The cat dined al fresco - Day 2 with two dogs

The cat dined al fresco.  Sounds like a mystery novel to me!  But here's where I set The Prisoner's meal, while the dogs were above on the deck, behind the fence.  This was mid-morning.  Carl wasn't about to let that cat back into the house, and the cat never has overcome his avoidance of Carl.

He and Ember have a mostly peaceful arrangement, but Carl is a bridge too far for The Prisoner.

Saturday morning started early, in the 3 a.m. hour.  Carl was starting to crowd me out of my own bed.  Yes, he slept with Grandma, while Ember kept to her normal schedule in her crate.

We were all up early enough to make "glow in the dark fetch" a reasonable game for the two pups.  Except only one of them retrieves, even semi-reliably!  Carl does not "get" that game.  Just as Ember looks puzzled when Carl chases the squirrels.

Carl continued his bark-y ways, and it did not seem to matter to him that it was dark or early or that humans nearby might be wanting to sleep in.  He barked at the cat, and he barked at the cheeky squirrel that kept flipping its tail at him from the safety of a tree on the other side of the fence.

Ember generously offered to share her "comfort carrot" with Carl.  

The hu-mom spent most of the day refilling water bowls and manning the sliding door to the back yard.  She didn't even try to get the dogs to eat their own food at breakfast, but she went to extremes to force them back onto their specific dietary content at supper time.  Whew!  That was a workout.

In the afternoon, the hypnotic spell of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds music on the TV had the doggos getting sleepy and dropping off... all three of us on the couch.

Such angels when they are sleeping.

Starting as early as it did, Saturday was a loooooong day, leading up to Carl being picked up around 7 p.m.  Ember had one last out of the crate time for her "last call" at that point.

Sunday morning, Ember was one drowsy pup.

I opted to let her just snooze.  We did go on a short around the block leash walk, sniff-a-palooza, before she nodded off again at the usual "puppy nap #1" time.

Hu-mom is trying to time it because it's Birthday lunch for the Mythical Son on Sunday.  Ember will need to stay in her crate for mom to go do that human outing!

I haven't mentioned the kids' adventures one state over, but they did survive their trip.  FGC did get to see his brother and sister, and they had play time both Friday and Saturday, but the overnight potential was interrupted and he ended up getting "rescued" by DS and DIL in the middle of the night, to spend the rest of it with them at the motel.

He had recovered by morning, thus the Saturday playtime.  Son says they will likely take a week to recover from the schedule disruption.  I'm thinking it was worth it, for what they learned in the process.

Life is good.  Keep on Sparking!

Two dog weekend

 

The Prisoner was notified that Carl is coming on Friday and will stay with us for two days.  He took the news OK, but he is making himself as scarce as he normally does when Carl visits.

Carl arrived about 8 Friday morning.  The two dogs started running the energy off one another in what was the cool part of the day.  Both had already had breakfast before the arrival, and Ember had been on a nice leash walk besides, but there is something so exciting about having another dog to chase around with!

Or to play tug with...!

Or to share a bone with...!

All day play, with a couple of check ins from FGS.  He has a new "kid version" smart watch that allows him to call his foster mom, dad, and grandparents, but nobody else.  We've been working on phone etiquette, and now can have short conversations, that normally consist of him asking what the dogs are doing.

Got some nice messages from DIL, including photos of FGS with his brother and sister, jumping on a trampoline.  They look so happy.  Little sister asked DIL to give Carl a hug for her.  Big brother got birthday gifts.  Seems that son and DIL, while they cannot take in all three of these siblings, are making a good effort to make sure the children see one another socially.  We will see where this journey takes FGS, and his siblings.  Praying for it to be a good place!

Does anyone remember the last time I kept the two dogs overnight?  Remember that they ate one another's food?  That aspect has not changed.

Carl wolfed down Ember's salmon and sweet potato, chicken and rice, and green beans.  

Ember did not seem to be slowed down much by Carl's slow-feeder dish.  She happily consumed all of his kibble.  Both belong to the clean bowl club.

