FIVE!!!!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  Please join me in wishing my little sister Maggie a VERY happy fifth birthday!

We went on a walk nice and early:

"Wow, we're going early today!  This is great!"
"Umm ... yeah.  Great.  Happy birthday, Peeps!"

... then before things got crazy again, Mom got Mags to pose in the master bathroom:

"Aww!  A ripped up, gutted bathroom just for ME?!?!"

Well ... not exactly.

"This does mean no showers for us girls for a while, though ... right?!?"

She's got a good point there!

Right now, Ken is here, ripping the rest of the floor out.  He remembered what day it was, and wished Maggie a happy birthday when he came in.  Isn't that nice?!?

Please join all of us in wishing our puppy a very happy fifth birthday!

Cammie!

PS:  For baby pix, please click here.  ❤

And So It Begins

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  Mom and Dad have been doing very strange things lately - mostly clearing everything out of the master bathroom and piling it upstairs in the guest rooms, plus moving stuff around in the bedroom.  Then this morning, right after our walk, they showered real fast and some men showed up.

Here we are, posing by their truck:

"Yeah, yeah.  'Best behavior.'  Got it."
"What do you mean Ken isn't here just to see us?"

We've met Ken before; we really like him.  He has another nice guy with him named David.  I was sure they wouldn't mind if I checked out their truck a bit.

"Hey!  Husky tools!  They've got Husky tools in there!"

That was as good as an invitation, as far as I was concerned!

"How about another hard-working Husky?"

For some reason, Cam and I aren't being allowed to help.  Yet.  They'll be here for several weeks.  I'm sure we can wear them down eventually.

We'll keep you posted.

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Serene Scenery Sunday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Today, Cam and I have quite the collection of serene photos for you.  They're from a couple weeks ago, when we made our most recent trip down to Quivira National Wildlife Refuge.  We saw lots of birdies and other beautiful things, so we wanted to share.  Ready to take a look?

On the way down, I tried to convince Cam I saw a bunch of deer.

"No, really Cam!  Look!  Deers!"

Unfortunately, she knew it was a John Deere place in one of the towns we went through.

Before we even got to the refuge, Mom took this shot:

Western Kingbird, Barbed Wire, and Sunflowers

It was pretty much everything she could want in a shot.  And then ...

❤❤ SNOWY PLOVER!!! ❤❤

Yep.  The very next bird we saw was one of her faves - the Snowy Plover.  And not just any Snowy Plover, but a baby one.  You should have heard the squeals (after she got back into the vehicle, so she wouldn't scare the birdies).

Mom and Dad were very surprised to see this next bird out in the open in broad daylight:

Great Horned Owl

Sadly, that dead tree is usually sitting in water; our drought is really taking a toll!

These guys needed an air traffic controller:

American White Pelicans

There were lots of members of the heron family around!

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egrets

We also saw lots of long-legged birdies:

Black-Necked Stilt

White-Faced Ibises

Even some Avocets having a feeding frenzy!

American Avocets

They sweep their bills back and forth, stirring up the water to fish out the bugs!  It's very similar to what I do when my mom puts water on my kibble. Oddly enough, she doesn't stand there and say, "Oh, how cool!" when I do it.  OR take my picture.  OR shoot video.  Such a double standard.

Moving right along ...

There were also several different species of Sandpipers there - these guys are among our Fall migrants:

Stilt Sandpipers

One of the biggest surprises, other than the Great Horned Owl, was seeing this unlikely fishing duo:

Raccoon and a Great Egret

Mom couldn't quite make out what the raccoon was at first and was really excited once she was able to get closer and see him!  AND ... the raccoon eventually went over to another raccoon, before they left the scene.  Very cool!

We didn't get to stop in Ellinwood like we did last time - they closed a road, so we ended up taking the scenic way home.

A field of Sunflowers

We were on a tiny road with no shoulder, but Dad stopped for a couple minutes for Mom to shoot the flowers, since there wasn't any traffic.

We did find another rest stop where we could get out and have a nice break, then we loaded back in and headed home!

"Not as nice as stopping in Ellinwood!"
"No, but we did what we needed to do!"

For the complete album from our trip, please visit this link; it's a three-page bird-a-palooza!

Thanks for coming with us!  We hope we made your day a little bit more serene!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Yee-Haw, Part 2!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie, back to tell you more about our walk around the park!  Yesterday, we showed you our horse and bull friends - I think they are here for the rodeo.  Today, let's look at some of the fair animals!

After we left the rodeo area, we walked over to where the 4-H animals are to check them out.

"Goats!"
"I think that one is on the grooming table."

Who knew goats had to put up with being brushed and fluffed, too?  Anyway, we didn't want to disturb the ones being groomed, what with them working and all, so we decided to go see what the ones inside the building were doing.  Maggie approached one goat:

"Greetings, goat!  What's going on?"
"I'm having breakfast!  Steak and eggs."

Steak and eggs?  That didn't sound quite right to me.  I asked another one of the goats about it:

"Hello, goat.  Did your neighbor really get steak and eggs for breakfast?"
"No, he was just ... kidding around."

Ha!  "Kidding around".  Gotta love Fair humor!

A bit farther down the line ...

"That was a good one!  'Kidding around'!  I want to spend more time with the goats; they were funny!"
"Ooooh!  Moo cows!  How now, brown cows?"
"Moooooo!"

They were very friendly!

We had walked quite a ways and I wanted to rest for a minute; fortunately I found the PERFECT spot, reserved just for me!

"This is really quite nice of the Fair and Rodeo people to reserve a spot for me!"

Thanks for coming to the Riley County Fair and Kaw Valley Rodeo with us!  We sure wish we could have shared all the wonderful smells with you - but at least we could share the photos!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Cammie!

