Boston's pain and the comfort of furry faces

My original plan for today's post was to share some recent photos of our furry-faced family members. But in light of yesterday's tragic events, I first want to say...

My favorite city for as long as I can remember, Boston holds many fond memories for me, and like so many I am broken-hearted at yesterday's awful news. Such brutal acts of violence defy understanding. When I composed my profile on Care2 many years ago, one of the things I listed under their What Scares Me heading was, "Humanity's capacity for brutality," while under the adjacent heading Inspirations, I listed "Humanity's capacity for kindness." That we're so capable of the latter, but too often choose the former, is both frustrating and tragic to me and to anyone who longs and strives to live in a nonviolent world. But although both traits were on full display in Boston yesterday, the vast majority of people were clearly acting on, demonstrating, and inspiring us with their courage and compassion. So while we grieve and try - yet again - to make some sense of the senseless, I think it's important to remember and focus on that. Because Mr. Rogers' mom was right...

(image via Vegans of Instagram)

Very true. (Now if only our species would stop creating so much need for so many helpers!)

☮♥☮♥☮

I find few things as reassuring and full of love as a furry face, so here's my original post, composed at first to entertain but now also offered as a source of comfort to anyone who feels the same...

I've been remiss in posting photos of our canine kids lately, but not because I haven't been taking any. With faces like these, how could I not? :-) I've actually had this post ready to go for a while, except for Josie holding up the show. She's very photogenic, but as soon as the camera appears, Josie does the opposite. But if you're going to be a "wildlife" photographer, you have to be persistent (e.g. more stubborn even than Josie), and finally - for a few brief moments Saturday morning - it paid off. Here's Josie's "I want to be alone" Greta Garbo pose...

Tessa has a face that's made for closeups. Which is a good thing, because the instant the camera is pointed at her, she comes up and sticks her big schnozzle right in it...

After a week of lovely weather, long walks and basking on the patio, I'd just told her that a winter storm was coming the next day. This is her "That totally sucks, dude" expression. 

And here are the two goobers together at the back door, with Josie contemplating making a break for it (which she did right after I snapped this), and Tessa wondering what's going on in the kitchen behind me and what might be in it for her...

This is how our much-easier-to-photograph Willow usually looks: completely sacked out on her bed in the kitchen nook...

.....Zzzzzz.....

Until one of us begins a food-related activity in the kitchen. Then BOOM! She's on instant Full Alert and ready for snarfing action...

This time it was BW cutting up sweet potatoes. Willow luuuuuvs sweet potatoes!

This was the first practice photo I took with my new Rebel...

I put this pretty frame around it using Photobucket's fun editing tools, 

most of which are no longer available since their web site "improvements." Gah.

In memory of Val & Tino

We lost Tino the mouse, one of our beloved furbabies, on Thursday. I found him that afternoon, laying beside the food pile with some sunflower seed shells around his sweet face (how that little guy loved his food!), still warm and looking very peaceful. Tino was very elderly for a field mouse (at least six years old), blind in one eye, and had been quite frail for a while - in fact, we had thought we were going to lose him in January. But he rallied, though he remained feeble compared to his buddy Val.

Tino peeks through the "DIY skylight" in a cardboard tube, a favorite place to sleep.

Val and Tino, who may have been brothers, came to live with us during a bitter Valentine's Day blizzard six years ago (hence their names), when they'd come into our garage seeking shelter from the cold and the storm. We lived in the country and field mice entered our attached garage often enough - until we found the wee hole they were using - that we finally invested in several "tin cat" humane live traps. We'd release the mice near food, water and shelter a good distance from the house (1/4 mile away or more, though goodness knows some of them probably found their way back and got to repeat the adventure!), unless the weather was very bad. For those times we'd bought an aquarium, shavings, food, water dish and exercise wheel, and became the proprietors of the Whiskers Inn B&B. :-) Our tiny guests enjoyed a warm, cozy, delightful stay until the weather turned nice enough to release them back outside, and after a two or three day stay most of our guests made it clear (by dancing along the glass or trying to chew their way through the lid) that they were ready to check out!

But not Val and Tino. Knowing a cushy deal when they found it, they signed a long-term lease and became full-time boarders. Luckily for us, they were both male! They were the first mice to make themselves right at home and remain content to be there, the first to learn how to use the exercise wheel - even teaching themselves games on it - and though never growing tame enough to want to be held or cuddled, quickly grew calm around us, settling into a comfy routine. And so we changed the name of the establishment from the Whiskers Inn B&B to "Mouseville" (a little tribute to Mr. Jingles from one of our very favorite movies, The Green Mile).

Of course we're sad to lose Tino, but it helps to know we gave him a safe, comfortable, hopefully happy, extraordinarily long life. He enjoyed spending time outside on warm, sunny days, was particularly fond of eating organic nom-noms (sunflower seeds, dried soybeans, raw pumpkin seeds, carrots, raw almonds, date pieces, raisins, brown rice, and oat groats), had the adventure of not only moving from room to room within our house several times, but from house to house three times (though at least he got to always take familiar Mouseville with him every time!), and before he grew too feeble to use it much, he adored the exercise wheel. He was the first to learn how to use it and became very skilled at it. (One way we were always able to tell Val and Tino apart was that Val, never as coordinated as Tino in their youth, scuffed his nose once trying to get into the wheel while Tino was spinning it and ever afterward had a hairless scar on his schnozzle!) One of their favorite games was for Val to sit still in the wheel while Tino ran as fast as he could, vaulting over Val every time the spinning wheel brought him around, until Tino would finally jump out of the moving wheel leaving Val to spin around and around until the wheel stopped. I'd have puked my guts out, but Val and Tino just loved that game! :-)

It's hard for us to tell how poor Val is feeling about the absence of his nearly lifelong friend and possible brother, but we can't imagine he doesn't feel the loss. They always slept cuddled up together, played together, and I have no doubt were very fond of each other. Though probably the same age as Tino, Val is still very spry and active, and we hope to enjoy his lively company for some time to come. Tino will be laid to rest in our front flower bed, where he will eventually become part of the flowers we'll be planting there in a couple of months.

Update 4/21/13: Despite doing well for the first three weeks after Tino's death, Val became frail and wobbly in the past week. This morning when I got up and checked on him, I found that he had died in his sleep during the night - one month to the day after Tino. They were probably the same age, and very elderly for mice, but given Val's rapid decline so soon after Tino's death it's impossible not to imagine that Val didn't die of a broken heart, missing his constant companion. Sweet and good to the very end, Val died just ahead of a major spring snowstorm that's due to arrive at noon today, bringing 5-10" of snow to our area over the next two days, giving us time this morning to bury him beside Tino in the still-warm soil of the front flowerbed. Rest in peace, little one, we love and will miss you so very much.

Here are a few photos of the boys together...

Val and Tino during their first days at Whiskers Inn, 

before they figured out how their exercise wheel worked!

Tino and Val at play

Tessa LOVED watching Val and Tino! She'd even watch Mouseville for hours when the boys were sleeping inside their tube or burrowed into their shavings, certain they'd come out any minute to entertain her with their antics! BW said that Tess was addicted to "MTV." :-)

We love and miss you, dear Tino and Val! Wherever your sweet spirits are now, I hope there is lots of yummy food, fun games to play, and nice playmates to cuddle with. Thank you for being such dear, precious little friends.

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." 

~ Anatole France 

Velocipedes, Jammers, & One Cool Dawg

This week has marked Sheridan's big annual shindig, when the rodeo and carnival come to town along with a crush of tourists, visiting family members and locals who moved away but return to town during this week like swallows to Capistrano or salmon to their spawning grounds. On Friday most businesses shut down early (if they opened at all), and Main Street is given over to events like a pancake breakfast, bed races (which are exactly what they sound like they'd be), and a parade, after which everyone heads to the bars, the carnival and/or the rodeo. Though we've attended in the past, for the last decade-plus we've avoided it like the plague. It's always hot (99º was the high on Friday), crowded, noisy, and filled with a lot of animals being forced to do stuff in the heat and noise that I doubt they'd ever choose to do if given a choice. Which, of course, they aren't. Anyway, it's not our thing (though I admit to being slightly tempted by the carnival rides!), but that doesn't mean we didn't get our own little private parade sneak preview early Friday morning...

It began with BW running past me, hollering something unintelligible in his exuberance, as I sat at the computer. He was so excited he had a hard time expressing what he'd seen that had him so excited and that he wanted me to come see. (It didn't help that he didn't know the name of what he'd seen!) It turned out it was our somewhat distant neighbor Rich, riding by on his velocipede, all dressed up in period clothing! By the time I got outside to see him he was hurtling past, down the street and around the corner and out of sight, and it was too late to grab my camera and get a photo. But wouldn't that have been great? Augh, curses!! Anyway, here's a simulation of what we saw, though Rich's clothing was actually much cooler-looking (Rich is actually quite cool - he's also a hot air balloonist! And clearly born a century too late)...

But, as it turned out, all was not lost! For shortly after the missed velocipede photo op we took the dogs for a walk and got another parade preview, on a nice, quiet neighborhood street, when we came upon this 1925 Glacier National Park touring bus getting ready to head for the parade route...

The owner (whose name we weren't told) lives in Billings, MT and drives his restored Glacier Park bus in parades. So maybe this was one of the two that were in the 2009 Rose Bowl Parade! 

(You can see a photo of it in Sheridan's parade, where it placed 3rd in the Novelty float category, by clicking here. It's a little more than halfway down the page).

A closeup of the logo on the bus door

The Rocky Mountain Goat is the official symbol of Glacier National Park

The bus also sports this beautiful license plate

If you've never visited Glacier National Park, I urge you to do so (soon, before its eponymous glaciers vanish completely!) Glacier is, in my opinion, the most beautiful of our national parks and well worth a visit. And guess what? You can even take a tour in one of the restored buses (1930's models), nicknamed "Jammers" back in the day because of the distinctive sound their original standard transmissions would make as the drivers jammed the gears going up and down the mountain roads. And a tour of beautiful Glacier Park in a Red Jammer is more fun than a hot, crowded parade any day! And probably safer and definitely easier than riding a velocipede. :-)

Meanwhile, as the heat drags on and there's not a glacier in sight, Tessa has been finding ways to stay cool. Like sleeping with her head in the communal water dish...

 ...forcing Willow to complain, "Mooommm! Tess is hogging the water dish again!"

After a little intervention by Mom, all is well...

Until Tess hogs the coveted space in front of the evaporative cooler...

"MOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!"
Have a great weekend and

A Walk in the Park; Birthday Boy Burritos

I had to drop off a book at the library last Sunday so BW and I took the dogs for a walk near our old digs at Dragonfly Cottage, and stopped to check out what was blooming in one of my two favorite spots in Sheridan, the Dorothy King Reflective Garden in Whitney Commons.

What a pity it wasn't "P" week at ABC Wednesday - I'd be Passionately Psyched to Participate with these Photos of Pretty Pink Peonies! :-)

Beautiful peonies

A bumble bee enjoys some Catmint

Then we walked along the creek on a portion of the walking path we always called "The Apple Orchard Trail," since there's a little collection of apple trees along it which is very popular with the local deer...

Josie suddenly decided it was break time and plopped down 

right there in the grass at the sidewalk's edge.

There's absolutely no budging her when she declares "Break!"

She's like an anchor suddenly tossed over the side of a sailboat.

So all of us decided since we couldn't possibly beat her,

we'd happily join her. :-)

(my critter family, front to back: Tessa, Josie, BW, Willow) :-)

Wednesday was BW's birthday and he had the day off. It was a hectic day, as they all are lately, but we did make time to go out to lunch to celebrate. He chose Oliva's Kitchen, a local Mexican restaurant with some vegan options, where we dined al fresco and enjoyed delicious vegan versions of their Vegetarian Burritos (made vegan by simply saying, "No cheese, please!") with their house Margaritas on the rocks...

