Photo Finish Friday

Tail wags, all - it's me, Stormy! Today, I'm going to combine Photo Finish Friday with a little (not) trick for Ludo's contest. I've been doing this fabulous (not) trick every evening for the past few weeks and it's great fun.

I wait until my pack-mates and Mom & Dad get settled down and comfy in the living room, then I break out in song in the bedroom. Mom usually gives me a few minutes, then gets worried that I might be getting into "mischief". "Mischief"? Me? Puh-lease. Where does she GET these ideas?!!? I'm over 13 years old - I do not get into "mischief"!

"What? The little pillow? Hey, why do you think they call them 'throw pillows'?"

Ha roo roo roo! I've got to remember to tell Ammy that one. "Throw pillows". Ha roo roo roo!

So... Mom asks me to stop throwing the throw pillow around. Fine. Here's the best part of the (not) trick:

I didn't touch the throw pillow. It just sort of... moved while I was throwing the quilt and sheets around.

I can't believe she accuses me of getting into "mischief", can you?

Hope you like this (not) trick, Ludo!

Tail wags,

Storms

My Wednesday Afternoon Adventure

Ha roo, pups and cool cats! It's me, Zim! I had a really cool adventure yesterday and I just can't wait to tell you all about it!

Dad was out golfing and everyone was napping except for me and Mom. It was unseasonably cool, so she thought we could go up to The Top of the World and do a little hiking! Yeah! Sounds great!

Here I am, checking everything out:

For those who asked before, yes, unfortunately we do have ticks here. I'm on Frontline Plus, and Mom makes me stay on the trail; she also goes over me very carefully both before I get in the car to come home AND a few hours after we've gotten home. I don't want to call her Tick-a-phobic, but she's real careful about those bugs.

Anyway, we saw all kinds of cool stuff! Purple stuff:

Yellow stuff:

Fluffy stuff:

Oh, speaking of fluffy stuff:

Ha roo roo roo!

I saw this Thistle...

...and thought of all my Scottish friends - the Basset Babes (Martha and Bailey), our buddy Marvin, and those cool Dughallmor Beagles (Alfie, Rosie, Gabbi and Snoop).

Wish you were here!

When we were on our way home, Dad called and said he was heading to the Farmers' Market! Mom said we were close-by, so let's go meet him! How cool is that!?!?

Here are me and Dad, checking out the scene:

I look like I'm off-lead, don't I? HA roo... trust me, I'm not. Oh, and the head down? Yeah... well, last week the Riley County Fair and the Kaw Valley Rodeo were here. I think you know what I'm checking for!

I scoped the scene pretty thoroughly:

Lemme see.... tomatoes, zucchini, WATERMELON...

Dad bought some tomatoes and zukes for him and Mom and a HUGE watermelon for Dave. I'm pretty sure it's for him, anyway. It's our first local watermelon of the season! Dad also got something called a Sugar Melon, which is like a Cantaloupe only sort of more folksy-looking.

I decided the booth I really wanted to stop by was the "Tortillas & Tyes" booth. They had tye-dyed stuff and I didn't see any tortillas (I think they were just starting to set up!) but I DID get something great there! See that nice lady hanging up her wares?

She gave me ear rubbie-dubbies! Oh, yeah, and that felt sooooo good! She also said I am a big flirt, but hey! as Bob Dylan sang, "It's only natural!" Ha roo roo roo!

What a great afternoon! I wish you had all been there!

Play bows,

Zim

Wordless Wednesday

Luv,
Dave

Storm Cast

Hi everypuppy and everycat. And Jasmine the Goat, too! It's me - Ammy. As many of you know, I am the Chief Meteorologist here at Ao4 HQs and have a mighty keen sense of knowing exactly what our weather is going to be. I have been trying to train Zim for the longest time. He's really pretty good, but he has a bit of a problem focusing. Let's take yesterday, for example...

We had "some weather" blowing in, Dad was out on the golf course, and Mom thought we should check to see how the storm was moving, so we could give him an accurate forecast if he called home. Zim said he was game for the task, so I let him handle it. I was watching out the windows - so here's how it went down.

Here he is, out in the yard.

Zimmie. Not really keeping an eye to the sky.

Umm... the storm is behind him. But he wasn't pulling on the leash, so Mom was able to snap this cool picture of the clouds:

Isn't that pretty? But what is Zim doing? He looks very serious here...

...and like he's studying something very carefully! "Way to go, Zimmie! Is it the clouds? A nose to the wind? A change in temperature? A..." ...wait a minute. He's zeroing in on something. He's...

