Fluffy!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cam.  Guess who got to have a bath yesterday?

ME!  Not quite dry yet.

Oh, I know! Some of you really don't like the whole "bath and a blow dry" scene, but I find the process very relaxing. Especially the blow-dry part. Take a look:

To view on YouTube, please click here.

I've never had allergy problems, but am having some difficulties this season -- it's REALLY bad here right now! My Oncology vet (one of them!) said a bath with a soothing shampoo might feel good, and oh, was she right! And look at how nice and fluffy I am now:

Free hugs!

Maggie had one a week ago, so Mom only did me.  For some odd reason, Maggie seemed happy about that.

Do you like getting a bath and a blow-dry?

Cammie!

Friday Fun

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Lately in the afternoons, Maggie and I have been having "supervised playtime", where we get to play with toys Mom can't leave down all the time.  Usually, it's our Pickles and Mom stuffs them full of treats, but sometimes we play with other toys!

The other day, we both got to play with KONG dental toys.  Maggie doesn't usually get to play with these, as she can chew through that tough rubber in a matter of seconds, but Mom thought she'd just watch her closely and let her have some fun!  I played with the stick:

"Oh, yum!  There are pieces of Fruitables in here!"

Mom took that shot, then decided to do some playing of her own. Check this out:

Me and the stick

Maggie was playing with the ball, but thought my black and white shot looked really cool.

"Hey, cool, Mom!  I have an idea for another one!"

With Maggie's help, Mom did this:

Maggie with the ball

Maggie is very artistic, don't you think?

Oh. Right. You may have noticed Maggie isn't in the cone. Her footy-foot is healing nicely, and Mom lets her have out-of-cone time if someone has her on-lead and is watching her closely. Maggie was more interested in the stuffed ball than her foot - and Mom was right there, watching her. If Mom is busy, Dad can watch her, and if both of them are busy ...

"Don't even think about it, Maggie!"
"Got it, Cam."

She's being very good!  Hopefully only a couple more days and she'll be good to go!

Happy Friday, everyone!  

Cammie!

Monday's Walk

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cam!  As you saw yesterday, I've been going out on our walks!  Not every day, but I let Mom and Dad know when I'm feeling strong enough.  They let me set the pace and choose the route!

Monday, that's when yesterday's photo was taken, I decided to choose a route we hadn't taken in quite a while!  We went up a hill on the big road:

"Awesome choice, Cam!"
"This is so fun!"

At the top of that hill, there are rocks that Mom likes us to pose on.  Maggie jumped up, and Mom asked me to sit in front of the rocks (I don't always like to jump right now), but I had something else in mind:

"Ta da!"
"Wowzers, Cam!"

I caught Mom and Dad totally by surprise!  Go, me!

We got to go down the nice shady Hudson Trail:

"Look!  People!"
"We should race them!"

For whatever reason, Mom and Dad didn't want us to challenge them to a race.  We let them get way ahead before proceeding down the trail.  Whatever.  We could have smoked 'em!

We did two lengths of the trail, then got back into the neighborhood:

"One last hill, Cam!  You've got this!"
"I'm feeling strong, Mags!"

Have I mentioned that Maggie has been extremely supportive and gentle with me?  She's the best little sister a girl could ask for!

"Almost to the top!"
"YAY!!!"

It was so fun!  Mom said I set a mighty snappy pace -- I mean ... I AM a Siberian Husky!  It's what I do!

Thanks for coming with us!  Don't forget to get a good drink - it's important to stay hydrated!

Cammie!

Wordless Wednesday

Mags and Cam!

A Fine How-Do-You-Do

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  I thought we were going to have a nice, quiet morning today.  I went for a nice walk with Dad, had a spot of breakfast, then Mom asked if I wanted to go for a ride.  Wow - how fun, right?  And then ...

"I should have known!"

Oh, sure, we cranked up some good tunes on the way and all ...

"Turn it up, Mom!  I like this one!"
"I'm on it, Mags!"

... but still!

I was just going in for my Rabies vaccination, but Mom just HAD to go and tell my doctor that I have been "messing with" my left foot. It's MY foot! Shouldn't I be able to do whatever I want with it? Apparently not. And apparently I have a little puncture wound on my footy-foot. Not a big deal, not infected or anything, but ...

"Well, this is a fine how-do-you-do!"

Seriously!  Is this really called for?!?

"Yeah, right.  'Comfy' my ... .  Ha-rumph!"

This is really a pain in the ... well, the left foot.  Hopefully, it'll heal up quickly, so I can ditch this thing.

If anyone needs me, I'll be pouting in the living room.

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Wrapping Up Our Adventure! (Or ... Our Adventure, Part 936)

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Today, Cam and I are wrapping up our latest adventure - birding down at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge and Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area!  We just shared some of the highlights from Quivira, so let's head over to Cheyenne Bottoms!

"This way, readers!"

Gotta love a helpful pack-o-Pelicans!  Errr... American White Pelicans.

OK!  Cheyenne Bottoms!  The bird we saw in most abundance was Egrets! Yes - Egrets! We saw a few. But then again, too few to menti-- ... right. Sorry. We've done that one before!

We saw Snowy Egrets ...

"Heeeeeere, fishie, fishie, fishie...."

And Great Egrets ...

"I'm great!"
"So am I!"

And Snowy Egrets hanging out with Great Egrets ...

"We Snowies are every bit as great as you guys."
"Yeah, whatever."

For the record, Cam and I side with the Snowy!