After supper, Ember got her probiotic chew, and Carl got his dental chew.  Ember went into her crate for her pre-last call time.  She complained about it, loudly, but she's the one that put herself in there, wanting her kennel cookie.

Meanwhile, I enticed Carl upstairs and he's chilling on my bed for a while, and I'm doing my dental hygiene routine.  Ember quieted down after a bit and it seems calm for the moment.

Would you believe they managed to both squeeze onto my lap?  

Life is Good.  Spark on!

Suburban life and memories of a quarter century back

 

I had enough energy, and the weather was mild enough, so I pulled some weeds out of the river rock bed in the past week.

I also acquired a couple chairs to add to the outdoor space.  This one went on the front "paver patio", along with "Stoney" the labrador gardening bench.  Stoney got relocated to the front last year because Ember was knocking him over and chewing on him.

Ember got her monthly shipment of toys, and this month it included a teething toy in the shape of a pizza slice.  It's curvy and rocks, so she had a good time tossing it around in her x-pan.

We had a bit of regression over the weekend when I forgot my own learning and tried to introduce too many changes.  I was dragging one of her big branches around, rearranging the back yard and she decided she needed to participate, but she chose my arm to drag and that started a wrestling match that resulted in bandages for me. 

Haven't had that kind of episode in quite a while.  What I noticed was that both she and I have learned better skills for ending such an unfortunate thing.  We both said "I'm sorry" in our species appropriate ways.  

We really do have to make changes gradually, one step at a time in this house.  It is mom who gets in a hurry!  Bottom line, though, is that we recover, mend our relationship fences, and move on. 

We will be tested this coming weekend with a Carl visit.  Son and DIL will be transporting foster kiddo a state over to visit his aunt and siblings.  This is part of the process of letting him help make his own decisions about where and with whom he wants to live.  He might even stay the night with them, but son and daughter in law will be there in town for that night. 

Tuesday morning, we had our own chapter of "Make Room for Ducklings" right on our own corner.  I lost count of how many adolescent mallards were in this flock, this is only about half of them.  Adult male and female followed along after.

Ember and I watched them from our back deck.  

I have been appreciating how much just having this dog in my life keeps me enjoying the simple things like being outside during her early morning outings and at "last call".  Both are at a time when the temperatures are moderate, this time of year.

Meanwhile, halfway across the continent, back in the little village where my son was raised:  Sunday brought 5 inches of rain in 3 hours, resulting in flash flooding.  I thought my older sister was mistaken when she messaged me that she'd seen the village on the morning news program she watches, Monday morning.  This sent me to Google and to Facebook to find videos, and sure enough, the roads that were part of our daily lives were turned into rivers!

Photo is at the corner with the only traffic light in the village.  Off to the right would be the library and the post office and the town hall.  Down the road to the left would be where the creek is supposed to be, a bridge over it leading to the village residential area, including what used to be our house during my son's growing up years.  There wasn't a whole lot of news time captured by this event, because no one got hurt, but there was a lot of property damage and it's going to take time for it to all get cleaned up.  Local area first responders, a motorcycle club, and a church were all involved in helping folks affected get shelter for the night, food, water and supplies.  The local consolidated high school opened its doors to provide shelter.

It is not that the area had never known flooding.  I mean, any small hamlet with "Valley" in its name, probably has a reason for that moniker.  Back when I lived there and commuted out of town for work, there was one weekend when I could not make it from the airport to home because of flooding when an unusual warm spell melted all of the snow at once.  But this is the worst anyone remembers it being.

Prayers for all those around the world experiencing weather challenges, whether it be fires or floods, earthquakes or volcanoes.  Hopefully these things remain rare, and we have time between events to clean up and put things back into a livable state to carry on.

Life is good.  Keep Sparking!

How to turn a puppy into a pretzel

 Begin this process with a windfall tree branch that has lots of twists and turns in it.

Starting point, June 21, 2025.

