This & That

When Your Dog Acts Like a Dog

It's been a while since I've done an Ollie post. I will warn you right up front that you need a strong stomach for the last photo.

Ollie is the same age as Frederick, so he's 7 now.

Most of the time he's such a good boy....obedient, attentive,

....fun to watch,

....and so, so good with the grandkids. In fact, he's so good that sometimes I give him just a little too much credit. I think he ought to be better behaved...like when I tell him stuff he'll remember it. When I let him out in the pasture the other day and then back in the house afterward, I didn't realize that he'd brought a present with him. I have no idea what this used to be. All I know is that it had feathers, and was totally disgusting. And of course, I was the only one home and had to take care of it. #whereisamanwhenyouneedone Sometimes I forget that he's a dog and not one of my children, but then he acts like a dog....sigh.

Introducing New Family Members!

Maybe you were thinking I was going to announce more grandbabies, but not this time. :)

There is great rejoicing in the land, or at least on my part as we finally got a couple of cats in residence. Meet Samson and Delilah, probably soon to be shortened to Sammy and Lila.

This is Samson and, interestingly, he is the more social of the two.

And Delilah. They are getting used to their new home out in the barn and we are hoping....really hoping, that the mouse population will now suffer...a lot.

The Very Patient Ollie

Starting with a disclaimer....Ollie's practically perfect status slipped a little on the most recent trip to the cabin with Eric's family. He growled at Gwen and Caroline on two separate occasions. 

That said, he remains supremely tolerant of the grandkids....and baths.

Friendship between him and Emmett began gradually.

And while it never evolved into anything close to the full-fledged love fest that Caroline has had,

it nevertheless blossomed into a little mutual respect.

Cautious mutual respect.

 He likes it best running wild and free, though. Your Ollie video for the week. His talent know no bounds, but you'll have to watch carefully:

 

James Meets Ollie

James is at just the right age to be totally fascinated by Ollie.

Both of them approached each other cautiously.

James thought he might want to kiss Ollie. He's all about those open-mouthed fish kisses right now.

But he wasn't impressed with that initially.

He thought about it a bit.

And then decided Ollie wasn't such a bad guy and maybe he'd like to get to know him better.

Sad.

Feeling a little blue today. 

Our little Cleo cat died yesterday. She apparently got on the wrong side of one of the horses. I grew up with a cat around the house and we've had one since we've lived in a place with hay and mice. 

She was a really good little cat....quite sociable and loved to play with Ollie. She would hide behind a tree and when he would go by she would execute a flying leap at his tail. Then they would chase each other all over the yard. She was a good barn mouser and was even fairly tolerant of the grandchildren.

Since my kids have left home, I've taken to chatting with her and Ollie. They have kept me company when I was outside working in the yard, and Ollie follows me from room to room to be with me...except when I'm running the vacuum. He's terrified of the vacuum. She wasn't with us very long, but I will miss her.

A New Level of Fetch It Up

So we did have snow this year at the cabin.

Not as much as some years yet, but more than last year when we had no water. I can tell you there was great rejoicing in the land when the pipes thawed and we realized we were going to have running water for our multi-day stay.

Because we did the no-water thing last year and it wasn't quite as fun.

It's nice and warm inside the cabin, but just because it's mostly warm, doesn't mean it goes to absolutely every corner. This is the window handle in my bedroom. Yes, that's frost. Let me just say that you may not have believed me all these years when I told you I really do prefer the cold. I keep my bedroom door shut to keep out the heat, so it's colder in my room than in the rest of the cabin. The logs are really good insulaters when they get warmed up. Every once in a while I need to go sit in my cold room to keep the hot flashes to a minimum.

 Ollie and I are kindred spirits in this regard. He loves the snow...rolling in it, crazy dog running in it and believe it or not, playing Fetch It Up.

The boys will throw a stick into the snow and he'll bound after it, snow flying in all directions while they're hollering at him to "fetch it up...." This is how they trained him to retrieve ducks when he was a pup. Not necessarily playing it in the snow, but playing the game in general.

He'll search around until he finds the stick.

Then bring it back, almost swimming through the snow.

He's a good boy.

 

 

Caroline and Cleo

Caroline loves all our animals and while she was here she learned some valuable lessons. 

She learned that it's not a good idea to pull a kitty's tail trying to get her back from under the pasture fence so she could play with her.

She and Gwen also learned that despite Ollie's size, he isn't a horse. Both good lessons to learn and even better when there are fairly patient animals to teach them.

 

An Ollie Moment

While I am wading through cute grandchild photos, I have just a quick Ollie moment to share. I started taking him with me to pick up Bryce at the college and it's gotten so all I have to say is, "Do you want to go??" and he starts dancing. He'll hop a little, then look over his shoulder to see if I'm really serious or just yanking his chain. This also happens at the end of the day when he hears Bryce's ring tone when he calls to let me know he's done for the day. My children tease me that Ollie is my 6th son. That may be somewhat true.

 

 

Roger and Cleo

We introduced Roger and Cleo to each other with a glass door in between them.

This was a really good idea as some other pictures will demonstrate. At first Roger wasn't too interested.

But then he got pretty excited about the animal through the glass.

Cleo, for her part was also pretty excited. "Hey look! Something new I can pounce on..." She has become really good at pouncing on things...Ollie's tail being her first choice.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeease let me through the glass and I will gladly embed my claws in you." She also has not learned that you don't put your claws in certain things...like your person-who-feeds-you's bare feet.

Walk and Roll

Sometimes something uncontrollable comes over Ollie on our walks.

When we went down to the stream, he found a place he wanted to roll.

And roll...

And roll. I don't know if he just needs to scratch his back or what, but he enjoyed himself. He's done this before in other places...occasionally on some dead critter he's found. Yeah, that's pretty gross, but most of the time...fortunately...it's just on some grass of some kind.