El Patio at Olivia's

(Speaking of which, our patio's been poured at the new house,

but that's the only development lately worth mentioning!)

The birthday boy toasts his special day, yummy lunch

and new shirt purchased for 50¢ at a yard sale last Saturday!

Our veggie burrito (with dollops of hot sauce),

homemade guacamole and pico de gallo. 

Stuffed with refried beans, Spanish rice, onions, carrots, broccoli,

red and green bell peppers, summer squash and mushrooms.

Here's a tantalizing closer look. Yummmmm!!

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Pups at Play

I'd intended to post this for ABC Wednesday's P week two days ago, but it was a stressful week with the new construction, with several deadlines for difficult and complicated decisions bearing down on us. We got nearly all of it sorted out, finalized and out of our hair yesterday, but now that I have some time to finish the post I feel silly posting it to ABC Wednesday on a Friday! So here it is, just a post without a meme. :-)

Last weekend when BW and I had finished mowing, Willow decided it was high time we all played. So she grabbed her favorite toy, Tiger Baby, and coaxed us into her favorite game, "keepawayfetch" (we throw it, Willow fetches it, but instead of bringing it back to us she taunts us with a game of keepaway for several minutes)...

Willow: "Neener-neener, Josie, lookie what I've got!"

Josie: "Big hairy deal."

Josie: "Reclining in the sunshine is a much shrewder, more dignified, 

and less taxing way to spend an afternoon than chasing after that 

nasty, drool-covered, grass-stained, moldy old piece of rubbish."

Willow: "Um, okay... Hey, Tessa! Lookie what I've got!"

Tessa: "Whoopdie-doo. I've got a hot pink Nylabone! 

And I don't have to chase after it. 

So it's way better than your stupid toy."

Tessa (thinking): But maybe I'll watch you play with Tiger Baby, 

just in case it starts to look like more fun than what I'm doing.

Willow: "Hey, Josie! Now Daddy's playing Tiger Baby games with me!"

Josie: "Ppppfffffffftttt."

Tessa: "Okay, I admit it, Willow. That does look more fun."

Mule deer across the street: "Yeah, it kinda does!"

Willow: "It is more fun! It's really, really, really fun!"

Poor tormented Tiger Baby: "Pardon me, but I beg to differ

with this entire conversation!"

May your weekend be a lot more fun than Tiger Baby's! :-)

SkyWatch Friday: Tess :-)

(Tess, our fun-loving rescued Chow-Aussie mix, has commandeered my post for this week's SkyWatch Friday because she thinks these photos of her, cruising oh-so-cooly in her Doggles, showcase the summer sky quite nicely. And since I can't argue, I've agreed to type this for her while she dictates)...

Hi, human peoples, I'm Tess! My favorite cruising song is Adventure Dog, but I reckon it might have limited appeal to you humans, what with your unsophisticated taste in music. So I'm sharing my second favorite cruising song with you instead, along with my photos, so that you may more fully enjoy the Full Cruising Experience. Besides, it's a great song for cruising into the weekend and last week of official summer. Woof! (Translation: Enjoy!)

This is me looking serious and dignified,

and this is me looking attentive and earnest.

Here I am looking deep and thoughtful,

and this is me looking humorous and fun-loving!

Oh yeah, and there's also the sky and trees and stuff.

*yawn*

I also made Mom post this live-action video again because a lot of you haven't seen it yet, and the rest of you who have will probably want to watch it again, because you just can't get enough of me. (Mom says I'm pretty full of myself. But really I'm just full of kibble and joie d'vivre!)

If you'd like to see more pictures of me in my Doggles (and why on earth wouldn't you?), click here! Thanks for stopping by to admire my super-coolness (oh yeah, and to admire the sky too, yadda yadda), and have a great weekend!

And don't forget: "Adopt a stray, neuter and spay!"

For more skies (tho probably fewer dogs) visit