Mr. Hawk was looking right at me!

These shots were taken with my Lumix zoomed 40x but through my kitchen window so they are not super clear. BUT I was so happy I got a pretty good shot of the hawk staring right at me taking his picture! I don't think he got any of my birds this time...he was watching this one squirrel that came up....but he did not attack it.
CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTOS.....

me and dad.......I was about 1 year old........

about 1 year old....with my mom and older brother and sister....


and another year later....I was 3...my brother 4...my sister 5

(yeah..mom and dad kept pretty busy)


and along came sister #2....

oh...let's not forget the surprise baby.......my youngest sister.....

wow...we moved into the Wonderful World of Color!

Swan....

this little guy is the only swan at our local park. I am not sure why they don't give him a mate....or companion...or some of his own kind to keep him company. Maybe swans do better alone? I will have to do some researching on this I guess. I do know they usually mate for life....so maybe he originally had a mate but it was killed. AND this may be a female...I am not sure. I have never seen 2 swans at this park though...always only this one.

I have NEVER seen him get out of the water or eat anything other than what he finds in the water till the other day when we stopped at the park. He not only got out of the water but came over to see if we had anything to give him. The only thing I had to give him was a potato wedge from my son's chicken dinner. The swan gobbled it up like crazy...so I gave him another one. Must be slim pickins right now in the pond. I think he would have climbed into the car with us if he could have!

Dogs Deserve Better......hopefully HELP for Joe.....

I have been doing research online about city ordinances and such trying to find other means of tackling the Joe the dog situation via the dog feces issue. SURELY that is a way I can get him help.

BUT meanwhile during my search I came across this wonderful site......Dogs Deserve Better (CHECK MY SIDE BAR FOR A LINK)......and they may be able to help. They are a nonprofit organization dedicated to freeing chained up and penned up dogs. They do amazing things for these animals...get them help and in many cases new owners and living situations. They can help build a nice fenced in area for the dog that is appropriate for them....etc. They can place the dogs in foster homes until they are adopted out into new loving homes. The information on their site is tremendous and they have many helpful links to help out dogs such as Joe.

SO I have forwarded them all my information on Joe and am hopeful they will be able to step in and help him in another way entirely since I have not been successful in getting him any help via the Humane Society.

PLEASE check out their site...link on the right.....

I will keep you updated as I find out anything.

This is a place I would like to get involved with as I really believe in what they stand for.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Update on Joe the dog..........

well my efforts to help finally resulted in a confrontation with myself and one of the owners of Joe. To SPITE me and keep me or my son Noah from having contact with the dog......seeing into the pen easily......touching him......feeding him treats....or anything.....they took down the one end of the picket fence on Joe's pen that faces my grandmother's house....and put up a large privacy fence piece instead.




SO now Joe cannot see out of this end of the pen.....to see what we are all doing on this side....we cannot easily even see him at all unless we go to the backside of my grandmother's garage area or come down the alley the other way....as that side of his fence area is still open to "view" things. My uncle still went over to pet Joe the other day even though the owner said if she catches any one of us on their property they will call the police. I feel so bad for Joe. I was there last night and would normally have gone over to hug him and talk to him and kiss him and give him treats. This was all I could see instead. I did YELL over to him "HI JOE!" and I heard him bark. This makes me incredibly sad and upset. I feel really badly for Joe....whose sad life probably has become even sadder now as he has limited gaze upon the outside world or any signs of affection toward him with this big fence section up.

I doubt these owners even got a permit to put this fence piece up. SO..instead of doing what was right for Joe and making the pen livable for him.....and spending any money on HIM.....the owner out of spite.....spent money on a fence section and put it up instead.


I think she is a wicked bitch. Sorry.....but it is what it is.

For reminders of what Joe looks like and his conditions check these photos out...and the movie clip link below.......











here he is last year after the blizzard......after most all of the snow had melted.....again....he was outside....the entire f'n time.







Here is a clip of his conditions as they have been pretty much ever since I moved back to the area 3 years ago....the owners did finally put some straw down, but have yet to ever clean up dog poop in the pen.

