Summer

Summer is here like I'm in this photo: sort of.

The weather is trying to be summery. There are a few timid mosquitoes about and the plants are getting taller than me, if you can believe it. Down by the river the fisher people have taken up their positions and I visited a few today. I almost managed a complete search of an open rucksack before I was booted from one fishing site. People can be so stingy with their snacks!

Tonight there was a thunderstorm storm. Because this is the Far North this summer storm included falling ice. We must need a touch of winter in everything! I keep thinking I should have held on to my winter coat but it is included in several bird nests by now. My Person insisted on brushing me in the back yard and the chickadees have been flying off with beakfuls of my red dog fur. Maybe next winter they'll lend me a few feathers for my pillow!

Dog of mystery

I'm in my hole, keeping a watch on the world. But the world can't see much of me. Someone passing by might not even know what I am. I could be a red fox in a fox den, or a smallish riperian grizzly in his cave, or a stripeless badger, or a huge red squirrel...who knows?

It is good to have mysteries. For instance, no one knows where I am really from, and most of the time I sure don't know where I am going. I don't know what my Person does all day and why she isn't busy walking me or attending to my needs. I don't know why there are three siamese cats living with us - that's a BIG mystery.

I had some mysterious fun at the river today. I was unusually happy to be running free and I guess I took off and left my Person wondering where I had gotten to. Let's say I was busy.

I finally decided to heed her worried calls and rejoin her and brought along the prize that had detained me - a big and somewhat gory bone! She said it was disgusting, which I took to mean that she was disgusted she hadn't found such a wonderful thing herself. Then she said she'd trade up with me - the bone for two cat treats. Trade up? I didn't roll off the pumpkin cart yesterday! So we wrestled instead and I am embarrassed to admit that she won. She threw my lovely bone in the river.

So I took off again. I ignored her as long as I could but she started to sound frantic. When I ran back to her my nifty walking harness was on sideways! "How did you manage that?" she asked but I couldn't tell her even if I wanted to. We are going to add that to the list of today's mysteries.

But I have bigger mysteries to crack now, like why I haven't had my dinner yet!

More like it

After of few days of being under the weather (don't eat the onions when you are finishing up the leftovers) and being under the weather (the big cloudy kind) today was more of a fun-for-Finn kind of day. After a quick tour of the blue bird trail, dodging golf balls and grinning at surprised golfers who didn't know about my monitor status, I headed for the Mississippi River with my Person in tow.

I had a great time chasing a lab around and showed him that red dogs rule. I got in a big swim and a tromp through the woods and headed home for a much needed nap.

Then a problem arose. My Person spent most of yesterday installing a farm in MY backyard. She is all excited about the prospect of having fresh tomatoes in her salad but I don't care if I ever eat a salad. Back yards are for two things, neither of which is growing salad items: napping in and chasing squirrels around in. Suddenly my favorite sunny nap spot is a field of herbs!

The herb bed is nicely mulched with soft grass clippings and it IS a bed, so I settled in for a nap. Boy, did I get hollered at. So I moved over to where the little milkweed plants are just poking their tender leaves up and the nice soft native grass is planted. And I got hollered at again. So I decided to sit on her lap and she thought her boring old book should be on her lap instead of me.

This is what I call a conflict of interest. What I am interested in is in conflict with her dumb ideas. Finally I curled up in my not so favorite napping spot and gave my Person my most baleful look and my biggest sigh. I think my Person feels just a little bit guilty about being so selfish with my backyard so maybe she'll share her supper with me. As long as it isn't salad or onions, I will be a happy dog again.

Warbling

My Person has been so distracted with other activities and creatures I might as well be invisible. And so I have taken desperate measures. Even though I am the top dog, she pays a lot more attention to birds than she does to me. Especially migratory birds. She explains that they aren't around for long and it is a treat to be able to see them in the spring. I figure I am a treat any time of year.

In order to get some attention I have build a nest. You can consider me an expecially rare sighting - a migratory Finnegan warbler, identified by my beautiful rusty color and white tips and, as my aunt veecee says, soulful eyes. I am not in any field guide, so don't bother looking. And if my Person doesn't look sharp I am going to be as elusive as the Ivory billed woodpecker.

