"Is This Your Dog?"

this day started out nice and slow and peaceful like . . . i even got to drink my first cup of morning chai tea at the proper temperature. you know not too hot but not cooled off yet either . . . i was just beginning to imagine the day with some extra time for a bit of stitching, or reading, or yea, you get the idea. when along came this dog. he just wandered right up onto the front porch and had a look around. i went out to investigate and discovered a friendly dog with no collar (thus no immediate i.d.). he's young but not a puppy and he actually is well socialized and someone has worked with him. he can sit on command and he heels when on leash and told to and he will lay down and stay if you are firm with him . . . so: he's clearly somebody's dog and other than being a bit on the skinny side he's been cared for and worked with. so, my day continued with me taking the dog to some immediately obvious places where he may have wandered away from . . . no luck. so then we had to take photos and hang posters . . . and because we have now put our name on the posters we have to care for him until somebody turns up to claim him . . . i love dogs~!!~ i really do, but, it's been over a year and a half since we've had any and life has seemed comfortable enough with a few cats. cats are nice. they don't require me to take them out and walk them or train them or in any way wear me out with what little energy i happen to be lucky enough to have on any given day . . . so today was interesting and exhausting and we still have a dog . . . a very good boy of a dog . . . but, i'm not sure i can do this. so let me ask you: Is this your dog?

the good news is that i did get a chance to stitch after all. later this afternoon when all posters had been hung and everything that we could think of to find his this guys family had been taken care of for the moment. after he had been offered a bowl of kibble and some fresh water and played with . . . after all of that, he was provided with a blanket to lay on and indeed he did nap~!!~ i, on the other hand, had to keep an eye on him (just in case he woke up and got into trouble) so i got out the postcard that i am working on for my first blog give-away (to celebrate my 100th post) and worked on that. i did make some progress and thought that others might be interested in seeing how it's coming along.

this is today's texture study. it is a section of dried rose.

the japanese cherry tree continues to be beautiful even though petals are now raining out of it on a steady basis . . .

this parrot tulip was nestled in among the small evergreen bushes and i couldn't resist getting a shot of it too.