I’ve got two sweet boys. This one has had a rough night. He takes all worry on to his thin shoulders. He had a bad headache which caused him to be sick on and off throughout the night. He deals with it like the strong soul that he is. He misses Kevin so much every day we’re apart from him. He calls him, tells him about his day and crosses off days of the week each night with the rest of us. He sincerely looks forward to Kev’s visits home.  He writes stories, illustrates them and uses the pen name K. Eau Claire. He always chooses the right path, even when he sees others do differently. He is scary smart, has an incredible imagination and even ate the disaster meatloaf I tried to make the other night.

Thanks for being one of my sweet boys, buddy.

We were standing outside this morning, chatting as the puppies cowered between our legs to avoid going out in the rain.

My back was to the pool. I look over at Kevin and he says, “OH!…” and I see he’s looking at the pool behind me. I turn around and see something “swimming” and at first thought it was a very bloated mouse. My mind immediately went to calculating how many more mice were hiding somewhere, waiting…

Then he says, “No, it’s a toad!”.

Seriously? A toad in the desert? How does that even happen? Where do they live, where do they come from? Don’t know, but it makes a great photo op. It seems he had no way out of the pool as he was swimming along the edge, so Kevin “rescued” him. Of course 5 minutes later he was back in the pool! I then had to stalk the poor thing with my camera for the next 15 minutes.

He finally looked at me like, “NOW, will you leave me alone?”.

The sun rising over the desert never gets old. A new day filled with new opportunities. How will you use yours?

I usually like my wildlife encounters to consist of a little more fear. I like it when they are scared of me (I’m always scared of them!). This dude strutted around the yard like he owned the place. I’m standing right there and he couldn’t care less. He’s taking great pleasure in taunting my dog who thinks he’s just found a new friend.