Little Things and Big Things

Hello everyone. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your dedicated doggie reporter 

Chester L. W. Spaniel. 

My ghostwriter has been working a lot the past few days, so she's way behind on reading our good friends' blogs. We'll try to get caught up today. But first I wanted to give you some of my news from the back yard. We spotted some little things in the garden. 

Little snail sleeping on a rock.

Tiny ants digging up the sand.

A funny little mushroom.

About a week ago we saw the moon in the sky. That bright spot to the right of it is the planet Jupiter! It looks like it's way smaller than the big full moon. But actually Jupiter is many times bigger than our planet Earth. At the end of this post is a link to a scholarly treatise about Jupiter. (Oh, and that blue thing below the moon is just a reflection on the camera lens, and not an alien space craft!) 

In other news, my Florida associate Miss Charlee sent me a picture of a great big iguana that visited her yard. She said her Jessy human was out on the driveway cooking dinner on the smoker grill, and Iggy there walked up to her, and did some push-ups, before climbing up the tree. Iguanas are not native to South Florida. They were mostly brought there as pets and were released or escaped into the wild. Now they're all over, and grow up to be huge like this one.  

It was a big day last Friday when my favorite young human, Ryan, got off the big yellow school bus on the last day of school. Hooray!

Here's a picture of a big thing I saw coming around the block in front of my house. It's the super noisy roaring monster earth-shaking vacuum street cleaner machine truck! There have been times when we saw squirrels literally fly out of the treetops when they heard this truck go by! 

Too bad it only comes around a few times a year. I think it should go around our block at least once a week if nothing else but to give the Evil Squirrel Cartel a scare!

Heheheh!

And now I'd like to give a BIG thank you to our good friend Ann, along with Zoey and Dougie at Zoolatry for giving The Daily Bone such a wonderful review! Here's a link to her post:

zoolatry.lets-share-july-fun

Be sure to click on all the links on that post to visit even more pets and to see some of the wonderful artwork Ann does and shares with all of our blogger friends.

Check out the details in this great picture. There's me, with a grackle on my head, and my favorite chewy bone, along with several of our other blogger friends. Again, be sure to click on all the links on the Zoolatry post to meet some of them. Thanks again to Ann for featuring The Daily Bone!


Oh, oh.  Is that Special Agent Bun Bun I see over there.

Excuse me, but I've got to run …

interesting-facts-about-jupiter

Flowers on Friday

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

My ghostwriter has been working her fingers to the bone in the garden lately. (I'm not quite sure what that means. I mean, her fingers don't look like chewy bones to me.) But anyway, she says things are starting to shape up finally. So let's get right to it! (We took these pictures on Tuesday.)

OK, so that last picture isn't of flowers. These are our doggie statues in the front yard. 

We had a nice sunset Tuesday evening.

Then the moon came up in a hazy sky.

It seemed like a great summer was finally getting started here. But not for long!

Wednesday night and most of Thursday, the rain came down in buckets!

And I do mean buckets!

This ruined many of the pretty flowers shown above. My backyard is like a swamp, and every time I go out, I get soaking wet! But at least I haven't seen any more of those mischievous chipmunks! I'm thinking they found out a drain pipe is not a good hiding place after all, especially during a torrential rain fall!

The Chip and Bun Bun Show

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

The time has come again when we get invaded by the Conniving Chipmunk Consortium and the Secretive Bunny Militia. First, please allow me to give you some information about these furry miscreants. 

The Conniving Chipmunk Consortium is well versed in how to get doggies in big trouble. These little hoodlums sneak around through ghostwriter's garden. Then, instead of running up the nearest tree like the evil squirrels do, they go up the nearest drain pipe. Of course, being a cocker spaniel (the smallest of the hunting doggie group) I am hard-wired to follow their stinky footie prints where ever they go. Here's a picture of one from our archives:

The other day, when it was raining pretty hard out, I asked to go out to do some business. There were two evil squirrels out there who immediately bolted up the silver maple tree. But I took one sniff and knew there was a more sinister villain afoot! I followed the scent and went crashing through the hostas, bushes, and flowers.