Anyway, I think this might draw my Person's attention back to a more deserving subject: me!

On the trail

You all know I am a very dedicated volunteer blue bird trail monitor. I check the nest boxes of a nearby trail once a week, counting occupants, looking for blue eggs and evicting sparrows with a good scolding. I wear my little red uniform for the task so everyone knows who I am. And I bring my Person with me because of her adept thumbs.

But as with most ventures, there are always surprises. Today there was a surprise for me when I saw a chickadee incubating her eggs in one of the blue bird boxes and she was surprised to see me seeing her. She has a nest made of moss and lichens and soft things and she is so brave she didn't fly away.

I think I am sort of like a chickadee myself, on the small side, dapperly designed and with a stout heart. In fact I might just change my name to Finnadee!

In nature

I am struck by something. Not drops of water kicking up from my flashing feet. I am struck by the nature of my nature and the nature of my Person's nature. To be blunt, she isn't natural. She likes to be outside and she loves birds and trees and rocks. But she isn't at one with nature. It doesn't seem that people are.

People are too apart from nature, living in houses, wearing shoes. They don't know how to find tasty treats in leaf litter or smell what other creature has been walking by. They may like to name nature but they don't really understand nature because they aren't quite in it. Today my Person was naming birds. How silly! One had a fancy name - blue headed vireo. She saw it, pronounced the fancy name, and felt she knew something. Hah! She knows nothing. That name is just a human invention.

She doesn't understand what she sees even if she can give it a fancy name. As we walked a lot of birds were calling. She thought it was interesting, and she stopped to look at them. She was so busy trying to name them she forgot to notice what they were doing. Well, they were trying to scare away that big bad hawk! Finally she began to understand. Later we came across a huge dog. I wanted to scare it away and started barking at it. She didn't understand I was doing the same thing those valiant birds had been doing. She actually told me to be quiet! Would she have told those birds to be quiet?

Well, they wouldn't have listened, and for the record, neither did I.

Hunter or..

...hunted? That's a broad winged hawk giving me the hairy eyeball, and I didn't even notice! There is a little red box around the little red dog and the big brown hawk but can you tell who is what? Click the photo to see more clearly if you dare.

That raptor could have swooped down and carried me away. Or I might have pounced on him and brought home a new toy for Adric. But neither happened. We both went on our merry ways.

And my way today was merry. I got to ride in a golf cart as part of my official duties (yes, I have them) as a bluebird trail monitor, I got to run by the river, and for once my Person brought home a tick and I didn't. She wasn't nearly as amused as I was, but I think we all know who has the better sense of humor in this household.

The river is wide...

... I can't cross o'er. Nor do I have light wings to fly.
Build me a boat that can carry two and both shall row, my Person and I.

Or so the song goes. But maybe I should just leave my Person on this side of the river. She made me walk, as part of one of her patently dubious Fun Ideas, for miles and miles, only to end up across the river from my favorite spot, the dog park.

This particular dog park is a wonder for dogs. It has miles of pristine beaches (okay, I am lying about the pristine part), woods to chase in, an alleged coyote to chase in those very woods, hills and swampy areas, many other dogs to bark at, squirrels, and if you were ever so sneaky and knew the way, it opens into a state park and from there you could head down the Mississippi and if you had your handy raft, you could commence the Huck Finn phase of your life. All in all it is a place where a little red dog can have some real Fun.

So here I am, on the wrong side of the river, listening to happy barks drifting across the water. Next time I'm in charge of the outing!

Hobbies

It is important to have hobbies. Some folks don't know what to do with themselves most of the time. And then they get up to No Good.

I have lots of hobbies and today is a good day for most of them. It is raining steadily, the squirrels are staying home (probably doing hobbies) and the thunder keeps me from my usual guard duty. (I am just a tiny bit afraid of thunder.) I have been, so far, chewing my chewy bone, napping, dogging my Person's footsteps, following Adric very closely so that he makes a funny whining noise and holds his ears back like arrows, napping, watching cars, doing short happy sprints to the door and then changing my mind, napping and every now and again I sigh.

Right now I am going to spend some more time on my napping hobby - I have been making good progress and want to make sure I have all my napping done before it is time to go to bed.