Archive for the “Photos” Category

Where I live kind of sucks, lot-wise. I live next to a school who for two years never mowed/weeded by my split-rail fence. The weeds got over four feet high for two years. Now they kind of mow twice a summer, but their weeds have ruined my yard. I’m not allowed to put up a privacy fence on that side of the property.

Across the street is a public swimming pool. I’ve never been - don’t swim and don’t wear swimsuits either.

But I do love my view. And I do love the fact that bunnies hop around my yard sometimes.

Sunday the mountains were misty - didn’t capture well on film. It was beautiful. You could see the rain coming down in the distance.

I also got to see a mommy rabbit who hopped pretty far away when I approached, but her baby rabbit let me get pretty close on the other side of the fence before it hopped away. Luckily for me, some kid from the high school next door vandalized my fence, so I was able to take a picture of the baby as the mom watched in the field.

Unfortunately the baby bunny accidentally hopped into Moose’s rock poo garden, where he does his pooin’. I tried to clone tool out the poo.

I think this is the favorite of all the videos I’ve made this week. Cracks me up anyway, but hey, it stars my dog.

Moose n Sparky Battle Royale from Mary on Vimeo.

So I got to visit Sparky a few weeks ago when I traveled through Icky-ta on my way to Atlanta and back. If you recall, Sparky is the puppy I got my parents for Christmas - half chihuahua, half pekingese. He’s 8 months old now and as cute and as smart as can be. I took tons of pics, which I made into three videos. Here’s the first video. It’s about his love of running in circles in the back yard. Moose guest-stars.

Sparky Playing April 2008 from Mary on Vimeo.

My best buddy. My constant companion for the past 5 1/2 years. The being solely responsible for ruining my house. It can only be… Moose.

At the dogpark this weekend.

Home in Icky-ta over Christmas with Sparky.

Me and Moose, 14 weeks old. Just a BABY!

When he was a puppy, I could hardly walk without him being right there.

Moose on my left, about 35 minutes after I first laid eyes on him.

Here’s Moose with Sparky, my parent’s puppy, over Christmas.

I cannot afford the therapy that everyone who ever met me agrees I so desperately need. Instead I go to Cute Overload, Daily Puppy, and Cute with Chris every day.

What do I find on Cute Overload the other day but this pic (taken by KCzarzasty; uploaded on Flickr).

“While visiting the Goshen Agricultural Fair my wife brought this picture to my attention. So overwhelmed by everything going on I would have missed this picture of this young girl and her cow taking an afternoon nap. “

Being from Kansas, my first thought was, “Oh no! This cow is at the fair to be sold and made into my next steak! How could I? REPENT! REPENT!” The comments on Flickr assured us this is a Holstein and was being shown as a dairy cow. I know dairy cows are treated very well (upset cows don’t make as much milk). However, it could have just as easily been a meat cow.

I’m not ready to totally give up red meat, but this pic will give me a pretty good head start to motivate me.

I posted about what a shitty summer my dad had. He made a full recovery, but about three weeks after getting out of the hospital his job announced he was to be laid off (after 20 years working for the company as it passed through various owners and buyouts).

Yep, that is one sucky summer!

It turned out OK; my dad has a much better new job. But still, I wanted to do something special for him this Christmas.

Around the end of October, my co-worker Scott brought in these photos of the four puppies that needed homes.

The puppies were half Pekingese, half chihuahua. Two were brown, two were black. Two were long-haired, two were short-haired. I fell in love with the long-haired brown puppy, but knew I couldn’t handle any more animals myself. Besides, I’m a big-dog type of person. Then, like a message from baby Jesus, I was struck with an idea:

Maybe it was time for my parents to get a pet!

Our beloved German Shepherd Harley had to be put to sleep two years ago this December. She had lived to be 13, and was truly the best dog ever. But her bad hips finally did her in.

Harley, summer 2005, age 13. We miss you girl!

Since then, my parents (especially my mother, who doesn’t like animals much) said they traveled too much to have a dog again. However, I suspected that my father missed having a dog around. Not only did both of my parents love Harley, but my dad especially loved our mildly retarded pekingese/?? mix Buckwheat (aka Pepper). Buckwheat had passed away several years before.

Dad and Buckwheat, circa ~ 1991

So I called my mother and jokingly acted like I already bought a puppy, just to see her reaction. I said, “Guess what I got Dad for Christmas? A PUPPY!” Instead of being mad, she actually warmed to the idea very quickly and said it would be nice to have a dog around the house again. I about “fell out” from surprise, as they say on Jerry Springer. Next I called my dad, and surprisingly he didn’t like the puppy idea. He didn’t even believe me when I said that mom liked the idea.

By the next day he had warmed to the idea as well. I think they were both sold when the above puppy pictures of Sparky hit their inbox! I was told that if I met the puppy and liked him, that I could get it for my dad for Christmas. (I live in Colorado and they live 8 hours away in Kansas, so they couldn’t meet him themselves.)

Scott would not have snuck him into work for me to meet him, because that would be against the rules. So it didn’t happen. These pictures of him being held by a co-worker are obviously photoshopped.

I think my parents were even more in love with him when they got these photos. Arrangements were made; in a week, I’d pick up Sparky and keep him overnight, and would deliver him the next day to my parents at a rendezvous point in Kansas.

And now the whole family is so in love with Sparky that I even started a blog about him. (Yeah, I’m doing a bit of cross-posting here.) I try to post there every 24 - 48 hours with new pics of Sparky. I haven’t seen him since Christmas, when Moose and I went home to visit. I miss him lots. I don’t think Moose misses him though.