Back in December we took Maggie to the vet because it appeared to me she was losing just a little bit of fur and was looking a little thin.  Since she is considered an elderly dog in dog years, I wanted to just be safe and have her checked out.  Maggie hates the vet (unlike Sascha the German Shepherd who loves the vet) and turns into a nervous wreck during each visit.  Whereas Maggie was completely healthy in terms of blood work and body, she did have a small bump on her lower jaw that I never noticed.  The vet was concerned enough that he wanted to remove it immediately.

Two days later Maggie is off to the vet to have this bump removed (no wonder she hates the vet).  When I heard from the vet later in the afternoon, he didn’t “think” the whatever it was he removed was cancerous, but wanted to send it off to pathology just to be sure.

In the meantime, Maggie didn’t seem to care that she had stitches in her jaw and wanted to continue to chew on her toys and bones even if they rubbed against her jaw and stitches.  Sure enough, I wake up early Saturday morning and noticed all this blood and fluid in her bedding and saw this hold in her jaw.  Either the stitches got stuck in her bedding and she yanked them out, or she just scratched them out.  Off to the vet we go again.

Fast forward a week and Maggie is fine.  The stitches didn’t need to be replaced.  Her wound has completely healed.  Now she’s back to being the same silly Golden Retriever whose favorite activity besides chewing marrow bones is rolling in the grass (or dirt) first thing in the morning:-).

Maggie The Golden Retriever Rolling In The Grass

Maggie The Golden Retriever Striking A Pose

First a few distance shots.  Here’s Sascha the German Shepherd trying out her new Ruffwear Doggie Life Jacket.  The reason I got Sascha a Life Jacket is because at the recent trip to the vet he said she’s starting to develop a little arthritis.  On top of that, Sascha swims like a crazy person.

Sascha Trying On Her New Ruffwear Doggie Life Jacket

Then it was time to bring the camera a little closer to the pool.

Here’s Maggie getting her closeup shot

Maggie Out Of The Pool Face Closeup

Then Sascha needs her turn.

Sascha Out Of The Pool Face Closeup With Toy

So far so good for a little hand held camera.  Now the real test.  Underwater.  I combined a few video clips taken from this camera.

Notice how Maggie swims, all relaxed, calm, like she’s just floating on the water.  On the other hand, Sascha doesn’t know how to do anything slow and relaxed.

Overall, I think Leecy will have fun with her camera when she takes her trip to the Galapagos.

I’ve also created links to many of the books and they will take you to Amazon’s site should you wish to order them or read the reviews.  Here’s a download to all the books in Excel format Butterfly, Birds, Insects, Photography, Pond, Reptiles and Gardening Books

Bird Books

1. National Geographic Field Guide to Birds: Texas
2. Birds of Texas
3. A Birder’s Guide to the Texas Coast
4. The Texas Ornithology Society Handbook of Texas Birds
5. Birds of Texas Field Guide
6. Birding Texas
7. Exploring the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail: Highlights of a Birding Mecca
8. Finding Birds on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail: Houston, Galveston, and the Upper Texas Coast
9. Guide to the Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds
10. Peterson Field Guide: Eastern Birds’ Nests
11. A Field Guide to Western Birds’ Nests
12. The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America
13. The Stokes Purple Martin Book: The Complete Guide to Attracting and Housing Purple Martins
14. A Photographic Guide to North American Raptors
15. Hand-Feeding Backyard Birds
16. The Backyard Bird Feeder’s Bible: the A-To-Z Guide to Feeders, Seed Mixes, Projects, and Treats

Butterflies And Butterfly Caterpillars Books

1. Butterfly Gardening For The South
2. Caterpillars in the Field and Garden: a Field Guide to the Butterfly Caterpillars of North America (Field Guide)
3. The Life Cycles of Butterflies
4. The Butterfly Gardener’s Guide
5. Butterfly Photographer’s Handbook
6. Butterflies of North America
7. Gardening to Attract Birds and Butterflies
8. The Family Butterfly Book
9. Butterflies and Moths
10. National Wildlife Federation Attracting Birds, Butterflies & Backyard Wildlife
11. A Pocket Guide to Butterflies and Moths
12. Butterflies of Southeast Texas and the Upper Texas Coast
13. Milkweed, Monarchs and More: a Field Guide to the Invertebrate Community in the Milkweed Patch
14. The Butterfly Book
15. The Amazing Monarch
16. Butterflies of Houston & Southeast Texas
17. Finding Butterflies in Texas

