Pyr Pups

A few days ago I received an email asking if we could foster a few Great Pyrenees pups for a few days as they made the way from Nashville, Tn to Indianapolis, In.  After giving it some thought we decided that since we were home for the holiday weekend and love dogs and puppies we would offer our home to these pups.  Knowing that Jason couldn't be much help due to his current cast and crutches situation, I decided that I could handle it on my own.  And I did!  And, oh boy, were these the cutest babies ever!  There were four seven week old Great Pyrenees pups and the cutest littlte fur balls I've ever seen!  Unfortunately they were full of round worms so had to be isolated to the basement so as not to contaminate any of our resident dogs.

They behaved very well for such young pups just weaned from their mother.  They had a hefty appetite and a ton of energy.  After keeping them for a day and night, this afternoon we dropped them off with IGPR, who will treat their condition and then find them good foster homes until they can go to their forever home.  I know one night is not a lot, but I was happy to help out as much as I could.  We got Buddy (aka Giant Dawg) from IGPR and love what they do for the Pyr breed.

I had so much fun playing with these little fur balls!  Jason and I always pull in full grown rescues (puppies are a lot of work!) and so it's not often we get the opportunity to work with puppies.  And with that, I leave you with a couple of photos that will make you swoon!

A Very Doggie Christmas - 21/52

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas - I know we did!  It was nice to have a couple of days free from work and to get to spend those days with friends and family.  We had several Christmas parties that we attended and every one was a great time.

The big family Christmas is always on Christmas Eve.  Portia was able to go to that with us and then come home with us for the night and spend most of Christmas Day with us - most of which was spent hopping from various grandparent's houses. Since we weren't home Christmas Eve until 1:00 am and Christmas Day was very busy we ended up letting Portia open her gifts at 2:00 am and not getting to bed until around 4:00am on Christmas Day and then sleeping until almost noon and then high-tailing it out and about.

And we can't forget the pups at Christmas!  They always get a gift each and know that anything wrapped in tissue paper is for them.  This year they all got stuffless critters with squeakers in them. I say "they" but Lois Lane is usually the only one that plays with them - and she loves them!  Hardy made it to another Christmas with us as well, which we are thrilled about.  He turned 17 on Christmas Day and this was his 16th Christmas with us.  I have photos of them with their gifts below. All family photos can be found in my FB Christmas 2010 album.

Giant Dawg waiting patiently for Portia to open her presents. This is only his 2nd Christmas with us so he doesn't get quite as excited as the others do.

Hardy opening his present (sorry for the poor quality - it was late):


Blue checking out his new fox:
 

Lois Lane didn't want to share her Christmas Badger, which ensued in a game of full out tug-of-war, her favorite:

Duck Drama - 20/52

Who would have thought 5 Muscovy ducks could cause so much drama!  A few days ago, Lil' Girl, my favorite female of the bunch, up and flew away.  I got up that morning, opened up the back blinds of the window that overlooks the pond, and all of the ducks were flying around.  Four of them came right back.  Lil' Girl had something else on her agenda.  I keep hoping she'll reappear, but so far no luck.

Then, this morning, Jason looked out the same window and saw the same thing - all ducks in flight.  This time, however, two of them came back and temporarily roosted on the roof of the house.  This is Mama duck and one of the babies (all grown up now).  Daddy Duck and the other male baby still haven't come back.

I walked down to the pond to refresh their food and to make sure the heater was keeping an area unfrozen so they can drink, and I noticed footprints in the snow that sits on top of the frozen pond.  The tracks indicate a smallish animal with padded feet was on the ice.  I'm thinking it was likely a fox or a small coyote.  And I'm also thinking that is what spooked all the ducks into flying off.  What I don't know is if Mr. Predator managed to nab him a duck dinner before all was said and done.  I'm hoping not, but there's really no way to know.  The paw prints going towards the duck's watering hole is not a good sign though. I guess at this point we just watch and see what happens. Hopefully we manage to get the two that came back to stick around. There really isn't much we can do aside from provide them with food, water and shelter, which they already have full access to.  If the two that came back are smart they will sleep on the roof until the pond thaws and they can use their floating duck dock again (now embedded in a slab of ice).

