Afternoon With Dad

Hello. This is The Daily Bone and I’m your surreptitious doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel.

As I reported yesterday, my ghostwriter had to go to work before she had a chance to write The Daily Bone. She’s been spending a lot of time at work lately, and at such undogly hours: 3-11:30PM! While she’s gone, we have Dad at home to take care of us. No, we don’t spend the whole time whining and howling! Here’s my spy cam documentary.

Watching the business report. 

A little quiet playtime. 

Supper time! Yum! 

Apparently my feet were dirty, so I got to play in the bathtub.

Um Dad, I think I can dry my own feet!

Joey is snoring. Heheheh. 

What's that noisy machine? Looks like an alien from Dr. Who! 

Oh no! All the furniture moved to one side of the room! 

Now Dad is just sitting on the steps reading the paper. He says he's waiting for the floor to dry. How did the floor get all wet? I didn't pee on it! 

So when does Mom get home? 

Work Again?

Hello. This is The Daily Bone, and I'm your humble doggie corespondent Chester L. W. Spaniel.

We have nothing to report today. Our ghostwriter is going to work yet again! Sigh …

Summer Redux

Hello. This is The Daily Bone and I’m your dignified doggie host Chester L. W. Spaniel.

After hearing all sorts of dire omens that cold weather will be creeping into Western NY in September, we’re happy to announce, it’s still quite summer-like. Although the calender says September is almost over, and it’s officially Autumn, my fellow reporter Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel and I feel like it’s still summer.

There are hardly any leaves on the ground here in the back yard. The weather is fine and hot. The nights are cool and filled with stars. Noisy lawn mowers broke the Sunday morning stillness all around the neighborhood. The kids were running around in their bathing suits and playing in pools and sprinklers. The sky is so clear and blue you can see the jets fly by.

Our humans say it’s Indian Summer, a wonderful phenomenon in this region in which summer seems to return. Don’t be fooled, though. There are still other signs of Autumn. The days are getting shorter. It’s dark by 8PM.

Stinky bugs are sneaking into the house. 

Milkweed pods are popping open.

The birch tree in the front yard has dropped its leaves.

Oh, and there's football on TV. Go Bills! 

Silent Sunday: Squirrel on the Rocks

Middle Man

Good afternoon faithful readers around the world. Today it's time for the Yum Yum Coalition Food Column. I'm Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel, Doggie Chief Inspector, comestibles division, and founder of the Yum Yum Coalition.

Today we're featuring fusion cooking and eating. For example, in this fruit bowl are tomatoes, peppers, a banana, a rather stale apple, and a couple of alien life forms hiding out from Chester.

Next, we have a home made TV dinner: Paneer Makhani with added vegetables, basmati rice with a piece of corn on the cob. Mom says the spices in Indian food, particularly the turmeric, help with her aches and pains. And the corn, she just loves to eat anytime!

Here's a fresh bag of the good stuff that Dad just bought for us. Too bad it doesn't quite qualify as fusion food. It's all pretty much uniform in size, shape, taste, and texture, but …

Oh, wait a minute … what's this? We interrupt this food column to bring you a special report! Wow! This is a container of mixed vegetables. I detect broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and snap peas! Yes, it does smell a bit pungent after sitting in the fridge for two weeks.

In our on-going effort to reduce the amount of garbage we produce, the left-over vegetables have now been put into the compost bucket.

We'll follow it attentively as it makes the journey to the compost pile. We can't chance any of it falling on the ground, can we?

Here it is! The left-over scraps are now part of the compost pile ecology where it will decompose into lovely rich soil that we can use to fertilize the garden. Do you see it right there on the top?

What an amazing variety of things in there! This is a prime example of fusion food for all of the wonderful bacteria, bugs, worms, and fungi to feast upon!

Chomp! 

Seriously, though, maybe my humans should just cut out the middle man and give those scraps directly to me for processing.

Itsy-bitsy Spider

Hello fellow science geeks! This is The Daily Bone and I’m your circumspect doggie correspondent Chester L. W. Spaniel, along with my erudite colleague Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel. Warning! If you’re scared of spiders, don’t read this. Or, read it anyway. Maybe you just might change your mind. 

It’s that time of year again! No, not just for leaves turning pretty colors and falling off the trees onto the ground. 

Not for the cool nights with bright stars shining above. Not for the flocks of flying geese, mobs of blue jays in the morning, and colorful pumpkins everywhere.  

No, science geeks, it’s time for spiders! Big gigantic garden spiders bouncing in their huge, intricate webs. These are the ones that survived the entire summer without being eaten by birds. 

There's a leaf stuck in my web! 

Unfortunately, for some humans, just thinking about spiders brings chills and fright. There are entire horror movies about being scared of spiders. In fact, there is even a disease with a fancy Latin name, arachnophobia, that means literally fear of spiders. Here’s a most beautiful and excellent garden spider. Aren’t the markings pretty? No? It must be tough knowing you inspire dread and revulsion rather than amazement and wonder. 

Spiders are some of nature’s most successful and highly evolved predators. They eat up lots of flies and mosquitoes. That’s good, isn’t it? 

Leave me alone. I just want to eat bugs!

We doggies aren’t afraid of spiders. Running through spider infested bushes doesn’t phase us in the least. Our ghostwriter never kills spiders, although I have been know to eat them on occasion. If she finds one in the house, she’ll catch it carefully in a cup and then put it outside. 

We doggies think it’s strange that the humans are so afraid of spiders, yet think the one that appears in the movie called  “Minuscule” is absolutely adorable! What’s more, their favorite and most beloved super hero is none other than Spiderman! Go figure! 

                                       

No Monarchs

Good morning friends and fans. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your humble doggie host
Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

This year we left lots of milkweed plants growing in the garden in hopes of getting some monarch butterfly caterpillars. No luck! In fact, we only saw one or two monarch butterflies the entire summer!

But we have some photos from a couple years ago to show everyone.