Dogs on Thursday, update edition

This will be a quickie Dogs on Thursday post this week. With really nothing new to say as I am slogging through April, I thought this would be a good time to revisit old posts and give updates.

First, remember our unofficial mascot Shea at work? I first wrote about her in January. Here she is as a sweet little ball of fluff the first time her daddy brought her to work.

Here she is now! Look at how long she is! She was "fixed" last week (even though she said she wasn't broken) and she wanted to show off her belly. She loves belly rubs!

What a sweet little girl! I told her daddy that Shea can spend the day with me in the library any time!

Now for another dog from past DOT posts... Remember Maverick - the dog I help transport to his foster home back in February? He was the sweetest little boy - freckles all over, and full of kisses.

All of us who were involved in his transport that day received an email this week with some very good news... Maverick has found his forever home! He will be living in Virginia with his new mom and dad.
Don't they make a cute family?

Even though this is really Dogs on Thursday, I have to sneak in an update on the goose on the museum's roof. She is still up there. No babies yet, but I check on her every day.

Silly goose!

Dogs on Thursday

For this week's Dogs on Thursday, we have a special guest. Meet Cup O' Joe, pictured here with my lovely niece Jenny.
Jen works at a shelter, and a couple of weeks ago someone brought in this adorable little 2 year old, 4 lb. chocolate poodle...with a broken leg. Jenny brought him home for some extra TLC and specialized care, and will be looking for the right home for him after he is all healed up. Isn't he just the sweetest little thing? He just wants to cuddle up on your lap and be loved. Or so I am told. I haven't seen little Joe in person. Can't do it. I know that if I see this little boy, he will be mine. (I've already given him a name - it is "Edward" after Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility.)

Notice how his leg is wrapped up? The Vet tried to splint the leg, but after a week or so, an x-ray revealed this:
Yeah, the splint wasn't working. So it was off to a specialist, and a very expensive surgery, which the vet generously discounted, but is still around $2,000. You can read more about it at the Joa's Arc website or in this article by the Philadelphia Animal Advocate Examiner. (Joa's Arc specializes in fostering and adopting special needs pets in southern New Jersey.)

Here is little Joe the morning of his surgery. That purple bear is his best buddy. The two of them are inseparable! The nice people at the Vet's office allowed Joe to have his buddy with him during his stay there.

Here is Joe and his buddy back at home after the surgery.

See the collars that Joe and the bear are wearing? They were put on at the animal hospital - just like people get in people hospitals. The collars read "Cup of Joe" on the Joe, and "Cup of Joe's friend" on the bear. How sweet is that!

Special thanks to my niece for all of the photos. I stole them from her website and facebook page without even asking! I'm a bad Aunt! Without them, though, this would have been a photo-less post, because I just can't bring myself to see sweet Joe (or "Edward", in my own mind) in person!

I'm weak.

And a sucker.

And I can't afford another dog.

And I want this little boy so bad I can't stand it.

How do you like your eggs?

You can probably just make out the goose in this picture, but apparently this silly girl likes her eggs high...really, really high.
She was spotted yesterday on the roof of the museum where I work, and she was there again this morning. Of course, I didn't have my camera, and the photos with my cell phone came out like crap. Fortunately, today was one of my days to go home at lunchtime to let the dogs out, so I grabbed my camera and brought it back to work, hoping that Goosey Girl would still be on the roof this afternoon.
I was in luck! So, in the interest of sharing this with all of my bloggy friends, my co-workers and I trudged up onto the roof of the museum to get some better photos.

Here she is on her nest. Fortunately the Daddy goose was nowhere to be found. (I had visions of him chasing us off the roof, and it wasn't pretty!)
Silly girl. Sixty-some acres here, and she has to choose what has got to be the most inhospitable spot to build her nest. What is she going to do when those babies hatch? That's like a 20 foot drop. Sheesh! Watch that first step - it's a doozey!

Speaking of eggs, remember these eggs that the neighbor's chickens have thoughtfully deposited in the wagon in the garage?

Guess who is helping to incubate them...Joseph!

What a weird cat.

I can see him showing some interest in the eggs after they are hatched, or more accurately the fluffy, feathery, cheeping, contents of the eggs, but before? Just when you think you've seen it all...

Lobbying for an 11 month calendar.

For this week's Dogs on Thursday, I've decided to start a campaign. Abolish April! It's no secret that April is my least favorite month. Why? Do I have something against spring weather? Daffodils? The Easter Bunny? Ha. It's because I lost these two lovely girls in the month of April.

Scarlett and Mellie, May 1997

Yesterday was the third anniversary of Mellie's crossing over the rainbow bridge. Rough day. Rough week. Rough month.

Melanie, aka Mellie, Mellie Vanillie

May 12, 1997 - April 14, 2007

The month of May can't come soon enough.

