WE ARE STILL HERE

Haven't blogged much. Thinking a lot about friends who are having troubles, I guess. The dogs have been pretty quiet.

Doc has a new game. Called "Torture The Basset". When they all go out the door he leaps over the Bassets and starts biting Conley. I know how hard he is biting. Not hard enough to draw blood but it hurts. I know this for a fact. I have experience.

This enrages Conley, whose hackles go up and he charges, attacking Doc who dodges deftly out of the way, laughing. Over and over Conley goes for him but no matter what he does unless Doc feels like quitting, Conley cannot catch him. Now and then Doc ends up on the ground with Conley straddling him, chewing on his throat. Doc doesn't care. He just gets up. Once in a great while I see Doc get worried and then he just slinks off to a corner of the yard.

 

The boys are also sufficiently interested in the new fish pond that we have had to fence it off, at least until Nigel and Llewis learn to swim. Conley and Doc could get out easily, but neither of the other two could. They would drown.

 

 

 

 

The Basset Boys are ok, even with Nigel's UTI. I think this is something we are just going to be dealing with from time to time.

I have taken him off the SO dog food without permission and switched all of them to a dehydrated raw food that they love and it's going to require that I find a job if they are going to continue to eat it. Today I see the stuff I had  been feeding before the switch has been recalled.

 

 

Nigel enjoying the yard, the sun and what is left of the "garden". Unfortunately we put a path through it and he is always getting lost in there...

 

LewisLewis, my mouth with feet. This boy just never shuts up. Walk out the door, turn around and walk back in and it is as if you have

been gone for months.

 

Conley, feeling very princely, of course.

Waiting for someone to move so he can chase them.

THE DRYER THAT EATS THINGS

One of my most prized possessions is

No, sorry Conley. Not this time. You are prized but it isn't you. It's

Ooh Llewis, you are such a sweetie but no, not you in this case either. It's

Nigel........you are very special but this time I am talking about.....

 

 

 

O

 

 

Oh for heaven's sake! NONE of you!! I am talking, this time, about

 

 

My clothes dryer. The dog towel dryer. The dog bed dryer. The crate pad  dryer. The thing I use every day at least once and without which I would surely go insane. And yes, that is a metal garden goose on the dryer. Any more questions?

 

 

This is a shedding blade. It is small to fit my hand. I use it on the Bassets. The other day I used it on Nigel and laid it on the dryer. There is still some Nigel clinging to it.

 

This is the lint trap on my Dryer. It is covered. You grab the handle and pull the trap out and clean it. Then you put it back.

This is a gaping maw of the lint thingie with the trap pulled out. It goes directly into the innards of the dryer, of course.

 

 

This is a place you should never, ever never ever leave a shedding blade, because when you whip out the lint trap to clean it before starting the next load which happens to be Mr. Biskit's undies, the shedding blade gives a little bounce and slides down the open hole into the dryer.

 

No problem, you think. I'll get Mr. Biskit to take the vent tubes off and we'll be all set.

 

 

This is the amount of space he has to work in. Nevermind the ear tips at the bottom of the picture-- he was in his crate when the actual work took place.

 

This is Mr. Biskit. He is not necessarily a handyman type person.

 

So. He took the hose off. There's a fan there. He took the top off. No way to reach it.

He took the back off. It took about 40 minutes. One of the sockets rolled under the dryer.

He discovered he had to remove the lint trap but the screws were Phillips screws and were rusted. He's an old guy but he is also very determined and he finally got them out. Thank god I had the A/C on.

The space he had to work in is about 4ftx6ft.

Once he got the filter out he pried part of the back off and just as I was saying

"We're going to have to call someone"

POOF

He held up the shedding blade, a bottle cap and some other oddment that had, over the years, fallen down that trap.

 

My Hero.

 

Honestly, he kind of is. I could not have done that. Well I take it back. I could have done that, but I would have gotten tired of it right away and called someone. Like Mr. Biskit.

 

 

 

NOT SURE

I don't know if I will publish this or not.
There probably are no photos.
A few years ago I started communicating with someone on the internet, through a dog list that I belonged to, the Daily Drool. It's about Basset hounds.
This woman of course had Bassets and while at the time I was about the only one whose dogs wrote the list in "Bassetese", Debbie began doing it too.
Only, when I read her posts, they were better than mine.
Humf.
So I thought well maybe I should get to know her.
And one of us wrote the other, don't remember now who did what.

And then again.
And again.
And Again.

And we discovered, someplace in there, that we clicked. We held many of the same opinions, but not all.
We laughed about the same stuff.
We bitched and moaned about the same stuff.
We always listened to each other.
And before you know it, I had a friend. Someone I had never met in person, someone who lived far, far away. But nevertheless, a friend, a sister almost, the one I never had, so I never fought with her or shared clothes or boyfriends.

And now she's in trouble with cancer, and here I sit and I have never met her. What does one do? How did we come to care so much about each other over the internet?

For once I am thankful for technology, because without it I never would have "met" her, never would have been friends, and now, I reach out to tell her how much I care, and how deeply I want her to get better, and how I am holding my breath for her.

It's ok. I have good lung capacity.

WEDNESDAY MORNING

Well it rained. No surprise. And today is wet, with drizzle. Off and on. The dogs are fairly quiet.

We cut two trees down in the yard leaving us with none since they dropped one tree on my little baby Russian Olive that I have nurtured and adored for 4 years, splitting it in half. (Yes I know they hate them out west, but I don't care. They hate coyotes and wolves out west, too, but I don't.)

This is what is left of my precious baby. Since it rained it is especially droopy. We have it taped, and twice we propped it up with a stake and a strap, but someone, some mysterious force, insists on tearing out the stake and dragging the strap around the yard like a dead snake. I won't mention any names.

heh heh heh

But parts of the yard are kind of pretty. In a common kind of way.

 

 

Not all parts. While I was watching the squirrel I got buzzed by a female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. She was out here yesterday too, and it has been years since I have seen any. It makes me wonder if she has a nest close by.

 

These, of course, are the opposite corners of the yard where the trees (Ash and infected with Emerald Ash Borers) once stood. I want to decorate: John wants grass. I sense a long winter ahead....

John piled these along the fence. The dogs sit in back of them and wait for Ori, the Border Collie in back, to come out and start running the fence with them, screaming hysterically. At least we are at the  point now where I do not have to catch them individually: I get them past the bricks by herding them (yeah, I learn by watching, too) and then telling them "get in the house". Amazingly, they almost always do.

 

Yes for those of you who are easily terrified, it is a spider web. With rain. Near a Monarda.

 

And on the Clematis.

 

 

Oooo----camera!!

 

RUNNING

The heat has cooled down a bit and the humidity quite a lot. So yesterday evening I grabbed Doc and Conley and took them out to my friend's house, where she has a very secure couple of acres fenced off for her dogs. Conley doesn't really RUN-- he kind of ambles quickly. He can run. He can run very fast, but there didn't seem to be any reason to do so. The only problem with this place is: there are NO trees.
Well I take it back, she has planted trees along one fenceline, but they do not offer shade.

But Doc, Doc runs. And I love to watch him run, so guess what? You get to watch, too.

Well he doesn't run all the time.

But once he starts

He keeps

Right on

Running

Right at you

And beyond.

 

And his Buddy, Conley

Does his Basset best

To....keep......................up...........but............................

But (no pun intended) really can't.

 

 

And  Doc is off again

 

But not for quite so long this time

And finally

stops.

 

And I am adding one picture because I like it. I am not sure what happened to the lighting but I like it.

 

Mouse? Mole? Vole? Stick?