Well-Read Sibes

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  As many of you may already be aware, Siberians have quite the reputation for simply devouring good books!  (Click here.)  We just can't get enough of them!  The three of us are no exception; we just love a good read!

Here's a great one Mom and I are reading together:

A Way Out
by Billy Wagner, with Patty Rasmussen

It's a wonderful story of how major league pitcher Billy Wagner's faith in God helped him overcome tremendous challenges, both on and off the field. It's so well-written and inspirational!  We highly recommend it!

Knowing what good readers we are, our blogging buddy Honey the Great Dane, asked us a while back to read the book she helped write - Curse of the Scarab – Big Honey Dog Mystery #1. I mean, I'm sure she helped her person write it; at the very least, she was the inspiration! Zim and I downloaded it to the Kindle app on our iPad and set about reading it.

"You can read it with us, Mom!"
"I get to turn the pages, though."

We let Mom read it, too. It only seemed fair.  I'm very good at turning pages with my snooter.

Curse of the Scarab was a fun, fast read!  It was action-packed, suspenseful, and held our interest (not always easy with Siberians).  There were lots of interesting characters - even a Siberian!

"Oooh!  Suka the Siberian solved part of the mystery!"

I loved when all the dogs in the book worked together!

Zim and I thought this book was great!  Many thanks to Honey for the good read - and we wish you and your biped the best as the book hits the market!

"Case solved!  Way to go, Honey!"

SPOILER ALERT!!!  Skip the next paragraph to avoid reading a partial spoiler for the book.  Sorry.

When little Maggie joined the family, she wanted to read it, too.  Zim and I thought long and hard about this and decided this book, though delightful, isn't suitable for puppies 12 months of age and younger.  The dogs in the book do a lot of sneaking out of the house and running around without leashes, and we don't want Maggie to get any crazy ideas!   Also, sadly, one of the main characters doesn't make it.  Actually, we should amend our audience to "not suitable for puppies 12 months of age and younger -- or bipeds who cry through Bambi and Charlotte's Web".  (No offense, Mom.)  No offense meant to Honey and her biped, either - we just are very protective of our pack.

SPOILER OVER!!!

Having said that, Maggie wanted to do some reading, so Zim and I browsed through Mom's Kindle app and gave her some suggestions of puppy-safe books.  Here's the one Maggie chose:

"Always Right!?!?!  I like this one!"

It seemed perfect for her!

"I ❤this book!"

If you're looking for a good book to sink your teeth into (not literally ... we don't do that any more, right Zim and Mags?), we highly recommend A Way Out, Curse of the Scarab (for puppies over 12 months old), and Margaret Thatcher recommends reading Always Right.  Hmm.  I hope she doesn't think this means she's always right!  Ha roowooroo!

Read a good book!

Cammie!

Wordless Wednesday

On behalf of Zimmie, Cameron, and myself, we are yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

River Otter Tuesday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim.  I thought I'd give you a look at how my sisters and I have been spending a lot of our time lately.  Here are Maggie and Cam-a-roo!

"Yip, yip, ya-roo, Auntie Cam!"
"Maggie!"

The little one can FLY!  Check it out:

"Wheeeeeee!"
"Go, Maggie!"

We also spend time playing 3-way River Otter Games!  It's great fun!  Here's a look at all three of us in action:

Doesn't it look like Maggie's in charge?

"You know who's really in charge, don't you, Maggie?"
"Umm..."

And just to remind Maggie, there are lessons from Cam ...

BOOM!
"Submit, Mags!"

Maggie does submit to her eventually.  Me?  I keep an eye on them.  I don't want anything to get out of hand.

"Everything OK, Mags?"
"Yes, Zimmie!"

And of course, after a lesson, we have recess!

"Yip, ya-roooo!"

Seriously.  Having sisters is so incredibly fun!

"Come play with us, Zimmie!"
"OK, Mags..."

"ZIMMIE!  ZIMMIE!!  ZIMMIE!!!"
"Ah, shucks!  C'mon, kid..."
"Not too rough, Maggie!"

"I said 'not too rough', Maggie!"
"He didn't mind, Aunt CamCam!  Zim lets me do anything I want to!"
"Don't worry; I won't let them get too crazy!"

You know, with Cam and me taking care of Maggie, I don't know why Mom isn't getting anything done!  Maybe if she takes me to the Kansas Ocean, it'll recharge her batteries.  Hmm...