It's that time again...

Yep, the birthday fairy paid his annual visit--this time he showered my sister with birthday wishes. Her first choice of things to do, as always, was to go to Fortescue and go fishing. It was on her birthday last year that she caught her first Striper of the season, and we decided to see if her birthday luck would hold again this year.

Last weekend we went to Fortescue, and it was lovely weather. Shorts and T-shirts and toes-in-the-sand kind of weather. This weekend? Not so much. More like jeans and sweatshirts and two jackets and mittens and multiple pair of socks in rubber-boots-in-the-sand type of weather.

Here is a shot of my niece all bundled up. That fishing pole has to be 3 times as tall as she is!
Perseverance (or stupidity?) paid off, and we caught five (count em...5!) Stripers! Here is a picture of my niece's boyfriend (isn't he adorable?) with a fish he caught. I think it was his first time fishing, ever.
Those fingers in the lower right corner of the picture...those are my sister's. You might notice blood on her finger. That's not fish blood---that's human blood. She cut her finger on the fish's gill plate. It wasn't just a cut, it was a laid-open-gaping-hole of a cut which necessitated a trip to the ER.
Yes, indeed. Needed stitches and everything.
Fortunately it was a slow day in the ER and we were in and out in less than 2 hours. We did manage to liven thing up a bit while we were there... the nurses in the ER were all singing, "Give me back that Filet-O-Fish! Give me that fish!"

For her birthday next year, I'm sure we will try for another Striper, but hopefully there will be no trips to the ER!

Did we miss it?

Did we miss Dogs on Thursday? Yes we did! I've been a little "off" all week long, and completely spaced on DOT. I had Monday off this week, and when I have off during the week, it throws off my whole sense of...everything. Fortunately, the babes are not suffering from my lack of attentiveness.

The ever-clueless Cooper says: "Thursday? What's a Thursday? Is is something to eat? Time to Eat! Gimme something to eat!!!"

Tara says: "Who cares what day it is as long as I get my regular naps."

Emma says: "I don't give a rat's rear what day it is, just get this friggin' bandanna off of me or so help me DOG I will poo in your shoes."

Easter Bunny?

I had a visit from the Easter Bunny this weekend! He left me a present in the garage!

The practical side of me says it might have been the neighbor's chickens who left me these little presents....
...but I don't think so. Easter weekend...Easter Bunny!

It was a beautiful long weekend here in southern NJ. The Star Magnolia was in full bloom...

...just in time for the anniversary of sweet Scarlett's crossing the rainbow bridge on Sunday.

Scarlett c.1994
my first Brittany

May 13, 1991 - April 4, 2003

The weather was so very nice that we went to Fortescue every day. Look at who greets visitors on the road into Fortescue:
Can't quite make him out? Here's a closeup:

Spiderman...Spiderman...Friendly neighborhood Spiderman! He is wearing bunny ears, no less! Love it!

Yesterday, I even took my bicycle down to Fortescue and rode all around. My first stop, of course, was "my" house. Still vacant...still for sale... :sigh:
I should have realized that the recent nasty weather (high winds and record flooding) that brought lots of treasures up onto the beach......also brought lots of sand up onto the road. It was pretty deep in some spots. Here's a tip: Sandy roads and bicycle tires are not a good match. Can you see where this is going? Down. Yup...I completely wiped out. I'm all scraped up, bruised and sore... Ugh. Bikes are for kids.

Dogs on Thursday

For this week's Dogs on Thursday, I would like to introduce Emma, Tara, and Cooper. Not the big Emma, Tara, and Cooper dogs that we all know and love... the MINI Emma, Tara and Cooper dogs. I admit it... I added them to the Wii! I made Miis of the dogs! That's not crazy, right? Nope. Everyone does that. Not crazy at all.

Here is mini Emma:
And mini Cooper:
And mini Tara!
You can choose the coloring and ears and tail, and even put different color collars on then. It is so much fun to find one of the dogs while you're cycling or running or on the Segway on the beach! Maybe in future versions of the software you will be able to add bandannas or bows or sweaters to the dogs, but for now, they run around nekkid.

I also put mom and dad in the Wii, along with my sister and niece. Absolutely not crazy, though, right? Guess who else I added to the Wii...

Colin Firth!
Harry Potter!
Alan Rickman!
Mark Harmon!
And Jane Austen!
Any suggestions of other Miis to add? I'm thinking Hugh Grant, Ciaran Hinds, Liam Neeson and Clark Gable. Still not crazy, right? Everybody does this, right? Please, please, please tell me everybody does this...

OK, gotta go now. Time for my morning work out with my Miips. Get it? My Mii peeps? Mii peeps are Miips???

Yeah, I'm crazy.

Definitely crazy.

Send Haloperidol.