Allow the puppy to strip smaller twigs and bark from the branch.  Then let the puppy play with it.  

Note the step-by-step process of the puppy trying to relocate the branch and shake its neck.  This demonstration was put together by Ember the evening of July 9th, 2025.

Grasp toward one end.

Step over with one rear paw and one front paw, so that the branch weaves under your belly.

Twist your body to try to grab it behind your right hind quarter.

You may have to go under that right hind leg to grasp the branch.  Ooops!

You have now become a puppy-flavored pretzel, as you flop onto your butt!

This is such a great exercise tool... wonder how much I can sell them for?  What do you mean the tree only produced ONE, and it's only for me?

Life is good!  Keep on Sparking!

Perfect fourth, rainy morning following

 

My classic Greek salad, almost ready.  I added some sliced hard-boiled egg after I had taken the photo.  It went over well with the hot dogs and chips and stuff at the family gather.  We topped the day with water gun fights (the young folk), fireworks, and root beer floats.

Setting up dad - son water action.  Mom & dad got into a water gun battle that spilled over onto grandma taking the video.  

Again, no photos of the FGC, due to the system rules, but he was off-screen in that photo, to the left, standing in a bin of water with a refillable water shooter.  By the end of this action everybody had to go change clothes!

The spectators for the fireworks.

Classic family Summer gather.  I haven't done one of these for the fourth in a while.  Having a kid in the mix makes all the difference!

As for the pets?  Carl was medicated and mellowed out.  Ember stayed home in her safe space.  The Prisoner hung out in his luxury suite.

With the Holiday landing on a Friday the weekend was pretty "normal" for a holiday weekend.  Ember and I hid from the heat, choosing to walk outdoors in the mornings.  It was a good weekend to catch up on movies.  I had never seen Titantic, the movie, which came out in 1997!  At least not all the way through. It was not what I expected, and instead of being "icky" it felt pretty "normal disaster movie" for the most part.  As long as I was on the theme of disaster movies, I also took on Dante's Peak.

My heart aches for the folks down in Texas Hill Country!  * rant * One thing I hate to see is all the finger pointing that seems to take us over when something bad / tragic happens.  No amount of blaming or defending is going to bring those people back.  Each one of them has people grieving over their loss.  Is there a place for planning to prevent the loss of life in future?  Absolutely.  But arguing over "who let these people down and let the system erode", well there's plenty of blame to go around, and to spin on a disaster?  Roll up sleeves and go to work, instead!  * end of rant *

I remember reading about the similar flash flooding in 1987, when I was mom to a young son.  The stories of kids swept away in that earlier era, clinging to trees, saying goodbye to one another, and strong faith that the youngsters were hanging on to.  The feeling of deja vu that came over the news sent me to Google to look up the time frame of the earlier flood.

On a Spark note, I had a moment at the grocery store over the weekend.  I lifted my 20 pound box of cat littler onto the belt, and as the 20-something bagger had to lift it back into my cart, she said, "You've got good muscles."

Yay!  That's why I pay a trainer, right?  Hearing admiration from a young person when you're over 70 will keep you working out!

Tuesday night's giggle has to do with the flyswatter brigade.  I think I may have mentioned in a prior blog that I bought several manual fly swatters.  I am trying to train targets (for Ember's nose to touch) and flyswatters not only swat pests, but they are also inexpensive dog training targets!  Since Ember has a history of destroying these things, I bought six.  I keep them atop the 'fridge until I'm ready to train with one of them.

But they are also functional fly swatters, and Tuesday during "last call" a fly got into the house.  I snatched one up and used it.  I got the fly!  And two seconds later, a furry dark blur brushed by me while leaping onto the dining room table.  She had it in her mouth (if you expand the photo, you can see the teeth marks on the handle).  I could not help myself; I laughed!  She looked a bit confused to find herself atop that table, as it's not a normal place for her to be.  

Ember exited the tabletop and took her prize into her x-pen.  I was careful to be casual about my request to give it back "Mommy needs that".  But she dropped it, and accepted her "thank you" treat.  I put it back atop the 'fridge and just kept on smiling.  My only regret is missing getting the photo of the look on her face when she was on the table.

On Wednesday morning, I had a trip to the dentist.  X-rays and fluoride, and I'm good until next January.  Ember seemed happy to have an extra day care day.  The Prisoner was happy to have another dog-free day, and he came up for extra pets.  

That's how quickly a week zooms by!  Hope everyone is surviving whatever life's throwing their way.  And that we can all breathe and accept that Life is good, by definition.  Keep on sparking!

Quiet Holiday week?!

 How did it get to be July already?

Monday morning dawned wet.  The Prisoner balanced on the deck railing, and I managed to snap this shot about five seconds before Ember came charging out and booped the cat on the hind quarters, knocking him off.  Typical cat, he landed on his feet.  I tried to avoid giggling out loud; since he didn't get hurt it was a funny moment.

Morning walk had to wait until about 10 a.m. and it was humid!  We avoided the noon time sudden downpour that caught practically the whole town by surprise.

Rabbit day (Tuesday, first of the month) dawned cool and pleasant.  Ember happily played retrieve off the deck with her dummy gamebird (sand-filled) before going off to daycare.  Since my personal trainer is off seeing his grandkids that live in Tennessee, I went on cleaning overdrive.  The muddy mats and dog-towels in the laundry.  The vacuum out to deal with two-dogs' worth of hair from Carl's visit on Saturday.  

Wednesday we finally addressed the siding damage from running a Northern Flicker B&B. Early morning showers caused a bit of dog schedule reshuffling.  But Mother Nature delivered a new tree branch for Ember to carve.

After the rain stopped, Jeff the handyman showed up with all the things he needed to make repairs.

My little diva behaved very well and earned a reward walk.  It was hot and humid, so we just went around one block.  Came home and tucked inside the AC for the rest of the day. 

Once painted, the siding looks terrific.  Hope it stays that way.  But Jeff says the mama flicker is still in the vicinity.

Ember and I enjoyed some deck time in the warmth and shade of Wednesday evening.  My son called and he and I had a long rambling phone chat that was reminiscent of the ones I used to enjoy with his father.  So many topics, chaining from one to another.  

We commiserated about the state of the world, among other things.  

He let me know his full licensure has earned him a substantial raise in pay, which I think anyone would welcome!  

There were the parenting questions:  "Mom, how did you get me to do chores when I was six?"  😁😂😀

My response?  "Did you do any chores when you were a kid?  I don't seem to remember you doing any!"  

In the end, we concluded that kids mostly learn from the example that their parents set of "doing the right thing" or including them in "this is how we..." wash the dishes, mow the lawn, take the trash out, etc. and it keeps the household running.  Grocery shopping, dog walking and feeding, all the family stuff that make up LIFE!  I do remember bartering transportation for yard work... you boys (grade 6 at the time) clear out these weeds and bushes and I'll drive you to the pool next village over.  The old "after we get these family things done, we can go to the mall" swap.  

Having no siblings, he didn't really get the parenting bug / need for parenting skills until they plopped him into a squad leader role in the Army Reserve.  He was picked for the role mainly based on being a year older than the other recruits.  But suddenly he was responsible for the behavior of the group, and he learned fast.

Meanwhile, back in Emberville, my furry diva has demonstrated a calm gun-dog attitude toward the booms and pops that are prevalent this time of year around here.

She just settles into a deck chair and watches the world go by or even closes her eyes when she gets a little tired.

Some of the whistle-whizz-sounding fireworks lead to a head-whip and a check-in with mom, but the booms might get an ear cocked, only.  None of the "go hide under the bed" that so many have found they must deal with.  Something I am grateful for.

It's July 3rd as I write this, and I can hear the now-legal booms and pops in the neighborhood.  Ember is in day care today, and I felt it a great treat to be there when someone brought a majestic gray brindle Great Dane in for the day.  Very calm and friendly dog; he offered me a paw, and I gushed over him, then felt guilty because when I turned around, there was another owner with an adorable poodle.  Ember had already been taken back so she didn't have the chance to feel jealous over her hu-mom's attention to others.  Face it, I love all dogs!

