My daughter got a “galaxy projector” as one of her Christmas gifts. Of course, we had to pile onto her bed after dinner and try it out. This is how Bowser reacted:
He was mesmerized!Totally engrossed in the light show.Definitely watching, and not snoozing.Did the gummy kick in, Bowsie? 🤣 (JK, I would never give Bowser a gummy!)He was like this the whole time the projector was on!
Was it the aurora moving across the ceiling? Was it the stars blinking in and out? Was it the soothing ocean sounds coming from the projector? Was it all of the above? What had entranced Bowser?
We hope you find your bliss* this weekend.
Rock on,
The WB
*speaking of bliss, when this post goes live I will be traveling once again to Barbados. Fingers crossed, all goes well and I don’t have a repeat of last year’s unfortunate travel experience!
We have had an awful lot of rain lately. So much that our formerly placid creek is now a raging river (again – this is a cyclical and natural process). So we have altered some of our routes to avoid any crossings, until things settle down once more. But we still like to walk up to the creek and observe, from a safe distance.
There is one viewpoint that seems to bother Bowser and he has to stare and bark while I take in the scene. And I couldn’t figure out what he was barking at it. Several times we have been there lately, and each time he (usually completely silent on our walks) has to pause, look, and bark. Every time I scan the creek and the opposite bank to see what he is barking at – an animal, another human – what is it?!?!
Note the tail is down. A worrisome tell.Bowser is clearly bothered.
After the 2nd walk (and barking session) to this particular viewpoint, I think I have it figured out.
It’s this cedar (I think) stump in the middle of the creek, deposited there by the high water flows. It wasn’t there before and, according to Bowz, it shouldn’t be there now.
Third time visiting this spot. Still barking at the stump in the creek. Begone, Stump!
I guess he will be barking at it until another high water flow dislodges it and pushes it further down the creek.
While waiting at my daughter’s house for them to return from the mainland with the grandkids, I was absentmindedly petting Bowser…
…and my hand got tired so I stopped.
Where is the hand and why did it stop?WHERE. IS. THE. HAND.Alright. You asked for it.Loading weapon.Powering up.Cuteness bomb launched. Bullseye!Resume normal operations.
We hope you have a relaxing weekend where Weapons of Mass Cuteness do not need to be deployed.
Just in case you are feeling overwhelmed with holiday preparations, situations, or the assorted craziness/drama/blues that can happen – especially at this time of year – take a couple of minutes to rest your eyes on this little guy.
The Bowz is sympathetic to your feelings. Crawl into bed and rest your head on a pillow for a moment.Going for a walk outside can be very good for your nerves.As can taking a long hot bath or shower. Bowser had rolled in something smelly. Not recommended.Bowz hopes you’ll be sitting pretty and perky again like him soon, after some self-care.
Bowser is becoming more and more of a cuddlebug the more he matures. I’m not complaining – I much prefer this to when he was a velociraptorwild fanged beast puppy. He only had 2 modes then – off and bitey. Remember the Thunderdome Days? Oh boy, I do!
We have apparently entered a new era.
Those head and neck scritches must feel good. He is irresistible when he’s like this. He even makes little grunty and sighing noises. I swear he is trying to purr like a cat.Bowser has learned that giving me the puppy dog eyes pays off.
My daughter complained that there was not enough Bowser on last week’s post. Probably some of you feel the same way. She sent me many cute photos to use. Here are some of the best!
Quitely watching Mommy work from home.When will Mommy be done working?Mommy is getting up from her desk chair – could that mean????Yessssss! Mommy can massage me now.
What with all the salmon activity happening down at the creek, it’s no surprise that the bears want in on the action. (Why should the eagles, crows and ravens have all the fun?!) What was surprising was that I never saw a bear at the creek – in fact, I’ve never seen a bear on the trail, period. Up until a week or so ago, that is! And he/she was far from the creek, when I came to a “crossroad” and saw him. (Luckily Bowser was nosing in the brush on the other side of the trail, and didn’t notice the bear.)
Once I realized he was walking away from us, I got out my phone camera to take a few shots (like any good blogger would 😉).
My first bear sighting and damn skippy I was gonna capture it on my phone!Bowser thankfully remained unaware and thus silent! I don’t think the bear even realized we were present. He never turned around to look at us or acknowledge our presence in any way. He just slowly ambled down the path like any apex predator without a care in the world would.
Then we headed on our shaken but merry way, in another direction. Of course (!!!), I had forgotten my bear bell and bear horn for that walk, so I had no choice but to make up a song to sing, to warn that bear or any others of our presence! 😉 🎶
The previous Autumn, I had been told by someone I met on the trail that the Haslam Creek is part of the annual fall salmon run here on the island. I had found that hard to believe, standing in the inch of water that made up a large part of the creek that I visit on a daily basis. How could any salmon navigate these shallow waters to the spawning grounds that they were born in?
Cue the recent atmospheric river event that dumped tons of water on the island, and the flood of fresh water flowing in the mouths of these waterways also cueing the salmon waiting in the ocean bays to start heading “home”, to spawn and die.
Now our shallow little creek is running fast with feet of water – not inches, and previously dry ancillary streams are flowing again.
Bowser took off like a shot to investigate one of these little streams and I quickly found out why. I was astonished to see a dorsal fin and tail wiggling down this tiny flow (and so was Bowser!).
Bowser is intrigued and surprised by the “thing” he saw moving in the water.
We followed the fish further up the stream so I could get a closer look:
Once again, Bowser is startled and jumps when the fish takes off.
Despite Bowser proving very adept at chasing and chewing and shaking the living daylights out of his toys, he doesn’t quite know what to do with a living creature. According to my experience with previous dogs, a dog needs to witness a kill in order to know “the next step”. Usually this is learned from their mother or other dogs. They have the instinct to chase but need to witness a kill in order to finish the job. At least that is how it’s worked with the other schnauzers I have had in my life. My Maxx did not know what to do with a groundhog until he saw my parents’ dog grab one and shake it to death. Then something clicked for him and no groundhogs were safe on our property after that! My Lucy never saw a kill and thus she never killed anything. Chased everything but never killed. Even when a squirrel (her nemesis!) fell out of a tree and landed right in front of her nose and just laid there, stunned.
Or maybe Bowser is just too well-fed 😉. Anyways, I’m happy to keep him ignorant of that final step in chasing down prey.
Photos taken the same weekend as last Sunday’s post.
The rain just kept on coming – non-stop for 3 days! We were lucky to not have to go anywhere and to not experience any flooding. Unfortunately, a lot of people on the mainland were flooded out by the atmospheric river.
But for us, it was a couch potato weekend, for sure. My daughter sent me these photos of their Sunday morning with Bowser.
Lounging on the couch, slowly coming to life on this rainy morning.Mommy is amusing herself by styling Bowser’s hair.Bowser does not look very amused.Going down for another nap is his defence maneuver, I guess! 🤣
Hopefully you have drier weather where you are and can get off the couch!