This is Lil' Girl...still hoping she reappears.

Edit:  Daddy Duck came home at dusk tonight!  :)

Blue Humbug

Blue wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas.  Ok, he just wants the hat off...it's the thought that counts.  ;)

This week at I Heart Faces it's all about pets! Click the logo below to see other great, furry entries!

Birdies - 19/52

Now that snow is covering the ground the bird feeders in the yard have become very popular.  At one point we had about 30 mourning doves on the ground picking up the seeds that the cardinals, blue jays, chickadees and titmouse scattered off of the feeder.

Dove Buffet:

Pretty boy:

Feed Me. Now. - 18/52

Giant Dawg gets a little pushy at dinner time.  And breakfast time for that matter...

The ducks got new digs yesterday.  We built them a larger 6' x 6' dock with a dog igloo in the middle for winter shelter.  They seem to like it and started exploring it right away.  Daddy Duck is the only one that decided he liked the old, half sinking dock better.  Go figure.

Here they are checking out their new duck pad.  You can see Daddy Duck on the old dock looking a bit apprehensive:

Jason goes in for surgery on his ankle on Thursday.  He ripped his peroneal tendon right in half and has to have it reconstructed with bovine tendon (Moo Moo Buckaroo!).  He's been hobbling around on crutches for 6 weeks now and will be for another couple of months until he can start physical therapy.  Luckily I'm home now to help him out, particularly because it's his right foot and he can't drive anywhere.

And speaking of working from home - it rocks!  I could use a couple more clients to make me feel a little more comfortable, but so far it's going well.  It's nice actually having time to put into my own work and actually having weekends free to do whatever I want (for now anyway).  We usually get a busy spree at the beginning of the year when new budgets are in place, so hopefully after the holidays we'll pick up those extra clients and be well on our way!

Making Use of the Treadmill - 17/52

Heelers have an uncanny way of making themselves comfortable just about anywhere, and Blue is no exception.  Here he is, curled up in a tiny bed that is 3 sizes too small for him, with his head resting on the treadmill.  At least someone was putting the thing to good use.  Luckily I sold it yesterday.  But alas, Blue will have to find himself a new headrest.

Silly Ducks - 16/52

Go Go Duckzilla!

Flipping me the feather?

Wait for meeeee!

The ducks crack me up.  They dive, they flap across the water at insane speeds and the little brown girl, my favorite of the bunch, is a food fiend!  This last photo is of her running up the hill because she knew I had food up there for her.  They are very entertaining!

Scrappy Doo - 15/52

This is Scrappy.  He belongs to our friends Christina & Charlie and is a hoot!  He has the longest legs I've ever seen on a little dog and boy can he run!  Him and his sister dog, Molly, come over for play dates with our four on a regular basis.  Scrappy was rescued from the Humane Society about a year ago.  Such a funny little love!

Comfy Giant Dawg - 14/52

Buddy snuck up on the couch during our Halloween party and someone covered him up.  He was quite comfy and stayed there for quite some time.  It was also after he swiped a chunk out of the cake on the counter too so maybe his tummy wasn't feeling so hot!

Red Finch - 13/52

Exciting Updates!

Two weeks from today I will no longer be an employee of KFB - the company I have worked at for the last 10+ years.

Webfoo, Inc, our own web enterprise business, is taking off and doing so well that's it's becoming difficult to keep up. So after many months of discussion and figuring and hoping, I'm going home!  I'll be working from home, on our own business projects, with my hubby.  No more waking up at 5:50 am for a 45 minute commute.  No more coming home from work only to work another 4 hours on business stuff before grabbing a quick bite and going to bed to start it all over again.  Oh how nice it will be to only have one full time job again! I know Jason will be happy since this means I'll be helping him out a lot more with answering client inquiries, particularly since he's been getting all of my calls since I can't take them while I'm at work.

