Peanut and Riley

I've been dogsitting this week, and it's always an adventure and a test of patience. My family didn't have a dog after my Kindergarten year. Before that, the dog was my brother's dog. Even though its name was Happy, I didn't like to get near it because it was bigger than me and barked. I have a distinct memory of waking up late on a Saturday morning and finding no one in my house. I went outside and the dog was out of its pen because someone was mowing the pen. I was not a happy child that morning.

Anyway, back to the present. The dogs I'm sitting for are nowhere near as big as Happy was (he died sometime while I was in middle school at my grandma's house in North Carolina). Also I've conquered my fear of dogs for the most part.

Peanut is a poodle. He gets really excited when I head toward the couch.

He's a bit older so he sleeps quite a bit. A little old man without the snores.

This is Riley's favorite spot. Even though he doesn't live in this house on a regular basis, this is his favorite spot.

I brought some laundry over to wash. He claimed this blanket as his own.

For the most part, they are good dogs. They do like to bark at  cats incessantly in the yard, and they beg for my food like they haven't eaten for days. I enjoy their cuddles and kisses though.

May Day: I smell a rat...

On the first day of May, I was at my parent's house to help my mom do some spring cleaning. My dog, Callie, had spent most of the afternoon standing next to my mom's car, sniffing and pawing at the left headlight. After some time, we decided to open the hood, thinking that one of our cats may have climbed up in there. We held the dogs back, just in case. When mom lifted up the hood, a giant rat jumped out. The dogs chased it into a pile of rocks, so I moved several rocks until it ran out and into mom's flower bed, which was out of the dogs' reach (the dogs are on an electric collar system that keeps them in their 3-acre yard). To the dismay of some, the rat lived. It looked similar to the one pictured below: 

It was cute...in a creepy, crawly sort of way. I did a little research and found that it is called a "Black Rat" (scientific name is Rattus rattus). Although not black in color, the rats got their name from the spread of bubonic plague, or the "black death". Their blood can hold lots of infectious bacteria, which makes them great disease carriers. They are also considered pests to many farmers, since they damage agricultural crops. Now you know!

Until next time, 

Miss Ellaneous 

Summer Love

It's been summer vacation for me (kind of) for a couple of weeks since I've just been subbing on and off (more off). During that time I've also been crafty and had some adventures. So bear with this picture-laden post and you'll see my last couple of weeks.

Jewelry Making
I spent a couple of hours one afternoon making some jewelry. My uncle gave me a bunch of beads a couple of Christmases ago, including these shell beads, which I wasn't sure how to use. Well I figured out how to use them while also trying out a three stranded necklace technique. Whatcha think?

The Zoo
A few of us, including Miss Ellaneous, went to the zoo on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. There were a lot of people there, but there were also more animals out than last time I was at Cincinnati Zoo. I was super excited to find a sloth. Did you know a sloth only poops once a week while a goose poops every twelve minutes?

House Sitting
This week I am housesitting for my pastor who is on vacation in Florida. He has a beautiful log house sort of out in the country but still close enough to town that there are neighbors. You can actually see his house from certain parts of the Pinnacle. That's creepy now that I think about it...there could be people on the Pinnacle looking at this house right now.

There are five dogs and three chickens here right now that I'm taking care of. I don't know all of the names of the dogs but I do know Piper who loves to jump and tries to escape. In fact, earlier I had to lock her in the back part of the fence so that I could close the doggy door that goes in to the house. She's just a bit hyper and easily excited. In the pictures, she's the one that looks sort of like Hetty.

One cool thing about living here is that they have strawberries growing that they said I could pick. This morning I picked some and made a strawberry smoothie. I got the recipe here. The only thing I changed was that I used milk instead of soy milk. It was pretty good and definitely filled me up for breakfast. I probably should have used quick oats instead of whole oats, but that's what I had. Some people might not like it because it has quite a bit of texture. I think I did need more strawberries for more flavor.

Well that's it for now.  Maybe I'll make another post after I finish re-reading The Poisonwood Bible.

I love summer.

Granny Eyre