Sunday, September 27, 2009
"Puppies 21 months old"
Teddy, haven't weighed him for a long time, he is about 31 1/2 inches tall, maybe a bit more, and my guess is that he is about 125 lbs right now, very lean still.
Nanuk, still going strong at over 8 years old, still leading his pack of youngsters,
Ayla turned 4 last month, at just over 80 lbs she is the smallest of the guardians
Ayla and Teddy
Teddy was enjoying some attention from me, when all of a sudden the rest of the gang started running, in this picture he just got up and going, I actually had hoped that the picture still showed him sitting, but it didn't, Nanuk is already ahead running full speed. All the commotion was about a raven flying too low and too close to the fenceline.
Teddy is a agile, but fairly heavy boned built. He is plenty big for my taste at this point, but he still has plenty of growing to do.
Cici is very lean, but very muscular, she is extremely agile, sure footed and fast, she is also very focused on her guardian duties. She is also very smart and for the longest time she thought she could outsmart me when it comes to cooperating with what I ask of her. However she found out that I was smarter, and that every time she thought she got away with something, she found herself not where she really wanted to be. So now, she is using her smartness to keep a really close eye on what I do and if I ask anything of her, she will smartly do it to secure her reward before somebody else gets a chance at it. My husband gets a bit tired of me saying "she is something else", but it's the truth. She is my little bean.
Cici spotted one of the neighbor's bunnies out in the street.
Teddy
Teddy, he has the most beautiful plush coat of all the pups.
Teddy and Cici
Teddy and Cici in the foreground and Ayla on the far end of our little hill, keeping an eye on the neighborhood.
Teddy, ribs are just barely visible, his plush coat makes him look great.
Ayla
Prince, with muddy paws
Prince playing with his momma Leydi, note both of them have their right paws raised
Leydi on the ground loving to be the center of the action
The following pictures were taking this morning when these 3 had a wild play session, Prince to the right, Leydi to the left of him and Sammie
Leydi chasing Prince, the ground is a powdery sand.
Leydi on the left, and Sammie
Prince leading the chase, followed by Leydi and Sammie
Prince veering off to the right, Leydi goes the other way around the dog house, they love to play chase games around the dog house
Prince with Sammie chasing him
Leydi playing peek-a-boo, ready to pounce if nobody notices
Leydi to the left, Prince to the right hidden by the dust clouds
Leydi was just about to lie down when her children came racing by
Prince getting a bit tired
This trio is a good working team
Sammie looking thoughtful
Sammie after running through the mud
Prince, it's been exactly a year since he has been back with me, how the time flies, he is such a lovely boy
Prince has loved this spot every since he was a little pup, I remember the day before he left for his new home as a puppy, he wandered out in the dark to this spot and sat there all by himself in the dark, don't know what it is about this spot, but he thinks it's the best spot to be.
Teddy, haven't weighed him for a long time, he is about 31 1/2 inches tall, maybe a bit more, and my guess is that he is about 125 lbs right now, very lean still.
Nanuk, still going strong at over 8 years old, still leading his pack of youngsters,
Ayla turned 4 last month, at just over 80 lbs she is the smallest of the guardians
Ayla and Teddy
Teddy was enjoying some attention from me, when all of a sudden the rest of the gang started running, in this picture he just got up and going, I actually had hoped that the picture still showed him sitting, but it didn't, Nanuk is already ahead running full speed. All the commotion was about a raven flying too low and too close to the fenceline.
Teddy is a agile, but fairly heavy boned built. He is plenty big for my taste at this point, but he still has plenty of growing to do.
Cici is very lean, but very muscular, she is extremely agile, sure footed and fast, she is also very focused on her guardian duties. She is also very smart and for the longest time she thought she could outsmart me when it comes to cooperating with what I ask of her. However she found out that I was smarter, and that every time she thought she got away with something, she found herself not where she really wanted to be. So now, she is using her smartness to keep a really close eye on what I do and if I ask anything of her, she will smartly do it to secure her reward before somebody else gets a chance at it. My husband gets a bit tired of me saying "she is something else", but it's the truth. She is my little bean.
Cici spotted one of the neighbor's bunnies out in the street.
Teddy
Teddy, he has the most beautiful plush coat of all the pups.
Teddy and Cici
Teddy and Cici in the foreground and Ayla on the far end of our little hill, keeping an eye on the neighborhood.
Teddy, ribs are just barely visible, his plush coat makes him look great.
Ayla
Prince, with muddy paws
Prince playing with his momma Leydi, note both of them have their right paws raised
Leydi on the ground loving to be the center of the action
The following pictures were taking this morning when these 3 had a wild play session, Prince to the right, Leydi to the left of him and Sammie
Leydi chasing Prince, the ground is a powdery sand.
