D is for Dog #AtoZChallenge

• “Happiness is a warm puppy.” -Lucy VanPelt
• “The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” – Andy Rooney
• “The dog lives for the day, the hour, even the moment.” – Robert Falcon Scott
• “The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself, too.” -Samuel Butler
• “If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.” -James Herriot

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Happy

The Daily Post- WPC- Smile

Have a great day!

-Kat

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Pets

Our dog, Ari, is the star of Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Pets this week. Ari entered our lives when she was less than a year old and now she is a mature lady of 8! She is affectionate, impertinent, obnoxious, nurturing to her baby (Beej), loyal and determined. Her personality is so much larger than her 25 lb body and it’s hard to remember a time when she wasn’t with us. She makes us laugh. She has given us heart failure when she has gotten lost (2 times). For such a small pup, she takes up a huge place in our hearts.

“Happiness is a warm puppy.” -Charles M. Schulz

Have a great day!

-Kat

A Word from Ari

Ari here!

I have a bone to pick with you humans. Really….I do!

It has to do with your obsession with cleaning. Seriously. A little dust or fur never hurt anyone. It’s good enough for me to lay with, right? Besides, it’s incredibly rude to steal all the good little tidbits and smells I have been saving.

I spend hours carefully deconstructing my toys, piece by piece. Do you have any idea how hard it is to take apart a stuffed animal with your teeth while holding it between your paws (which do not have thumbs!!!)? I put a lot of time and effort into pulling out those beady little eyes and ripping out each ear, arm, leg and tail. Those parts are perfect little nuggets to suck on. And that fluff? There is no greater satisfaction than to nibble a hole into my victim toy to begin the de-fluffing process and look up minutes later to be surrounded by piles of glorious stuffing and a much deflated piece of animal pelt. (A dog can dream, can’t she?)

But no. You cannot let the fluff and body parts lay there- signs of a productive afternoon. You rush around gathering it all up and tossing it into the trash. And I’m not sure what is worse- the insult of sitting there watching you do it in front of me or the injury felt when I come back in from an outside visit to…. you know… only to find that you threw my treasures away!?!?

And let’s not forget the various crumbs. Oh, those scrumptious morsels that drop unseen by you people! They are so very tasty and they leave a savory residue on the carpet that I could lick for days. Well, that is unless you vacuum them up!!!

Sometimes if I’m really lucky, a bug will find its way into the house. There is nothing more fun than trying to catch one of those little buggers!! The flying ones are the best because I love snapping in the air, trying to catch them in my mouth. Yet you create such drama every time you find one. It’s bad enough when you scoop it up on a piece of paper and toss it outside but when you roll up a newspaper and pulverize it? Sheesh! I could have done that myself. Why do you insist on spoiling my fun? Especially the tricky ones that have stingers. I still haven’t quite figured out how to conquer them but how will I if you keep interfering?

Is it really worth all that extra work? First, when you pull out the vacuum cleaner, it never fails that the last person to use it did not empty the canister. This requires you to take it outside and beat it against the trash can to loosen up all the dust and fur that is caught in the filter. The sound of you banging in the trash like that causes a major commotion as I have to warn the neighborhood that it’s okay and no one is being hurt- just you setting up to steal all my fun.

Then it never fails. You can’t figure out the right way to put the parts back together again so depending on the day, it takes you longer to reassemble the vacuum than it takes you to actually use it!

Finally, you never understand what my problem is. You think that maybe I don’t understand what that horrible machine is doing but I know exactly what it is doing. It’s clearing away my evidence of a job well done, or my stress reliever parts- especially the ears!!!, or my snacks and smells! I’m offended at both it and you and I’m determined that everyone know exactly how I feel.

Sooooo, the next time you open the closet door with the intention of cleaning- give yourself a break and me a treat and shut that door!

