Labs, Dachshunds & Girls

The photos of Maddie and Trellany, I've entitled A Girl and Her Dog. Dogs can be a girl's best friend. They listen to your problems or wishes and keep your secrets very well. They give kisses and extra love when you're sad. They are just plain fun and good for laugh when you need one the most. As you've read in previous posts, life with Maddie the Lab is never dull!

Sometimes I feel like Minnie Mouse the Dachshund. I just want to crawl back in bed and pull the covers over my head. Minnie is good for snuggling and when awake, can look at you with such intelligence! It is as if she knows what you're thinking. Smart dog!

Spring In My Backyard

I love the view from the kitchen window these days. During the winter, I watch the birds at my feeders and hope to glimpse a cardinal or two. Mostly I'm visited by doves, chirping sparrows, house finches, and our winter visitors the yellow finches. When the yellow finches arrive before Christmas, they are mostly gray, but in late March when they leave, they are a bright yellow.

Now that it is spring, there are other colors to brighten the view. The plumbago has pretty deep pink flowers. The white flowers of the spirea really stand out against the darker colored bushes. The jasmine on the fence still has a few yellow flowers, but reached its peak in February with a bright yellow display. It was gorgeous. I don't know why I didn't take a picture! Oh well.
I love that the grass (and weeds) are green. Unfortunately that means mowing. I use a push mower in the backyard. I don't mind cutting grass when it is 85 degrees or less. I also don't mind cutting grass once a week. Unfortunately, it gets above 85 from April to September and thanks to Rick's use of Weed and Feed, I have to cut grass every three days or risk losing Minnie the Dachshund in a jungle!

As you can see from all the roofs in the background, there are a lot of houses around me. Thanks to fences, there is a little privacy to enjoy the view. Fences really do make good neighbors. It gives you a place to retreat when you don't feel like company sometimes.

Maddie Gets Mad

Maddie the Lab was not amused when I left her Thursday to take Trellany to a karate demo in Daphne. Her anger pushed her to do something Bo, our previous Lab did when he was about Maddie's age which is 17 months. Rick came home from work to find that Maddie had chewed his TV remote to pieces. Bo ate not only ate one remote, but also ate the replacement remote which had been placed on a high shelf out of his reach or so we thought. Bo lived to be almost 13 years old and we never figured out how he did it. From now on, our replacement remote will be placed in a drawer when we leave Maddie.

Her mischief doesn't end there. The next day while I was substitute teaching and Rick went to the grocery store, Maddie took a supposedly empty yellow ink cartridge from the trash can by my desk. I usually recycle them, but was in a hurry before I went to work and dropped it in my trash. When Maddie greeted Rick, she had bright yellow whiskers, a bright yellow tongue and yellow feet. There is now a yellow stain on my carpet. Rick called Epson to see if the ink was toxic (which it wasn't), the vet to see if the ink and plastic were harmful. The vet's office, after a good laugh, told Rick to just watch her to make sure the plastic passed and didn't bind up in her system.

Up until now Maddie has been really good! She hasn't eaten the garbage, books, homework, tables and entire chair arms as Bo did. Yes, there were some skeptical teachers when my sons said the dog ate their homework. They were vindicated when they produced the text books totally chewed up! I guess she's entered the terrible twos of a Lab puppy. She's a late bloomer.

Spring Garden

The first picture shows what used to be a flower bed, but has been changed to a vegetable garden. I put in sets of onions in the closest one. In the second one I've planted pole beans, purple hull peas, and radishes. The seeds have all sprouted and now have to be thinned out.
In the second picture is the main garden or Rick's division. He is in charge of tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. The cucumbers seeds have just barely poked their heads up by the trellis in the back. The rest were all plants purchased at Lowe's. I'm hoping to try to get in ahead of Rick when possible to try to keep him from needing the use of pesticides. He does love his chemicals!

Maddie Takes Over

Due to a back injury, Minnie Mouse the Dachshund has had to be confined in the kennel to keep her from jumping and running so that she can heal. During one of Minnie's breaks from the kennel, Maddie decided to take over that space. Not only did she take over the kennel, but she also took over one of Minnie's favorite squeaking toys. In the past, there have been many tug of wars over "Hootie".