Short and Thin

Taylor:   We are hoping Jan has learned her lesson about attacking - even accidentally - a stinging insect (Flat Black Flying Insect), but she's so absent-minded, she probably hasn't.

Buddy:  It was a fun eight days watching her carefully poke sticks and clippers into the bushes to figure out where its friends and family were hiding.

Taylor:  After church the next day, she did a little trimming in the rain. Clip, clip, here they come, move away.  Okay, it's safe.  Clip, clip, here they come, move away.   By day three she had made the mess in the photo above. 

Buddy:  This is a view of the side of the house.  Weeds and thistles were entangled in the bushes and some were already growing under the siding.

Taylor:  It took her eight days, but she worked her way through all the bushes and then went back to cut them a second, then a third time so they were all short and thinned.

Buddy:  This is the end result of the side of the house.

Taylor:  And this is the front.  Notice the one trimmed down to the stalks and thinned to half the original size. 

Buddy:  It took five days of careful trimming to find what was being built in that bush.  Can you see it?  (Click o the pic to enlarge it.)  This is a close-up from the only angle it's visible.

Taylor:  And this is what the wasp nest looked like the morning after Jan sprayed it and it fell down. 

Buddy:  We're thankful to be rid of those wasps.  Jan was afraid one of us dogs would be stung since we like to water those bushes as we begin our walks.

Taylor: Sorry we don't have any jokes for you today.  Jan can be crabby when she's in pain and that sometimes affects our sense of humor.   But we'll find it again if she didn't throw it out with the shrub trimmings.


We're joining Pepi Smart Dog for today's Thankful Thursday blog hop.

Micah Hatches A Scratcher

Micah:  Jan said .... WHAT?  She said I have been sitting here for so long she thinks I'm trying to hatch a scratcher?

Just because we've had so many baby bird stories this past week does not mean I am trying to keep the nest warm and hatch baby scratchers. It would save Jan a bunch of money, though, wouldn't it?

This is my scratcher and I can sit on it for as long as I so desire!  And if baby scratchers hatch, I will be a very rich internet sensation. Now go away.  My scratcher and I want some privacy.

Baby Bird in Dog Pen

Taylor:  Hey, how did the baby bird get in our dog pen?


Rusty:   I've been wondering the same thing.  Last week Jan let Marcus outside, saw the bird and decided Marcus needed to come back inside right away.

Marcus:  Yes, I was walking down the steps and Jan suddenly said, "Marcus - she calls me Marcus -

Taylor:  Of course she does.  That's your name.

Marcus:  She said, :"Marcus, let's go back in the house."

     "But I have to pee," I said. 

     "Later."

     So I dutifully went back in the house and sat for hours with my legs crossed

Taylor:  It was only for a short time, Marcus.  Jan went outside to take some pictures.

Baby bird:  Mama, where are you?  How did I get here?  Where am I?  Who is this crazy person following me around telling me to smile for the camera?

Taylor:  Baby looked dazed and lost.  Did he fall out of a nest in our tree or did his mama kick him out and tell him not to come back until he graduated flight school?

Rusty:  I begged to go outside to help him, but Jan hooked the screen door to lock me inside.

Marcus:  He wandered around the pen, hopped a little, flapped his wings here and there, and looked around a lot.  At first I thought he'd dropped his nest keys, but then I realized he was lost.   If I didn't have to keep my legs crossed, I could have taken him a map.

Taylor:  What happened to him?  Did his mom ever show up?

Rusty:  Not that I know of.  He slowly made his way across the pen, stopping here and there to practice lift off, flapped through the chain link, landed and disappeared around the neighbor's tree.

Marcus:  And finally I was allowed outside to pee!

Taylor:  I hope Baby is okay.  Perhaps he'll come back and visit us again.

Marcus:  I hope so.  I'd like to invite him to lunch.

Mama and Baby Pipe Birds

Rusty:  Bloggers have been asking for an update on the birds nesting in the pipe.  Marcus, you speak goose.  Do you also speak bird?