A lot of people ask me "what exactly do you do?".  In a nutshell, I do a little of a lot.  A little design work, a little development work.  But right now my main focus is on SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ). I go through a website and tweak backend onsite code as well as external sources to make that site be found in the highest possible position in search engines.  So when you Google for something using a keyword of "pet rats in Louisville", it's my job to make sure that my client's rat site shows up on page one of the search engine, preferably in the number one position.  It's a never ending battle of tweaks and research, but it's interesting work!

I'm very excited for this new chapter in my life - even though it's a little scary at the same time since both Jason and I are now self-employed.  But with the new house, the new work arrangement, winter approaching and the best possible time to give it a shot, we're jumping in with both feet.  I'll keep updates here as things happen.  Wish us luck!

Poe - 12/52

It's been a while since I've featured Poe, my betta fish (aka Siamese fighting fish).  He's a couple of years old now and still swimming laps around is bowl.  He started out more of a blue and red color, but as he gets older he's become almost a solid red.

I have some "me" updates as well, but will put those in a separate post later this morning.

Sleepy Lois - 11/52

Right before I went to bed Sunday night I realized I hadn't gotten my animal photo for the week. Since Lois Lane was the only one still up with me, she got to be the lucky subject. She's funny and often lays with her arm propped up on the arm rest.

The Pups - 10/52

It's been a while since I've uploaded photos of the pups, so for this weeks animal photo I decided to capture them all!

Hardy :

Blue:

Lois Lane:

Buddy:

Buckeye Butterfly - 9/52

I went walking through our woods today in search of some type of critter for my 52 Weeks of Animals project.  I had about given up when I saw this Buckeye Butterfly flittering around near the pond.

I Heart Faces: Smirk

Jason & Larry being goofy on a day at the horse track.  They had been mocking me when I asked them to "look normal" and this was the best I could get from either of them.  Go figure.  But, it works great as an entry for I Heart Faces: Smirks!  Go here for other great entries!

Praying Mantis - 8/52

This girl was hanging out on the fence and posed quite nicely for me!

Giant Dawg Vs Cattle Dog Vs Lil' Black Dog

Buddy, Blue and Lois Lane enjoying a Saturday morning romp in the living room.

Finchy - 7/52

The finch feeders are a big hit at the new place.  We have two of them and have to fill them up daily.  These guys eat us out of house and home.  They occasionally share with the chickadees and the tit-mouses, but most often it's overrun by the finches - gold and brown and red.

It Was a Hoppin' Weekend! - 6/52

First up - this week's animal photo - one of the many frogs that live in the pond:

We had an extremely busy holiday weekend.  Jami & Larry were down from Indy from Friday to Sunday.  We had a huge Labor Day bash to break in the new homestead on Saturday, which yielded a turnout of about 40 people.  Lots of food was consumed, jello shots were popular and the fishing was good.  It was a great time and I can't wait to do it again!  Unfortunately I was too busy to even think about taking photos and didn't get a single one.

With the holiday weekend I took off my half day Friday to get the house cleaned up.  I have today off for the holiday and I have tomorrow off for working the fair last week - not a bad deal!  So today we're running some errands, cleaning up around the house, and hopefully relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather this week has brought!

And for duck updates - we lost three of the original four to what we thought was a snapper in the pond.  So we got three more to put the number back up at four and got bigger ones.  This time the larger one went missing.  After thinking about it we have come to the conclusion that the coyotes are getting them.  So we put up an electric fence around the tree they roost under and haven't had any come up missing since.  They are getting big and right now I'm calling them my Tweens.  ;)  As you can see, their color is starting to come in.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird - 5/52

Another Ruby Throated Hummingbird - the finches and chickadees weren't cooperating!

Hummingbirds - 4/52

When we first moved into the new house we noticed a little hummingbird occasionally coming by to sample the flowers in the front flower bed.  Jason promptly made his tasty vanilla flavored hummingbird food and now we're up to six hummingbirds all fighting for the feeder, all day, every day.  Earlier this week I was out on the front porch and decided to see if I could get some decent photos of them.  Being hand held they didn't turn out too bad, though next time I want to tripod the camera and use off camera flash, rather than the speedlight in the hotshoe.