Insect Books

1. Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas and the South-Central United States
2. Stokes Beginner’s Guide to Dragonflies
3. Texas Bug Book
4. Insects of Texas
5. Garden Insects of North America
6. National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Insects and Spiders & Related Species of North America

Reptiles and Amphibian Books

1. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians
2. Texas Snakes: A Field Guide
3. The Frogs and Toads of North America
4. Venomous Snakes of Texas
5. Lone Star Field Guide To Texas Snakes

Gardening Books

1. Wildflowers of Texas
2. Vegetables: American Gardening Series
3. Southern Living Garden Problem Solver
4. Complete Guide to Roses
5. Year Round Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers From Metro Houston
6. The Complete Guide to Creative Landscapes
7. Howard Garrett’s Plants for Texas
8. Howard Garrett’s Texas Organic Gardening Book
9. Plants for Houston and the Gulf Coast
10. Texas Trees
11. The Organic Manual
12. The Truth About Garden Remedies
13. Gardening in the Coastal South
14. The Garden Lover’s Guide to Houston
15. Landscaping 1-2-3
16. Houston Garden Book
17. Gulf Coast Gardening With Randy Lemmon
18. Planning Your Garden
19. Bamboo for Gardens
20. Garden, Landscape, and Project Plans: 225 Do-It Yourself Designs
21. The Gardener’s Bug Book
22. Great Garden Sources for Texans
23. Plants for Places
24. Neil Sperry’s Complete Guide to Texas Gardening
25. Native Texas Plants

Pet Books (Including, Dogs, Cats, And Birds)

1. Dog First Aid
2. Dog Detectives
3. The Lost Pet Chronicles
4. Canine Body Language
5. Search and Rescue Dogs
6. Doin’ Texas With Your Pooch
7. Schutzhund: Theory and Training Methods
8. Give Your Dog a Bone
9. Grow Your Pups With Bones
10. The Barf Diet
11. Schutzhund Obedience
12. How to Speak Dog
13. Vaccine Guide for Dogs and Cats
14. Dog Owner’s Home Veterinary Handbook
15. Unleashed: Poems by Writers’ Dogs
16. K9 Explosive Detection
17. Dogwatching: Why Dogs Bark and Other Canine Mysteries Explained
18. Tracking From The Beginning
19. Scent, Training to Track, Search, and Rescue
20. Basic Narcotic Detection Dog Training
21. Training the Competitive Working Dog
22. The Man Who Talks to Dogs
23. Schutzhund Top Working Dogs
24. Top Working Dogs: A Training Manual: Tracking, Obedience, Protection
25. Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats
26. The German Shepherd Dog in Word and Picture
27. Herbal Remedies for Dogs and Cats
28. Herbs for Pets
29. Natural Dog Care
30. Parrot-Toys and Play Areas
31. Guide to a Well-Behaved Parrot
32. The Click That Does the Trick
33. Teaching Your Bird to Talk
34. The Parrot Problem Solver
35. A New Owner’s Guide to African Grey Parrots
36. The Alex Studies
37. The African Grey
38. The Ultimate Parrot
39. African Grey Parrots
40. Cat Wrangling Made Easy

Photography Books

1. How to Photograph Absolutely Everything
2. Photoshop Cs5 for Nature Photographers
3. Adobe Lightroom 3 – the Missing FAQ – Real Answers to Real Questions Asked By Lightroom Users
4. 2010 Photographer’s Market
5. Magic Lantern DVD Guides: Canon EOS 40D Multimedia Workshop
6. Digital SLR Cameras & Photography for Dummies
7. Digital SLR Pro Secrets
8. Mastering Digital Photography
9. Photographing Nature: a Photo Workshop From Brooks Institute’s Top Nature Photography Instructor (Voices That Matter)
10. Lightroom 2: Streamlining Your Digital Photography Process
11. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book
12. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book
13. Photoshop Cs5 Restoration and Retouching for Digital Photographers Only
14. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2
15. EF Lens Work III
16. Macro Photography Photo Workshop
17. Photo Portfolio Success
18. The Adobe Photoshop Cs4 Book for Digital Photographers
19. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers
20. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)
21. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers
22. The Digital Photography Book
23. The Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers
24. The Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photographers
25. Layers: the Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature (2Nd Edition)
26. Canon EOS 7D Digital Field Guide
27. Beginner’s Guide to Photographic Lighting
28. The Hot Shoe Diaries
29. The Betterphoto Guide to Digital Nature Photography
30. The Betterphoto Guide to Digital Photography
31. Understanding Exposure
32. Learning to See Creatively
33. 2009 Photographer’s Market
34. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 for Digital Photographers Only
35. Photoshop Lightroom 2 for Dummies
36. Adobe Premiere Pro for Dummies
37. Selling Your Photography
38. Winning Digital Photo Contests

