Crazy in Rockport - part 2

More videos from last weekend, starting with the puppies on Saturday.

And the rest of the dogs are still here.

And then on Sunday we got to relax a little bit.

We tried blocking "blind" Polly with a plastic bin in front of the side walkway on the deck.

Oh ya, that worked out well.  She was mocking us.

Then just jumped down on the other side and went merrily on her way. Nice try humans.

Crazy in Rockport - part 1

This past weekend I was dogsitting 8 dogs.  Yes that's right, EIGHT.  I'll never understand Donna, no matter how many dogs she's already responsible for, she can always add a few more, no matter how many other things she's got going on.  So while she was away working a concert, I was watching 8 dogs, and feeling crazy.  She is fostering 3 dogs and told me that it was only for a day or two (it's now Thursday night and all 3 fosters are still there).
One of her fosters is Polly a deaf and mostly blind dog.

And then there's the puppies.

Although Polly is supposed to be blind, just seeing shadows, I think she can see a lot better than they think, we'll find out when she goes into Boston tomorrow to get checked out.  These dogs get better medical care than I do.

OK, since everyone loves puppies, as long as they're not peeing in YOUR house, one more video of the puppies.

Sunday Excursion to North Andover

  Sunday Afternoon in the Conservation Area

Here are some videos from our walk in the conservation area today.  Only a few of them are small enough to post here. I have to remember to bring my ipod touch for videos so they don't take up as much space as my iphone.

First we went to the BIG field to walk and throw the ball.

Then after Bo is tired out from all the running.  We head back and sit and relax and enjoy being out in the woods for a bit.

And then we head back towards the car and stop by the pond for awhile.

And that is all that I can upload for today.  I'll try to produce some better videos on our next excursion.  

         Tom, Atticus and Will in Andover

I went to see Atticus and Will (with Tom Ryan) at the Massachusetts School of Law on Saturday.  I got a really nice picture of Will.  Will is 16 now, mostly blind, totally deaf, and very arthritic.  Tom took him in last summer expectly him to only last a few months,  But now he's thriving under Tom's care.  He's got in made now, so why would he want to leave.

And for a while, he was sitting with the people right next to me.

                           And of course Atticus was there.

                             And I took some video too.

Tom spoke and answered questions for about 45 minutes. It was really nice to get so "up close and personal" with Will and Atticus.

I wasn't expecting that. He and Atticus then received a humanitarian award for all the money they raised for the Jimmy fund while climbing the New Hampshire 48 in Winter.  And in case you missed it, they were on PBS in New Hampshire on Willem Lang's 'Windows to the Wild' show, which I've heard will be repeated on Boston's PBS station at some point, or I'm sure you can google it and find it on the web.

                                           Visiting Henry

Here are some pictures and a video from my most recent visit with Henry last week.

                      That's Rosie panting in the background.

I was out in the back yard yesterday and looked up and very surprisingly, saw a racoon in the tree behind our garage.  I've never even seen a racoon around this house before; ever!  We're not exactly in the woods here in the middle of Methuen.

I kept checking on him throughout the day, and he was always there. Most of the time he was sleeping, so I was lucky to get pictures of him when he was looking right at me.  But today he was gone.  Probably found a better place to hide today.  When I was a kid, I used to climb that tree, and there was a branch that I could shimmy on over to the roof of our 2 story garage.  I thought it was cool to just hang out on the garage roof.  Just because I could.

                              Today's Doggie News.


            The last 'old' puppy went to her forever home today.  

Now there's just 11 'new' puppies being fostered, along with Momma dog.  But the video of them still won't upload.  Looks like there may be a size limit of 100M.  So I'll have to try to keep the videos shorter.

And here's a picture of the oldest 'puppy',  Max.  Waiting for me to throw the tennis ball.

                             And Bodog resting on his bed.

And a happy dog on the rail trail.

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago. The rail trail is almost completely free of snow now.  Let's hope it stays that way.

Since I can't get the video uploaded, here's a couple pictures of the pups.

               The Dogs of Rockport

If you think you know how many dogs are in the Rockport house, you're wrong.  There's always more than you think.

Here's a few of them....

and then of course, there's Buckley.....

and Ebony and the new batch of puppies.  But I'm having trouble uploading the video of the puppies.  I'm lucky I got 2 videos to upload.  This site is a pain.  Some videos will go up and some won't.  
There seems to be no rhyme or reason why some load OK and others don't.  I'll try again some other time.
Here's another video of the 'old' puppy.

Bodog the snow dog.

You can't let a little snow stop you from chasing the ball.

Just some new pictures of the Bodog.

It's not easy trying to get video of Bo walking. Hope you don't get dizzy.

Here are some pictures from the big February blizzard.

Tom's car was hiding in the snow bank. 

That's Tom shoveling the end of the driveway.  He loves to shovel.
He goes out shoveling every chance he gets. He likes to make big piles of snow.

The snow doesn't impress me that much. It interferes with my walks. 

We couldn't go out walking for 4 days, it was horrible.  But then we started going back to the Methuen Rail Trail and have been walking everyday since.  

That's me on the MRT just the other day.

Inspired by the book, Following Atticus, I'm going to start trying to post here again so my friends and relatives who refuse to join Facebook can get updates on our lives.  Because our lives are sooooooo interesting.

Today we traveled to Bourne to visit Auntie Joy with Kristin, Henry and Tom.

I really like Henry's cool Patriot's hat, don't you?

Henry likes it too.

I've been having trouble getting videos to upload on here, so I'm going to be working on that. Hope to have some up soon.

The New Dawgs

Eddy is a new member of our pack and he is a Shih-tzu.

This video was taken the first time we brought him into the backyard after weeks in the hospital.

He only has one eye now, due to a negligent groomer.  But he is doing pretty well.  He is only 10 months old, so still a puppy and full of energy and inquisitiveness.

We also added Oliver to the pack at the same time.  You know Donna, 'Why add just one dog when you can add two?'

Be sure to check in next week to see if we have any other new dogs.

Say Good Night Eddy.  Eddy?

Saturday Afternoon with Buckley

Hi Mel! While you're away in China, you can see what Buckley's doing. Today we went to the park as usual.

Then he decided he wanted to play keep away.

and more keep away.

He's just a pleasure to have here with us for 2 weeks.

Don't forget to come back.

Hot 4th of July

It's a hot 4th in Rockport this year. Too hot to go for a walk. So we cooled off in the back yard as best we could.

Bo may not like going into a body of water, but he doesn't mind playing with the hose.

Buckley swims in the ocean

Buckley visited us over the 4th weekend. So on Saturday, we went for a swim.

OK, so it's more like playing in the surf. But it's still fun.

The seaweed covered rocks make it almost like a carpet for Buckley. So he's not scratching his legs on the bare rock. It's the perfect spot but only accessable at low tide.

Then we went home for a scratch on our favorite swing.

Bo's not a swimmer, can you tell? And then there's max.

Poohbie is freezing his butt off.

This is what Poohbie looked like recently. He was a litttle shaggy. But very cute.

And then the groomer lady came. Now Poohbie is freezing his butt off! Is it summer yet?

Help me!

Let me in, it's FREEZING out here!!!!!!

What did I do to deserve this?

The Wildlife Chronicles

Lot's of wildlife sightings recently. A couple of weeks ago, I was able to see the two deer that live on the hillside just on the other side of the marsh behind our house. I tried taking some video but I don't think it came out well enough to post here. I haven't seen them for the past few weeks, but then I never knew they were there before, when Donna says they've been around for a while.

But today I've got a new sighting to add to my list. Last fall, I saw a seal for the first time, swimming just off shore. Saw him dive a couple of times and then pop his head up and look at me. Well today I saw my first baby seal laying on the rocks near one of our play areas. I didn't have my camera with me though. So I went back to the house and got it. Check it out.

I moved back as soon as he started moving away because I didn't really want to disturb him that much, and I had Max and Bo with me and was afraid that they might see him and start barking at him and going up to him. But they never saw him and we left him alone after that. He just stayed in the shadows next to the rock for a while. Hopefully he continued his sunbath after we left. But here's the first video I took of him laying in the sun, not moving. I wanted to get video of him moving a little, so you can see he's not dead or sick. He was just laying in the sun enjoying one of the first nice sunny days we've had in a while. Mom's probably out getting something to eat while he's safe and warm in the sun...., until that stupid human bothered him.

It's hard to tell if he's just a rock in this one. Almost as surprising as seeing the weasel in our yard. Who knows what we'll see next. Stay tuned.......

Pictures from a snowy couple of weeks.

We usually don't get much snow here in Rockport, due to the moderating effect of the ocean, but we've definitely got our share here the last couple of weeks. Most pictures are of the neighbors' house so they can see how it looks with the most snow I've seen in 9 winters here. I took the picture of our house last Friday, a rare sunny day. I've finally got a day off after shovelling the last 5 days in a row. My Audi with Quatro all wheel drive was actually stuck in our driveway, all 4 wheels spinning. The first time in 7 years that I've had the car, that it couldn't move. I had to shovel snow, chop ice, spread kitty litter for over an hour to get the car out. Ya, it's been a fun couple of weeks. I haven't been able to use the truck for 3 weeks now. Too much snow. Which means I'm bringing the garbage to the dump in my Audi now. Oh well, I don't use it for much of anything else. Just trips to the grocery store,.....and now to the dump.

Walk in the Park

Picture and some video from our walk on Sunday the 23rd.

And then up to the quary.

And now we have even more snow. But in the midst of winter, you just have to think summer....

Winter is here. Happy Birthday Mom.

Got a little snow this week. We've been lucky so far, getting more rain than snow. But this time it piled up a bit. Doesn't seem to bother the dogs. But then they don't have to shovel or drive in it. They just get to have fun. Bo likes to attack and bite my shovel while I'm trying to clear the decks. Max just wants to lay in the snow, chewing a tennis ball. Of course, if someone would throw the tennis ball, that would be even better!

The picture was taken around noontime, yesterday. Today we went for a walk and checked out the snow drifts over at the condos. As you see, despite the fact that we received 8-10 inches of snow yesterday, afterwards the winds here just wipe some areas clean. But the snow has to go somewhere....

And here's a video from last week showing Buckley really running in his cart in the snow.

I was telling Kristin about the Mockingbirds that I was watching all summer in our backyard. I've noticed that the Mockingbirds are still here this winter, along with the Cardinals and Bluejays I see all the time. Donna has feeders everywhere for them. We get to see pretty much everything that's still here. The other morning I noticed a little red squirrel on my deck going through the bird seed that dropped from one of the feeders above. There's still plenty of wildlife.

Here's a video I shot last summer (change to British accent), where you can see the Mockingbird's distinctive white markings on his wings while in flight.

And here one bird displays the classic mating ritual of jump-flying into the air and returning to his perch, trying his best to impress the female of his species.

Next, the miniature poodle displays his retreiving skills in the snow.

Oh well. Cheerio! Off to tea, (or Pepsi in my case).