Saturday Snapshot

 Saturday Snapshot is hosted by At Home with Books. To participate in this meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.
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 Last Spring my mom had to have her beautiful Golden Retriever, Mickey, put to sleep after he developed cancer in his back leg. He was a sweetie and we were all broken-hearted. I was thrilled that she wanted to get another puppy because it was just too quiet without him. In July she brought home another Golden Retriever fluff ball, Moe, and he's a sweetie too. He's also quite the ham and has let me photograph him to record how fast he's grown. You can almost see his body stretching!

Little Moe  (July '12)

Big Moe (April '13)

First time at the new pool (early Aug. '12)

Butt is already too big for the pool (mid Sept. '12)

Boy walking the dog or dog walking the boy?

Saturday Snapshot

 Saturday Snapshot is hosted by At Home with Books. To participate in this meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.
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I was going to use some photos of beautiful flowers from last summer since I am so anxious to see them again. But I decided to use these instead. Here are my adorable puppy dogs and exactly how I found them one recent morning when I woke up. Allie, the golden retriever, sleeps in such odd positions it makes my back hurt just looking at her. Cassy, the chocolate lab, can sleep anywhere. They are both so spoiled and are way too comfy on the furniture. Sadly, this is also how I've been feeling lately and I'm just as lazy as they are. We really need spring!

Allie the lazy dog.

She can sleep like this for hours.

I finally got my son to sort through some clothes and Cassy made a nest of them!

Saturday Snapshot

 Saturday Snapshot is hosted by At Home with Books. To participate in this meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.
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 In the last week our beautiful hillsides and foliage have turned blah and almost bare. The colors never last long enough. Now we have a yard full of leaves and brown trees. We also had a frost last night and most of my summer flowers froze. I hate that part too but now I can empty the planters and put them away for winter. I've been stowing away the lawn furniture but have plenty more to do before the snow flies. I even had to do the unthinkable - I had to take down my beloved hammock! Oh how sad that makes me. *sigh* Please keep me in your thoughts and maybe share a moment of silence... (especially you, Stacybuckeye! Someday you will get a hammock of your own. Until then you can lounge vicariously through mine. :D )

I did take plenty of photos of the wildflowers growing in our fields because I knew the were the last of the season. I have to share one more glimpse of autumn in my little part of the world. I hope you get to enjoy the beauty where you live as well!

My purple Mums on the porch

Purple Asters

I'm not sure what this  is - White Snakeroot?

Milkweeds

Goldenrods

Cassy with her favorite toy

Allie rolling in the leaves

Saturday Snapshot

 Saturday Snapshot is hosted by At Home with Books. To participate in this meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.
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We are the third generation to live in, and enjoy, our farmhouse and the land that surrounds it. We have fields, woods, hills and valleys with a small creek that runs through it. I played in the water as a child, as my mom did before me, and as my children and grandchildren do now. As soon as it's warm enough we take our dogs there almost every day to cool off and play. We even got to sneak in a few visits already this month with the summer-like weather we were having. These photos are from last year and we can't wait to get back to our daily dips. With two retrievers we chase a lot of sticks!

Our swimming hole

Allie, the golden retriever, wades into the water to get a stick.

Cassy, the chocolate lab, leaps into the water every time!

Both girls successfully retrieve their sticks to be tossed again. And again. And again.

A sad day and a birthday do-over.

We've had some special family birthdays recently. My oldest son turned 21 at Christmas time, my grandmother celebrated her 91st birthday two weeks ago and this week my niece turned 15. My hubby also had his special day amidst all the others.

Unfortunately it was also a sad time along with the good. Our cocker spaniel Boo had been slowing down the last few weeks. At the age of 15 that was expected but except for his weakening eyesight and becoming hard of hearing he was always so spry. He really started to fail quickly two weeks ago and I played round-the-clock nurse maid. I slept on the couch next to his blanket/bed in the family room for four nights. I would think it was his last day and then he would rally back and be more like himself. One day there was no rallying back and it just happened to be on hubby's birthday. We just kept Boo comfortable and loved him up until it was over. Even the other two dogs knew what was happening. I've buried a lot of pets over the years and it never, ever gets easier. Of course I bawled like a baby but my guys all rallied around me. (Probably because they can't stand to see a woman cry.)

So happy birthday to my family, especially to my hubby. I'm sorry it wasn't the happiest day and I was so distracted but thank you for understanding. And I promise there will be a birthday do-over. Although he never complained it's just not right for such a special guy to go without one day that's all about him. He's very, very deserving.

Review: The Dog Days of Charlotte Hayes by Marlane Kennedy

For the secret dog lover
in everyone.

Charlotte Hayes is twelve-years-old and is not a dog person. When her father brings home a Saint Bernard puppy she is not happy about having to care for it but after a short time she is the only one who will. Her father has a short attention span and is off to his next hobby, her mom is exhausted from caring for her baby brother and her older sister is boy crazy. Charlotte knows that Beauregard needs a home that will provide him with more love and constant care. He's a nice dog that shouldn't be chained up in the backyard next to his too small dog house. She comes up with a great plan that requires her to work hard and her friends to provide a bit of help. In the process of making this plan a reality she makes some discoveries about herself. She may just like this dog after all.