Marcus:  A goose is just a big bird with a built-in horn so he can honk the song of his people ... er, his gaggle.  So, yes, I speak bird fluently.

Micah:  Are the baby birds okay and still living in the pipe?  (Dedicated Determination and Cat in Hat with Scarf)

Marcus:  Yes, they are okay.  They tweet a "Hello, Marcus" at me every day or two.

Merci:  It sounds more like a "Mama, save us!" to me and Buddy.

Marcus:  That's because you don't speak their language.  Their mama thanked me for keeping such a watchful eye on them.

Buddy:  Is that what you call it when you practically drag us the last yards to the pipe - each direction!  

Marcus:  Last weekend we saw mama sitting on the pipe singing joyfully.  Jan was so afraid you guys would scare her away she stopped immediately and mama was just a blip in the picture.  Mama was gone before Jan could change the settings.

Rusty:  I bet you barked and scared her away, Marcus.

Merci:  Actually, Marcus has been quiet around the nursery.  

Marcus:  A few evenings ago, Mama was sitting on the pipe and flew into a tree when we approached.  She was small and hard to find to photograph.

Micah:  From what you've said, she'd have to be small for her and her babies to nest in a 2 inch wide pipe.

Rusty:  Is that picture for real?  It looks like wallpaper to me.

Merci:  Yes, it's real.  It was taken looking almost straight up at the evening sky.

Buddy:  This one is from the other day.  It's tough to get a picture looking down a dark pipe.

Marcus:  Here's another shot of mama.  Isn't she cute?  I keep waiting for those babies to accept my invitation to lunch.

Rusty:  Well, when they do, please let the rest of us know. We don't want to miss that meal.


Prayers requested for these sweet doggies, Luke/Benny and Cousin Andy.

You might remember Luke.  He lived with us for several weeks, was returned to his family, saved from there by Teresa, taken in by an Atlanta rescue and transported to New England where he went to live with Elise, Matt and his fur sister Rosie.

Last Saturday we learned Luke - now Benny! - has some health issues and was diagnosed with Lyme disease and with heartworms. 

Cousin Andy lives with Miss Teresa.  (Not Luke/Benny's Teresa)  We introduced him (Funny Farmers and Cousin Andy) in 2009.  Yesterday we learned he has been diagnosed with lymphoma.  Miss Teresa and Mr. Doug are heartsick.  They really love this little guy.  We do too.

We are joining the Pet Parade blog hop with hosts Rascal and Rocco,  Bionic Basil, Barking From the Bayou and Owned by a Husky. 

Dedicated Determination

Percy:  Hey, Marcus, I heard you were baby bird sniffing again yesterday. 

Marcus:  Yes, and they were singing for us when we approached.  Jan put her ear down to the pipe to listen to their tiny voices. 

Buddy:  She got some exercise!  On our morning walk, Jan discovered she'd left the camera on the desk.  She had to come home to pick up the camera and drop off the old timers - Merci and me.

Marcus:  I get so excited when we approach, I run up, stand on my hind legs, sniff, and lick the top of the pipe.  I'd really like to invite those birds to lunch but Jan said their mom probably told them not to talk to strangers.  I'm not a stranger.  Everyone knows I'm Marcus.

Percy:  The sun was shining this morning.  Was Jan able to get a better picture than last evening?

Buddy:  That's debatable.  Jan has a very small camera but the pipe is narrow and the "handle" over the top makes it next to impossible to take a picture.

Percy:  There isn't any handle showing in the pictures she took, most of which we watched her delete, so how did could she even try to get a shot? 

Marcus:  The camera will barely fit under the handle.  She slides it under, then turns on the camera so the lens will open and blindly tries to change the zoom setting and just as blindly aims down the pipe.  Then she has to turn off the camera to slide it back out.

Buddy:  She made a third trip to see if she could get anything better than what she had.  I insisted on going along. 

Marcus:  This is the best she could come up with.  It's from trip #2.  The bright yellow strips are tiny slivers of sunlight inside the pipe.  (Can't use a flash in there.)  The gray circle area is the nest and in the nest are the birds.  It's just amazing how tiny they are!

