The dog who had been “living outside” when I adopted him almost two years ago, 12/06/23, has his own thoughts about fresh snow at home today.
The dog who had been “living outside” when I adopted him almost two years ago, 12/06/23, has his own thoughts about fresh snow at home today.
Happy holidays ….
Cowboy 2 and I spent Sunday at Petroglyph Animal Hospital where the staff suspected after X-rays etcetera that he had consumed a “foreign object.” Bottom line is that he has seemed fine since. He is not a food beggar nor a cupboard sniffer. He gets at most one treat a day and he doesn’t run loose in rabbit territory. I found a dead tarantula in the yard that morning but it was whole. He brought a dead bird into the house the previous week but it also was whole. I also found a stuffed toy fish with a missing dorsal fin. So I don’t know. At the same time I hope no one in our neighborhood, even though spread out, is poisoning rodents, which is treacherous to pets and wildlife alike. Cowboy 2’s symptoms fortunately were fleeting. Our careful doctor at Petroglyph could only find in the X-rays what she thought might be bits of cloth or string.
The folks at Petroglyph were great as always. And the patient was glad to get back with his pals Izzy and Molly.
First visit of Western bluebirds this season, for the record. They clearly came for the water as the air warmed after sunrise. Soon joined by juncos, a titmouse, scrub jays, white wing doves, white-crowned sparrow, house finches, canyon towhees and a spotted towhee. No one seem bothered by the antelope squirrel scarfing juniper berries in the nearby tree (see middle photograph). Bird-wise it had been quiet here for weeks. As undisciplined morning thoughts tracked through my head along with Whiting French roast, the Flamingos 1959 song “I Only Have Eyes for You” surfaced along with a memory of Cowboy 1 from March 2021. The pink flamingos shown with the late Cowboy 1 have since moved south to friends Tom Sharpe and Stacy Brown’s home in Truth or Consequences. After leaving Santa Fe behind, Tom and Stacy picked up their TorC house gift in their Volvo Firebird.
It’s time for Sandhill cranes to be flying down the Rio Grande and Izzy seems aware, even if she spotted them inside.
Photos by Izzy supervisor Lori and jr. Molly and Cowboy 2 standing by.
I’ve been saying “I don’t know” a lot recently. I came across this guest essay in the New York Times in the middle of the night. I still don’t know and I could not get back to sleep.
From the “The West is Lost”
Loss has become a pervasive condition of life in Europe and America. It shapes the collective horizon more insistently than at any time since 1945, spilling into the mainstream of political, intellectual and everyday life. The question is no longer whether loss can be avoided but whether societies whose imagination is bound to “better” and “more” can learn to endure “less” and “worse.”
This is my rainy day icon, photographed from my warm and dry bedroom sometime back but it’s raining again today.
Still trying with the iPhone and the best luck I’ve had was when of the busy subjects buzzed my red coffee cup. A larger camera could be in the offing but I think I’ll stick with the red-flowered sage instead of a feeder. The sage blooms often with dishwater dumps in addition to fall rain.
dream ranch 