Author Archive: Helen

I was outside with my babies, and Baby herself was really hunting for something in the agility patch. Well, I figured it might be a Bufo as she has a propensity to find those disgusting things and grab them. Then the whole foaming of the mouth starts, and I have to wash her tongue for minutes and minutes and minutes till the foaming stops. So I really didn’t feel like going through that. I asked her kindly to go pee-pee, and then I escorted everyone in.

Baby’s a sly one, she is. When I call her in, she oftentimes hides in the shadows. She figures I don’t see her, and she figures right. She stands so still, if I don’t put the light on and search for her, I don’t see her. Tonight, I figured she was playing that game with me, so after everyone else was in, I put the light on and swept the whole Fort Doberdale campus.

Out of the side of my eye, behind a pine tree, I saw a shadow. It was scary, though, because when I got to the tree, there wasn’t anyone. And all my dogs were in the house. Then I saw out of the other eye’s side, my corn patch moving. Holy cow! What was going on? I summoned my courage and moved closer to the corn patch, and right there ON my budding corns was the outline of a frog. It was dark enough all right, for it to conceal itself. So I ran all the way to the back door and into the back room to get my camera. By the time I got back outside, the outline was gone. However, I figured to just point the camera at the corn patch and see what comes out in the dark room when I develop the pictures.

Well! There he is. In the lower right hand corner of both of these pictures is a frog! Now these guys are fine if they eat slugs and bugs, but if they eat corn and squash plants, I’m going to be irate. Listen, I already know that I’m going to lose my battle to actually eat this corn. If they ever mature, there are plenty of squirrels that will beat me to them in the wee hours of the morning when the sun is just rising and I’m not quite there yet. But in the meantime, I can dream, can’t I? Unless there are corn-eating frogs in my corn patch! Or I can’t sleep thinking about them eating my beautiful vegetable garden.

Whose great idea was this vegetable gardening anyway? OK, mine. I thought I’d save some dinero on the veggies by growing my own. But never thought I’d use up those savings on snail bait, neem oil, and extra bottles of Rescue Remedy for my own use.

Argh!

By the way, I’d taken a picture earlier of a frog on my window. It isn’t the clearest, but you can see what I saw. Something’s in that frog stomach poking out. Now I’m wondering if that’s the tip of one of my prized corn cobs!

Double Argh!

People Plan God Laughs, Trees and Plants

Happy Birthday Girl!

Today is someone’s birthday. Someone who’s been doing Dobie rescue for decades. Here’s a picture of her with a fuzzy friend from a few years ago. You can e-mail her and wish her a happy birthday!

We usually have pictures of our friends enjoying their birthday hamburger, but I think this “dobegal” will be enjoying a birthday bottle of fine wine instead!

If that’s not enough hint, well, her name will remind you of our feathered friends!

Birds, Birthdays/Anniversaries

A Sunny July Sunday

Sunday morning met us and so did the lovely moonshine. Look closely. You’ll see her. And this is my Verawood tree, one of five I have. The other four are smaller. One of the smaller ones is a tree I started from a seed from this tree. This one is best known here at Fort Doberdale as “The Luigi Tree.” Yes, it is! It’s a big boy!

We had a peanut hunt this afternoon. I hid them all over the Fort Doberdale campus – above and below nose levels. I hid one in a planter attached to a pine tree. Raven found that one. Impressive!

Taylor found one and had to get in a compromising position to pull off the finale, but she did it and munched that peanut. Then Pippin found a peanut I’d hidden under a birdcage. She tried, but needed help getting to it, so I lifted the cage up off the peanut, and she grabbed the nut fast.

Annie, even though she’s shorter than the Dobies of Fort Doberdale, kicks arse at finding peanuts. She’s a hunter supreme. Look at this. She finds those peanuts above and below nose level! Annie rules!

Can you find the peanut in this picture? Neither could Bouchard. But it’s there. He found others, so don’t feel bad for him, and he’s working on his peanut hunting skills. After all, he’s used to hunting those snails.

After Raven’s earlier find, she follows her nose to other above-nose hiding places. It takes her a while to pinpoint the peanut, but by Goddess, she finds it and gives it a good crunch to let the world know.

The seniors are less enthusiastic about this game. Though Baby did find a peanut on her own, as she began enjoying it, Lilian (surprisingly) took advantage of my senior Baby, and swiped most of it. So I cracked open another one for the Diva. Meanwhile, Regis stood mostly in one place. Earlier, he dropped a turd in the house by his food bowl. So when I was delivering breakfasts, I had to figure out why he wouldn’t go near his. Bingo! The egg was found, removed, and all was well for Regis to dine. He’s old and turds come out unplanned. The best part of this is how indignant he gets over finding one. As if someone else left the thing in his way. I don’t know if that’s the gramps in him or the male in him. 🙂

Luigi, he finds those peanuts upwards and downwards. He’s got the nose power and dedication to continue on until no peanut goes unfound.

Doberkids, Sky, Trees and Plants

Mind Games by Raven

What’s been going on in Raven’s mind these days? Plenty.

Here she is lusting after Annie’s rawhide. Annie gives her what for, though.

Oh lookie. Here she is making plans for a take-over of Luigi’s beloved Cuz ball. This attempt didn’t work, so she made plans to get that ball later. How? By watching Luigi out of the side of her eye until the right moment came, and she grabbed ahold of that Cuz and did not let go!

“I’m very good at this game,” Raven states. “No one can beat me at it here at Fort Doberdale. I’d guess in the whole world, no one could beat me at the ‘Gimme The Toy Game’ because I’m the best toy player there is. I am. It’s my stubborn nature. I’m beautiful, too.”

Times are, Luigi hides his toys in plain sight, yet in strategical locations. He never had a problem with this way of doing business. Who would think that anyone would have the nerve to jump up on the chest freezer for his well-placed gems? Then along came Raven. Eww boy.

Raven outsmarts a lot of us. When she does, she celebrates, and moves onto the next game she can find. She and Lilian have a rivalry. Lilian is very good at getting to toys I throw in the back yard. Raven stalks her, just as she did above with Luigi, and eventually grabs the toy. Lilian isn’t into long, drawn out tug-o-wars. She throws a hissy fit for 15 seconds, grasping, pulling and pumping out all sorts of sound affects. But Lilian eventually lets go, nips Raven a few times for good measure, and moves on. Raven gets the toy. She wins. Again.

Just so Raven keeps Lilian in her place, every so often, usually at supper time, Raven strolls into Lilian’s crate and takes over the den and all toys inside. Here she is making herself quite comfortable with one of Lilian’s prized Nylabones. Afterwards, when Lilith retakes her den, she checks to make sure all her toys are unharmed. And she adds one of Raven’s favorites to her heap. And you thought only people played mind games?

Annie, Lilian, Luigi, Raven

Capricorn Moon