Scary dog?

I didn't think I was scary but somehow I ended up on a Halloween card!

The scary part might not be me, but the fact that my Person has replaced me with a drawing of me.  It is one thing to replace my cat brother Pico with a drawing. He doesn't do much but snooze anyway. But I am like an action figure by comparison.

Oh well, as long as she still takes me for walks and doesn't think she can get away with just popping this card into her pocket!

Scarce as hen's teeth

I m not sure what that means so I will analyze. Do hens have teeth? If I caught one in my sharp and foxy teeth I could check, but I will hazard a guess. I would say they do not have teeth. (Unlike my cat brother Adric for example, who has huge teeth.)

Anyway, what my Person tells me is that monarchs are as scarce as hen's teeth but she exaggerates, always, and in fact here is one now. The sad part is she is not exaggerating very much. These beautiful creatures, and all butterflies it seems, as well as bees, are in short supply this season. Why? Habitat loss. Drought. Chemicals that either attack insects' central nervous system called neonicotinoids and other chemicals that keep nectar plants from growing near row crops. In other words, mainly things that people do to control the world around them. Then there is a resulting thing - unintended consequences, a concept this Little Red Dog struggles with daily.

Monarchs, that lovely span of orange flutter, that is tough enough to fly VERY far, is so scarce that if you see one you can report the sighting online at Journey North.

This visitor stopped for a bit of nectar in our yard and we sat quietly and watched it. I hope we were watching something we will see many times again in the future. But it is possible that we were watching a delight, once as common as dog's teeth, that will be, someday, rarer than hen's teeth.

Dog Days

What are dog days?

Every one of my days is a dog day. Can you imagine if something terrible happened and I started having cats days? I wouldn't get anything done because I would be asleep most of the time, my meal size would be sadly petite and I would have recurring problems with hair balls.

I think maybe dog days are that middle stretch of summer. The exhilaration of spring is gone, the birds have piped down a bit because they are so busy feeding their young (or encouraging them to feed themselves), the grass is tall, the threat of frost is impossibly far off...things actually are a little dull and lazy. For me anyway. My Person still seems to be tearing around intent of some foolishness or other, my Best Friend is busy with some sort of little gizmo he stares at for hours on end. My cat brothers are, of course, asleep. What is a Red Dog to do?

My big excitement of the summer - meeting my new friends from Japan - is over. I wish they were still here, taking me for walks and patting me and filming me doing tricks. They cooked a lot and cooking is one of my big interests. You never know when a chunk of food is going to miss the spoon and fall on the floor. At any rate I miss my new buddies and wish them well now that they are thousands of miles away. I hope every now and then they remember the Little Red Dog they met in Minnesota!

BBFs from Japan

I haven't written in so long that I almost forgot how to. But I am a smart little Red Dog and I remember how to type!

I had such an exciting weekend that I wanted to tell everyone about it. I have two new Best Friends Forever and they are from Japan! They came to America to learn more English. I think they are pretty smart and speak very well. I know some words like "Sit" and "Stay" and, most importantly, 'Treats!" But these two girls outdid me.

They also know magic because they turned Adric the Bad Cat into a Nice Cat. I have never seen anything like it!

These Japanese girls made blueberry pancakes and french toast and zucchini fritters and so many wonderful things that I got to taste. And when they were done feeding me they took me for a walk on my favorite path.

I am sad they are not at my house anymore but I am so glad I met them. They are my new friends and I like friends even more than I like treats!