Blossoms & Buds

I blinked and spring had arrived...

Dogwood flowers..



Cherry blossoms...



Peach blossoms...



Pear blossoms...



Some sort of bells...



Mini grape hyacinths being pollinated by a bee...



The first tulip, not quite opened...



Max guarding the yard...

Sunny Sunday

I love the smell of my recently bloomed hyacinths...



"Achoo, achoo, achoo!"...my husband doesn't. "It's not even spring yet and the yard is already making me sneeze," he says...





"Sorta smells like a funeral parlor, or a cemetery..."



I like the smell, and the stirring of life...





The hot sun soothes our tired bones on this sunny Sunday afternoon...Too bad the day flew by so quickly!

A Dog's Friday

It's Friday, the sun is shining, the wind is blowing, no one's petting me, what's a dog to do?









Aaaaah, that felt good.

My Santa Dog

One of the happiest members of this household to see the return of the Christmas tree is my dog Max.



He watches carefully, wagging the nub as we hang the lights and ornaments, and waits patiently while we vacuum up all the pine needles. That's the one time he doesn't attack the vacuum cleaner! Although Santa does bring him a new toy each year he doesn't wait for the 25th to find his present. As soon as we're done vacuuming Max fetches his "babies" and places them under the tree.



From now until we take the tree down you can find Max lying under it, baby by his side, treat in mouth, watching himself in the mirror. Max is my little Santa Dog. And yes, I actually did name him after the Grinch's dog. Max is so smart that when presents are placed under the tree he puts his babies on top of them and he has never, ever eaten the cookies we leave out for Santa.



What a good boy, and cute too! Now if only I could get him to stop smoking those stogies he'd be the perfect pet...

Rustling Leaves

What's that rustling I hear under the leaves?



It's my puppy Max...



"Mom I'm ten years old...I'm not a puppy anymore!"



You'll always be my puppy. C'mon inside and warm up...it's too cold out there for those old man bones...

Welsh Corgi

You know what really freaks me out? When I post about something and then later in the day check on my Gmail account and see all these ads popping up that has something to do with the post I wrote earlier in the day. I feel like I'm being watched and stalked by Google.

So for today's post I'm putting a picture of my Max, along with the words Welsh Corgi, Welsh Corgi, Welshi Corgi, Welsh Corgi, Welsh Corgi, Welsh Corgi, just to see what ads Google places in my Gmail account box later.



What do you think will show up? Oh, and for the record, I mentioned L'Oreal yesterday not Clairol!

Doggy Flu Shot

Every time I bring my corgi to the vet for his well visit the cost seems to rise. On average it costs a little over $200 for him to get tortured. As each year passes I get the lecture on how he's way overweight. Yeah, that's what happens when a dog gets fixed. They try and push their diet food and diet pills, yes, diet pills. I always promise the kids will take him out for a walk more often instead of allowing him to wallow in his filth in his yard. After the last visit they wanted me to bring him by once a month to have him weighed. Haven't done that. Won't do that. What next, doggy fat camp?



For years the vet has been trying to convince me I need to spend a couple of hundred dollars more, I think the quote was like $600, on having dental work done, for the dog, not me. One of his back teeth has a chip in it, which he probably got from chewing sticks. Hey at least he has back teeth! At the very least I'm supposed to get him tartar treatments and brush his teeth daily. Haha, I have a hard enough time getting my son to brush. Forget the dog.

It always pisses me off that they insist he gets the heartworm blood test at $30 a pop even though he's on the heartworm pills all year round costing $120 because he's overweight. They won't prescribe me the pills without the test and I never fail to complain about that. I think it's a scam to drive up the bill.

Now they found another way to get more bucks out of me...the new doggy flu vaccine! Huh? Actually my vet didn't even mention this, the place where I get the boy groomed did. They informed my husband last month that they will be requiring all dogs get the vaccine along with all the other shots he needs. I don't know if they meant for when he's boarded or if he's to be groomed there as well.

Now I didn't get the H1N1 flu shot...thought is was totally overhyped and they were pushing it because they had too many vaccines, which proved to be true. So now I'm wondering about this doggy flu one. It's brand new and the dog needs to get a couple of doses before it becomes effective. My corgi is nine years old. He's never had sniffles or a flu. He's not around other dogs at all, unless he's getting groomed or for the "emergency board" situation. I am not comfortable putting him in a trial situation. I don't want to have him be a guinea pig for some drug that he doesn't really need, so no I am not having him get the doggy flu vaccine. He gets enough shots yearly and I'm not going to put him in danger by introducing something into his system that may be worse than any sniffles. So, bye bye longtime groomer. I guess I'll be giving Petco a try since they're half the price I've been paying anyway. It's not like he's a "show dog" either. I just want him clean and shaved for the summer. He's my baby and just like I wouldn't let my other babies get the chicken pox vaccines, the cervical cancer vaccine or any flu shot, neither will he.

What about you dog owners. Has your vet been pushing this and what will you do?