Fred's in love...

The other day, I blogged about Fred's swimming adventure. While we were there, every once and a while Pup would actually stop swimming for a bit and try to relax. When she did this, Fred figured it was a good time to try to get "acquainted" a little better. Granted Pup is a girl and Fred, well, he's a boy, but that's about it. Both dogs have been responsibly, "altered". However, Fred spent most of his spare time, trying to get Pup to notice him. Poor guy, he really gave her his best "moves" too.
Alas, she just wasn't interested. I guess size doesn't matter, not in Fred's world anyway.

"Hey baby, wanna get lucky?"

Fred Swims!

I am sorry it's been so long since my last blog. The weather here finally started acting like summer, so I've pretty much been doing things outside as much as possible.

Anyway, today, my daughter and I went to the river with her room-mates dog Pup, and of course Fred.

She's only 4 but she really didn't want anything to do with Fred. Great dog though.

It was a terrific day to be at the river. Not too much wind, just enough to keep it pleasant. It was a perfect day to take Fred for a swim.

Fred's not real fond of the water and I don't think he ever will be. He will never go in the water by himself, I don't think. He might go in if I was all the way in, but, like Fred, I'm not a big fan of the water either. Who knows. I think it was good good for him to see another dog fetching and swimming though.

If you look close, you can see water drops flying off Pup's tail. (above), you probably have to click on the photo to see it better.

Here is a little video I put together of Fred swimming.

He so funny. He actually climbed up into that chair, I am sitting in a chair next to him. He would've preferred to sit with me, of course, but that wasn't gonna happen. So he sat in that chair and acted pretty pathetic.

I like the way Pup's tail is flagging by in this picture. Not sure if Fred appreciates it though.

It doesn't get much better than this for me!

Not long after, we set the chairs up on dry land. The wake from the boats and jet skis was getting pretty obnoxious and my chair kept shifting. So we moved onto dry land and I set Fred up on a towel.

Much better!

There are some very nice homes on the other side of the river from where we were.

They were too far away for my camera, but I think you get the idea.

The weather is predicted to be like this for quite some time. All I can say is it's about time time summer showed up! I am looking forward to a few more trips to the river while it lasts. (Sorry Fred, you're coming with)

Sunday Stills - Pests and Things that Annoy You

When Ed posted this challenge, I was quite pleased. There are plenty of things that annoy me at times, like bad driving, obnoxious individuals, grocery store lines, the usual. The things that are really annoying me right now are flies and spiders and their $$#%^& webs! It seems every time I walk outside, I get a face full of web, it creeps me out. After I aimlessly walk through one of these buggers, my gut reaction is that now I have a spider on me (shiver!). I really don't like that feeling.

So, here are my pics for this week. Thanks for the challenge Ed!

This little guy, (aren't spiders supposed to have 8 legs?), spews his web in every direction, this web is pretty well put together, but this one...

There's really no rhyme or reason to it, it's like the spider threw up or sneezed and this is what happened. I have run face first into many of these. They are in unexpected spots.

I think the spider made this web to trap my wind chime...who knows.

The wind chime eater.

I had to share a complete picture of my wind chime, this wind chime has the loveliest sound, it is very melodic. Click this link from Life at the Rough String to hear it's beauty. When I heard it, I just had to get one. Thanks Karen!

Any way, back to my annoyances...

Mr. Fly, ugh.

(note to self..wash parsley thoroughly before ingesting, I think he relieved himself)

I hope you enjoyed my annoyances.


To see more Sunday Stills, please go here

Sunday Stills - The Letter "B"

I have created this post primarily for my cat Buddy. He tends to take second place behind Fred on here, Fred is an attention hog. I really do spend plenty of time with him. It is a lot easier to take photos of him, he stays in one place longer. That said, here's Buddy...

Buddy loves his Bed in the Black plastic covered Box

If you look close, you can see a fang. (Bicuspid?)

It's pretty cozy in the Bed

I was still trying to take pictures of him in his bed, and this is what I got. Yikes!

On a Bench

Buddy the Blob

My Boston...look he's smiling! (sort of)

Best Buds

I adore these guys!

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Stills-Macro Pics or Extreme Closeups

I did not know when I took this that there was a fly on it..Bonus!

Playing with texture

Parsley

Last but not least....

Fred! (Of course)

As with most of my pictures, clicking on them will show more detail, I hope.

To see more of this weeks Sunday Stills Challenge please go here

Safety First!

"For crying out loud, seriously???"

I can't help it, every time I see this picture I crack up.  If you have a second, click on the picture to really get the full "effect". Fred pretty much didn't move almost the entire time he was wearing it. As you will notice in the following pictures. He basically didn't know how...

I had to move around him to get all the angles...

"why me?"

"Hmmm, now what?"

After I took the pictures above, I went up the steps there and sat in a chair to see how Fred was going to do in his new digs. He stood there for quite some time, but he really wanted to come up those steps to be with me. His first attempt didn't go so well. I'm not sure, but I think he was trying to jump over that chin piece as he was going to come up the steps. As he got to the first step, he did some sort of jump, rear maneuver and almost fell over backwards. He thought about this for a few seconds, tilted his head this way and that, and V E R Y carefully stepped up the 3 steps over to me, sat down and gave me the stink eye.

"I'm stuck"

He couldn't get off the couch either.

I realize I need to adjust the chin strap, just a "tad".  Other than that it's a good fit all around.

Anyway, one of the reasons I decided Fred needed this is because of what Dom had written about with her experiences with her dog Herbie . She mentioned that Herbie sinks, and since I've never really tested Fred on his swimming capabilities yet, it's better to be safe than sorry. I am not sure Fred feels the same way. Also, on the Fourth of July, we had the opportunity to spend some time with my daughter and her friends on the river in a small fishing boat. It was a little warm and Fred was panting pretty good, so her friend picked up Fred and dipped him in the water. It was a very quick in and out, but I have to admit, it did make me a bit nervous. Fred can be pretty slippery when he's wet.

After said dunking...

He didn't seem to mind, really, and he ended up having a pretty good time, we both did. It was then that I thought a life jacket would have come in handy, the current was pretty swift where we were and the rivers were still running quite high.

Fred with my daughter Molly and her friend. As you can see her friend was very much interested in his fishing rod at the time, quite the talker too...not.

A couple of weeks after that, Fred and I went camping on the Mollala river for one night. Our camp spot wasn't very near the water, and it was quite a hike to get to the river from where we were camped. When we finally managed to get to the river, it was really running fast and Fred was getting too close to it for my comfort. The rocks that we had to walk on were about the size of volley balls, round and smooth and they were very unsteady. So was I and so was Fred. Of course the fact that I was wearing thongs for footwear didn't help much. I didn't get pictures of the river, I was too busy worrying about staying upright and keeping an eye on Fred. I did get a few pictures of the campsite.

My tent is the one in the back.

That's Fred's blanket on the ground. It's supposed to be white...

The fire that never really ever burned, it just smoldered and blew ashes everywhere.

View from the camp site, no river, just rocks.

I'm not going to totally get into it here, but suffice to say the camping trip was a bust for many, many reasons and Fred and I were out of there by first light. I was home by 9:00 in the morning.

Let's just say, the person that had all the gear for camping, for example, fire starting material, firewood, food, stove, beverages, lights, bug repellent, and on and on, locked his keys in his truck as soon as he arrived, and all of the camping gear, and it was getting dark...That was the beginning of the end.

Anyway, Fred is now the new owner of a life jacket. Now I need someone to take me out on the water. We need to field test it...