Os Canis

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

Dad went to the hardware store and brought home a brand new super noisy shop vac cleaner monster horrible thing. Did I say it was real noisy? He also brought home a new doggie! 

Heheheheh. You're joking, right Dad? Or did that rotten cantankerous loud scary annoying new shop vac machine thing suck all the skin off of that poor doggie?? 

Fortunately, Dad said this was just a Halloween fake skeleton doggie made out of plastic. Later, my ghostwriter took the new doggie out to the back yard. 

I thought, what the heck? Surely that fake doggie doesn't need to go out to the back yard …

But guess who else was out there? None other than Mr. Bones Daily, the skeleton guy that spends most of the year supposedly guarding Dad's workshop in the garage! He was waving his bony hand at me.

 "Welcome to spooky season, Chester!" he said. "This is my new skeleton doggie friend named Os Canis, or Ossy for short. He's going to help me with making Halloween even scarier than ever!"

You have GOT to be kidding me! 

Look Up, Look Down

 Greetings friends and fans. This is The Daily Bone, your best source for true stories during these troubled times, and I'm your trustworthy doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel. I have a lot to report today!

I have seen reports that there were massive wildfires in our west coast states. Last week the smoke from those fires reached all the way to the other side of the country and turned our skies hazy! Here's what the sunset looked like then:

We feel sorry for all the people who have had their homes burned up, and for the animals too. We'll now have a moment of silent prayer. 

To make things worse, hurricanes are moving up the coast. Can anything else bad happen this year? Forget I asked that. I'm sure the news networks and social media will conjure up some other crisis or harbinger of the end of the world (again.) Blah!

In other news, Mr. Cool Beans Cooper, our friendly neighborhood Cooper's hawk, caught another birdie in my backyard, and left a pile of feathers. I think this was a sparrow this time. 

We still have yet to see him actually make the kill. He must be a real early bird! But this afternoon, my ghostwriter said she saw him come wafting over the greenbelt. He made a couple circles around our yard before heading towards the evergreens where an army of sparrows were congregating loudly.

I have to tell you that those little birdies have officially consumed fifty pounds of seeds in the past few weeks! Hundreds of little birdies, fattened up after eating so many seeds is surely a tempting banquet for our local predator. We wish he'd go after some of those equally fat squirrels and chipmunks! 

My ghostwriter is finally off after finishing another several days of work. She was very glad to be home and spend some time just looking up and looking down, and finding so many amazing things. Here are some of them:

Sedum with bumblebee

Birch tree

Peony plants

Little toad

Daddy long legs

Funnel spider's house in the milkweed

Crane fly

Canada geese and crescent moon

Eating the last yummy pear from the tree

Clouds like wispy ghosts

Thankful for a nice, sunny day

Good night.

Too Much Working!

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

My ghostwriter has been working way too much lately! In addition to working every weekend, she's been having to do some 12-hour shifts (3pm to 3am.) When she comes home after that, she is exhausted, sleepy, achy, grumpy, and miserable for two days or more.  

What's that? Oh, she says it'll only be for one more week to help cover for two coworkers who are on a well-deserved vacation. So, that's OK, I guess? 

It's a good thing Dad is always home. Otherwise I'd be all alone in the house.

She also says to her good Blogville friends: please excuse her for falling behind on commenting on your posts. She still reads and enjoys them. 

I especially love reading the posts about my doggie and kitty cat friends getting some yum yum treats, or a new squeaky toy.

In other news, in spite of her work schedule, my ghostwriter remembered to look up and look down to find some awesome things.

Storm clouds coming.

Beautiful sunset.

A bit of a rainbow.

Yellow jackets eating a fallen pear.

Pretty flowers.

Phineas P. Finch alerted us of two evil squirrels in the yard stealing birdie seeds!

I didn't catch them, but I gave them a good chase!

Sleepy time now. Good night.

Cool Beans Cooper Strikes Again!

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

This morning we found a big pile of birdie feathers in the yard. My ghostwriter says it looks like the feathers were from a mourning dove. 

Immediately, I was on the case! 

After thoroughly sniffing the feathers, I concurred with her identification of the victim.

With my superior sense of smell, I also identified the perpetrator: Mr. Cool Beans Cooper, our friendly, neighborhood Cooper's hawk. 

Wow! We haven't seen Cool Beans Cooper in a long time! We wondered if, since we cut down the gigantic silver maple tree in our back yard, he moved on to better hunting grounds. 

Mr. C. B. Cooper sometimes catches robins, but more often he gets mourning doves. These birdies are polite and soft-spoken, but they aren't too bright. They'll sit very still on the ground and pretend to be rocks. When they take off, their wings make a loud whistling sound. How that gives them some kind of protective advantage, I have no idea. But there are plenty of them around.

In fact I caught one all by myself last summer! (I'm a good little cocker spaniel bird doggie!) 

We'll have to keep our eyes open to see if we can catch a glimpse of Mr. Cool Beans Cooper. I sure wish he'd catch some of those rotten chipmunks or squirrels! 

www.youtube.Cooper's Hawk video