bunny tales: a short story

for the past several weeks our puppy, Allie, has parked herself on the chair in the living room which overlooks the backyard or at the dining room window overlooking the front.  every. single. day.   like clockwork she comes in, runs a circle in the living room, grabs her bone, bounces upstairs, jumps on the bed, drops the bone on Cody’s head, runs back downstairs and then parks it at a window.  (if she ever misses a step she starts over – it’s quite funny!) then she waits.   

waiting with dad

as soon as a living creature catches her attention it’s on! she runs sporadically from the front to the back or the back to the front* often barking and jumping making us fully aware.   she gets so excited. for what, exactly? birds, squirrels, bunnies, ducks, people, even flies.  basically anything that moves! 

in her own mind she’s a masterful hunter.  of course that’s of anything young and defenseless.  in the past few months she has managed to kill a baby duck, baby bunny, countless flies and most recently all of our newly hatched robins.  however, she wants nothing to do with the slightly pudgy, fun-loving, lab puppy across the street.  his name is Max.

what I can’t understand though is her gentle kill nature (if there is such a thing).  we’ve already established that she savagely destroys her toys by shaking them violently, ripping them open with her teeth and tearing into them with her claws.  but with these animals she seems to just carry them around until cody can catch her and dispose of the remains.  if only i could read that little puppy mind; it’s bizarre to me.  she's a true predator.

despite the fact that i’m convinced no other critters live in our backyard her routine has not changed. after she has dropped her bone on Cody’s head she runs back downstairs and parks it at a window, waiting for something to move.  still. every. single. day.

hoppy spring! 

(*side note: we have a trail at the back of our house that connects the neighborhood to the elementary.  we also have a sidewalk out front.  Allie can see both from her perches.  when anything moves out front she automatically thinks it will appear out back since she has seen people on both sidewalks. to her that must mean the yard and sidewalk wraps around the house. such a smart, logical puppy!)

 with the bone on her birthday

pit 'o fire: caution advised

with spring in full swing and fire pits ablaze across most of suburban America it's time to raise awareness to the blunders that can turn an ordinarily fun night into a debacle that leaves you teetering on the verge of scrapping the pit altogether and going in the direction of one of those terra cotta pot flame concoctions I see on Pinterest in order to satisfy your radiating flame hunger.  this weekend we enjoyed our first backyard fire pit and it got me thinking about some of my own fire pit faux pas.  read on for some embarrassing confessions and hard lessons learned.

let's start with the obvious - fire pits get hot - really hot.  and everything around it, yourself included gets really hot.  heed to this sound advice: stay back.  this includes your pit essentials: beer, chocolate, and flip flops.

the ring around the fire pit is not intended to be a foot rest.  flip flops will melt!

bronchitis is a real risk!  i legitimately got bronchitis last year after breathing in smoke from a fire; it was terrible!

excessively large pieces of cardboard or wood of any kind will not make the fire last longer in fact it may even destroy your pit or that beautiful full tree in your yard.

along these lines friends don't let the drunk friends stoke the fire or play with lighter fluid.

dares to jump over the fire pit never end well.

finally, just because it's dark doesn't mean people can't see how many s'mores you've actually had - nice try. (I swear I only had 4....ok maybe 6)

pit responsibly! and if all else fails and the yard goes up in flames hope for some cute firemen or at firemen with a good sense of humor.

first s'more of the year