"Oswald!"

"Oh, Zimmie! This is no time to commune with your bunny friends!"

"Hey, Zim, how ya been?"

"Yeah, I've been hanging out more in your neighbor's yard this season.

They're growing veggies out back. I'll show you where they are."

"Yeah, I've missed you, buddy. Veggies, huh? Cool. I'll just sit here and wait..."

Sigh. Talk about getting distracted! Thankfully, Mom made Zim get up and come home. Honestly! He forgot all about the storm coming and whether we should warn Dad about lightning!

Mom let me come out and make a weather call:

"Hmmm...."

I checked the skies to the north...

...and decided we had about 20 minutes before we would get smacked. Dad probably had 30 where he was. He called in and Mom gave him my prediction and guess what? He was just able to finish 18 holes, get his clubs in the SUV, and get into the vehicle himself before it started pouring rain! And that took about ... 30 minutes. Pretty good, don't you think?

Who's your source for accurate weather forecasting?

Zim needs a bit more training. In a bunny-free zone. Sigh.

Call me if you need any storm casting done for your area!

Love,

Ammy

PS: Before I close, I would like to thank our dear and very handsome friend Ludo for this award:

He said, "Ao4... especially Dave and Zim. They always teach me so much when they post and give me such good advices on life, if ever I has a puzzlement about something they my first place to go." Isn't he so sweet? The boys really appreciate his thoughtfulness and love being able to help where they can! Thank you, Ludo!!!

Tagged by Jasmine!

Woo everypup and everycat. Um... and everygoat! It's me, Dave! I was tagged by our friend Jasmine the Goat in a fun tag game! I don't think I've ever met a goat, let alone been tagged by one, but Ammy said there were goats on the farm she came from and they always kidded around with her. Then she giggled. Sometimes I don't get her. Anywoo, on with the tag!

Jasmine said:

1) open the folder that has your pet pics in it
2) choose one you haven't posted before
3) tell its story
4) tag 5 friends

OK! We actually lost a lot of photos back when the PC crashed. (And before we switched to Mac!) Some friends and family were kind enough to send us some of our pix that they had - so we went to that folder for this game. This photo was sent to us by our Auntie Laura, Kito and Luna's mom:

Yep. That's Zimmie up there on the cat-walk, in a pose that scared the ever-livin' daylights out of Mom, apparently. We've mentioned before that Zim used to get up there, but didn't remember that Mom had actually taken a photo. Zim clearly thought he could see all the way to Miami up there, and was checking for Kito!

I'm going to tag the following friends:

Angus Mhor, my fellow Texan

Roxie, Sammy and Andy, the Dachsies - also fellow Texans!

Gus, Louie and Callie - umm... yeah, these guys are from Texas, too....

Frankie, Maddie and DomiNO - they aren't from Texas, but Mom just made their dad's taco recipe last night and I'd like to made him an honorary Texan!

And Ludo. I know, I know! Ludo is from the UK, which isn't anywhere NEAR Texas - but his personality is the size of Texas ... and he's just a really cool guy.

I hope you all have fun with it; I know I did. And Mom said seeing that old picture of Zim made her heart beat a little bit faster. That's a good thing, right? Anywoo, thanks for the tag, Jasmine! I must say you're the nicest goat I know.

Luv,

Dave

Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and kit-cats! It's me, Zim, here with Serene Scenery Sunday! Today's pix come from a trip Mom and I took to The Top of the World last Saturday.

Before I get started, those lovely Basset Babes, Martha and Bailey, asked how we were able to post the bird photos so large yesterday. We uploaded through FlickR, then posted the code in from there, rather than loading through Blogger. We can even go larger, like we did on Wordless Wednesday, either through Blogger (uploading through Picasa) or FlickR. The ones yesterday were "medium" size. If that doesn't make sense, please shoot Mom an email at bagsbyKZK at gmail dot com.

Speaking of birds, yesterday I promised I'd show you pix of another bird. Are you ready? I saw this guy up at The Top of the World; he's a Western Meadowlark!

The Western Meadowlark

He just happens to be our state bird! Maybe not this exact one... but the Western Meadowlark in general! This guy was very busy, singing away when Mom and I first got up there. He was looking all around -

Hey! Can you hear me now?

- and someone was singing back, answering him. That seemed to please him and he got all fluffy - check this out:

I'm FLUFFY! I'm very FLUFFY!

I wonder if I inspired him? Mom thought he was doing a mating call, trying to impress a girl Meadowlark (it was a Saturday evening... so she could have something there...) or that we were disturbing his domain and he wanted us out of there. Check out how fluffy he got:

Super-fluff!

Pretty cool, don't you think? Anyway, we moved on, so we wouldn't disturb his date. Or nesting site. Or whatever. We did some exploring up there:

Zimmle Mawson, Explorer Pup

(Paws up to my bestest friend Huffle Mawson, Explorer Cat!)

...and had a great time. Hey, did you see the purple flowers in the photos of the Meadowlark? We found tons of them up there.

I think it's Purple Prairie Clover, but don't quote me on that.

And in case you're wondering...

Remember to stop and taste the flowers

They're just OK. Moving right along...

Oh, hey. Here are some more.

Mom really likes that photo. I really like the view I had when she took this next one:

Simply stunning!

Can you tell what I'm looking at? The stunning contours of the Flint Hills. Check it out:

The Flint Hills of Kansas!

Doesn't that make you feel serene? It sure does it for me!

Ah! Kansas!

I hope you enjoyed today's post and feel a lovely sense of serenity now!

Play bows,

Zim

This Post is for the Birds!

Ha roo, pups and kit-cats! It's me - Zim! One of the things I really love to do is lay on the deck and do some bird-watching. I'll bet you kit-cats can especially relate to that - am I right? Today I thought I'd share some of the cool pix Mom has taken lately of some of our feathered friends. Ready?

Here's a little Bluebird up on our roof.

I think you can tell from his feathers it was a tad breezy that day. He didn't seem too thrilled about that - which would probably mean he isn't the Bluebird of Happiness. Ha roo roo roo! (By the way, Ammy is helping me with this post... but you may have figured that out.)

One of my favorite birds is the Cardinal. They're so cool - and RED!

This guy has a great singing voice and often serenades me. We need to work on getting a better photo of him. (All the bird pix are in our FlickR album, if you'd like to see them larger.)

This next guy - I'm not sure what kind of birdie he is, but I think he's young - was almost flirting with the camera!

Hey, look at me! Aren't I tweet?

(I told you Ammy was helping...)

Are you looking at me? Are YOU lookin' at ME?!?

I thought so. Aren't I cool?

Something about that guy's attitude really appeals to me.

Speaking of young birds, here's a very young Swallow.

Hello?

Ammy wanted me to point out that Stormy on many occasion has come VERY close to demonstrating how the Swallow got its name. Ha roo roo roo! Wowzers, is she fast!

This guy was very hungry and was calling out for dinner!

MOM! I'm HUNGRY!

Dave said he could relate to that guy. He was happier after he had a snack. That always works for Dave, too.

Pretty cool little guy, isn't he? I could stare at him forever.

I also have some cool bird photos to show you from my latest trip to the Top of the World, but I'll share those with you tomorrow. For now, I think Am's getting a little bored.

Don't you think this is cool, Ammy?

I think it's for the birds, Zim. Hee hee hee. Not really. I just wanted to say that.

Like our friend Stella said yesterday in her comment on our blog, Mom forgot to put "stand-up comic" on Ammy's nickname frame! Ha roo roo roo!

Hope you enjoyed seeing our birdie friends!

Play bows and meow,

Zim, Honorary Kitty Cat

Photo Finish Friday

Hi everypuppy and everykittycat! It's me - Amber. For this week's Photo Finish Friday, I just have a picture of me for you. We made a nickname frame around it using PhotoShop.

Happy weekend!

Love,

Ammy

Tricky T-day, Sibe Style

Woo, everypup and everycat. Dave here, along with my kid brother Zim. Some of our buddies out there in the blogosphere do some really cool tricks - Ludo especially comes to mind, with his Tricky T-days. He does all kinds of cool stuff and the girls all go crazy for him. Zim and I thought we should come up with a trick of our own... only as Stormy says, we're Sibes and we don't really do tricks. That being said, we thought we'd come up with something Sibe-style! Are you ready for this?

It's pretty amazing; are you sure?

Are you sure? OK - dig this! Let's go!

"Ready, Zim? Tails left!"

Me and Zim, tails left

"And now... mirror image! GO!"

Zim and me, tails right

Pretty good, isn't it? We're the boys of the Ao4, and that is our trick today!

Hey, Dave. I think you're right.

I think the babes will really be impressed with that!

Remember: we're professional Siberians. This trick is not for everyone. Do not try this without adequate training. And never, ever off-lead. Woo.

Luv,

Dave