Bingo, Tabby & RoRo

T-Bob & B-Dog, just hangin' out:

Nephew RoRo LOVES "Mango," & she is so good with him!

Belly rubs!

This was the day of Mum narrowly escaping eating a caterpillar.

RoRo showing Bingo how to open the door. As we all know, she knows!

She's not going to fit. Much to her dismay!

*smooch*

 They all eventually learn it. The cheesey smile:

Where he actually says, "CHEEEEEEESE!"

I made a new discovery about Bingo this week. We were walking in the woods, and I heard a bird cry and looked over to see Tabby with something in his mouth. I call him to me and he dropped it; not a bird, a squirrel. And then!  THEN Bingo flashed forward and grabbed the squirrel in her mouth, did that Death Shake thing that dogs do, and before I could stop her, there was nothing but the tail sticking out of her mouth. Ugh. Twitching.  I was yelling at her, "DROP IT!" And she wouldn't let go. I had to pry her jaws open and out dropped the poor squirrel. Poor thing.  

Sunday morning, Bingo was looking v. intently at a pile of leaves and then she leapt up and then pounced. I don't know what was in there, a mouse? She looked just like this little fox I used to watch in the front field at the River House.  I pulled her away and we continued on our walk. I can't fault her; it's her instinct. [Side note here: Whenever I think of that word "instinct," I'm reminded of Brother Atlasta telling a story at the dinner table. He was maybe 7 years old, and was talking about some TV show where they showed a lion going after another animal. And he finished his story with, "And his instincts were hanging out," meaning to say "intestines." Hahahaha]

So that was our week. I was going to title this post, "Bingo, Squirrel Slayer," but thought better of it.  Hopefully the next Bingo post will be about cute-things-Bingo-did or another-food-Bingo-hates. Perhaps I'll offer her some mango--now that would be ironical if she spits it out. Stay tuned . . . .

Random Pix & Stories

Here's a pic of one of my sister's azalea bushes:

Popular with the butterflies.

First 4-leaf clover of the season!

We've had an infestation of little green caterpillars. I would say "inch worm" but they're about half an inch right now. They hang from silk threads, dangling in the breeze. When  I go for walks with Bingo, it sounds like it's raining, but it all the caterpillars munching on the leaves. And then pooing. It's raining caterpillar poo. And no matter how digilent I am, I get a hitch hiker into the house with me.

Mum came for a vizzie and I gave her an almond cookie. I looked over and saw a caterpillar on her knee. Just as I was about to tell her about it, she picked it up and brought it toward her mouth, thinking it was a crumb. I felt like one of those people in a movie, lunging forward in slow motion, "Noooooo!" while trying to stop her from popping it in her mouth. Fortunately, just as she got it to her mouth, she noticed it was not the consistency of a cookie crumb, and screamed. "Whaaaaaa!" and dropped it. Then we were looking for it on the floor and couldn't find it. She must have thrown it farther than I thought.  But a few minutes later, there was the caterpillar on me. *sigh*  Good times.

I sat outside on my front porch last week. The weather was perfect; not too cold, not too hot. I had my head set on for phone calls and was having a cup of tea, reading my book. And then I notice: little green caterpillars everywhere!  So I went inside. Back in my office, I discover this:

Gaaaaaaah!  I think these are tent caterpillars. These are what Brother Atlasta woke up to one morning when he was camping: hundreds of caterpillars all over his body. Eeeeewwwwww!

 OK, enough about the caterpillars. Here's my beautiful back yard:

This was a plant I got my first spring at the River House:

BEAUTIFUL. It blooms sometime at the beginning of spring. This is the latest I've gotten flowers on it.

Yeah, I know. I used the flash. I'll take a pic in natural light outside. 

 Saturday, Chiro-sis came over and look what we started:

My new labyrinth.

Labyrinth #3, marked out with yarn. Now I just have to add the rocks.

And then Saturday night we saw the ska band, The English Beat!  We got there early and the balcony was closed, so we got chairs and sat on a little platform at the back on the main floor. There was Craig Honeycut who was the opening-opening act. Followed by 808. They had a digital sign with "808" on it, but I thought it stood for "BOB." You know, kind of how you can spell "Boobs" on a calculator. Apparently all guys know this. It was a recent revelation from Brother Atlasta. Anyway, when they first came out, I thought it was The English Beat. The last time I saw them was 30 years ago right before they broke up at the Peppermint Lounge in NYC. I had a tape of their music that I listened to a lot. But I haven't listened to them for years. And I didn't expect to remember all their songs, but I wasn't recognizing any. And I was thinking, "Wow, Dave Wakeling hasn't aged a bit!"  Then the lead singer said something about The English Beat coming up next . . . oops. But they were really great.  And then!

Dave Wakeling of The English Beat. 

 So it was great to hear all my favourite songs again.

 They also did:

 

Last song:

AWESOME! So that was my week. B-Dog & T-Bob tomorrow.  :-)

Spring Time with Bingo & T-Bob

It's so BEAUTIFUL & GREEN!  The last week has been a burst of colour and sound and springish glory.

Down to the lake.

Under the bent tree.

Over the log.

Down the trail.

Under a canopy of green.

Hugging trees.

T-Bob always joins us for our walks. 

Tabby going for the leash. 

See? Poised to go after it. Meanwhile, Bingo is starting to wrap the leash around a little tree. 

It was a beautiful week. Bingo is extra-sniffy with so many things to follow: snakes & rabbits & other creatures. She found a dead squirrel, but I don't think it was a victim of T-Bob because it wasn't headless!

Aaaaand after our walk:

Hullo.

And then it starts:

The sound you don't hear is nails on a chalk board window.

  

Sammy the Snake Sunday

I was walking Bingo in the back yard and I looked over . . . 

Uh oh.

I put Bingo back in the house & came back out with my camera, of course.

I tried to pick up T-Bob and get him away from the snake, but he swiped at me, so I dropped him like a cat with razor sharp nails swiping at me. Since it wasn't poisonous, I figured T-Bob could handle his own bad self.

In the meantime, John Morgan called me and was giving me photog pointers:

Get on the ground.

Get closer. 

Sheesh.

He'll look at this & say, "Not close enough. You have to get at eye-level with animals & children." 

Then T-Bob kinda lost interest:

Meh.

Except something caught his eye. 

Aaaaaand he goes back:

Because the snake was making his escape.

Watch out! He's ready to strike! (Or SHE. I'm not up on snake genders).

In the meantime:

What's going on?

Looking right at me.

The snake was about 4 feet long. 

2 hours later when Bingo & I came out for a walk, she sniffed along & tracked the snake's path. 

T-Bob settled onto a branch to look over the snake.

And then something else catches T-Bob's eye.

This is the part where John will say I didn't get close enough to the snake.

Close enough for you?