Play bows,

Zim

Leave It To Keats

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim!  As we may have mentioned, just because we have a new member of the family, it doesn't mean any one of us are short-changed when it comes to one-on-one time with Mom!  She knows I love adventure and car rides, so yesterday we went on our annual Fall photo shoot in Keats!

This is what the parking lot side of some of our favorite tree line-ups looked like:

Breath-takingly beautiful, aren't they? But not quite 100% "there".

When we got out of the car, I had a look around:

"Hmm..."

As I scoped out the scene, I sensed trouble.

"We need to stay near the car, Mom."

We wanted to go around that line-up of trees and around the other side, but there were some off-lead, unruly, large dogs down near the end who weren't coming when their owner called them.  And called them and called them.  I can't fault them for that - it's not like I'd listen, either, but then that explains my leash, doesn't it?  

Moving right along ...

We walked in the opposite direction, and Mom took a couple quick shots:

I was on full alert!

It's up to me to keep Mom safe, you know.

Here are some of the leaves that we like so much:

This park has some of the prettiest leaves around!

We thought the guy with the unruly dogs left, so we started to go over to where we had wanted to go in the first place.

"What a beautiful park!"

I love walking that path!  There are so many cool smells and great things to see!  And so much to discover!  Unfortunately, our biggest discovery was that the guy had not left the park ...

"Whoa!  Those guys are out of control!"

... so I decided I'd best get Mom in the car.

Since the leaves haven't finished turning, we'll head back out later this week for another go at the leaves!  Safety first, folks!

Thanks for hitting Keats with me - it was a great trip, even if it was cut short!

Play bows,

Zim

Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim, here with Serene Scenery Sunday.  It's been a beautiful week here, filled with lots of puppy antics, a frosty morning here and there, and crisp, sunshiny afternoons! God painted some warm, color-packed sunsets for us that Mom's camera or iPhone can only begin to capture!  Without further ado, here are some photos from the past week to help you ease into the Zen of Zim Zone.  Let's start with one of our wonderful sunsets:

Feeling more serene already, aren't you?

As Maggie told you, Mom slipped out to Tuttle Creek State Park with her birding buddy Beth.  Oh, fear not!  She made it up to us with one-on-one attention/play and adventures!  She put a million and a half of her photos into a FlickR set; I thought I'd share the best with you today.

They saw a few sunflowers ...

... some turtles out soaking up some sunshine ...

... and a few gulls hanging out with an American White Pelican:

They were very excited that the Pelicans are back!

The River Pond area couldn't have looked more beautiful!

They walked way out on the rocky shoal to get some shots of a Great Blue Heron and another Pelican.

If you look way down at the end, you can see the Heron sticking up - and over on the left, on that little jut of rocks, you can see the Pelican!  Let's go in for some close-ups!

The Heron was hanging out with some Canada Geese:

Look at the shot above. You don't think that goose is about to ... well, you know.  Look out, Mr. Heron!  Ha roo roo roo!

Portrait of a Great Blue Heron

Mom and Beth got within about 20 feet of the Pelican! Mom said they could barely contain their excitement! Here's a look at the American White Pelican:

Isn't he gorgeous?

American White Pelican

Sure, he watched them, but he never flew off!  How cool!

Speaking of watching things, Mom said there were fish jumping like crazy in the water!  A certain member of the birding party was transfixed by them!

"But... they're FISH!  And they're JUMPING!"

Moss couldn't help it!  They were JUMPING FISH!!!  (Seamus was there, too!  He just wasn't as in to the fishies!)  Besides, to hear Mom talk about it, she was pretty excited about them jumping, too; she's probably the Mom-stigator!

While out on the rocky shoal, they saw Double-Crested Cormorants fly by:

They also saw a Kingfisher dive into the water, catch something, and take it over to an old downed tree to eat.  Mom zoomed in and came up with this shot:

She said it's not a great shot, as she asked her camera to do more than it really could, but she was excited to see it and at least snap a shot or two. The best Kingfisher shots she has taken were with me, of course. Perhaps he would have come closer if I had been there.

Here are some cool marsh grasses:

And Mom saw a bird she's never seen in real life before - a White-Breasted Nuthatch!

There are a whole lot more pix in our FlickR set; we hope you'll go enjoy them.

One last photo for you! Mom and I went on an adventure this week, just the two of us, to the Kansas Ocean. We saw a bunch of my goose friends! Here's my favorite shot:

We really like the Autumn colors and the Canada Goose reflecting in the water!  Total serenity!!!

Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone!  And remember to make it serene!

Play bows,

Zim

We're Late! We're Late!

For all kinds of stuff!

Greetings to all, it's me, Maggie T, here with today's post.  We had a post all planned for today, then something happened and the photos were zapped into thin air somehow.  Contrary to what some might have implied, I did not eat them!  So ... we're late with today's post.

Cammie and I are also late with some thanks - so we thought we'd post photo thanks!  Our wonderful friend Mr. Goose sent us some presents!  First off, he sent Cammie some gorgeous flowers!

"Oh, my!  These are so lovely!"

Mr. Goose was out on a walk and saw the flowers and wanted to send them to Cammie!  Knowing they wouldn't survive being picked and put into the mail (I mean, look at the shape the envelope is in!), he did something even better -- he had his MOM take a photo!  Now Cammie can have them forever - and they'll brighten Mr. Goose's path when he walks that way again!

"Goose is so thoughtful!  I just love him!
THANK YOU, Goosie!!!"

Cammie said they made her feel very special!  Oh.  Oh, I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking I had something to do with the corner of that envelope, aren't you?  Isn't that called "profiling"?  I had nothing to do with it - it came out of the mailbox that way!  Knowing that Mr. Goose wouldn't chew it, it can only mean one thing - the mailman did it!

Speaking of the mailman, a few days later, he brought me something from Mr. Goose - my very own "See Beautiful" tag!!!  Cammie has one and my Zimmie has one, and now I do, too!  It's my very first tag ever!  

"Why is it hanging on the door to 10 Downing Street?  Shouldn't we put it on my collar?"

It's as though she thinks I'd try to ---

Oh.  Well, OK, perhaps I would.  Sorry, Mr. Goose.  I'm a puppy.  It's what I do.  Along with cute poses, of course.

"Mr. Goose and his MOM are beautiful!"

Thank you so much, Mr. Goose and Mr. Goose's MOM!!!  My mom and daddy said I can wear it after I'm through the teething stage.  There's just so much to learn as a puppy - and what is appropriate chewing and what is not appropriate is so confusing!

Speaking of learning things ... after a good round of playing my Wubba, Mom took me to the front porch for something called a "photo shoot" the other day.  She asked me to do some things and I just wasn't sure at all what to do!  Just when I thought I should sit and look at her for direction, Zim popped up in the window and offered me some sage words of wisdom!

"Don't do it, Mags!  Don't look at her!  Look at me - not at Mom!  Good PUPPY!!!"
"Zimmie!  Zimmie!  Zimmie!"

I'm so thankful my Zimmie was there for me!  Mom was on the verge of getting a really nice portrait of me.  Whew!  It's a good thing I didn't have pop-up windows blocked, isn't it?  Yip yip, ya roorooroo!!

Many thanks again to Mr. Goose from both Aunt CamCam and me!  Our apologies for being late -- and our apologies to all of you for the late-in-the-day post!

Yours sincerely, 

Margaret Thatcher

Photo Finish Friday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie, here with Photo Finish Friday - a mishmash of some of the best photos from the past week.  Let's get to it!

While it's true that I do spend quality time in 10 Downing Street ...

Me inside 10 Downing Street.
Feel free to SQUEE over my pink paw pads

... I also spend a good deal of time out and about. Here I am saluting our nation's colors:

"God bless America!"

Oh ...

... my namesake may have been British, but I am an American, through and through!

Being a healthy, normal puppy, I have moments when I'm going 150,000 miles per hour:

My crazed river otter look

... and then I have my serious, pensive, Prime Minister type of moments:

Polargold's Margaret Thatcher

My favorite thing to do is to spend time with my mentors, Aunt Cammie and Zim! Preferably both at the same time. For some reason, clear still-shots of the three of us are hard to come by, so here are some special shots of me with each of them:

As my daddy likes to say, Cam and Mini Cam

Me and my ZimZim

It's been a great week.  We do apologize for not getting around to visit all of your blogs.  For some reason, Mom said computer time is rather limited right now.  I have no idea why!

I get to go back to see the wonderful people at the Vet Health Center at KSU on Monday.  My mom thinks I've grown quite a bit, so it will be interesting to find out!  I can't wait to see all of those nice people again!

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Yours sincerely, 

Margaret Thatcher