Tuesday, February 27, 2018

It Has Begun

This is a TDB Special Report and I'm your serious doggie commentator Chester L. W. Spaniel.


Last evening we spied a garrulous gang of greasy grackles in the top branches of our silver maple tree. They were screeching loudly and showing off their shiny feathers to each other in the golden light of the setting sun. It seems their northern migration has begun!


While some may consider them a wonderful sign of Spring, long-time readers will remember our annual rants about the infamous Great Flying Grackle PTA (Poop Tosser Association.) They have the musical aptitude of fingernails on a blackboard! They bully the smaller birdies, build their nests in every near-by bush or tree, dive-bomb anyone who comes near, and drop big globs of slimy poop on our cars. They are very vainglorious and give their offspring pompous and pretentious names. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's the big grackle boss, Effluvium Scatterstool trying to get seeds out of the birdie feeder here. (On the ground is a red-winged blackbird. They sometimes travel with the flocks of grackles during migration times.) 


Fortunately, this particular feeder closes it's ports when a heavy birdie (or squirrel) sits on it. I've been watching carefully, and I recognized Poopsie Sournote, Shiny Crappenheimer, and Screech Dungflinger so far. They haven't gotten together into breeding pairs yet. I'll do my best to bark at them and try to stop them from choosing our tall arbor vitae bushes as their real estate endeavors.


What's more is, this morning I saw no sign of the little tiny chickadees and nuthatches who were happily eating seeds from our birdie feeders a couple days ago. They were probably hiding today. I haven't seen a single junco either. I think maybe Coach Gordy Whitebeak took his team of juncos back to Canada after seeing those belligerent grackles.


Mr Seedcruncher, the CEO of Sparrows Inc. wasn't very pleased either. I saw him and his family siting in the pear tree chattering impatiently while they waited for a chance to eat their dinner from the birdie feeders. 


On a positive note, the sun has been shining for the last couple days, and it's been warm and windy. There were a few more signs of Spring here. The Stodgy Robin Society has been spotted in the hawthorn tree, and we've heard them singing this evening. Dad found a woolly bear caterpillar.


There was a beautiful sunset. Flocks of geese have been flying overhead all day.


Hey, after watching the local weather report I can say that those grackles are in for a big surprise! It's supposed to snow later this week. I hope they brought their winter coats!


The moon has been coming up early, and the sky is actually clear enough for me to see it!


Time for some howling! Hi Princess!

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Thursday Night News

Greetings friends and fans! This is The Daily Bone and I'm your diligent doggie reporter 
Chester L. W. Spaniel. 


It's about 11am here. I'm outside with snow falling on my nose. Thankfully, ghostwriter is off work today, so she doesn't mind if it snows all day long! 


I'll be sure to update you on the amount of snow we have through out the day. 

Snowflakes taste yummy.

Sunday was my favorite miniature human, Ryan's fifth birthday. He went to a Rochester Amerks hockey game and met a gigantic walking, talking squeaky toy! Wow! 


Later he celebrated with pizza and chocolate chip cookie cake, and lots of presents! One of these presents was a game that featured the Evil Squirrel Cartel called The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game.


A game about squirrels????

Huh?

But apparently you have to pick up little acorns and put them in your hiding place.

The squirrel acorn picker-upper tong thing.

The spinner tells you what color and how many acorns you can get. The first squirrel to fill up his hidey-hole is the winner. But there is a spot on the spinner that says a big storm comes along and blows all your acorns away! Hahaha! 


Well, Ryan had a good fun time playing the game with Uncle Jason. (You can see Ryan's mom Cathy in the background of this photo. Notice her tummy. She going to have a baby girl soon and Ryan will be a big brother! Wow! We'll be sure to make the announcement when the time comes.)

And now for a weather update.


3pm and it's still snowing a little. We've got a couple inches of soggy wet snow on the ground. But it's supposed to stop soon and then get warmer again. I'm beginning to think that WNY weather is playing games with us! Is this all the snow we're going to get?  REALLY??? This time in 2015 we had tons of snow! 


6pm. The snow is melting quickly! I bet by tomorrow morning it'll all be gone. We watched the local TV weather report, and it's supposed to stay warm and rainy for the next week. 


I still think there's got to be at least one more big blizzard before Spring!


Now I have a very sad story to report. Our esteemed and honorable friend Sarge (aka The Commish) has unexpectedly crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Sarge was a famous and beloved figure in Blogville who headed up the  police department, and participated in many Blogville events. Blogville will never be the same without you, Sarge!


I'm sure Sarge is now running with our Joey dog along the beautiful Clarion River in summer and climbing up the mountain to the fire tower in Cook Forest and listening to the wood thrush piping in the trees.



Please visit Sarge's doggie blog here: 


Thursday, February 15, 2018

Remembering Joey Dog

Greetings friends and fans. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your nostalgic doggie reporter 
Chester L. W. Spaniel. 


Today would have been my esteemed late colleague Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel's 16th birthday! I decided it would be fun to just look at some pictures of him from over the years.



























He was my best friend and I miss him a lot! 

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Valentines Day

Hello everyone. This is a TDB Special Report. I'm your amorous doggie reporter 
Chester L. W. Spaniel. 


 I always know when there's something in the mail for me! Look look look lookie look!


It's from my dearest Princess Leah! I love it! It arrived just in time too. I just barely made it to the airport to catch my flight to Paris! We met up at a cozy little cafe with a view of the Eiffel Tower.


I gave them a play list of my favorite love songs so we can have a lovely time sipping puppicinos, and snacking on Crèpe Suzette! Yum!


(What could be classier and more romantic than music by Blossom Dearie?)











Meanwhile, back at home, Dad remembered to get ghostwriter her favorite Valentine's Day present: