Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge…pets with toys

This week Cee’s challenge is to show kids or pets with toys.  As many of you know, we fostered several rescue pit bulls.  Janie, our first dog, loved to play.  She made up games and was so athletic that jumping was part of many of them.

One of the things she loved best was her Kong.  A Kong is a hard rubber toy that looks a bit like a three-tiered, pyramid-shaped Michelin man.  There’s a hole in the middle that’s there to be stuffed with goodies.  I spread peanut butter on a slice of bread, then stuffed it inside the Kong.  I put the Kong in a ziploc bag and stored it in the freezer.  The minute the freezer door opened, there was Janie, at full attention, ready to do whatever was asked of her.

However, if Janie couldn’t get a Kong, she loved to chew on whatever was available, in this case, a bone.

Tentative love

Usually on Monday I participate in Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge.  But Sally will be not only cyber-free but visiting relatives this week, so there’s no challenge.  Instead, I thought I’d share a photo I took earlier this year along Naperville’s Riverwalk, a lovely length of pavement that winds through the downtown.  I took my camera and sat on a bench, waiting to see who or what came by.  This meeting brought a smile to my face.  The little boy wanted to pet the dog but as you can see, he was a bit cautious.

Do you prefer color or black and white?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Trio (#2)…a trio of warnings

Because I’m feeling a bit battered by anger, dislike, and downright hatred by things I’ve been reading on Facebook and in the news and want something to lighten the weekend.

Cee’s Oddball Photo Challenge 2015, Week 27…dog days of summer

After I took this photo while relaxing over tea in Pasadena, I realized it was an oddball photo for two reasons.  First and foremost, this is the tail end of a family bike ride.  Mom and son had gone past when Dad and the family dog came by, the dog being pulled in this cart by Dad.  I realize this dog isn’t likely to be able to keep up on a bike ride, but it still seemed more than a bit odd to me.  Secondly, because I had to hurry to get the photo, the pole behind the dog appears to be coming out of its back!  Oddball all around.

A belated Fourth of July to all my US compatriots.  I hope you had a wonderful day.

Taking advice from subway riders

Wall Street is a dog-eat-dog world!!  So be careful where you get your advice.

Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.
Warren Buffet

But maybe not from this pair who were riding on the subway with us the other day!

I sometimes read on the subway, but I’m a hopeless eavesdropper and get easily distracted by strangers’ conversations.

J. Courtney Sullivan

Travel Theme: Connections

Connections are everywhere, between and among many things and people.  “Connections” is the theme this week at Ailsa’s “Where’s My Backpack” blog.  Here are just a few of the connections I see and love.

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
― Chief Seattle

Connections between human and animal

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity…”
― John Muir

Connections between man and nature

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”
― Herman Melville

Connections among people and families

Something old, something new

I’ve driven the Chicago-Cleveland (or Cleveland-Chicago) route many times in the last years but still, once I get in the van and on the road, I settle down and enjoy the ride.  There’s always something new to see and plenty old favorites.  Join me for a very compressed, selective six hours.

Doo (doo) happens!

There are all sorts of jobs and I certainly applaud the initiative behind this personal pooper-scooper business.

The dog days of Christmas

Our first Christmas season with a dog, we were just starting to foster Janie.  One of the first days she was at our house, while trying to get to the window to bark at a dog outside, she vaulted up onto a sideboard filled with Christmas decorations while only our older daughter was at home.  It’s a good thing I wasn’t home or there wouldn’t have been enough Christmas love to overcome that!  🙂  She had personality and energy plus, was incredibly athletic,  and we loved her dearly.   She’s in a forever home now with her very own family.

Oogy…the dog only a family could love

I’ve become addicted to books on CD while traveling between Cleveland and Naperville (or any other long trip.)  There’s nothing better than a good book to make the time fly and since I can’t safely read while driving, audio will have to do.  On the latest occasion, I picked up Oogy, the dog only a family could love, by Larry Levin.  It’s the story about a dog that was rescued after being used when a puppy as a bait dog  and, rather than killed by either the dog being trained to fight or the owner of the dog as usually happens, was tossed in a cage and left, barely alive.  A bait dog is exactly what it sounds like–a dog that is put as bait with a dog being trained to fight and the fighting dog is then encouraged/made to kill the bait dog.  When police raided the house some days later, Oogy, although horrifically injured, was somehow still clinging to life.