Freeze Frame

A temporary absenteeism is about to begin.  I spent all day packing today and the move begins tomorrow.  Alas, the move is only to storage right now as I have nowhere to live due to a severe shortage of inventory, both of houses for sale as well as rentals.  Thus we will be moving in with the parentals until such time as alternate housing becomes available.  

In addition to the selling/packing/moving, I have begun applying for other jobs that might challenge me more than my current one.  And of course the pancreas never rests.  More surgery awaits in a couple weeks so the doctor can remove the stents and hardware he put in a few weeks ago.  So we have been quite busy while also working full time and keeping up with the kids who happily demand just as much as ever.

Such as bully sticks.  At least it's peaceable in the kingdom again.

Dex naps in possibly the only 5 minutes of sun we've had so far this summer.

Meanwhile, Hook gave Stabby the boot from her usual spot.

And now she is relegated to the hot tub cover.  Poor Stabby.

From within his hole:  " Is that a dog I see?"

"Why, I do believe it was!  And I forgot to bark!"

Yes, the bark collar works.  Hallelujah.  So the kids and I will probably drop out of sight for a few weeks while we get situated and hopefully find a place to live besides under a bridge or in the storage unit.  But never fear, we will return.  We hope all are enjoying their summer and hopefully the next post will be from a new abode.

Books and Covers

You know the rest.  Watch:

The Forgotten Ones

The animals doth protest.  They are starting to think I enjoyed my time away from them based on my road trip blog posts and they demand a post for them.  So here it is. 

 Herd o' cats.

Hook returned from the kennel a different, more social cat.  He evidently became used to seeing people and dogs come and go as they were caged at the front desk area.  As a result, he returned far more bold and social than when I left him there, well worth the money I spent boarding them.  He has taken to lying on the bed in the above picture which sends PB into paroxysms of angst.  He stamps his feet, play bows and gets himself all worked up, all while Hook just watches him unperturbed like he has three heads.  To this day, I can't figure out why Hook has such an effect on PB but it amuses me to watch it.  He is very puppy like when he plays with Hook.

I am superior to all of you.  How did I end up in such a lowly place?

I have no idea where Lola is.  I am not licking my chops for any reason at all mom.

 

I'm here!  I'm here!  Listening carefully for your instruction.

Lola is a weirdo.  She ran around with her ear stuck like that for an hour.  Then I found her dancing on the hot tub cover flinging one of my socks around.  She is definitely an adolescent while Baby prefers to be a noble, senior gentleman:

 

Stabby and I do not concern ourselves with your juvenile behavior.

 

"DEXTER!  Get over here!"

 

"Ask me nicely." 

The twins.

I often have to look twice to figure out who is who when the dogs mirror each other which they often do.  It is uncanny how these LGD's adopt the same postures and engage in such similar behaviors.  They have each contributed to the depressions all over the yard, often finishing what the other started.

It is a rare walk that we aren't stopped by passing walkers, motorists or bicyclists exclaiming on how beautiful they are and asking about their breed and background.  They are definitely show stoppers.

I love you mom.

Lola Bean is finally injury free, happy and healthy.  She is an unbelievably sweet dog and I am grateful every day that all turned out so well given that I adopted her sight unseen.  She has had a huge effect on PB and his behavior as he clearly watches her and follows her lead.  When things settle down with house, job etc. I will enroll her in a therapy class so she can become a therapy dog.  She has the perfect temperament and adores people.

Thus spake the animals.  Back to the road trip in the next post.

Interlude

Wyoming and Colorado

From Yellowstone National Park, we dropped down to Jackson Hole and spent the night there.  I bought a fabulous painting of a big horn sheep that will one day grace a more western ranch style house.  Photo to come.  

Jackson Hole is a beautiful town in a stunning setting but requires a good deal of moolah.  It's an arty town with lots of western doodads, some of them genuine but a lot of chintzy/touristy junk too.  From Jackson Hole we made the one routing mistake of the trip and that was dropping down due south to Rock Springs and then due east to Laramie and Cheyenne.  Turns out the southern part of Wyoming is hideously dreary and nothing like the splendor of the northwest.  We should have cut over east from Yellowstone towards Cody and Buffalo.  But our route allowed me to eliminate Cheyenne and Laramie as potential relocation cities, both of which I had been seriously considering.  I may have said a little prayer of thanks that I took the time to see them for myself in person before applying for jobs there. 

We had intended to spend the night in Cheyenne but after a brief loop through downtown, we nixed that idea and drove on to Fort Collins, Colorado.  Fort Collins is an IT/computer hub which I did not know.  Intel, HP etc. all have large campuses there and if you didn't know better, you would have thought you were in Palo Alto or any generic place in California complete with hideous, standard American strip malls.  (A pox upon Walmart)  From Fort Collins, we dropped straight south through Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo and on into New Mexico where we spent the night in Santa Fe.  Did I mention these were seriously long days of driving?!  

The Rocky Mountains are lovely though not the sharp, breathtaking mountains I am used to in the North Cascades or Canada.  It's hard to think of any mountains that large that aren't stunning but I was a bit disappointed in the Rockies.  Like many things you imagine and picture in your mind, the real thing sometimes falls short.  The east side of the Rockies languishes into flat prairie as you get near Oklahoma and while there were short stretches between major cities that were out in the country and perched in the foothills - more of where I imagined I would want to live, you never really escape the sense that you are just outside a major metropolitan area which is precisely what I am trying to avoid.  So I eliminated the eastern side of the Rockies as well.  I figure packing up and moving is expensive, time consuming and not easily reversible with my small zoo so picky is justified in this case.  

So without further ado, here are the photos from Wyoming and Colorado.

We *finally* spied this moose standing in a field.  I know, he doesn't look real.  I love their noses...a cross between a platypus and some prehistoric dinosaur.

 

 Why I won't be moving to southern Wyoming.  Hundreds of miles of this:

We saw herds of these pronghorn sheep roaming in the dusty barren landscape between Rock Springs and Laramie.  Little known fact:  second fastest animal on earth behind the cheetah.

In Rock Springs, they had huge herds of "wild horses".  However, this is a misnomer as the herds are not technically "wild" but rather free roaming offspring of long escaped domesticated horses from the past century.  They are protected, allowed to roam the BLM lands and well cared for by the state of Wyoming.

Obviously fertility is not an issue!  There were foals everywhere.

Pike's Peak.  Though as tall as Mt. Rainier, it does not look as impressive because of the lack of glaciation and the fact that it is situated in a range instead of towering above all around it as Rainier does.  Oh yeah, and you can drive to the top.  Way to ruin nature.

Alas, we did not take many photos of southern Wyoming or Colorado as animals were few and far between and the landscape didn't lend itself to great photography, in spite of the Rockies.  Without snow, they looked more like rolling hills.  I have to confess I was also put off by the hard core, right wing religious sentiment, especially in Colorado Springs, home of Focus on the Family.  I just don't see myself being happy in a place that assails me with directives on what god wants for me and why I am already destined to burn in hell.  Just saying...!  So it was on to New Mexico.

Lastly, Hook would like to say he did not appreciate being in a cage for a week and he hasn't been the same since!