Spotting the sun

Have you spotted the sun lately? Because the sun needs more spots! Without enough spots to cover it, the sun gets cold. Then the earth gets cold. So the sun needs hot spots!

These aren't like doggy hot spots. The sun's supposed to have spots! Like a Dalmation, almost!

Otherwise we get snow in the summer. Like today! Okay, it's not quite summer yet. Because then I would have apples! Not just apple flowers. But we did get the tiniest snow storm today. Which is Saturday. Or was. Depending on when you read this!

The snow is almost invisible in these little pictures. Click on them to see bigger ones! Except for the apple flower. That was two days ago. It wasn't snowing then. But there's snow in the other pictures.

First apple blossom of spring.	But not all that's white is blooming!
I love the smell of snowfall!	Not enuff of it to eat today.
Eat grass!	Yeah, yeah.

(The Human Assistant says there's also the original article about sunspots and a two-part argument against that ... and probably more. For those who like to read about these things.)

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Closing Pandora's box

Sinjin here!

Okay, so Lucy won't be going to live with Wally the Corgi. His family's concerned about Wally getting into that pond, which would be not good at all!

The Big Guy suggested filling it with sand and a rock or two, à la karesansui (which Wikipedia's article says is "sometimes mistakenly called a Zen garden" ... by the Big Guy, for example!  ☺).

But this is no good either because the family wants a moving-water pond, and they just installed it last year.

Even as I dictate this to BG, I can hear Sibe people clucking their tongues and even laughing. Gardens (and the landscaping in general) belong to dogs, and people are only occasionally allowed to work in them!

Wally-type dog

Badger Hound

I think maybe these low-slung dogs (and Wally is lower to the ground than the one in the picture) could be kept out by a low barrier. A Wally Wall!  ☺  And unlike hounds that go digging into tunnels to chase badgers (which you can see cute pictures of here, here, and no doubt elsewhere), Wally probably wouldn't be a risk for digging under the wall.

So now comes the question: Will Wally stay out of the pond now that he's seen Lucy in there?

Hope so!

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Deskunkification

How about if we call the blog, "Sinjin Gets Rolled by Tucker!"

The dog of a brother of a friend (and major volunteer for MaxFund) was skunked yesterday.

The Human Assistant has never dealt with this before. Please post or give us a link to your favorite deskunkification procedure!

He will also go searching through SIBERNET archives. Which he was supposed to do last night. Instead of spending all that time helping somedoggy else write on my blog!

Many thanks!

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Lucy's bad example

Pembroke Welsh Corgi Sinjin here!

We need to change the name of this blog!

How about, "Sinjin Lets Tucker Talk Back!"  ::Arr arr::

I'll admit that I went grazing in Lucy's and Gremlin's dinner bowls, and the Big Guy surprised me, and I swung around real fast, and Lucy got a bit excited about that.

Well, hey. It happens.

I'm not for-sure certain that Lucy bit Tucker, though. Maybe she snagged him with a claw. (Or, as Agent 86 would say, a craw.) But as Tucker would say, Anyway....

Hey ... does that dog in the picture up there look like a herding dog to you? The breed comes from Wales, and that's what it's supposed to be! Maybe the pre-Celtic Welsh had armadillo ranches, or something!

Okay. But! Does it look like a water dog?  These are water dogs:

Duck-Tolling Retriever	Flat-Coated Retriever	Portuguese Water Dog
Irish Water Spaniel	Newfoundland	Labrador Retriever

Lucy went to visit a family that might be interested in adopting her. She and the Big Guy met Wally (like the Corgi up top) and his mom, and then they went to their house and met the dad and daughter.

What a great place! Too bad BG forgot he had his camera in the car!

The house is next to a lake, and Lucy watched ducks swimming around! Their fence is only 3 feet high, and Lucy stood up and put her paws on the top rail. She probably wouldn't jump over, but that's a bit of a question.

Then when she ran ran ran from the fence back to the house, she was so happy to be stretching her legs! And she rolled and rolled in the grass! It was like all those happy photos in her dogster portfolio!

And then...!

The family has an itty-bitty pond about 5 or 6 feet across. Lucy just waded right in! The scene looked just like that Flat-Coat in the picture just above here! (Except for not being as large a pond.) Water up to her tummy and everything!

And then...!

Lucy walked on out of the pond, and Wally started to walk right in! If they'd let him, he'd have looked like a submarine with legs! If you could've seen him, but you couldn't have because he would've been all the way under the water with no periscope. That wouldn't have been good! Although maybe, if he could keep his eyes above water, he'd look like a Corgidile!