 

 

Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 26- Distance

There is nothing Ari likes more than hanging out in the back yard. She loves to survey her land from strategic points around our property. I imagine that in her head she is a fierce warrior protecting her people from certain doom.  She will sit, stand, or lay for hours, keeping her vigilant watch for any trespassers, whether they are humans, dogs or cheeky squirrels.  And if she’s lucky, some unsuspecting soul will accidentally step onto our property….or just into her line of vision and she will pounce into action, launching into a verbal assault that could rival a dog twice her size. And if it’s a really good day, her friend Buster from next door will be out and the two pups will stare at each other longingly across the yards, exchanging wags and excited barks. There is never a dull moment when Ari is on the job.

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” 

-Anatole France

This week the prompt is “distance” for Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 26- Distance.

Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 15 – Under

Every week Hugh, from Hugh’s Views & News, challenges us to find a photograph fitting his prompt. Last week, much to my dismay I was unable to produce a single picture for his “wrong position” prompt! This week I find myself with the opposite dilemma. Apparently I just love taking pictures of things under things. It wasn’t easy but I finally chose 2 pictures of our dog, Ari. Oddly enough, she finds herself under things all the time and I have the photos to prove it. Poor pup! Details on how to participate in this challenge are included at the end of this post!

Ari is happiest when she’s covered with a blanket, often preferring to have it cover her completely with maybe the hint of a paw or nose showing. 

Who can that be peeking out from under the bandana?

Want to join the fun? Here’s what you need to do.

1. Take or choose a photo that you’ve taken that shows an object, person or something that is under something else. 
2. Create a new post on your blog entitled “Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Week 15 – “Under”
3. Add the photo(s) you have taken to Hugh’s post and tell us a little about what you are showing.
4. Create a pingback  or leave a link to your post in the comments section on Hugh’s post so that other participants can view your post.

Not sure how to create a pingback? Click here for a step by step guide on how to create one.

How I Met Kat

When I was just a puppy, I wound up in a shelter but I didn’t feel very sheltered. Mostly I was scared and I hid in the back of my crate, waiting for Kat to find me. Kat’s my mom. I don’t remember where I came from. All I know is that wherever it was, it caused me to be afraid of storms, wind, men in hats, and men holding things like hoses or guns.

I can still remember the first time I saw Kat. She was at the shelter by herself, and she bent down to look into my crate. It was hard to see me because there was another crate stacked on top of mine, and I was hiding in the back. She peered at me and said, “Well, hello there.” Then she read the card on the outside of my crate and looked at me for a few seconds in silence. As she walked away, my heart dropped. I thought that I had seen something in her eyes but I guessed that I was wrong.

Then a few hours later she was back with Grandma. (I LOVE Grandma! She always pets me, and scratches behind my ears and talks to me!) Kat was describing a cat that she wanted Grandma to see as they passed but she stopped and said, “And then there’s this one here.” She and Grandma crouched down and looked at me. “Hello again,” she said softly. And then they were gone.

But then there she was again, bent down looking at me. She stuck her finger through the bars and I inched closer to give it a tentative taste. I saw her eyes stray back to the card that held all of my information. Grandma asked, “What does it say?”

Kat read the card, “Female, 9 months.”

“What’s her name?”

” ‘No Name’ ”

I heard a strange sound in her voice that matched that look that I thought I had seen in her eye.

There was a brief conversation that I did not pay attention to because my hope was fading away. My head drooped and my heart dropped as they walked away. I hoped Kat would come back again. In my heart, I just knew she just had to come back for me! I had been waiting for her to come for such a long time—-all the way since they had brought me into the shelter the day before.

When a worker came to get me, I panicked. I didn’t have time for a potty break right now! What if Kat came back and I wasn’t there? There were so many other dogs here at the shelter and she might end up taking the wrong dog home!!!

Instead of outside, I was brought to a small room and much to my surprise, there were Kat and Grandma. Kat sat down on the floor and I immediately crawled into her lap, curled up into a ball and drifted off to sleep.

I WAS HOME!

 

Paws

Good morning! Today I’m sharing my photo for Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Hands, Feet or Paws.

