Category: dog

Pet prints card

On By CarynIn art, Cats, Craft, dog

I’ve periodically been sending cards to my eldest in college so there is mail in the mail box. We all signed a card, and I thought it would be nice if the pets “signed” it too. There are products that have ink on one side of a thin sheet of plastic, so prints of baby’s feet, or dog feet, can be made without getting ink on the foot. I love when people are clever. I made the paw prints on the card stock provided, the animals were mostly cooperative, then I cut out around the prints so I could arrange them the way I wanted. What I didn’t read closely, though, is that the ink doesn’t dry, so is intended to be framed behind glass where the print can’t be smudged. Oops. Thermal laminate sheets to the rescue. Running a lamination sheet through the heat roller without paper makes a nice clear, cuttable sheet of plastic. I trimmed this to my card size, attached the prints with glue dots, then used washi tape for the frame and to hold it all in place.

Photo description: Pre-assambly: Ink pad from Green Pollywog, teal card stock with animal prints on round white paper, clear plastic sheet, black washi tape, roll of glue dots.
Photo description: Finished card with the animals names written beneath each print and the year written at the bottom.

Can we talk about the size of Thor’s feet? Wowza. Griffin’s is understandably the largest print, he is the largest dog at about 50 pounds. Missy’s doggy print is next largest (she is 20 pounds). Thor’s print is near Missy’s in size; I haven’t weighed him lately, but he is an almost seven-month-old kitten. Izzy the cat’s print is definitely smaller than Thor’s and at last weigh she was 11.9 pounds. Sophie the cat has the most petite print, and was the most trouble to get a print, and of course is the print I wanted to send most. I was able to trim away most of the unwanted ink drag.

Burrs

On By CarynIn dog

Griffin the dog loves to run and bark in the backyard, and fill his face with burrs. Each time I think that surely he has gathered all the burrs in the yard, but the next day, he comes back with more.

Photo description: Black shaggy dog with twenty plus small cream-colored seed pods on his face.

The best way we’ve found to remove the burrs is to use a small wire pet brush. The burrs stick to the brush and come easily away from the dog fur.

Photo description: In the foreground, a small green brush with wire tines tipped with white, full of black hair and burrs. In the background two black dogs looking at the brush.

He knows what to expect when I grab the brush, and he sits and waits for me to brush out the hitchhikers. These particular seed pods are also known as “sock destroyers” because they easily attach to fabric and are devilishly difficult to remove.

Squirrel sploot

On By CarynIn Cats, dog, Wildlife
Photo description: Squirrel laying on the concrete legs out sideways, body pressed to the ground, looking at the camera.

Scrat the squirrel it rather enjoying his “place” near the house. There is a water dish, occasional peanuts, and cool concrete to stretch out on. It also happens to be at a window where the animals inside can watch him.

Photo description: In the background a squirrel eats a peanut, in the mid-ground a cat stares out the window, in the foreground a dog sits on a couch staring out the window.

Unintended snuggle

On By CarynIn Cats, dog
Photo description: 50-pound black dog laying on a patterned rug, six inches away from a gray tabby kitten also laying on the floor with a blanket.
Photo description: same dog, same cat, same floor, dog is now in his side, pressed up against the kitten. Both have their eyes closed.

I’m not entirely sure Griffin the dog knew he snuggled Thor the kitten. It seemed very casual. Normally Griffin doesn’t put up with cuddles, scratches yes, cuddles not for long, even from humans. He’ll put up with Missy being close when they are in the car, or wrestling, but nothing that could be called a cuddle. Which makes me think this was unintentional. I’m very interested to see what happens when it gets cold around here.

I’m also trying a new photo caption method. I’ve almost always tried to have meaningful captions on my photos in case the photo doesn’t load, or my reader can’t see the photo and is using a reading program. It has long irritated me that on some displays the caption looks like part of the narrative, like some lost sentence fragment. I know about alt text, but I don’t like that it is hidden except for audio renditions. (It makes it hard to proofread and feels clandestine.) I saw a post with this type of photo description, and I like it. It a concise photo description with what is, I hope, the essentials of the photo. For those unable to see the photo, it gives enough to form a mental image, and for those able to see the photo, tells them what I think is important in the image. Nothing deliberately hidden, I hope. “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou

Not her tail

On By CarynIn Cats, dog

We’ve been working with Missy the dog for a long time on letting people touch her tail without her growling. Apparently we did our work well. Here is a video of Thor the kitten playing with Missy‘s tail, and she doesn’t even care.

Thor playing with Missy’s tail as Missy waits for the ball to be thrown, still from video

I have also decided to promote barbershop as the background music to my shorts, because everyone needs to hear a chord ring.