It went all the way to the corner of the house. Sure enough there was a chipmunk hiding up inside the corner molding of the siding. I could hear him scratching around and squeaking! There was NO WAY I was going to let that scoundrel get away! I stood in the rain, with my feet in a mud puddle, barking like crazy. I refused to come back when ghostwriter called me. She had to go out with a leash to drag me back inside the house. Needless to say, I was in big trouble for not only refusing to come when called, but for getting soaking wet and muddy, and trampling the flowers too!

If I ever catch that dirty rotten chipmunk, I'm gonna take his squeaker out!

Later on that evening after ghostwriter was at work, Dad took this picture: 

This is none other than Special Agent Bun Bun of the Secretive Bunny Militia! I have a theory that bunnies have an initiation ritual in which they must risk their lives by invading hostile territory, and then run like heck when an unsuspecting doggie spots them. Why else would they sneak into my yard that has been well-marked by 20 years of doggie pee mail? 

I went out three separate times, and found Special Agent Bun Bun snarfing birdie seeds off the ground under the feeders, and gave her a good chase. But she managed to escape each time. Ghostwriter finally figured out where this bunny has been getting in and out of my yard, and blocked the opening. We'll just have to wait and see what happens next! 

In the meantime, the Stodgy Robin Society had yet another debutante! This one is named Willhemina Merryberry-Lyricsong … what?

She flew away! Hey! I just wanted to talk to you! 

Oh well. It's been a frustrating few days! 

Here's a link to one of my better days in regards to chipmunks: 

I-found-stinky-chipmunk

… And Flowers Too

Greetings friends and fans. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your pertinacious doggie reporter 

Chester L. W. Spaniel.

We have a lot to report today, so I'm going to get right to it.

Sunday we had a visit with our youngest miniature human, Lily. She didn't notice me while she was playing with the toys. 

Oh, hello.

Doggie!!!

My ghostwriter showed her how to carefully pet my head and ears. 

Nice doggie. Soft doggie. 

I think she likes me! Hooray! 

The last several days have been mostly bright and sunny. Wednesday afternoon, just as ghostwriter was leaving for work at 2:30pm, there was a double rainbow halo around the sun. Since she was in a hurry, she didn't get to take many pictures. But here is one:

A  halo like that usually means clouds are moving in, starting with high cirrus clouds with ice crystals in them. Sure enough, the next day was dismal, gray, and cool!

In other news, ghostwriter finally filled up the bird feeders. We've been seeing lots of nice little birdies, like gold finches, house finches, chipping sparrows, and cardinals. Oh, and of course, the gang from Sparrows Incorporated. The Stodgy Robin Society local chapter members still hop regally around the yard looking for worms. Debbie Dove and her family have been sitting on the grass picking up the seeds the other birdies drop from the feeders. It's been quite idyllic actually. Until …

Egads! It's those annoying grackles! Here's the big grackle boss Effluvium Scatterstool, and his wife Ditzy, and brother-in-law Stingy Sournote. They're not as nasty as they were earlier in the season, since their baby gargoyles, oops, I mean grackles are all grown up now. But they're still greedy. If you look carefully, by the rocks, Mr. Redson T. Cardinal is looking on hungrily as the grackles snarf up all the seeds. 

Oh, and look who else was back yesterday! 

Hey dogface! You still owe me a peanut butter sandwich! 

It's alias Twinkletoes the rude squirrel! Well, I gave him a run for his money!

Grrrrrr …

OK, time for flowers.

I have one last bit of news.

A big thunderstorm came roaring through this evening! I'll have you know, I wasn't even a tiny bit scared! I'm a brave doggie! Besides, I was busy watching my humans eat dinner.

OK. Good night.