A TRIP TO THE NEW VET

It was finally time to take Shadow to the vet again.  He had somehow managed to lose his county tag and his rabies tag, too.  Flea season is upon us and and I didn't want him to suffer like last year.  I had tried all sorts of potions and notions on the dog but none seemed effective.  The lady at the vet recommended "Comfortus" which is a huge horse pill.  Just after dinner, per the instructions on the box,  I induced my dog to swallow a pill the size of a quarter.  He resisted a little at first; nobody likes anything jammed down their throat.  But the dog is trusting and knows everything I do is good for him.  He swallowed it and drank a healthy gulp of water to wash it down.

The directions said that the medicine would start taking effect within thirty minutes and would kill fleas and their eggs for a month.  Tomorrow, we'll have the pest control folks come by and kill the ones in the house.  Happy dog and happy humans!

Then I added the new tags to his collection on his collar.  There is the bright blue one that is his rabies tag.  Next is a silver tag that is his county registration and finally is a dog bone shaped tag that has his name, city and his cell phone number.  He doesn't make that many phone calls but just in case he forgets his number, he can look it up and call me when ever he needs to.  Good Dog!

Sneaky Shadow

Sally from Boston sent some furniture to Kathy.  She got a solid cherry bedroom set and another leather couch to match the leather recliner.  She has quite an ensemble down in her living area.  Shadow thinks so much of her arrangement that he adopted the new couch as his new bed.

Well that didn't sit too well with Kath to have this little gray furry creature take over the new couch.  She and I had a conversation about how to keep him off her new stuff.  I decided to put a gate at the top of the stairs to limit his wandering.

It seems to have worked, he tried it once but it was locked shut with a "barrel bolt"  and with no thumbs, he can't get it open.  Problem solved.

Kathy did take pity on the poor creature and bought him a new bed.  When we placed it on the floor, he knew it was for him right away,  now he guards the fish tank IN STYLE!

Happy dog, though he may not look it.

Escape Artist!

Kathy came upstairs from her lair and announced "Shadow" has gotten loose tonight.  I had just re screened her downstairs smoking area and re opened the dog door so he could go into the fenced off side yard.  There is a motion sensor light out there and I notice from my upstairs window when my pooch is nosing around outside.

Tonight, however, Shadow was determined to go after some creature out in the darkness and he scratched a hole through the new screen and made his way into the back yard.  I came downstairs and went out on the back deck to look at the damage.  I think the solution might be to put 4 foot high white lattice along the inside of the screen room so he can not have access to the vulnerable screen.

The New Fish Aquarium

We had put some baby Koi in the pools above the water fall but sometimes it was hard to see them.  The water could be stirred up and murky and I didn't know whether the fish were there or not.  At one time I had twelve small koi but their ranks had thinned due to the local kitty cat population, many owls, raccoons and any other creatures that fancied an easy meal.

Finally I built some screened tops for the two pools and I had one koi left.  But I lost sight of him eventually.

 My brother came for a visit November of last year (2012) and did a repair to the spillway of the waterfall.  We had to evacuate the water from the pools and Joe spotted an orange and white fish about ten inches long hiding in the mud.  I caught him with a pool skimmer and the long-lost fish had grown quite a bit.  Apparently the conditions in the pools were good for koi growth.  I took him and put him in the large pond and hoped he would join the school of koi who live there.

I bought 7 more small fish.  I put them in the pools and now they seemed protected but they were very hard to watch.  They would dart about when I dropped some fish flakes in the water to feed them, but they were hard to monitor.

There are two "jon" boats here and I decided to trade one for a fish aquarium.  I wanted to watch the fish as they grew.  I looked on Craig's List and sure enough, there was a guy willing to trade a fifty five gallon aquarium for "something of value".  I called him up and suggested we trade the aquarium for the fourteen foot boat.  He thought it over for a day and called back willing to make the trade.

He brought the aquarium over to my place and set it up for me.  We loaded up the boat into the back of his pick up and the deal was done.

I filled the aquarium with water from our well and added two gallons of pond water as well.  The dog was watching all of this and wondering what was going on.  Next, I went down to pools and began taking out the water with a siphon hose.  It took about forty minutes for the water to go down enough to see the koi.  I scooped up six of them and two sun fish that were there as well.  I carried the bucket full of fish back up the hill to the house.  Shadow could smell them and began his happy dance.  Did he think these fish were being served for dinner?

The fish took to the aquarium very well.  And the dog is absolutely fascinated.  He follows them as they swim through the tank and tries to sniff them through the glass.  He will lunge at them and they will scatter.

When I let Shadow out of his crate in the morning, the very first thing he does is to scamper over to the fish tank and visit his new friends 

He Trees a Kitty

We were on the deck over the water this morning and something on the far side of the pond caught Shadow's eye. I couldn't tell what it was as the tree was in shadow but Shadow's nose and eyes are much sharper than mine. I decided to let him free off of the leash and he took off like a shot. He had seen a small gray and white kitten that frequents the grounds and he got after it in short order, after all, what are kitties for, if not for chasing? The cat arched his back and hissed and quickly tired of this dark gray dog poking and nosing at him. He hopped onto a large oak tree branch and scampered to the safety of height. Shadow was dismayed, "Hey, that's cheating!" He didn't bark at the treed cat, but he stood guard until his wander lust took over. Shadow raced around the pond two times following the cat's scent. What he didn't see (or smell) was a little Calico cat, sitting up on the crest of the hill watching the chase. That kitty got up, stretched and wandered over to plop down in a patch of sunlight and relax. Shadow came back to the deck, watched the koi finish feeding for a few more minutes and we walked back up the hill to the house. It was a good start to the morning.

July 2012, Dog on the Deck

Each morning, as I feed the Koi fish, I have gotten into the habit of bringing Shadow to oversee the proceedings. He is absolutely fascinated with them. He sniffs, he watches intently and dances around the dock. He fell into the water once and I had to help him back aboard. Even when I go fishing, my dog is intrigued, he stares at the bobber as much as I do, and when I haul the little sunfish up it is a momentous event.

AN APRIL VISIT TO BARKLEY SQUARE

Terry Hallmark is visiting from Virginia Beach and he and I went for a swim at DeLeon Springs State Park this morning without Shadow.
After lunch, we decided to take Shadow to Barkley Square so he could get his run on. The place looked almost empty from the number of cars in the parking lot, but there were a few dogs for Shadow to interact with.

There were a pair of Jack Russel Terriers and two big white dogs so he had someone to run with. The big dogs spent some time in the pond and Shadow only went in up to his elbows at first. He was running to and fro and I'm glad he got some exercise.

Every time we go to the dog park I am in wonder at it's size. Volusia County has made a great place for dogs to run. It is the best park I have seen so far for our canine friends.

Today, I took a new camera with us to the park. I had tested it under water and in free fall and it worked great. It is tiny and called a GoPro. This camera will be with us on many future excursions.