Wally's mom said he had never tried to go into their pond before!

Was Lucy being a bad role model, or what? Later she waded through the pond again, and Wally tried to go again, and his mom stopped him again. Poor little guy! Led astray by a female!!!

The family wants a companion for Wally. They said he doesn't really pal around with other dogs, but they don't want him to feel lonely while they're away from the house. Well, I'd say he was kind of interested in palling around with Lucy. Not tons. Not like he wanted to play with her. But he did follow her around some and ran across the yard behind her.

Lucy was the Ice Maiden, like always. "Oh, hello little doggy. Nice to meet you." Then off she goes. So that may not be enough palling around to suit the family. Plus, there's the fence. And the dad doesn't really want another dog.

So, who knows what will happen? The BG was a little worried about the fence. He's not sure how Lucy will deal with ducks and geese once she gets used to the idea of them being there. Watch them? Chase them? Jump the fence? Dig under it or push through? It's not a super-sturdy setup.

We'll have to wait and see.

Speaking of MaxFund foster dogs ... and Tucker doesn't know yet and you didn't hear it from me ... Simon.  Shhh!

-- photos from Wikipedia

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Wrapping up snow

Okay. Thanks for interrupting, Sinjin! We need to wrap up this talk about the last snow. It's been three days. No use letting it linger. Like three-​day-​old fish.

Speaking of snarfing. Oh, yeah. We'll talk about snarfing, all right. After a few photos.

Question. What could Gremlin do Thursday morning that she couldn't do Thursday afternoon? Two words. Both start with "sn." And knowing Gremlin, there's an arf! in there too:

I love the smell of snowfall....	I love to eat it!
::snarf snarf snarf::	Yum!
8:59 a.m.	2:59 p.m.
♩♩♫ I walk alone, can't you see.... ♩♫♩♩	♩♪♩♪♪ Doo be doo be doo.... ♩♪♩♪♪
Dog, who called that conference?	There's no neighborcat there!

Anyway. Let me explain why Lucy bit my ear.

It's Sinjin's fault!

He and I usually finish eating first. Then sometimes I go edge Lucy away from her bowl. But not very often.

But that night Slim Jim beat me to it! He was munching Lucy's food! The Human Assistant pushed him away, and Lucy went back to eating.

Then he (Sinjin) went and got into Gremlin's bowl! H.A. snagged him from behind. Sinjin twisted around real fast and made a move for H.A.'s hand.

Not that Sinjin bit H.A. or anything. But Lucy goes Laura Croft when somedoggy does more than just back talk to H.A. He had to calm her down and tell her it was okay. She could go back to eating.

So then I came along to graze out of Lucy's bowl. And she hadn't got all the Rambones out of her system. So she took it out on me! Instead of on Sinjin like she should have.

And counter surfing. Give me a break! I almost never counter-surf! I leave the bread alone! I leave the potato chips alone! But meat? Those who can, do. Those with bad hips or spine, don't.

An' dat's da name of dat tune.

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​Rambones: Rambo hormones

Counter-counter-surfing

I notice that Tucker didn't tell what happened after the Big Guy put hamburger in our dinner bowls!

Well.

The Guy had to go to another room for a minute and leave out on the counter the rest of the 5 pounds of burger, which was for MaxFund dogs, plus the grease he poured into a bowl. When BG came back, guess who had his paws on the counter?

(Hint: His name starts with T and ends with ER and has UCK in the middle!)

The BG thought he was eating the MaxFund hamburger, so he swooped in and told that other dog to get down. But as it happens, he wasn't eating hamburger ... he was drinking grease!

BG said, "That's a different story. Okay. Go ahead and do it some more and let me take your picture." To give Tucker credit, he rarely rarely counter-surfs, so there aren't any pictures of him doing it. And BG has felt like a second-class Siberian person without any pictures of us counter-surfing!

That is, of Tucker counter-surfing. I, of course, am too mature for that sort of thing.

But would Tucker put his paws on the counter again? No-sir-ee-bob. He looked at BG. He looked at the counter. He looked at BG. He sat. He must have been thinking, "Look, I'm sitting! Give me some!" BG walked into the next room again to tempt Tucker. Tucker just sat there. See that big grin on his face?