Percy:  And it's amazing Jan was able to get even that little bit of detail out of this.  It's the original picture (looking down the pipe at the nest) before she cropped and played with the picture.

Buddy:  While Jan maneuvered the camera under the handle, Marcus stood up and begged to get his face in the picture.  The camera was pointing down a pipe and Marcus still tried to photobomb.  Now that is dedicated determination!

Marcus:  For those of you who asked for updates, when Buddy and I took Jan on our evening walk (4th of the day), I licked the top of the pipe.   Jan not only heard the low singing but saw and heard bird wings flapping in the pipe.  What kind of bird could be so small?

Percy:  Since this is Thankful Thursday, we would like to thank a sweet blogging friend for sending us some kitty and some dog Science Diet.  Jan says it is such a blessing.  We say let's eat!

Note:  Perhaps you have already figured out this is not Thursday.  It's been a hectic week and we just learned we lived through two Wednesdays.  Please ignore that this is Friday and pretend it's part 2 of yesterday's Thankful Cat in Hat with Scarf post.

PS - Quinn's mom Carol from Catitude blog asked if we would let bloggers know their internet is down until at least next Thursday.  The modem died.  Also, she's recovering from a bronchial infection and would appreciate your prayers.

Join Pepi Smart Dog and friends for the Thankful Thursday blog hop.

Cat in Hat with Scarf

Buddy:  I wish you would dress more appropriately in public, Marcus.

Marcus:  I'm always well-dressed, one leash for my collar and one leash for my harness. 

Buddy:  Have you noticed one of those leashes is torn and ugly?


Marcus:  Torn and ugly are my trademarks.  I have razor sharp teeth!

Micah:  Can you argue that later?  I want to hear about your second walk Wednesday.  I heard it was more interesting than the morning one when Merci was with you. 

Marcus:  Why did Jan take this picture?

Buddy:  I think she was trying to get you, me and the yellow pipe in the same shot, but you were too busy trying to catch flying bugs to stand still.

Micah:  Why did she want the yellow pipe in the shots she took of you two?

Marcus:  Because a young woman walking ahead of us suddenly stopped.  Then she peered down a yellow pipe with the help of her cell phone light.

Buddy:  As we were walking by, she said, "There's a baby bird stuck in here, about a third of the way down the pipe.  It was making noise or I would never have known it was here."

Micah:  So did you rescue it?

Buddy:  Actually, it was not a baby bird stuck in the pipe, but a family of tiny baby birds nesting in the pipe.

Marcus:  The pipe has a "handle" across the top with only a small opening on either side, so Jan had a hard time holding onto our leashes and aiming the camera through the small opening to illuminate the opposite side of the inner pipe with the flash.  This is a terrible picture but that is part of the nest with the babies between the yellow and the black.

Micah:  Oh, I see it.  The nest looks sort of like a cat face with eyes and a nose peering out between a black knit hat and a yellow scarf.

Buddy:  Seriously, Micah?  When is the last time you actually saw a cat dressed for winter?

Marcus:  Forget the cat in the hat with a scarf.  Let's get back to the story.  I could reach the top of the pipe with my nose if I stood on tippy toe paws.  From there I could smell the birds but Jan wouldn't pick me up so I could look down the pipe to see them.

Micah:  I wonder what kind of birds they are. Do you suppose they could be hummingbirds?  Hummingbirds here are the size of a bumblebee.

Buddy:  I wonder how many times we have walked by the nest and not known they exist?

Marcus:  I knew they were there.  I just didn't tell anyone.

Micah:  Uh-huh.  Are you aware your ears will grow if you lie?

Marcus:  They will not!

Buddy:  If you say so, but they sure do look a little taller from this angle.

Update:  Oh, dear, this has been such a busy week, we thought today is Wednesday.  We just wrote our Thankful Thursday post for tomorrow and then realized it IS Thursday.  So we're going to celebrate twice this week with a two-part post.  

Join Pepi Smart Dog and friends for the Thankful Thursday blog hop.