These photos were taken with a Nikon D80; 18 - 200mm VR Nikon lens; SB600 speedlight on the camera hotshoe.

Scavenger - 3/52

I noticed this turkey vulture sitting on the fence the other day while I was eating my lunch.  He, apparently, was looking for lunch, too.  We have a fly trap in one of the trees near where he was sitting that stinks to high heaven of rotting flesh ( to attract the flies ) and we're betting he smelled that thinking he hit the jackpot on a yummy meal.

Behbeh Duckies! - 2/52

Friday we brought home four of the cutest baby ducklings!  We have set up a temporary enclosed area in the pond where they can be on land, in the dog igloo that is their shelter, or in the water, until they learn where their new feeding spot and shelter is.  We should be able to let them out of the pen in a few more days.  They are so cute and fuzzy and soft!  They have tiny little wings that they flap around as much as they can.  They are Muscovy ducks, but we don't yet know what the female to male ratio is.

More photos:

52 Weeks of Animals

Over the weekend I decided to start up a new photography project.  Project 365 is a little much for me, so I decided to do a themed Project 52 focusing on only animals, since they are my favorite subject anyway.  Two years ago I did a general Project 52 with no theme and successfully finished it, so hopefully I'll be successful with this one as well.

I'm kicking off the project with a photo of Big Worm I snagged the other day while he was cat napping on the porch.

Settling

Finally - we're starting to settle into the new house.  We finished up work on the old house this week and the renters move in on Monday.  I'll be so glad not to see that place for a while.  The dog fence posts are being installed today and will continue on Monday and possibly Tuesday. Hopefully by end of day Tuesday we will have a completed fence for these dogs.  They need their running room and ability to free roam!  They are getting a little more than an acre all to themselves with plenty of trees and open areas.  They are going to love it!

We managed to capture Big Worm about a week after we actually moved.  He's elusive and we had to go to the house at 10:30 one night in order to get him. By that time he was pretty hungry so I was able to coax him into eating some canned food inside his carrier.  He was pretty leery but hunger won out and I was able to shove him in the cat carrier and close the door before he was able to remove one of my appendages.  He was not happy at all.  Once we got him to the new house, after much ruckus and mewling in the truck, we let him out of the carrier and he took off.  We didn't see him for three days.  Finally I found his hiding spot under the back porch.  Jason fed him some tuna laced with dewormer and we Frontlined him for fleas and since then he's been hanging with us on the porch in the evenings.  As you can see, he was not a happy camper at first, but he's coming around.

We're loving all the wildlife that we've been seeing.  We have a resident pair of humming birds that we see on a daily basis.  Lots of rabbits, frogs and dragonflies.  Unfortunately also a lot of houseflies that are driving us nuts.  We've seen a few deer and woke up one morning to 3 wild turkey strutting around the yard.  Now that things have settled down I'll be trying to get some photos of some of the creatures we see.  Here is a Waved Sphinx Moth that spent an entire night and day on our screen door.

Hopefully I'll get back to my regular postings again and I plan to start Project 52 up soon as well.  Happy Friday!  

We Made It!

It's been an eventful weekend ( well the whole past month has been ), but we're finally here!  With the gracious help of lots of friends we made quick work of the move.  We only had two furniture casualties - one bookshelf lost to I-71 and one end table glass insert got shattered - all in all, not to shabby!

I've gotten all the major unpacking done - all that is left is little stuff that I don't really know what to do with yet and my entire craft room, which will likely be a winter project.  The office is still partially in a shambles, but we're up and running, which is the important part.

The dogs are loving the new place already, even though they can't free roam the yard yet.  We're getting a fence estimate this week to at least get an area for the four beasts to romp in until we get around to fencing the majority of the 11 acres.  For now we have two 20 foot screw in the ground leads for Buddy and Hardy.  Blue and Lois stick close so we don't worry about them so much.  Here's Buddy lounging at the end of his lead:

Lots more photos will be coming as soon as I get all settled and have time and energy to get outside.  And inside photos are coming as soon as the place no longer looks like it was run over by a Tasmanian devil.