I went in and sniffed at the counter. It smelled pretty good! But I didn't get up there into the other doggies' stuff. And I don't mean just the meat. BG was saving the grease to put on Lucy's kibble on days when she dilly-dallies around and doesn't get started on her food until we're already done. Even Gremlin's willing to eat Lucy's food for her. With a little added burger flavor on it, Lucy doesn't stand around and wait to dig in.

In fact, Lucy tried to get at the stuff on the counter. But I don't think she was q..u..i..t..e tall enough to get into it. But I'm not sure. But then! Who should come snuffling around like a roly poly bear stocking up for a long, lean winter?

I'd leave it to your imagination, but in fact there is photographic evidence:

Not while you're watching!	Smells good!
Yum!	He's out of the room, now....

BUSTED !!!

By the way, Tucker, I noticed that you also didn't mention that bite on your ear. You sure showed Lucy who's the boss of her dinner bowl!

Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

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Snowpic-o-rama

The Human Assistant took about ninety-eleven pictures of the snow yesterday and the day before. Which he then had to admire. And fiddle with. And choose. And upload. Which is why we didn't have a post ready this morning.

Yesterday the Big Blond (four-legged) Doofus had pictures of it snowing not very hard Wednesday afternoon. Here are some from Wednesday evening. After a few more hours of snow:

Aack!   Snowflake … in ... eye!	Not nearly enough for a fort!
12/21/06:  Watch, now.	12/21/06:  There - a bowl!

(Those last two are from the ginormous snow storm we had a couple of months after I got here.)

Then the H.A. decided to go out for supper. Before he fed us!

And oh, by the way, he lollygagged around "on his way to the car" and took some pictures out front:

Our north-facing house.	Wait ... I saw something!
Great time for a supernova!	It's ... it's ... a cameo!

So then the H.A. stood out there taking pictures of Sinjin being doofy in the window. Which would be okay if we were doing something interesting at the time. Like eating!

But no. He hadn't eaten yet. And then some years later, we'd get to eat. Good grief!

Anyway. H.A. took these close-ups with the super-extendo-telephoto feature on his camera. It's pretty crummy. From the viewfinder you can't even tell what part of the scene you'll get.

I'm sure there are other reasons that the pictures are crummy. But that's the only one he'd admit to.

Look at that stuff come down!	Over there....
And over there....	And over there again....
And back over there....	I made myself dizzy!

We call it "snow," bub. So what's it like on Mars this time of year?

Anyway. Now we've covered Wednesday. Next time we'll finish up the snow. With pictures of Thursday. And maybe Sinjin will have some pictures from his home planet.  ​Heh.

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p.s. - H.A. fried up 5 pounds of hamburger when he got home! It was all supposed to be for MaxFund. But he put a bunch of it with kibble in our bowls. So we wouldn't remember to be annoyed about a late dinner!

So that worked out okay.

Take nothing for granite

Sinjin here! Awhile back Tucker mentioned that the weather had gone from 74° to snowing in less than a day.

Well, I can beat that!

Tuesday it was  82° ... and look what happened on Wednesday!

Is that west-side neighborcat?	Big sprouts!
How do you spell Sfinks?	Another day in Paradise!
I'm watching it snow.	It's kinda hard work.

Stuff like this didn't happen in Indianapolis! I don't remember it happening, anyway. But I'm 13, you know, and sometimes I'm not sure about my memory. (The trouble is, I don't remember whether there are things I should remember and don't.)

But regardless, this place has crazy weather! I hope it snows in the summer, too! The Big Guy took more pictures after these. We'll update you next time. It was still snowing at midnight, but not hard. The snow is melting on the streets and sidewalks, so it probably won't stick around after it stops.

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There's a fire hydrant
under there somewhere! You sure can't count on anything!

One day it's summer, the next day it's winter.

One day Anthropogenius Global Warming wins prizes, the next day Canada gets socked with the most snow in I-​don't-​know-​how-​long.

One day the Big Guy is emailing a potential adopter that "Lucy is the sweetest dog [he's] ever had," the next day she attacks Tucker!

At least I think she did....

I didn't see how it started, but I'm pretty sure Tucker tried to munch out of Lucy's supper bowl.

Wooo-wee was she mad! The BG pulled Tucker away, and Lucy kept coming after him! BG had on his high-top leather boots, so he kept Lucy away with his foot until she calmed down.

Yessireebob, we've had some excitement around here! I'm resting up, curled up under the comptuer desk while BG finishes typing. Then I think it'll be time to move to the bedroom to rest up some more.

Who knows what tomorrow may bring!

-- photo of dog with snow people linked from eCanadaNow.

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