Sunday In The Park

We took Archito to the park today. He really seems to enjoy walking there much more than walking around our neighborhood. Poor little guy is really afraid of cars. I guess I need to walk him at 4am when there isn't much traffic!

Here he is with Carlos:



And here's me with the little guy:


Gotta luv those orange shoes!

While we were heading back we were caught in a pretty bad thunderstorm. Carlos said something about turning off our air-conditioning at home and opening all the doors and windows because our last electric bill was pretty high. Well his wishes were granted, for when we returned home we had no power for several hours. It was raining buckets and the water in front of our house was ankle-deep when I emerged from the car with one wet, stinky Archito. He looks like a little puff-ball now.

Well, that's all for now. Hope to find some time to post during the week. I have to return to work tomorrow :o(. Wouldn't it be great to be a kid again and have the entire Summer off?

Meet Archito!!!

When we lost our Doberman, Raven, earlier this month our home felt so empty. One evening while sitting on the front porch, I noticed several of our neighbors walking their dogs and my heart ached so badly that I ran inside the house crying. Yes, I did plan on getting another dog or puppy when I was "ready", I really didn't want to rush into it. When I mentioned the crying incident to both Carlos and my sister, they both said the same thing: "Lynne, it sounds like you're ready for another dog."

I was hoping to find a dog at one of the local shelters, but they seemed to be full of mostly pit bulls and pit bull mixes and I was afraid such a dog might hurt our cat, Jeter. Also I wanted something smaller and less agressive, because both our home and yard are definitely what one would call "cozy" and I didn't think a large dog would be happy here. And I simply did not want an agressive dog. Although Raven was a Doberman, she was very sweet and gentle, and also very petite for her breed. We were very fortunate with her.

So we searched a bit and found this cute little guy. He's a Sheltie aka Shetland Sheepdog. We had one a few years back and enjoyed "Archie" so much that we decided to get another one. Carlos named him "Archito" (little Archie) in honor of our former dog.




He's six months old and he's soooo smart! I've always loved Shelties, especially their long noses:



He's slightly smaller than our cat and our vet doesn't think he is going to get much bigger, so I'm sure Jeter is going to be happy about that.



This little guy sure keeps me on my toes; he has lots of energy. The last time I raised a Sheltie puppy I lost quite a bit of weight trying to keep up with the little pooch. That's another reason we decided to get another Sheltie. I'm happy to report that so far I have lost four pounds on the "Shetland Sheepdog Puppy Diet and Exercise Program"!

Surprise Visitors

When one plants a garden, you can always expect a few surprises and that's exactly how I felt when I spotted a few of these guys chowing down on my dill plants:



That's an Eastern black swallowtail caterpillar dining in a herb patch at the edge of our veggie garden. They sure are hungry little critters! Anyway, they have sinced moved on, possibly "cocooning" somewhere close by. The adult butterfly looks like this:



It's a bit of a challenge to get these guys to pose for a picture.

Note to myself: next year plant lots of dill!

Hello Again!

Bless me Father, for I haved sinned, it has been more than four months since I last posted here! I hope to be blogging again on a regular basis. So much has happened in the past four months. I survived my 18 weeks of grand jury duty. It was pretty interesting. I'll talk about it in a later post. but first I have some sad news.

I lost my beloved canine companion of nearly 13 years earlier this month. Raven had been battling lymphoma and having her "put to sleep" was the most agonizing decision I ever had to make. It was truly one of the worst days of my life. She was a big, gentle girl with a heart to match and was loved by all who knew her. If there is a doggy heaven she is most surely there. I miss her terribly. Here is one of the last pictures I took of her:



That's our obese kitty "Jeter" pictured with Raven. They were best friends. I think he misses her the most. Sometimes he sits by our gate waiting for her to come home. So sad.

We do have a new puppy. I'll post about him soon, hopefully before he eats the computer.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.