Those are Ari’s paws peeking out from under the blanket. Silly pup!

Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge: Day 1

3 months ago, (okay, three months is way too long,  I know!) my friend, Meredith – Meredith’s Musings- Joie de Vivre nominated me to take part in the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge. I really dilly-dallied on this one because I had this idea that I would become super organized and plan out all 5 days in advance…… and because I just could not decide on any photos, time passed. Since no one was going to give me a much needed kick in the butt, I decided to shove myself right into it and just DO IT!

So, for Day 1 of Five Photos, Five Stories, I’m flashing back 5 years ago to June 2010.

Let me introduce you to our dog, Ari. She came to us from a shelter in late May, 2010. She was only 9 months old at the time, a very slight 11 lbs. She was a bit of an impulse addition, if you ask my husband. I had known for awhile that I wanted to get a dog. Our middle child was just ending junior year of high school and I wanted K to have the opportunity to bond with our new addition before leaving for college the following fall. I remember mentioning to my husband that I thought it would be nice and that the timing was right but according to him I never mentioned another word until I sent him the picture of Ari, who I had already adopted. Oops.

Ari grew to 20 lbs and a personality that is much larger. She does not like storms, wind, fireworks, men with hats, men holding anything that might be construed as a weapon, people singing Happy Birthday or people clapping. She is very opinionated and can hold her own in a barking contest. She is very protective of us and especially “her” baby, Beej.

Having shown us how well she can care for a baby, she feels it is high time she is allowed a pet of her own. She understands that her first choice- a kitten- is not practical since I’m allergic to cats but she will settle for a puppy. She does not understand why we told her no.

She loves singing along when Kris plays his bass clarinet or Andrew plays his trombone. She can chew a bone like nobody’s business and loves a good game of tug of war. She is the best licker in town. And she is the biggest baby- always wanting to be curled up in someone’s lap- all 20 lbs of her!

It feels as if Ari has been with us much longer. The kids got sad during a recent conversation when someone referred to “the next person to die” and I told them that could very well be Ari…. She came home with me one day and it felt like she had always been there. Although the smallest, she is certainly the loudest member of our family. I can’t imagine life without her.

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.

-Josh Billings

The Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge rules require you to post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or simply a short paragraph – it’s entirely up to you.

Then each day, nominate another blogger to carry on this challenge.

Accepting the challenge is entirely optional. This challenge is all in fun. 

Today, I nominate Prajakta at The Armchair Perfectionist .

Black and White Photography Challenge: Day 3

I’m on Day 3 of the Black and White Photo Challenge. Hugh from Hugh’s Views & News invited me to participate back in March and I’m finally doing it! 🙂 I’ve really enjoyed taking part in Cee’s Black & White Challenge, which occurs weekly on Thursdays so anything that involved more black and white photos excites me!

There are only two rules for this challenge:

1. On 5 consecutive days, create a post using either a past or recent photo in black and white.
2. Each day invite another blogging friend to join in the fun.

Today’s photo features Ari and Casey. At any given time, we will find either or both of the dogs on guard duty. They take their job very seriously and often trade places so they can survey the property with fresh eyes.

I would like to invite Cee from Cee’s Photography . I spent months lurking around the corners of Cee’s many photography challenges before finally finding the courage to jump in. I enjoy them immensely and if you like taking pictures, I encourage you to check them out.

You can check out Day 1’s photo here.

You can check out Day 2’s photo here.

This challenge is all in fun and participation is optional. If you would like to join the fun but haven’t been invited yet, please let me know and consider this your open invitation to take part. 🙂 And I hope you will accept my apologies if you have already participated in the challenge. I know that I’ve seen it go around a few times and I can’t remember who has done what.     -Kat 🙂

Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Animals

These photos are part of Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Animals.

Ari loves basking in the sunshine.

I think I found one of Ari’s long lost relatives in an antique store.

To see more entries in this week’s “Animals” theme, click on the badge below and visit Cee’s site to find the links.