Critters

Guarding the Big House

Guarding the big houseThis is a photo of the front window in the big California house with the dogs standing guard to potentially bark at whatever might come down the semi-busy street. Beethoven, the little red dog by the window looked back to see what I was doing as I took the photo; Cabela the little blue dog camped on the couch cushion, waits until the little red dog sees something before springing into action.

There is considerably more activity here than at the little desert house and the dogs get busy making sure that every “threat” gets barked away. Events include others in the neighborhood walking their dogs or baby strollers and all that “dangerous” stuff.

Other attributes of the big house is that it is BIG; our little desert home is around 1300 square feet while this place is over 2600 square feet, upstairs and downstairs. It is twice the romping room and both dogs enjoy bounding up and down the staircase.

All that activity concludes tomorrow as we pack up and head back to Arizona as early in the morning as we are able. Don’t worry about the dogs, though, they have plenty of entertainment in the desert barking at cottontails, jackrabbits, javelina and the occasional coyote.

We’re all looking forward to heading back in the morning now that our business is finished here. Click on the image to enlarge.

Pigs in the Wash

Pigs in the Wash

Just as we were getting ready for the commute to the L.A. area today, a herd of seven or eight javelina crossed the back part of our yard on their daily forage. The dogs let us know they were coming, so I ran out to the courtyard and took several pictures of them as they crossed the wash. These two appeared to be juveniles, but we did see (and not photograph) a very small one with it’s Mama. Click on the image to enlarge.

Hummingbird

Hummingbird

This is a photo I took of a hummingbird that was browsing some of the garden shop flowers a while back. We get dozens of the little birds of all different colors who browse our feeders in the patio. They are so delightful to watch, either looking out the windows or while soaking ourselves in the spa. Click on the image to enlarge.

Butterfly and Red Bird of Paradise

Butterfly and Red Bird of Paradise

These are two of my favorite things; a short-tailed black swallowtail butterfly was browsing on a red bird of paradise (Pride of Barbados) flower today. I quietly approached and got a few shots of the two before the butterfly departed. It was another beautiful day here as Second Spring commenced. Most other places had fall start today, but here, that’s a few weeks away as more flowers are opening and butterflies abound. Click on the image to enlarge.

The Hummingbird Feeders

Damsel has two hummingbird feeders that hang below the eve of the patio roof right next to the RV drive. We used to get a few hummingbirds now and then, but lately, they literally swarm both feeders. We have seen up to a dozen at a time visiting the area (it’s hard to get an exact count because they move so fast).

A lot of the little birds seem to be territorial and we often see several of the tiny birds chipping away at each other as they attempt to light on the feeder. Damsel notes that the chipping noises they make reminds her of sounds made by the Star Wars robot R2D2. The sound of their wings as they fly by, also reminds her of the Jedi light sabers from the same movie series.

I’m just glad that there are no critters that make sounds similar to the C3PO droid. That would necessitate a shotgun blast or two.

I took the video late this afternoon from inside the patio screen. You can see some of the birds competing, but then a bunch of them feed at once. There are five perches and five feed holes on each feeder.

Cabela’s Fifth Birthday

Cabela at FiveCabela is officially five years old today. She is a royal blue miniature Pinscher. She was born on August 4, 2008 and weighs fifteen pounds. We adopted her from the Wickenburg Humane Society where she lived for a couple of weeks after being rescued while running around at the rodeo grounds.

Cabela loves to eat, play and sleep. She has been with our household for three years now, and seems to be happy and healthy. Sometimes she gets a little feisty, but that is her way of playing. She loves to chase her squeaky toys when the we throw them for her. She likes to play keep away with her toys. She will run around the coffee table and jump up on the sofa and love seat to keep the toys away from us if we chase her.

We lost our big girl, Bear, several weeks ago, but we still enjoy having Cabela and Beethoven as our household pets. They are both very smart, very demanding and always entertaining companions.

Click on the image to enlarge.