Happy National Dog Day!

Why, yes, I *am* spoiled! Why ever do you ask? 

Thankful

I know. I've been gone over a month. My reader has given up on me. Still, I find myself here again. It's mostly the usual excuses (changes, stuff happens)...but also, and this is a big one, my camera is temporarily (I hope!) out of commission. I believe it's just the preview screen and that there's a relatively inexpensive fix for it, but frankly I haven't sat still long enough to research it. Without the excitement of new pictures to post, I tend to slack off on the posting.

Having said that, it is Thanksgiving Eve....I find myself in a contemplative mood. Mostly I just wanted to share with the cosmos that I truly am grateful for all the many blessings in my life. And they are many! Those blessings include wonderful friends and family...both hooman and otherwise...and I share one with you to prove my point (if this doesn't make you smile I don't know what will!):

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sometimes the boys are so busy they don't take the time to be lap-kittehs. Sometimes, they prefer to be lap-kittehs with LoML. The other day...when I was home for another snow day...I ended up with this.

Miscellaneous Natterings

Random pix and observations...
Not trick photography...Spike is almost as big as Willow.

Quick! Turn your head - she grabbed her camera!

It's a great box!

These are part of my childhood Christmases. Mom still gets them out and sets them up every year :D Rudolph turned 50 this year and Santa is a spry 49. Not sure if the Christmas tree would feel complete without them.

Mom & Dad's big boy, Trouble. For those not up-to-speed, he spent the first few weeks of life under and around our deck. His mom belonged to our next-door neighbor.

Mom & Dad's other cat. She has multiple names...depending on who you ask! Her main name is Princess. She looks sweet here, doesn't she? She was originally fostered by the same wonderful vet friend who rescued Xander and Spike! They share a lot of personality traits :D

This coffee mug was one of our Christmas presents. The Jean Dale is a fishing vessel that was owned and worked by LoML's grandfather. After he passed away the family donated the boat to the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum where it was restored and placed on display.

This picture is typical of recent events in our household. If you look closely, you'll see a black boot string on the floor in between Xander's tail and his back foot. He's obsessed with strings. That's all he wants to play with these days. We have multiple strings throughout the house. If somebody's not actively playing string with him, Xander will flop down on or beside a string and try to psych someone into playing. As I type this, he's fallen asleep on top of one.

Before Polly starts fussing too much, allow me to return to the star of the blog:

No matter what the kitties are doing, Gwyn's generally nearby, keeping an eye on them.

Christmas Decorations

Sometimes the best presents are the little things....like the packaging! :D

 This was taken at my parents' house. Inflatable Rudolph and Santa are indispensable decorations as far as I'm concerned. This Christmas was Rudolph's 50th!!! Santa is a spry 49.

 Trouble is looking cute under the tree...he couldn't possibly be a trouble-maker!

 And then there's this one....Princess, aka BeeBee, aka Lily....a former resident of the O.R. Home for Little Wanderers (just like Xander and Spike). :D

Merry Christmas!

And to all a good night!

sigh...

I know! It's been a week!!! WAYYY too much goin' on this time of year! Bad Blogger, Bad Blogger!!! I don't even have the pix ready that I wanted to share with you. Maybe tomorrow....maybe not. I will share today's favorite videos. Take it or leave it.

More Decorations

Thought I'd share a few more pix of the Christmas decorations around here. Didn't manage to get a great shot of it, but new this year is a beautiful lighted garland we bought at a local church bazaar...turns out we picked out the one made by my friend! It has seashells on it that have lights in them :D

Yesterday I showed you the picture of you-know-who under the tree...that shot was from the angle I first saw him...but, of course, I had to walk around and get a more complete set of pictures:

You can see Gwyn is exhausted from the supervising! She got an early present as PetSmart had their orthopedic beds 50% off on Black Friday and I couldn't resist getting her one.

He knows he's all that!

LoML decided he needed a bow.

We're going pretty low-key this year as I'm not willing to put up any breakable decorations!

What's Under Your Tree?

Grateful for Family & Friends...

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

~ By Ralph Waldo Emerson

 and kittehs (sez Gwyn)!