Pond Koi and Water Garden Books

1. Ponds & Fountains
2. Goldfish
3. Ortho’s All About Creating Japanese Gardens
4. Japanese Gardens in a Weekend
5. Plants for Water Gardens
6. The Pond Doctor: Planning & Maintaining a Healthy Water Garden
7. Water Gardening in Containers
8. Creating Water Gardens
9. Indoor Water Garden Design
10. Water Gardening
11. The Super Simple Guide to Koi
12. Ortho’s All About Building Waterfalls, Pools, and Streams
13. Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces

Fortunately, I think I may have found something that readers of this blog might find useful.  I found a pretty cool Book Cataloging application for the iPhone and iPad.  It’s called Book Crawler.  It allows you to use your iPhone or iPad to catalog all your books.  What I like about it is it allows you to use a bar code scanning application to scan the ISBN code, and then it automatically enters all the information.

What I plan on doing (and how this might be helpful if you read this blog) is that I will make the catalog available for download here on this blog.  Let me give you a couple of examples.  I’ve just cataloged a few books just in one area of my house.  So far I have 9 books on birding, 9 books on butterflies, 4 books on gardening, 6 books on insects (not including butterflies), 32 books on photography, 6 books on koi and backyard ponds, and 5 books on reptiles and amphibians.  I’m not even close to finishing scanning all the books that I have.

My goal, or should I saw project, it to finish scanning all of my books by tomorrow evening, and then I will upload the file here to the blog so that you can download it and do whatever you like with it.

Let me know what you think of the idea.

For new readers, Sascha has that floppy ear because she was stung by something a couple of years ago and her ear massively swelled.  We drained it for a couple of weeks, but it continued to fill with fluid so we ended up having to do surgery.  As a result, she has that floppy ear which makes her look a little less intimidating.

Sascha In Early Morning Sun With Bamboo Backdrop

Maggie is now 9 years old and is somewhat showing her age.  Her muzzle has definitely turned gray, she has some light cataracts, and she tends to lay down rather than standing.  Other times, she thinks she’s a puppy and starts running sprints around the yard.

She loves the weather like today where it was in the low 60′s and is supposed to be in the mid to upper 70′s all this week (yea, we’re really freezing down here:-).

After taking pictures of the Butterflies, I decided to take a few of the dogs since the light was really nice.

Maggie Yawning

Maggie Looking Directly At Camera

Maggie Looking At Camera With Face On Ground

Maggie Smiling At Macro Lens

Then there’s Sascha.  She is 7 years old and always has energy.  Whereas Maggie loves to be petted by anyone, Sascha is loyal beyond belief and loves to be near me no matter where I am.  She’s not one who needs constant petting, but she must be able to have a clear view of whatever I’m doing.  She also loves to be in the backyard no matter how hot or cold.

You may notice Sascha has that nasty looking skin irritation on her neck.  I’m guessing it started when her collar started rubbing against her neck a couple of weeks ago.  I took her to the vet on Friday and they gave her some antibiotics and some ointment to put on her neck.

Sascha Looking At Camera

Sascha Backlit Laying In Yard

She can play fetch for an hour at a time, and actually retrieves better than Maggie (our Golden Retriever) ever did.

She loves this little squeaky mouse.  Leecy or I will throw it, Delilah will dash after it, then run back to whoever through it and gently drop it by our hand.

During my waiting for the Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar to form a Chrysalises, I decided to record Delilah being herself.

It’s a type of Husky Dog being eaten by Black Vultures off on the side of the road.  Here’s what kind of disturbs me.

One, this dog is far enough away from the road that it was either placed there or perhaps it was hit by a car and walked over there and collapsed (hopefully I’m being too dramatic).

So most likely this dog was in some sort of pain before he died, unless he was just dumped there which would be just as bad.

Second, although this dog doesn’t resemble is active self now, he does, or did, to be a fairly nice looking dog so I’m wondering if it was someone’s pet?

I don’t know if Leecy will go for this, but maybe I can convince her to go back tomorrow and see if she can locate a collar near the dog (assuming it’s still there tomorrow)

Houston Dog Being Eaten By Black Vultures

I have 1 comment (my soapbox) and 1 question.  My comment is, if you have pets, indoor or out, please at least put a collar on them so they can be identified should something happen.  A cheap collar will only cost a few dollars and I’m assuming that whoever owned the dog care/cared for the dog at one time.