Leydi on the left, and Sammie
Prince leading the chase, followed by Leydi and Sammie
Prince veering off to the right, Leydi goes the other way around the dog house, they love to play chase games around the dog house
Prince with Sammie chasing him
Leydi playing peek-a-boo, ready to pounce if nobody notices
Leydi to the left, Prince to the right hidden by the dust clouds
Leydi was just about to lie down when her children came racing by
Prince getting a bit tired
This trio is a good working team
Sammie looking thoughtful
Sammie after running through the mud
Prince, it's been exactly a year since he has been back with me, how the time flies, he is such a lovely boy
Prince has loved this spot every since he was a little pup, I remember the day before he left for his new home as a puppy, he wandered out in the dark to this spot and sat there all by himself in the dark, don't know what it is about this spot, but he thinks it's the best spot to be.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Praying Mantis Buffet on the back door,
a Praying Mantis, lately we have had many of them show up at night around the lights we leave on at night, one night I counted 7 of these insects around one door, and 25 !!!!! spiders sitting around that same area, all of them waiting for something tasty to catch and eat, we have a Praying Mantis and Spider buffet on our back door.
this is a Praying Mantis sleeping upside down, this was actually the picture when she started looking up at me, the picture below shows her sleeping with the head sideways turned
I have never seen a brown colored Praying Mantis, but different shapes of green, so I am not sure if this one changed color based on the wall she was sitting on, the others sitting there at the same time were green. Funny how this big insect is looking at me
side view
another close up
Different egg sizes, on the top is a very large 2.5 inch egg, on the bottom a very small pullet egg, the two eggs in the middle are normal sized eggs
a Praying Mantis, lately we have had many of them show up at night around the lights we leave on at night, one night I counted 7 of these insects around one door, and 25 !!!!! spiders sitting around that same area, all of them waiting for something tasty to catch and eat, we have a Praying Mantis and Spider buffet on our back door.
this is a Praying Mantis sleeping upside down, this was actually the picture when she started looking up at me, the picture below shows her sleeping with the head sideways turned
I have never seen a brown colored Praying Mantis, but different shapes of green, so I am not sure if this one changed color based on the wall she was sitting on, the others sitting there at the same time were green. Funny how this big insect is looking at me
side view
another close up
Different egg sizes, on the top is a very large 2.5 inch egg, on the bottom a very small pullet egg, the two eggs in the middle are normal sized eggs
Vulture Sighting,
On a recent morning I heard a ruckus outside. Sammie was in defense mode.
hackles were up as she was at the property line, I didn't see any stray dogs or such, and when I followed what she was looking at I saw this:
a bird with wings spread out sitting on the poles in the neighbors property, Sammie was barking at the bird. At first I thought it was the hawk that sometimes shows up in the neighborhood, but this bird didn't look quite as big. So I thought it might be a raven, but Sammie's and Leydi's behavior was not the same as when a raven hangs out too close. Sammie was really upset about this bird.
So I went back to the house to get my binoculars to figure out what kind of a bird we are dealing with here. It was a vulture. In all the years I have been here in Southern Nevada, I have never seen a vulture, I had people nearby one time mention vultures in their yard and I thought they meant the ravens. But this was clearly a vulture, no feathers on the head, bright red head and a huge beak.
Vulture sitting with wings spread. Sammie barking at it. I would have never noticed this if it hadn't been for my alert dogs, they just don't miss anything.
The vulture.
the vulture surveying the area, if this had been a hawk, I wouldn't have left to go to work without leaving a dog or two in the chicken yard, since it is still too hot outside during the day for the dogs, I wouldn't have been able to go to work until a hawk had moved on. Vultures to my knowledge will not kill a chicken, but instead look for something that is already dead. We have had a lot of coyote activities lately in the area, so my guess is that a coyote left some smelly leftovers in the vicinity and the vulture was going to clean up. I haven't seen it since then, it's been a few days since this happened.
On a recent morning I heard a ruckus outside. Sammie was in defense mode.
hackles were up as she was at the property line, I didn't see any stray dogs or such, and when I followed what she was looking at I saw this:
a bird with wings spread out sitting on the poles in the neighbors property, Sammie was barking at the bird. At first I thought it was the hawk that sometimes shows up in the neighborhood, but this bird didn't look quite as big. So I thought it might be a raven, but Sammie's and Leydi's behavior was not the same as when a raven hangs out too close. Sammie was really upset about this bird.
So I went back to the house to get my binoculars to figure out what kind of a bird we are dealing with here. It was a vulture. In all the years I have been here in Southern Nevada, I have never seen a vulture, I had people nearby one time mention vultures in their yard and I thought they meant the ravens. But this was clearly a vulture, no feathers on the head, bright red head and a huge beak.
Vulture sitting with wings spread. Sammie barking at it. I would have never noticed this if it hadn't been for my alert dogs, they just don't miss anything.
The vulture.
the vulture surveying the area, if this had been a hawk, I wouldn't have left to go to work without leaving a dog or two in the chicken yard, since it is still too hot outside during the day for the dogs, I wouldn't have been able to go to work until a hawk had moved on. Vultures to my knowledge will not kill a chicken, but instead look for something that is already dead. We have had a lot of coyote activities lately in the area, so my guess is that a coyote left some smelly leftovers in the vicinity and the vulture was going to clean up. I haven't seen it since then, it's been a few days since this happened.