Happy Dog Day!

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

We almost forgot about National Dog Day! I don't have much time for a full report, since my ghostwriter has to get ready for work (again!) But I wanted to let you know about this: 

GW found this in the check-out at Wegmans a few days ago. If you happen to see it as well, be sure to pick it up. It has everything you need to know about doggies, like how we became to be the loving, attentive, wise companions we are today, and much more.

Hope you have a wonderful National Dog Day! 

Long Time, No See

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

Sorry we haven't posted in such a long time! My ghostwriter has been working a lot at the nursing home, and in the garden lately, and things have been mostly boring around here. At least for me!

Anyway, we've been watching the TV news about all the terrible wild fires burning on the western side of the country. You would think that wouldn't affect us here on the other side of the continent in New York State! But, amazingly, smoke from those fires did reach us and we had some pretty spectacular sunsets. Here are a few in no particular order:

The moon looked pretty awesome too! In this picture you can see Jupiter, Saturn, and the moon almost perfectly lined up. (The blue dot is a reflection on the camera lens.)

In other news, some big trucks and several men have been working on the neighborhood roads. 

The trucks laid down a thin layer of asphalt, and the men mopped the edges, set up traffic cones, and closed off our street from traffic for several hours. Every day they've been working on different sections of roads around the entire neighborhood. 

While working in the garden, ghostwriter found a little toad. We find one around here almost every year at this time of summer, but they're usually a lot bigger than this guy! She brought him indoors and put him into the kitchen sink for a brief photo session, then put him back outside. Hopefully he'll help reduce the currently booming mosquito population.

Meanwhile, Sparrows Incorporated has had a population boom as well. 

Wow! That's a lot of sparrows!

I think that a sneaky bunny has been coming around in the middle of the night to snarf up seeds the birdies drop on the ground. Ghostwriter found evidence of his presence while she did a pooper-scooper walk around the yard. 

I've been tracking a scent underneath the hostas …

I know ghostwriter hates it when I stomp through her flowers, but this is an important cocker spaniel hunting doggie duty.

This time of year we take time to remember our angel doggies who passed over the bridge: 

Miss Ginger passed in July 2010. She was the beautiful princess of the house, and loved chasing bunnies. She also had a wonderful singing voice and provided musical entertainment every mealtime.

My best friend Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel, Doggie Chief Inspector, Comestibles Division, left us in July 2016. Many long time readers will remember Joey dog. He was my partner in the Double Doggie Homeland Security System, and the world's best food watcher.

We never forget our angels.

joeys-photo-collection

Suddenly, It's the Middle of July!

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

Well, we got through another 4th of July! Fortunately I'm not too bothered by the sound of fireworks, because our entire neighborhood was launching all kinds of them until 11pm. We could hear the low booms of the Town display, and the loud cracks of stuff the neighbors shot off. Around 10pm, a big display started in the baseball field a couple blocks over. We could see them from our house. They certainly did not look like amateurs! (Even if our photos might.)

My ghostwriter says today, with the humidity, heat, and scattered showers reminds her of summer vacation when she was a kid growing up in Niagara Falls, NY. There was no AC then, so on really hot days, she and her siblings and friends would play Monopoly, or cards, or dolls, or just read books in the cool basement. After a hard rain, they'd run outside to splash in the puddles. On cooler days, they'd ride their bikes over the Grand Island Bridge. Sometimes they'd ride across the Rainbow Bridge to Canada. 

Hey, I thought this was MY blog! 

I'll tell you what. For an extra treat, ghostwriter, you can show some pictures of the flowers that are blooming right now. 

Here are some creatures we saw recently:

Mr. Phineas Goldfinch Esq.

Katydid

Spike the plecostomus at the nursing home fish tank

Woodlouse hunter spider

Japanese Beetle

My kitty cat cousins Hannibal and Tiberius watched out their window for the red tail hawks. 

We also had our Jessy human come visit us for a week! She flew in a jet all the way from Florida! Here she is with two of her siblings when they went out for a night in the City:

But now, things have returned to normal. 

I guess that's all I have to say for today. I'm going inside for a nap. 

Wait a  minute!!!!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for this fast breaking news flash: There's a bunny in my back yard!!!!!!

OK. Bye!

Too Hot! (And Bunnies Too)

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

It's 90º out here! 

We should go back inside the house where it's air conditioned!

Ah! That's better! I shall continue my report from here.

My ghostwriter said that she's been seeing a big fat bunny in the neighbors' yards in the past week. I decided to do some sniffing around today to see if I could find him. While I didn't see the bunny, I did find some piles of bunny poop (or to some doggies: Cocoa Puffs.)  

For a long time we've wondered why the Secret Bunny Militia would make any effort to trespass in our back yard, which has a fence all around, and has been clearly marked with years of doggie pee. We concluded that they must have some kind of coming of age ritual that involves accomplishing a death-defying feat, such as a high speed chase involving a cocker spaniel, while trying desperately to remember where the heck you got into said cocker spaniel's yard in the first place!  

May I remind you that this cocker spaniel has actually caught quite a few bunnies over the last several years. I always proudly presented my prize catches to my ghostwriter, who gratefully praised my excellent cocker spaniel hunting skills. 

What's that? You really didn't want me to catch those bunnies?

I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that.

I happen to have the best hunting record of all the cocker spaniels who have ever lived at this house, if I must say so myself!