This may be a children's book but it has themes of friendship, loyalty and compassion that speak to everyone. I found it to be a sweet story with charming characters and an interesting plot. It's an easy read that is age appropriate and well written. As the story continued it drew me in. I found myself caring about this big, slobbery, gentle dog and cheering on Charlotte for coming to his rescue. And in the process of helping Beauregarde to have a happier life she helped others to improve their lives as well. I adored this book and could see it developed into a series. I would be so curious to see where this family and their friends go from here.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books for the ARC.

Release date: 3/09
Pages: 144
Price/Format: $15.99/Trade
Type: Children's fiction
Age: 8-12, grades 3-7

Who did it?

Sheri at A Novel Menagerie is having a contest about Yellow Labradors in relation to the movie Marley and Me. We are suppose to post our photos on our blogs and link them to her site. It sounded like fun and we have three dogs that we adore - a Cocker Spaniel, a Golden Retriever and a Chocolate Labrador. I was looking for photos to post but then I had the opportunity to take some new ones. Earlier this week I was up late after everyone else had gone to bed. I was doing laundry (as always), reading and enjoying the quiet house. The dogs wait for me to go up to bed so they were lounging around the house. I finished in the laundry room and walked back to the family room and saw a trail of stuffing on the floor. My mom had given dog toys for Christmas and they had been having fun dismantling them ever since. I knew this was the innards of a toy strewn all over room. I was pretty sure I knew who didn't do it.


Boo is our little old man. He is about 14 and has slowed down a bit. He is happy to follow me around and nap as much as possible. He rules the house. He wasn't the guilty party.






Allie is 4 and we've had her for two years. She is the princess and and gets along with everybody. She loves to play and go for car rides but she is very good at lounging too. As soon as my husband goes to bed at 11:00 she is in his chair for the rest of the night. She loves to unravel her toys and she has pulled the stuffing out before. It could have been her.




Cassie is our most recent acquistion and we've only had her since last summer. She is also 4 and very hyper. She is not Boo's favorite dog but Allie loves her. They wrestle and play constantly. She will run forever and if she finds a ball she will not let you stop playing with her. She makes me tired just watching her. She has calmed down considerably and has learned to snuggle. Especially with my husband who has always, always, always wanted a Chocolate Lab. That's why she gets the most car rides, is spoiled rotten and he can ignore the fact that she has figured out how to get the butter dish off the counter more than once. (yes, we did move it) I want to put a video camera in the kitchen to see how she does that but he says that would be entrapment and it wouldn't be fair. Seriously, can you entrap a dog? I'm still doing it because she must have super powers to be able to do that. Unless my husband is helping her. Hmm... By the way, do you see that partially stuffed animal she's resting her head on? And she has the nerve to take my spot on the couch. Found the cuprit red-handed, um red-pawed.


** I don't how she did it but while I was writing this Cassie came over and threw her toy onto the keyboard and deleted my whole post! The whole thing! And I had been saving it as I typed. I had to start it over from scratch. This is the kind of stuff she does. Everyday.

Authors I have met, kind of... part II

I got to meet another author online in a club recently who was so accommodating. Garth Stein, who wrote The Art of Racing In The Rain, participated with us for a month. This book was a special project for him and was very near and dear to his heart. Of course all writing is a special project to a writer but this was one of those books that was just begging him to be written. He was already involved with another draft but this one would not leave him alone. He had taken an idea from a documentary about Mongolia that revealed their truth: when a dog is finished living his lifetimes as a dog, his next reincarnation will be as a man. Stein took this idea and ran with it. What made this truly his own was combining this theme with his love of car racing. An unusual pairing? I certainly thought so. Effective? I definitely thought so.

Enzo, a Labrador/Terrier mix is the narrator and best friend of his owner Denny Swift. This book begins near the end of Enzo's life. He is old and in poor health but he is content knowing that he will be returning in his next life as a man, his greatest dream. He considers himself to have a nearly human soul already after a lifetime of educating himself and paying attention to all of life's lessons. He also shares Denny's passion as a race car driver, listening to all of the stories, watching racing videos and documentaries. As a puppy, the best friends shared bachelorhood days but soon they add to their family when Denny marries and has a child. They live a charmed life until tragedy strikes their tight knit clan. This is the beginning of an unraveling that they don't know how to recover from. It almost appears that nothing may ever go right for them again. They cling to hope and remind themselves and the reader, That which you manifest is before you. Using lessons and techniques learned especially in racing they apply them to life and decide to create their own destiny. Enzo vows to set this family back on course and sets a plan in motion.

I loved the book and I loved the club. And to make it even better, Garth's wife Drella had been reading the posts and decided to join us. She is also a very creative artist so we got a two-for-one special! Actually we only picked her brain the first few days about life with an author before she politely asked us to just consider her as only another club member. The Steins posted comments and answers to our questions every single day. When Garth was away for a weekend of racing himself, he phoned in his race results and special hellos to Drella who then passed them all on to us. He earned himself many fans when he wrote this book but he earned himself even more when he went over and above with his club participation. He and his book get both thumbs up from me (thumbs play an important role in this story) and I look forward to what he will be writing next. Having an interest in dogs and/or racing may make you appreciate this story more but you definitely don't need them to enjoy it. Be prepared to laugh and cry and to learn a few lessons as well.