(Both photos courtesy of my wonderful SIL who I had fun with yesterday :D )

Veterans Day

I suppose I'm not unique in that the older I get, the more conscious I am of the importance of things like patriotism, community, honor. Like so many, when I was younger Veterans Day was a good thing because it meant I didn't have to go to work that day. That's still nice, but I try very hard to spend time on Veterans Day being actively thoughtful about why this is a holiday...what it means. While no one in my immediate family (i.e. parents/siblings/spouse) are in the armed services, there are a lot of people that are super-important to me that are or have been. I don't ever want to lose sight of the great sacrifices people have made to maintain the freedoms that I enjoy every single day.

THANK YOU VETERANS. THANK YOU ACTIVE-DUTY SERVICEMEN AND SERVICEWOMEN. THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO GAVE ALL IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY. MAY YOU NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.

Photo courtesy of J. Frazz Photography, all rights belong to him!

It's Alive!

Have become convinced that the pop-up cube is the one indispensable kitten accessory.

Sue: please apologize to Polly for me...I know there have not been enough hound pix lately...it's not that Gwyn's not still as fabulous as ever...in fact, she's still just the best mommy-doggy baby kittehs ever had! It's just that every time I pick up the camera there's feline cuteness going on. I promise to devote some extra time to the hound soon!!!

On another note, I had to call LoML on the way home last night to share with him that I'd just seen the first Christmas lights on a house!!!! People, people! I love Christmas decorations...but let's take one holiday at a time!

Halloween

Gwyn loves Halloween. She loves when the little trick-or-treaters come to the door. She enjoys dressing up in her own costume to meet them. We thought this year's was particularly appropriate!

Yep. I know. I've been MIA again for over a week! Mainly it was due to a bad head cold I've been getting over. That, the normal madness, and my need to read obsessively when I wasn't asleep as I had to finish the latest Stephen King novel as soon as was humanly possible. I will be posting lots of pix tomorrow, trying to catch you up on things, and reviewing Doctor Sleep.

Independence Day

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Hope you've had a wonderful 4th of July....and taken a moment to remember those who have sacrificed to give us the freedoms we enjoy!

Memorial Day

Photo courtesy of J. Frazz Photography

Lest we forget....

Happy St. Patrick's Day

An Old Celtic Blessing

May the blessing of light be on you— light without and light within. May the blessed sunlight shine on you and warm your heart till it glows like a great peat fire.

The Fox and The Hound...

...or, The Best Christmas a Hound Ever Had!

Gwyn here at the keyboard. Just wanted to report that it was the best Christmas ever around here! Mom didn't realize that even though Santa barely slowed down when he went by on Saturday (see Mom's Christmas Eve post) that I had time to tell him what I wanted. And boy, did he deliver! First, here I am, admiring the tree, being good, and hoping Santa won't forget me!

 My lil' kitteh, Xander, got him a sparkly mouse:

 He likes to pounce it.

 And then drag it backwards towards his lair:

 Here's the moment! Mom's handing me my new bestest toy ever....a fox!

 Xander also got a catnip toy (since Wil' got some treats she likes)...but Wil' decided she might like the catnip toy for herself!

 Me & my fox :D

 I have to keep checkin' on him to be sure he's okay.

 Meanwhile, the Orange Menace looked particularly cute in his pile'o'papers. He thought that was the bestest part of the whole Christmas morning deal. He thinks Mom & Dad should keep the papers out the whole year round.

 I tired myself out, but didn't let Mr. Fox get far.

 But here's the great thing...not only did I get a fox, I got a treat maker!!!!

 I had to supervise Mom to make sure she knew what she was doing.

 Fifteen minutes is a long time to expect a greyhound to wait for a peanut butter cookie! Even worse was when Mom found that this particular recipe did better cooking 20 minutes!!!

 I about gave up..(Mom thinks this shot with my back leg sticking out is funny for some unknown reason!)

 Me & Mr. Fox...watching the world go by....wondering if we'll ever get to try peanut butter cookies.

 Mom wants everybody to know that Dogs Rule! She & Dad got me this t-shirt at Westminster Dog Show one year (well, maybe they got it for my great-uncle Phil, but it fits me better!)

 After an epoch or so, they were done:

 Ah, mana from heaven!

 Nom nom nom nom nom...

 I didn't get to see her, but Mom thought her bro'n'law's little Yorkie, Zoe, was over-the-top cute in what she & her other SIL decided was a kilt!

 Mom says even though we really enjoyed all our goodies, that this Christmas was nice because we got to spend time with the people, hounds, cats and horses that we love and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. (*And* eat peanut butter cookies with Mr. Fox!)
Love, Gwyneth