Tom

Yesterday, we got to go with Dad on some errands which included a stop at a Supercharger to get our car charged back up to 80% without using any of our solar power … which is now charging our Powerwalls which recently got installed (finally!). There was some discussion about us being able to go with Dad instead of staying home with Mom who was on multiple Zoom calls in our absence. Why this had anything to do with us staying at home or jumping in the car with Dad was beyond me at that moment, but whose complaining about going for a drive!

On the way to the Supercharger, Dad slowed down (there were no cars behind him) and came to a halt. Zoe lost her mind and I first I wasn’t sure what was going on until I looked out the front window (and got a good whiff of a breeze which suddenly entered through the car window).

This was what I saw from the backseat…sorry I couldn’t figure a way to add the scent – it was something special.

This stupid bird not only walked RIGHT IN FRONT of our car, but then stopped and just stared at us! Zoe was all over the car barking like mad but Dad held onto her leash so she was unable to get out of the car and chase the thing.

Interesting aside, Zoe has recently figured out a way to roll down the passenger side window…I figured out the back windows long ago but all of a sudden my trick stopped working. I did see my parents fiddling with some controls that “locked” the back windows but they were unable to find one that would lock the window of the one riding Shotgun – not sure why that is but it has enabled Zoe to roll her window all the way down if our parents aren’t paying attention. Hey! Come to think of it, my windows never rolled ALL the way down. Hmmm. Seems like a conspiracy against back seat drivers!

Eventually, the thing moved on (back the way it had come) and we were able to continue with our errands, but Zoe took awhile to calm down from all her excitement.

While the car was charging we took a walk around the mall where the chargers were located. Lots of interesting sniffs at such a place…food courts, dumpsters, bushes that hide food people have tossed aside and the critters that eat the food. Since we were busy sniffing around, Dad apparently sent Mom a text saying he almost died when Zoe saw the turkey and included the above picture.

After our car was sufficiently charged we were off to do some shopping. We stopped at a few stores to pick up some items for dinner, etc…Zoe and I staying in the car with Dog Mode on…before proceeding home. On the last leg of of our drive, Mom called and said we shouldn’t come home yet as our front yard had been invaded:

As Dad took some detours, we could hear Mom talking to something – encouraging them to move along in a sweet tone, then a shriek as one of them apparently made itself really big (those turkeys are HUGE when they fluff up all their feathers!), then back to the cordial coaxing. At last, Dad was given the green light to return home as the intruders had mozied (SP) off to a neighbors yard.

Zoe and I didn’t hear what it was that was in our yard but as soon as we jumped out of the car we pulled Dad (and then Mom, who came to help Dad in case her intervention wasn’t fully successful) across the yard zig-zagging back and forth as we smelled all the places the turkeys (that was who had been in our yard) had walked. Needless to say, we were right back to being super excited and wished we weren’t on our leashes so we could chase these birds down for a special dinner.

Running around our neighborhood off leash later that evening is a story for another day, but was part of our last week or so. More soon,

Safely home,

The Tempest

Phil

This week was GroundHog week at our Carlisle Chateau!

Turns out, that groundhogs really hibernate until mid-March (i.e., – now) which would explain why that guy in Pennsylvania always looks so cranky when they pull him out of his burrow on the 2nd of FEBRUARY!

But I appear to have gotten ahead (or behind?) the story I wanted to tell in today’s blog entry.

Earlier this week, Dad ran some errands without us while Mom was on one of her many Zoom meetings, when Zoe and I went CRAZY. She was trying to hear what the other participants were saying but with Zoe barking incessantly and me picking a fight with her (Zoe)…not over her interrupting Mom’s work call, but over who got first dibs on the critter in the backyard…Mom had to cut her call short by like over 30 minutes as she was not able to hear anything*.

When Dad returned home, we gave him an earful too…neither of our parents were apparently understanding that our backyard was in Code Red lockdown!

Until today, when we were resting quietly on some of our favorite living room furniture when Dad spotted this critter walking, nay strolling, through our yard:

This is when the dime dropped (I’ve heard this phrase used on some of the old shows we have watched but it makes very little sense to me…is this a bitcoin reference? Who uses metal coins anymore…except the jars in our house that accumulated these relicts until one of our parents return them to the bank for serious cash…or really credit card currency).

After they saw Phil, our parents wouldn’t let Zoe or I out until they did a perimeter check to make sure the invader was off our property. When we were finally released, we sniffed ever step s/he made (as in fact, Phil may be Philodendron) in our yard…not once but probably 3 or 4 times (gotta get our steps in).

At last, we were brought back inside and given a Greenie as a reward for all of our efforts. The big question now is where “Phil” has set up their den. If they are residing inside our fence, which continues to be re-enforced on a seemingly daily basis, how will our parents find them a new home in which we (Zoe and I) will not have an altercation with the beast…which is really what we would like, to be honest.

The Tempest

*Zoom now has a filter that blocks most extra-diegetic noises so the other people on Mom’s call had no idea why she was unable to follow the conversation. I hope to post more on Zoom filters in the near future.

HEY!

Recently, I was looking through cartoons featuring us dogs. It started after reading an issue of The New Yorker which often has good…and insightful ‘toons like the one below.

Screenshot

I then realized the people down at The Google probably have a collection of them from a variety of artists. This is when I learned about this guy named Gary Larson who had a regular comic called The Far Side which ran from 1979-1995 and according to Wikipedia was “carried in more than 1,900 papers and translated into 17 languages”. Unfortunately, this was well before my time and did not feature translations into my native tongue…luckily I now am pretty good at English and have been working on my Portuguese.

So I found a 2019 website that was established and randomly posts the thousands of his awesome work (thefarside.com)…including many showing just how well he understood us pups. I think the comic and article below are good examples of his gift!

The Tempest

https://screenrant.com/far-side-canine-decoder-dogs-talking-scientifically-accurate

The Lost Hour

Not so long ago, my parents were gone for a what seemed a really, really looong time. Fortunately for Zoe and myself, our favorite puppy sitters (D and A) spent the time that Mom and Dad were gone with us. In fact, when Mom arrived home with the two of them after their plane flight into Boston, we both ran out of the house and jumped up on them giving them many kisses, tails a-waggin the whole time (apparently while ignoring Mom who had been gone all day at work).

To be fair, we were even more excited when our parents returned from Florida! We brought them gifts and made special noises along with the wagging and jumping.

Our sitters stayed a couple more days after Mom and Dad returned which allowed us to go on some different walks in the woods than the ones we had taken with D and A. There was also a lot of chatting and eating during those few days and evenings. As per usual, I would head of to bed around 8:30 PM – something that they had noticed I was pretty consistent with during their stay…even if everybody else was staying up.

Their stay unfortunately finally ended and Zoe, Dad, and I dropped them off at the airport after visiting a couple of beaches (even though it was spitting rain and quite windy). We got out of the car at the airport trying to convince them not to leave, but alas they entered the terminal and we got back in our car and drove away.

During the following few days, I continued to maintain my bedtime except the one night I stayed up until 8:35 PM!

And then this Saturday, I went to bed at 7:30 PM since I knew we were “losing” an hour of sleep due to the biannual time change.

Daylight savings time…what a joke

The Tempest

“Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance” – Plato