Yee-Haw!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  As I mentioned a couple days ago, it's county fair time!  I wasn't sure if we'd get to go look around this year or not, but today on our walk ...

"Keep going straight?  Wow!  OK!"
"We're not heading down the trail?"
"Not today!"

We didn't turn onto Hudson Trail!  We kept going ...

"Up, up, and away ..."
"... in my beautiful balloooooooon!"

That route is very hilly.  We haven't walked that way since before my surgery last year.

Before we knew it, we were at the corner by the park!

"Oooh!  I smell something.  Something FABULOUS!"
"Me, too!"

Then we turned into the park, and sure enough, all the animals are there for the Kaw Valley Rodeo and the Riley County Fair!

We stopped to visit with the horses first!

"Hello, horsies!"
"Wow, look at 'em all!"

We are very calm around farm animals.  If we aren't, Mom and Dad take us elsewhere.  It's not fair for the farm animals!

Maggie really liked the horses.

"Hey!  Is the Budweiser for you guys?"
"Neigh."

I had a feeling that's what he would say!

I wanted to see what else was there, so I walked a bit further down the line.

"Hey, Mags.  Check this out.  It's a bunch of bull.  I mean 'bulls'."

We sure enjoyed our walk down to the park and fairgrounds!  What a fun walk that turned into!  We'll show you more of what we saw at the fair tomorrow!

Cammie!

All Paws On Deck!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Yesterday morning, after our walk and after Mom did her gardening stuff, it was still relatively cool outside, so Mom let us play on the decks for a while.  We thought we'd share a video with you.  Grab some popcorn and a beverage - let's go to the movies!

To watch on YouTube, please click here.

Afterwards, we did a nice pose:

"The lower deck IS mine, but I like to share."
"Same here about the high ground.  I mean the upper deck.  We were just playing!"

It was so fun - and so wonderful to be able to play outside for a while!

Cammie!

Wordless Wednesday

Mags and Cam!

Not All Work!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  As Maggie told you yesterday, we did a lot of work over the weekend.  It wasn't all work, though!  After our Sunday morning walk, we had some friends over; we were such very good girls while they were here that Mom and Dad said we deserved a reward afterwards.  Since our high temp was only 90℉ (32.2℃), we took advantage of a much cooler day and went to the park!

We walked around a bit ...

"This way, everybody!"
"Don't lose your head, Maggie!"

It was so fun!  They're starting to prep the area for the Riley County Fair and Kaw Valley Rodeo!  We were hoping some of the animals would be there by now, but not yet.  Still, it was fun to go around snoofing everything!

"This building will be full of chick-hens, goats, sheeps, ... and all kinds of wonderful animals!"
"I can almost smell them now!"

In fact, there was some old horse and/or cow poop scattered about -- what a great place to explore!

"So much fun!"
"I love this place!"

After we checked the place out thoroughly, we thought we'd do something nice for Mom and Dad, too - so we struck a pose on some rocks:

"What a great day!"
"I'm so happy!"

"Hey, wait.  What's that over there?!?"
"All work and no play is NOT our style!"

We sure enjoyed our treat!  We hope you are well-rewarded when you work hard, too!

Cammie!

Management

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  As you know, Cam and I are Working Breeds, so it should come as no surprise when I tell you I did a great deal of work over the weekend.  I'm in Management, of course, but sometimes I am "hands on".

"A little more slack, please, Mags!"
"I'm on it."

"I know you're on it.  Would you please move?"
"I meant that figuratively, Mom."

Good help is so hard to find!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Serene Scenery Sunday

Sometimes, the best, the most serene part of a view ...

... is sharing it with your best friend!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Cam and Mags

Carrier Landing Misfire

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags.  So there I was, practicing my aircraft carrier landings, you know, my touch and goes, when I had something of a misfire.

"Wait a minute.  Something went wrong."

"I remember flying through the air ... but I don't remember touching down on the deck of the aircraft carrier.  I mean bed."

Nothing but air.  Skipped the carrier altogether!  I mean bed.  Whatever.  All the way over it, from floor to floor!

I wouldn't advise trying this out at sea, but here in my practice facility, it was AWESOME!  I need to make this part of my normal routine!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Helping

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Our mom was doing something in the Studio the other day. We still have no idea what she was doing, but we were certain she needed our help.

"Umm ... yes, those look nice."
"Oh, yeah, Mom.  Good job.  They're perfect whatever they ares."

I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually.  Perhaps she will, too.  Maybe.

Cammie!

It Happened Again

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie.  It happened again.

"It did!"

Maggie warned me it might. You see, she had to perform a Squeak-ectomy on Sneaky Snake back in January, after he squeaked at me.  I don't LIKE my toys to squeak at me, so I turned him over to her.  She was happy to perform the surgery, but she only removed one of three super-squeakers.    We both thought that would suffice!  And sure enough, when I've played with Sneaky since, he has been nice and quiet.

But the other day ... he did it again!  He SQUEAKED!  Almost right away!  And it was LOUD!  I immediately presented him to Dr. Mags.

"No problem, Cam.  I'll take care of this.  Trust me - I'm a doctor!"
"SQUEEEEEAK!"

That's right - I put him in the paws of a trained professional.  And me?  Maggie gave me The Toy Formerly Known As 3-Rings.

"You won't squeak at me, will you, 2-Rings?"
"____"

Maggie really concentrated on her mission:

"Must ... focus.  Must ... do this right!"
"____ ____"

The good news is that Sneaky Snake didn't really need a second Squeak-ectomy.  Yet.  Just a little de-stuffing and ripping here and there.  Maggie and I celebrated with some Siberian ballet:

Mags and me celebrating

Sneaky and The Toy Formerly Known As 3-Rings are back behind a closed door, until next time.  I'll keep you posted about whether he squeaks at me again or not!

Cammie!