Cool Beans Cooper Strikes Again!

This is a TDB Fast Breaking News Flash. I'm your doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel live and on location in my back yard. 

Loyal readers may remember me talking about our resident Cooper's Hawk, Mr. C. B. Cooper who's been living somewhere in our neighborhood for the past several years. This morning I found clumps of feathers scattered all over one section of the yard.

Naturally I did a careful investigation of the evidence.

Sniff sniff sniff sniff …

Sniff sniff sniff …

No, I am NOT eating the birdie feathers!

After painstakingly examining all the feathery evidence, I can say the victim was a mourning dove, but hopefully not one of Debbie Dove's close relatives. I can also say without doubt that the perpetrator was Mr. C. B. Cooper. He must get up pretty early in the morning because we never actually see him make the kill or pluck the feathers before carrying off his victim. Most likely, he has a family of his own to feed at this time of the summer. We find this kind of evidence every so often through out the spring and summer months. Here's a link to a previous find from July of last year:

2017/07/poor-birdie

That's it for this report. If we happen to see Mr. C. B. Cooper, we'll try to get an interview. However, he tends to do a good job of hiding. I will say, I wish he'd catch some of those crummy squirrels or chipmunks instead of the nice birdies! 

Hello Again

Greetings everyone. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your faithful doggie reporter 

Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

My ghostwriter had a day off Thursday, after a long stretch of working. She's been trying to catch up on the posts from our wonderful Blogville friends. Some may note, a few of our comments were sent at around 2am Monday night (or Tuesday morning you might say) when she had a bit of quiet time on the job. There is such a staff shortage right now, that she never knows when she'll have to pick up more overtime. Hopefully things will get better and more staff will be hired soon.

But summer marches on in my back yard! We had a couple days of rain, and guess what happened? Lots and lots of little mushrooms popped up in the compost! Wow!

The mid-summer flowers are starting to bloom.

I received a post card from my dearest Princess Leah. She says she wishes I could be with her as she explores the beautiful gardens at Chatsworth. I wish I could be there too, but I have to be at home to keep Dad company and watch over the house while ghostwriter is working so much. Seems like she's hardly ever home lately. Thank you Princess and your humans for thinking about me and sending the lovely post card!

I hope you got to see the great big full moon last night.

So now, ghostwriter has to go to work yet again! 

We hope everyone has a good weekend!

Blogville Friends

This is  Public Service Announcement from The Daily Bone. 

I'm your diligent doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

Due to my ghostwriter's insane work schedule, we have gotten behind on reading the posts from all my good Blogville friends. We expect this to go on at least until the end of this month, maybe more. Hopefully we'll be able to catch up by then. Thank you for your understanding.

Flowers and the Moon

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

My ghostwriter is going to do a crazy feat and work three different shifts within three days! Indeed last night she didn't get home until almost 4am. Tomorrow she goes into work at 7am. (She hasn't worked day shift in ages! I hope she wakes up on time!) Then Sunday she'll do an evening shift. (And this is supposed to be her weekend off!) It makes me yawn just to think about it!

But enough about this insanity. We would like to take a few moments to show you some of the flowers we have growing right now. 

It's been very hot and windy out lately. All those flowers would be dried out if not for diligent watering by Dad and ghostwriter. Unlike some doggies, I'm not too fond of water shooting out of a hose, so I usually stay indoors during these watering sessions.

One good thing about the weather lately is that the sky has been fairly clear most of the time. The moon happens to be rising in the middle of the day. Here's  a picture from around 2pm today. (See the wind blowing the tree branches?)

Here is the moon this evening at 9:30pm. Notice the bright dot underneath it. 

That's the planet Jupiter. 

Of course, ghostwriter has provided a link to a scholarly treatise about the night sky on this date: 

tonight/moon-jupiter

I, however, prefer to view the moon with my dearest Princess Leah in mind. She's staying at her Summer Tower home right now, and should have a grand view of the moon from there! On that note, I'm going back outside to make a call. The moon will be out until 1:27am my dear. I hope you had a nice nap today. We have lots to catch up on!

princessleah

Spot the Chippy

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

My ghostwriter finally has a couple days off!  While she was at work, she took a look outside at the garden in the back of the nursing home and here's what she saw:

Do you see the stinky chipmunk in this picture? Take a closer look: 

He's on top of the sign just below the wind chimes. You might also notice that the doggie statue is staring at him! If you look carefully at the top picture, there is a white kitty cat statue to the left of that rotten chippy! Too bad those aren't real animals, or else that chippy wouldn't stand a chance. 

So, what are we going to do on your days off? 

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.