I'm settling into the Summer and hope the same for others.  Avoiding the news has been good for my mental health.

Hope that my Canadian friends and former Sparkers had a good Canada Day, and wishing a happy Independence Day to my US friends and former Sparkers!

Life is good.  Keep Sparking!

A lot of this n' that

Ups and downs in Emberville.  Weather has been mostly hot and humid.  This photo was taken in the angled morning light, and it downright looks as humid as it feels.

Ember was off to day care Thursday morning, and I was off to my own workout with the trainer.  He's on vacation next week, when we'll have the holiday.  Grandchildren, funny how they land high on anyone's priority list!

It's deck weather, i.e. Summer!  Ember curls up on a deck chair during "last call" before tucking in to bed Thursday evening.

Friday was cool in the morning so we got a leash walk in before it got Summer-hot.  We've had a couple of accidents where Ember has chosen to drop a plop in the basement, rather than go outside.  Yikes!  I had been thinking she might be ill, or going at daycare, but no!  So, cleaned up after discovery, and reiterated training message of not here, outside.  I don't care if it's hot or raining... outside!

Friday afternoon I took leave of my senses and volunteered to host Carl on Saturday.  Why?  Because his people are planning a lake with inflatables outing at a state park, and dogs are not allowed on that part of the beach/lakefront.  Carl would not be happy leashed on shore, and it seemed like too many moving parts to the plan, which includes the foster kiddo and a friend, and the other grandparents, so... puppy pool in my backyard is a better choice for Carl than being in his kennel at home the whole time.  

Photoshoot Saturday, amid a whole lot of wiggles and waggles

You may remember that Ember chewed up two puppy pools last Summer.  This is a new puppy pool, big enough to fit two dogs.  I waited until about 1 p.m. to bring it out and fill it up.  We had a lot of dog greeting energy to wear off first.

Two pups sharing a bone.  Sometimes it amazes me how well they get along!  I can't take a picture at the same time as I'm giving hand signals to the pups, but I did manage a couple of "two puppies sit" and one "two puppies down" positions, for which they got synchronized treats.

Synchronized chilling, canine style.  I tried splitting the x-pen into two compartments.  This experiment lasted about five minutes before they figured out the divider wasn't attached and could just be pushed aside.  Once they were in one big pen together, they played nicely, and in this particular rest period, curled up and napped nicely.

 

Out on the deck, Carl takes his Doberman guard dog heritage very seriously (he's a dobie / GSP mix).  When you look at the two dogs, side by side, you can definitely see the breed differences.  Carl is tall and lanky; Ember is all lab, shorter and stockier.  The tails are different, the snouts are different, the eyes are different.  But still people will ask if they are related.  Only by human, friends, only by human. 

I told Carl it was his job to terrorize the squirrels.  But the squirrels made themselves scarce.  They know a serious chaser when they see one.  Ember doesn't bark at them.  Carl not only barks.  He chases them up whatever they can climb.

By the way, it was 90F out there.  So the chilling inside was partly cool down.  They kept me busily refilling water bowls and opening and closing the door all day long.  But they graced my life for the day.

Meantime, the kids were out on the floating playground.

This was at a nearby state recreation area.  It's set up like the Japanese TV show "Wipe Out" which I find unwatchable!  Definitely not my jam, but the foster grand kiddo and his friend that they took with had a great time.  When my son came to pick up Carl, he remarked that he will be feeling it on Sunday!

Turns out with the number of kids that they let on at once, there's no way an adult is going to make it through the course.  Son gave up and spent his time on course as an impromptu lifeguard, fishing kids out of the water and getting them back on course.  Muscle man used every last one.

I would say the whole family had an active day, be it me with the canines, or them out in the water!  And I know I made the right choice for me.

Life is good.  Keep on Sparking!