Guide to Stalking

I thought I was nurturing the wildlife in my backyard when I put out my bird feeders but it appears I am luring them to their deaths. Several days ago, I came home to find a sweet, fluffy, tiny, very dead bird on my kitchen floor mat. The Polar Bear and I were both traumatized. He does not like a mess in the house and I do not like dead animals. Especially ones that my own animals killed. I know it was Stabitha who did it because even though the orange menace goes into paroxysms of murderous excitement sitting under my bird feeder, he is physically incapable of moving quickly, gracefully or efficiently. So I yelled at Stabby who yawned, lifted her head briefly and then buried her head back into the sofa.

You told me to earn my keep.

Poor Dexter can only manage to stand beneath the feeder for literally *hours* and hope a bird falls into his mouth.

Please, please, please...

I have no idea what is going on behind me. I am a saint.

That lasted only until the squirrel arrived. Even PB cannot resist stalking a squirrel. Next thing I knew, he was rocking climbing, Dexie was camouflaging himself behind a leaf and Stabby was mocking them both:

You distract and I'll grab him.

If you look closely below, you can see yesterday's squirrel laughing it's way out of the photo on the left and PB trailing far behind. He is a giant oaf when it comes to stalking small prey.

Come back! I was just kidding...

PB's leg is healing nicely. His foster mom gave me some good first aid suggestions which seem to have sped up the process. Obviously he is not limping around the yard! In fact, I went out to lunch yesterday and this is the face I returned to:

I swear mom, I have no idea what happened.

I left the doggie door open and true to LGD form, he would rather be outside, even in the pouring rain. He obviously decided yesterday's downpour would be a good time to dig himself a new hole which entails digging ferociously, kicking up a bunch of dirt in his own face and then using his filthy front legs to try to rub the dirt off his face. The above is the end result. His mama was not pleased.

Today, my mom and I drove up to the Skagit Valley to pick up her tulip bulbs at Roozengaarde. We took Jake and PB with us so they could enjoy the car ride and a trip to a local park I found. We picked up the bulbs, went out for lunch (where PB enjoyed some left over pot roast) and then proceeded to Little Mountain Park. The best (and pretty much only good) part of the park were the two viewpoints which afforded sweeping views of the Skagit Valley, the San Juans and presumably Mt. Baker if it hadn't been cloudy.





We walked around a 2 mile trail which seemed suspiciously less than two miles. Jake went crazy with all the sniffs and PB stopped about 83 times wondering if this whole thing was such a great idea after all and hey, I thought we were headed to Canada. Why did we stop here? Fortunately with Jake there, PB continued back to the car.

Uh, you want me to walk out there?

Stay tuned for the feast of available Maremmas for adoption that has ended my long famine. There are now so many available, I am not sure which one to take but it *finally* looks as though I will end up with a new dog...just not sure which yet!