in here, mom!
I on the other hand wonder why people’s dogs don’t get to decide where they’re going to live. I think any dog would opt for lots of fenced in land to run on. I don’t know a dog around that likes to go on a walk by first getting on an elevator. And those high-rise balconies? You call that an outside space? What if a little doggie falls off? Huh??
Now THIS is a good outdoor space!
Mom also wonders about this open concept thing. It seems to be what almost everyone wants and she wonders if these people, particularly the young people, have ever lived with other people in that kind of space.
Is this open concept?
Mom and Dad’s house is open concept. They remodeled it long before that was a thing, and in general I like it cause I can run really fast with no walls to slow me down, but mom says if you live in an open concept house you have to listen and watch whatever the other people want to listen to and watch.
I’m a big help, right mom?
Sometimes mom would just like it to be quiet. She says she’d advise all those people looking for open concept houses to make sure they each have somewhere of their own to retreat to when they need a little quiet.
Just image if there were a bunch of kids too! Kids and dogs racing around a big open concept house. Yep….I think that would be perfect, but mom says it makes her head hurt. What do you think?
I think having some kids to play with would be just fine.
And mom’s been thinking about the cable/internet bill. She hears so many people talking about streaming stuff, and she’s not sure she’d even know how to do that. We don’t have any of those subscription things, and sometimes something she’d like to watch is shown only on Peacock or Hulu or Netflix or any number of other services that she hasn’t even heard of.
Is that a peacock over there?
The cable bill is big enough, why would you want to pay for more when we don’t even watch all the channels we have? Yet….maybe it would be nice to have some other options. Still, shouldn’t we be satisfied with the stuff we already have? Cause mom says we have a lot.
Personally I don’t care one way or the other. It’s all noise to me. Just don’t have any doorbells or dogs barking on there. And nobody up on that screen better move too fast either. Cause I’ll be on guard, yes I will. I’m watching you all the time, even when I’m sleeping. Constantly on guard to protect my people, that’s me.
Always alert!
In fact, mom and I just came in from a neighborhood walk and about the time we got back to our driveway four trumpeter swans flew over. They sure make a lot of loud, weird noise when they fly! Mom thought it was cool. I just stood very still and watched.
I’m not always brave.
After they were gone I pulled on my leash and stood up on by back feet and barked very loudly in the direction they had gone. I told them! They won’t be back any time soon! Don’t come near my mom you guys! Yes I can make myself very big, like a grizzly bear, when I want to scare something off.
Mom says I’m nothing like a grizzly bear, and I’m only brave after whatever riled me up is gone. Big brave girl, she calls me. She says this habit of mine doesn’t bode well for future camping.
Gotta keep an eye out all the time around here.
I say she needs a grizzly bear camping with her to keep her safe. What do you think?
Mom says Karma has come up with a photo challenge, something about before and after.
Hmmmm, this is interesting.
Well. I told mom that I wanted to play too, but I couldn’t take any pictures, mostly because I don’t have thumbs. So I assigned her to get some great pictures of me in before and after situations.
Hey!What happened to my water?
I think you will soon agree I have this before and after thingy down pat. And that, for once, mom followed directions!
Wonder what that is over there?
We had a big storm last week, then most of it melted and then we got 5 unexpected inches of snow yesterday!
My behind is getting wet, mom.
By the weekend they say we’ll have sunshine and temperatures in the 40s! Wow, sunshine! All this beautiful snow will be gone again. Mom said we had to hurry today before it started to melt!
Even without lots of snow this pond sure was pretty!
When we were walking out there today big poofs of snow kept falling off the tree branches and dropping on me! I was freaked out until mom told me to stop being a baby.
It’s even prettier with more snow!
I guess I’m still a little girl, I’m only almost 14 months old. I got braver the longer we were out there. But I did giggle just a little when a big poof of snow fell on mom and cold water ran down her neck. Hee hee.
Anyway.
Mom took me to this same park earlier this week when there wasn’t much snow, and then today we went back so she could get more pictures with the beautiful snow!
I had such a good walk earlier in the week!
Boy I had fun on both visits to the park. I loved sniffing along the way, and chewing on as many sticks as possible.
You can hardly see the road now that it snowed!
Mom keeps telling me I can’t chew on every stick in the woods…but I think I want to try!
This stick looks yummy!
So tell me, do you think I got the before and after thing right? Inquiring sheltie minds want to know!
Karma, over at Karma When I Feel Like It, has challenged us to a couple of photo challenges. One of them she titled “Before and After.”
For this challenge I was looking for something that changes…where I could show the before…
Before her adventure.
…and the after….
And after.
I honestly thought she’d be a bigger mess. We walked through snow and mud and leaves and puddles. Maybe she’s a Teflon dog.
She says she wants to share more about her latest walk in the woods, but she’s busy napping. Maybe someday soon she’ll be motivated to finish her post.
Hey! Did you know we got a bunch of snow a week ago? I’ve never seen so much snow in my entire life! Well, OK. My entire life has only been 13 months, but still.
OK mom!I’m ready, throw the Frisbee!
I kept bugging mom and dad to take me out to play and they kept saying it was too cold. Too cold? Are they crazy? I’m a sheltie for goodness sake! I love the cold!
I ran so fast mom had a hard time getting all of me in the frame!
But mom and dad said I didn’t understand, with the wind chill it was something like -18 degrees Fahrenheit which, for those of you in Canada is about -27.7! Mom said that is really cold and I wouldn’t want to be out there.
I said yes I would too, and I begged and begged to go outside. Mom and dad said I was quite annoying. I call it persistence.
Mostly I loved to run and jump!Some people think I’m a rabbit!
Finally mom dug around in some drawers and found my sister Katie’s boots. My feet are bigger than Katie’s feet were, but she still managed to get them on my feet. Only because I let her, I might add.
Come on mom, throw it again!
I was not amused by the boots, and she doesn’t have any still images of me wearing them. She took a short video of me, short mostly because I wouldn’t walk much wearing them. I thought they were ridiculous.
I’ve got it, mom!Notice I’m not wearing any stupid boots!
When we went outside I accidently (on purpose) lost 3 of the boots in the snow drifts. Mom had to go back out into the dark and cold to find them. She says she’ll get them on tighter next time.
Sure mom.
Life doesn’t get any better than this!
Anyway, finally it got a little warmer, and today it was warm enough to go play in the back yard!
Mom’s artsy image of beautiful me!
Boy I had fun! Mom threw the frisbee and I chased it down, pounced on it, and brought it back to her.
Hustling back to mom with the prize!
Then, usually, I chewed on her ankle until she threw it again. You have to keep moms on their toes, you know.
Nom, nom, nom.
Then I saw a BIG STICK in the yard and I headed right over there. You all know how much I love sticks, right? Well this one looked just perfect!
Wow!The mother of all sticks. You’re mine, stick!!
But then mom called me, really loud, and I knew she had treats in her pocket, so I turned around real quick and headed back.
Coming mother!(Notice the piece of stick in my mouth!)
I scored big time for coming right back to mom when she called me!
We spent a lot of time out there in the back yard. She kept trying to get me to stay while she walked away.
I’m a happy girl!
I don’t know what that’s all about, I like to be right up next to her all the time. She backs up to get a better shot and I scoot forward the better to get a treat.
I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than run and jump!
I personally think that makes me a very smart dog. Don’t you agree?
Just throw it mom!
Anyway, mom got a few good shots of me playing in the snow. They say it will all melt next week, so it’s good I convinced her to go out with me.
I have the best yard, don’t you think?
Next week I’ll be muddy. I’m sure mom will think I’m just as cute.
Change Is Hard 