My question is this.  What do you do, or have you done, if you hit an animal crossing the road?  Did you just keep driving, assess the damage, take it to a vet, or none of the above?

If haven’t hit an animals in years, but I did witness a cute puppy playing on the side of the road and in jumped right in front of another car.  That car kept on driving.  I circled back around to see if it could be saved.  If it could, I would have taken it to the vet.  Unfortunately the puppy was clearly dead when I got back around.  It didn’t have a collar and I didn’t know what to do, so I didn’t probably do the best thing, but I just left the puppy in the grass.  I felt terrible for weeks after that.  I couldn’t get this image of this cute black puppy pouncing around the flowers get suddenly hit by a car.

So if this was your dog, and if it did have a collar, would you want a call from some stranger telling you what they found or would you just rather not know?

Seriously, what do yall do, or have you done?  Send me an email or leave a comment.  I’ll remove your identity if you want me to.  I’m curious on how others have responded

Look forward to some conversations on this.

In this brief video clip, you’ll hear Coco say the following:

1. Sascha Here! (This normally sends Sascha, our German Shepherd, running into the living room.
2. Come on and eat! (You’ll hear Leecy starting then opening the microwave.  Once the microwave beeps, Coco tells everyone it’s time to eat).
3. Hiccup (Coco doesn’t actually say hiccup, she’s mimicking Leecy when she has had the hiccups).

So anyway, Leecy decided to make a little video of these two playing.  As usual, Delilah is the instigator.

We have.  Why?  Honestly, Leecy started the whole thing when I went on vacation.  You may recall that I went to the Texas Hill Country and took Sascha (German Shepherd) with me.  At the time I forgot to bring Sascha’s crate with me.

Well guess what?  When I returned Leecy had converted Sascha’s crate to Delilah’s crate.  Now why this kitten needed the largest crate in the house I have no idea.

So anyway, since Delilah seemed to be enjoying the new crate so much, I went out and bought Sascha a new crate.

There’s another reason why this crate training a cat thing isn’t such a bad idea.  You see, Delilah is very much a mixed breed kitten, compared to Chloe who is also a mixed breed (both are rescues) but likely has some Birman in her.  Delilah loves to run around the house, jump all over things, and chase the dogs and Chloe.  She also tends to stare at Coco (our African Grey Parrot) in a way that makes me a little insecure about leaving them alone.

Thus, during the day we put the dogs and Delilah in their crates.  Our cats tend to just sleep in the afternoon anyway, so I don’t Delilah cares in the least.  I also have a feeling (though I can’t prove it) that Delilah feels like Sascha and Maggie are part of her clan or pack (or maybe it’s the other way around).

Oh, Chloe seems to appreciate it during the night as she gets to continue to sleep on our bed and not worry about harassment from Delilah.

Chloe On Bed

Obviously Chloe is quite content at night (although Leecy may not be once she finds out that I took this picture while she was sleeping).

Sascha, Maggie, and Delilah In Crates

Here’s the rest of the pack.  Maggie (Golden Retriever) appears quite content (sleeping upside down), Sascha is happy to pose for me (although she’s so black you can’t really see her in the picture), and Delilah is on her little cat bed, completely relaxed.

All in all, everyone appears to be quite happy.

One more thing if you’re interested.  Sascha and Delilah tend to be best buddies (Sascha is very gentle with her and Delilah loves to play with Sascha’s tail), Maggie just wants attention from Leecy or myself, and Chloe tends to just not care who’s around as long as it’s relatively calm.

Ok, let ME tell you the CORRECT story on the “dog meets skunk”.

Sascha started barking at 4:15am, I tried to see if she could wait till my alarm went off at 4:35.. Uh, nope, she wanted out NOW.  So, I got up, still ½ asleep when I let Sascha out to potty. She went out in the grass, did her ‘thing’, and then must have gotten a whiff of Peppy (my name for the baby skunk). She took off towards the rose garden. I did not see anything when I shined the flash light over that way, but I might have been a second or two behind her on seeing Peppy.

So I tried calling her to come back inside, then I see her run to the middle of the grass rubbing her face in the grass. She finally came running to me to go inside. As soon as we did, she ran & rubbed her face on the carpet —-EEEEKKKK — I smelled something, but it was more like old garlic, so I hurried her back outside & ran to turn the hose on – she ran back to the grass to rub her face. I called her over to me & ran the hose in her face/eyes (in case that’s where she got sprayed), then I towel dried her face off & took her straight inside to her crate. Usually we don’t give her towels or a bed to lie on in her crate because she is notorious for chewing them, but in this case, I gave her the old towel to rub her face on.

I went back to the bedroom & softly told L that “uhm, we have a problem. I think Sascha met up with Peppy. She was rubbing her face in the grass & on the carpet & it smells – BAD!”  So he gets up (still mostly asleep) I hand him a wet wash cloth to wipe her face/eyes more. He says he didn’t smell anything. I don’t know how he didn’t, it was BAD! (It was even worse than this scratch ‘n sniff book that I had as a child that had burning trash as one of the scratch ‘n sniff pages ).  So he crawled back to bed. I get ready for work. Once I go out to the kitchen to feed Delilah & let the dogs out –this time on leashes, the smell is WORSE! Luckily Coco (parrot) can’t smell. I was afraid the cats would roll in the section of the carpet that Sascha rubbed on.   The dogs just looked at me like “uh, yeah, no thanks I’m not going out.”  Put everyone up & I left for the day. (5:30am)

(insert your section of telling me what to get at the store)

So, by the time I got home (12hrs later)… yeah, just an FYI: initial skunk spray smells like a mix of old garlic & burning rubber….12hr skunk spray smells like… DEAD SKUNK…we ALL know THAT smell! So, our garage, house & dog now reeked of that smell! *GAG*  I changed really quick because I didn’t want my work clothes to smell like skunk, I let the dogs outside to potty, grabbed an old wash cloth & the Natures Miracle Skunk Odor Remover  & Sascha. Followed the directions. That stuff smells A LOT better than skunk…its citrusy. It says to let it stay on her for a while.  So, as she ‘dried’, I used it on the carpet and then when L got home, he used it on her cage.   By the end of the night, everything seemed to have dissipated.

This morning, I didn’t smell skunk. I will bathe Sascha when I get home to make her smell even prettier than the citrus smell. When I let her out this morning, she went potty right off the patio, she didn’t venture out further to see if Peppy was around… I think she learned her lesson, stay away from that black & white thing out in the yard.

~Leecy

I waddle over to Sascha’s cage, sniff her, and tell Leecy I don’t smell anything and crawl back into bed.

This afternoon I call Leecy who tells me the whole house smells like a Skunk.

I look online and see that some folks have used Nature’s Miracle Skunk Odor Remover so I tell Leecy to buy that.

When I got home, it definitely smelled like a Skunk.  Leecy had already bathed Sascha in that Nature’s Miracle stuff so hopefully the smell will start to fade.

I’ll post an update later this week and tell ya’ll if that stuff seemed to work or not.

I ask Leecy if she could go by Wabash Antique and Feed to pick up some wild bird food.  I gave her 60 bucks the night before and I said I would give her more money when I got home.

Somehow, Leecy spends $180.00 on bird food.  Okay, it’s for the birds, all is well.

I get home and give Leecy $110.00, two fifties and one ten.

Leecy apparently sets the money on the table and while I’m feeding Coco (African Grey Parrot) I hear a bunch of curse words and Leecy telling me I need to train the dog better.  I ask her what happened.  She shows me a fifty and points at Sascha (German Shepherd).  I ask her where the other fifty and ten are, and she says “your stupid dog just ate it!”

I start laughing.  I said it could have been worse, I could have given her all twenties, or dollar bills.  Leecy is not laughing.

Leecy then tells me I need to go make Sascha poop and get the money back.

I told Leecy I can’t just make Sascha go poop, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow and hope it comes out.

Leecy tells me I need to give Sascha something to make her regurgitate the money.  I said I can’t do that.  “Let’s just wait until tomorrow and see if we can find it.”

I notice Leecy still isn’t seeing the humor in this, so I said I’ll go outside and pick up the dog poop so it will be easier to find tomorrow.

Whereas Leecy may not be feeling too confident she will get the $60 bucks back, I remain hopeful.  Why?

Because Sascha has a fetish.  She likes to eat paper, especially paper towels.  I don’t know why.  Perhaps it’s the fiber content.

Also, that “fiber” content occasionally gets a little stuck and Sascha waddles over to me for help.  I, being the animal lover that I am, always help Sascha when she has these little problems and give the “fiber” a gentle pull, then all is well.  Sascha, for her part, always seems quite appreciative when I help her out.

So, I remain hopeful Leecy will get her $60 bucks back tomorrow, and I also will have my camera ready to photograph the ordeal:-).

In the meantime, if you know Leecy or see her, tell her everything will come out alright.

I’m sure she’ll appreciate the sentiment (after she strangles me for posting this:-)

Look at those spots on her stomach.  She was definitely a mixed breed of something.

She’s doing really well.  Still a little groggy today from the pain meds, but other than that, she is doing fine.

Delilah After Spay