Click here to watch 'neglect-of-a-petpoor-Joe'

AND to make matters worse...Tom the cat I have been taking care of with the help of my grandmother...until I can take him to MY home in the future that allows cats......seems to have either been shot in the face with a BB gun or pellet gun or got into a fight and bit by another animal or cat. I am not sure..I did not think to take photos of his face last night. The wound does not seem to bother him much and it looks clean and dry and not infected.....he can eat okay. I will have to go back and take photos and monitor the situation and take him to the vet if he needs treatment. I hope these neighbors have not done something to Tom. I may have to bring Tom here to live in my house or backyard before I am in a place that allows pets...just for his safety.

a red fox drawing I did with color pencils years ago.....

Opie is double jointed.......

We are now a Level 3 Snow Emergency and I am done shoveling.....again......for now......

that was a lot of shoveling and of course the snow plow plowed us all in at the end of our driveways......over 3 feet deep in at least a 10-15 foot section I had to move

my snowman that stands 3 feet got completely buried after this last snow pass moved through....I tried to shake the snow around him off.....

There is a bush buried under all this snow on the corner

Noah is a little over 4-1/2 feet tall.......he is right about the height of the snow to the right of him

at least the mailman will be able to get to my mailbox!

Up to his neck in snow.......

Well it is snowing and blowing here in my area of Ohio.  We have over a foot of snow and it is still coming down.  This reminds me of the blizzard we had last year and I bet we soon move from a Level 2 Snow Emergency to a Level 3.  A neighbor was trying to drive down our street to come home from a night shift at work and it took her over 45 minutes to drive 1/2 block as the snow in the road was up over the tires of her car.  I shoveled once already, but will have to go back out and do it again 1-2 more times at least before they say it will stop.  I love it....and am thankful we can stay home safe.  I love to shovel....and am thankful for that.  I hope and pray everyone just stays home today and remains safe if possible.

Here are a few pics of the snow around my house so far. 

Mr. Snowman would be buried under the snow but I could not  bring myself to cover his head up with snow...so he is up to his neck in the white stuff!

The drifts in between my house and the neighbors is up to my mid thigh....

After shoveling the banks on the sides of the driveway are almost up to my shoulders....

It had drifted up onto our front walk....a couple of feet deep......

still coming down....not to stop until maybe around 5 or 6:00 p.m. and then snow off and on the next 4 days!

lemon meringue pie....

some of OUR snow........it is all so powdery! It sparkles like glitter and the bushes look like they have been dusted with powdered sugar!

CLICK TO BLOW UP AND SEE FULL SIZE!

Mr. Hawk eating his lunch on a snowy morning........and the relatives of the dead bird coming in for what looked like a memorial service after....

I never normally have this quantity of mourning doves in my backyard..but after Mr. Hawk devoured one earlier in the day over the weekend......all of a sudden all these mourning doves came in.....landed on the fence lined up in a row......and above on the wires overhead......and some on the ground. All were quiet.....some had their eyes shut...and I swear they were discussing the events of that morning and were sad for the loss of one of their mates or relatives. Do you suppose birds think things like that ...as we would? I think they do....I cannot imagine sitting on the wires overhead watching Mr. Hawk eat one of my kind...right in front of me.....not being able to do anything about it. I know Mr. Hawk has to eat too......but sometimes it is sort of sad that maybe we all just can't eat plants. Of course then we start to think about plants....and how they might feel pain when we cut them off their growing stalks or yanking them up by their roots from the ground...I guess that would leave us with water. Could we survive on water only?

it is -14 with a wind chill of -34 degrees!

Joe


Tom

please pray for Tom and Joe. Tom is a cute cat that hangs around my grandmother's house and Joe is her neighbor's dog. The neighbors do not take very good care of Joe and he is left out in all type of elements without proper shelter and conditions are horrific for him. I have written about him before..it is so very sad. I want to just go rescue him and bring him home to where I live...but right now renting this house I am not even allowed to have the one cat I do have (which I took in as a stray).

Tom-Kat we take pretty good care of, but he still has to be left outside. My grandmother is helping to keep him fed and such until I can hopefully bring him here to live too....somewhere if I can get a place that allows pets.

Needless to say I am worried about those 2 little guys and wish I already lived somewhere ...where I could have brought them both to live. I don't want to find out they froze to death during this bitterly cold weather.

My final sketches of Opie......as you can see.....he is quite the poser......