Just Ducky

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

My ghostwriter went to visit Oma at her nursing home last week. She didn't expect the family of ducks to still be there, but they were! All eleven babies and their Mom were taking it easy in the shade of the patio. 

They are almost all grown up now, and have their flight feathers. But look at the mess they made! When they finally do fly away, the nursing home staff is going to have a lot of work hosing down the concrete!

For my next story, I realize I've been missing Flower Fridays the last few weeks! So here are some pictures of the flowers that are blooming in my yard right now. 

In other news, there's been some chipmunks sneaking around my yard lately. Sometimes they run into the drain pipes or up the corner molding of the siding. But usually they run through my ghostwriter's flowers. As you know cocker spaniels are the smallest of the hunting breeds of doggies. So I am hardwired to follow their stinky foot prints everywhere, even if it means stomping down the flowers. I get in trouble for that! Crummy rotten chipmunks! So today I went out and made an all points barking bulletin to my fellow doggies around the neighborhood to be on the look-out for those little miscreants!

Bark bark bark bark woof bark bark!

Bark bark woof woof bark bark bark!

Bark bark bark bark bark bark bark bark!

That should fix 'em! 

Harumph!

Down Time

Hey Chester?

What?

What are you doing in my seat? I just got up a minute ago.

Oh, this is your seat?

Yup. That's where I always sit.

Oh.

Well???

I was just keeping it warm for you.

Crazy Weekend

Greetings! This is The Daily Bone and I'm your cool, calm, and collected doggie reporter 

Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

It's been extra hot out the last couple days. So I tried to go outside as little as possible, and instead enjoyed the wonders of central air conditioning. Ghostwriter had to go to work for the weekend, though. It seemed every day she came home looking like this:

 If you think a nursing home is a quiet place at night, you'd be sadly  mistaken! That's when something called sundowner syndrome—yes, that's a real thing associated with Alzheimer's disease—kicks in. All the confusion, yelling, screaming, climbing out of bed, falling down, putting the call light on every five minutes, etc. starts, and the staff is running to keep up with the mayhem. Oh, and you never say the "q" word (as in, "I hope it stays quiet for you") when you leave to go home because then you'll jinx it for the next shift. 

Oh, but guess what? Look who came to visit the nursing home Saturday evening! 

Peek-a-boo!

Amazing!

Eleven Little Ducks

Hello everybody. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your diligent doggie reporter
Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

Yesterday my ghostwriter went to visit our Oma at the nursing home. (She's doing fine.) Loyal readers will remember that there is a family of ducks living in the enclosed courtyard: one Mama duck and eleven ducklings. Well, now the ducklings are as big as their Mama! All they need are their flight feathers to grow in, and they'll be flying out of there. When ghostwriter and Oma went out to see them, they were happily playing in two little pools with Mama watching them closely. 

Everyone into one pool now! Hurry up!

She decided that all eleven ducklings should be playing together in one pool. Here they are! Eleven— count 'em—eleven ducklings all crowded into the one muddy pool! 

OK children, play nice. 

Now then! Everybody out! Hurry up! Out of the pool!

We shall now stretch our wings and preen our feathers. 

Listen up, children! You are all to sit quietly while I go out for lunch. Bye!

With that, Mama duck flew away. The youngsters did as they were told: they snuggled together and sat quietly. A few even took a nap! 

After about half an hour, Mama duck returned. 

Hey, I'm back!

Now I want you all to go down the walk and visit those people over there!

Ghostwriter and Oma thought that human children would never be that well-behaved!

Five Little Ducks

Running Behind

Greetings loyal readers! This is The Daily Bone and I'm your faithful doggie reporter
Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

My ghostwriter has been working hard all week. Saturday she slept until 10am to catch up on her sleep. Her back hurts and her knees hurt. I don't know if I should be worried or not. 

We missed posting on the first day of summer, and Flower Friday. But here are a few pictures.

Another amazing sunset.

The moon behind the lilac bush.

A tiny, little moth the size of a fingertip.

I spent much of the last few days watching the news with Dad. 

(The humans are crazy … )

Somebody has been eating the hosta leaves.  We haven't caught the culprit yet. Slugs usually eat holes in the middle of the leaf. We think it's the work of some kind of caterpillar.

The daisies are blooming.

Here's the first tiger lily.

The garden Buddha is surrounded by greenery.

I found a ball of bunny fur in my back yard. No sign of the bunny, though. I wonder if our local Cooper's hawk caught it! I haven't seen Mr. C. B. (Cool Beans) Cooper in a while, but I'm sure he's around somewhere. I sure wish he'd catch some squirrels! 

Oh, and as you can see, I got a new chewy bone! Yum!

Meanwhile, at the nursing home, ghostwriter has been watching for chipmunks. She says they scamper all around the little garden and snarf up birdie seeds. Here's one:

A couple days ago, ghostwriter spotted two little twin baby deer eating grass by the back door.

I've sniffed a stinky chipmunk making tracks through my yard lately. Last night I found a mousie. I didn't catch it, though. But I've never seen any deer!

Ryan and Lily came to visit today.

I ran around in the back yard with Ryan, and we found some bugs, and filled the birdie feeders, and checked out the wood pile, and the flowers, and ran and barked and ran some more.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz …

Sky's On Fire

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

Last night we saw a spectacular sunset!  It started out as just some clouds moving in.

But look what happened next:

Wow!

Of course my ghostwriter has a scientific explanation for why the clouds looked like they were on fire. The fine feathery appearance of the cloud bases is actually something called virga. That is, rain that's falling from the clouds, but evaporating before it hits the ground. In this case, it's being lit up by the red rays of the setting sun.

It seems there's a scientific explanation for everything. Harumph!

Does anybody see a pair of eyes in this picture of the clouds?