We also saw some Double-Crested Cormorants:

Cormorant Fly-Over

And a tiny Pied-Billed Grebe:

"Hello!"

We think he was a young one, based on the white on his throat and that he didn't have a stripe or band across his bill.

We also saw this Great Egret crashing a party:

"Hey, everyegret!  What's going on?!?"

Mom was very happy that this Snowy Egret did a nice, long "sit/stay" for her:

"You DO have a fishie or a froggie or something for me, right, Camera Lady?"

Hmm.  I don't believe she did!  We should pack some next time!

Finally, no trip to Cheyenne Bottoms or Quivira would be complete without spotting at least one Great Blue Heron:

"Why ARE rubber chickens funny?"

He looks like he's thinking deep thoughts, doesn't he?  He must read great literature or something.

Well, as I said, this wraps up the latest adventure! We hope you enjoyed coming with us!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

PS:  If you need to get caught up --
          Part 1
          Part 1.5
          Part 2 and
          Part 3

Our Adventure, Part 3

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  Maggie and I thought we'd split the birdie pix from our adventure into two days' worth - one, because there are a TON of them, and two, because someone still hasn't finished going through all of them.  Ahem.  (Mom)  Anyway, today, I'll cover the birdies we saw at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge.  There is a lot to go through, so let's jump right in.

We'll get this over with first:

"Greater" Yellowlegs

"Lesser" Yellowlegs

For the record, I think they're BOTH great.

We saw lots of different Sandpipers - and lots and lots of them!  Here is one who was off by himself:

A solitary Solitary Sandpiper

Ha!  Get it?  Solitary Solitary?!?  Hmm.  Maybe that's why he was giving Mom that look; she's the one who said it.

There were lots of ducks, too, to include Blue-Winged Teals:

Can you see the blue on the front part of his wing?

And Green-Winged Teals:

Green-Winged Teal, molting into breeding plumage

There was also an abundance of Avocets:

American Avocets, a couple Stilt Sandpipers, and a Snowy Egret trying to hide from Mom

This Avocet looked like it was practicing some ballet moves:

American Avocet

Isn't he or she elegant?!?

We also saw a "couple" of Coots:

A sea of American Coots

These two Egrets looked like they were posing for Mom:

"Hurry up, camera lady.  We don't have all day."
"Places to go, fishies to catch."

Maggie and I can totally relate!

Check out this birdie's snooter!

Willet

Mighty impressive, isn't it?  But he is outdone by these two kinds of birdies:

Long-Billed Dowitchers and Stilt Sandpipers

The somewhat smaller, more delicate-looking ones are the Stilt Sandpipers.  The ones with the SUPER long beaks are the Dowitchers.  They are both fairly large (9 and 11 inches long) compared to our next birdie (only 6 inches long):

Least Sandpiper

Mom spotted this birdie hiding in the reeds:

Immature Black-Crowned Night Heron

She doesn't see them very often.  They are fairly elusive, so she was mighty pleased to spot him!

Oh.  And "immature" refers to his age/plumage, not his behavior.

I think.

It's always thrilling to see these guys:

White-Faced Ibises

Mom had not seen Ibises until we started making the trips down to Quivira!

Out in the flats, Mom spotted this group of Egrets:

Snowy Egrets and friend

And more than a couple gulls:

Franklin's Gulls

And lastly, some of you might remember back in June, when we told you about going hunting for a rare-to-Kansas bird - the Reddish Egret.  He had been spotted at Quivira NWR, and we were able to find him.  It was really exciting!  Well -- guess who is still there?!?

Reddish Egret and friends

According to Audubon, the current United States population is only about 2000 pairs.  It is purported to be one of the rarest birds in North America, and Mom and Dad (and Maggie and I!) have seen this one TWICE!

Please tune back in tomorrow, when we wrap up our adventure with pix from Cheyenne Bottoms!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Cammie!

Our Adventure, Finally, Part 2

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Mom still hasn't finished combing through all of her photos from last Saturday's adventure, but I figured if I started posting some - at least the iPhone shots - it might hurry her along!  Ready to take a look at what's on the phone?  Let's go!

Here I am, waiting to get loaded up into the HR-V:

"Take your time, Cam.  I'm all set."

Both of us girls made sure to "use the yard" before we went -- if you know what I mean!

There were lots of pop-up storms in the area that day, and we saw rainbow after rainbow on the way down! Mom did a panoramic shot (from the moving vehicle) to capture both ends of this double rainbow:

Double rainbow over I70!

Isn't the sky gorgeous? She was hoping for interesting skies like that at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge and Cheyenne Bottoms, but it was a sunny day down there.

We took a quick break just outside the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area before we headed to Quivira.

Tree in field

Needless to say, it's a tad bit flat in that part of Kansas -- but so beautiful! You can see some of the marsh area here:

Cheyenne Bottoms

We went into the Cheyenne Bottoms later, but first, we headed to Quivira NWR! There were Sunflowers everywhere!

Quivira National Wildlife Refuge

Here's another tree shot:

Mom seems to be into trees lately. I have no idea what that's about.

Here's a very Kansas-y shot:

Ah, Kansas!

If you look closely, you can see a butterfly photobombing Mom's shot, over toward the left. They were having Butterfly Festivals at both Quivira and Cheyenne Bottoms! This guy must have had his fill of cotton candy and carnival rides and was heading home.

Another tree shot:

We'll have some birdie pix for you tomorrow! In the meantime, I hope these iPhone shots gave you an idea of what it's like down there. Isn't Kansas beautiful!?!?

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher