Woof!

The dogs have figured out the yard and are really enjoying running around now. Pongo actually is down 5 pounds since his previous weigh in back in May. Haven't had the "Squirrel Test" yet, but they have passed the "Walking Dog Test".

I transferred the corn over to the garden on the south side of the house. All of them are looking good. Hopefully, they will get taller and produce real corn this time. I didn't get much of anything last time.

The tomatoes are producing now. Have 4 tomatoes so far. These tomatoes are bigger than I thought they'd be. Sort of like huge grapes.

Fence Progress

After seeing the dogs display shyness during Week 1 of "Correction Training", they seem to have recovered to understanding that only the flags are bad, not the whole yard. It's good to see them enjoying the yard to its fullest. Hopefully, they won't get shy again.

Meanwhile, the robins have flown the coop. And every time I fill the bird feeder, my "guests" empty it out in like one day. I actually saw a hummingbird the other morning at the other feeder out front. Maybe its time to refresh with fresh sweet water.

Only One Left

The dogs got a hold of another youngster yesterday. It flew towards the nest and landed on the patio. I tried to grab Molly to keep her from attacking, but wasn't able to get her in time. Pongo grabbed the bird too, so now only one young robin is left. Hopefully, it will be able to stay alive.

I can only do so much to keep my dogs away. Molly has that killer instinct in her when it comes to small animals like birds, rabbits, squirrels, etc. I was fairly surprised that Pongo joined in.

The dogs have begun to figure out the fence. They are close to being ready for off-leash supervision. To this point, I've let them run with leash attached just in case they did something. I just hope they learn to enjoy the yard without getting the correction. It's an Invisible Fence.

Baby Robins

There were four baby robins in the nest, and two are dead. The two left appeared healthy and ready to fly soon. These are the quietest baby birds EVER. I expect plentiful chirping, but I rarely hear them at all.

Baby Bird Update 2

The eyes have opened, but I only saw 3 heads this afternoon. I'll check again later for four.

Molly & Pongo's Great Adventure - Part 2

So, I go to Pep Boys and they say I'm looking at 1.5-2 hours before being ready. It's about 5:00 pm, so it's looking like 6:30 - 7:00. I decide to walk the dogs over to the Pet Smart. We go waste about 1.5 hours over there, and then return to Pep Boys. I was able to watch my car getting serviced.

So, 7:15 rolls around, and I'm paying for the work on the car, but I have a softball game in Gaithersburg at 8:15pm. If I go back home to drop off the dogs, I miss all of game 1. So, I decide to grab some snacks at the gas station (trail mix rocks!) and drive down to the park with dogs in tow.

The games went well (we won both!), and the dogs behaved just great. They were beat from all the excitement, so not much energy left. I ended up getting home just past 11:00pm.

Did I mention I didn't get to sleep until about 10 til midnight and woke up this morning at 4:30 am? Ah yes, thank God the pets cooperated this morning.

Molly & Pongo's Great Adventure

Ever have one of those days? Yesterday was one for me. It all started when my foot started itching overnight, and I got woken up again by a ringing phone on my day off. So, I'm up early and not feeling well-rested.

A comical series of errors then unfolded. Hubby and I were going to drive separate cars to the office parking lot and then I drop him off at the Metro. Well, we dilly-dallied our way through lunch and ended up rushing. We ended up in one car. Oh, and the dogs came with us. I wanted to take the pups to the Ridge Road Dog Park after dropping him off.

So, everything is honky dory until I get to the park. That's when I notice a hissing noise on my back left tire. It's a jagged metal loop sticking into the rubber... a FLAT! So, here it is mid 90s with dewpoints near 70 and I have two dogs and a flat tire. So, I put the dogs inside the dog park fence so they don't get super hot while I try to take care of the tire.

I get the jack out and the donut tire and the piece you put into the edge of the jack to get it to go up/down is missing. I end up trying a small screwdriver. I got it high enough to get the flat off, but not high enough to put the donut on. I end up calling roadside assistance. So, I go inside the park to wait with the dogs and play with them, resuming my original plan. Might as well try to salvage the trip and get the dogs running around.

After about an hour, the donut's on the car and I need to find a place to patch the flat. I can't commute around here on a donut (50 mph limit). I end up going to Pep Boys.

Baby Bird Update

I saw some heads reaching over the edge of the nest, but still no eyes opened. I don't hear much peeping yet either. Surely these little guys will be making noise by the end of the week.

Invisible Fence

We have started training the dogs on the Invisible Fence. Hopefully in about a month or so, we can just let them out in the morning and go do their business. It will be nice for the dogs to be able to run around in the yard. We just have to teach them to respect the boundary.

Bird Watching, Part 2

A quick update to the earlier post... add chickadees and mourning doves. Also, 4 heads in the robin's nest. One baby was reaching up with its head. Very cute. I'll try to get a photo.