Finally! Spring!

We FINALLY had some close to normal weather this weekend so Mommy and I got out early today for a hike.  We drove down to the southern end of the river hike that I like so much and hiked for 4 hours, with a 45 minute break in the middle.

Here I am ready to start. You can see how happy I am to finally have a good day and clean trail to hike on.

We saw a lot of burned stumps.  They also stunk of herbicide.  The trail has a problem with buckthorn and they try to control it by chopping it down, burning the stumps and then applying herbicide around the charred stump.

This is the 1/2 way point.  This is a vernal pool and the sound you hear are the chorus frogs.  Mommy and I were going to eat at the bench by this pond, but there were people on it.  Grrrrr.

So we turned around and went back to the previous bench to eat lunch.  Mommy read for 45 minutes and I took a nap.

Mommy took a picture here because this spot used to be great big trees, but then when we had the storm that knocked over my squirrel tree all the big old trees here got knocked over too.  Now this spot seems to have decided to become prairie.

OMD! Look what I found on the trail!  What is a crawdad doing on a trail?  When I tried to sniff her she stood up and threatened me with her pinchers.  

Here she is bigified. She had a whole tail full of eggs and was trying to get to the other side of the trail.  Mommy was worried she'd get run over by a bike and couldn't believe she was trying to leave the swamp on one side for the prairie on the other so she scooped her up in a poop bag and carried her back to the swamp side.  The crawfish turned right around and started walking towards the prairie side again so Mommy picked her up AGAIN and carried her to the prairie side and the crawfish happily headed off into the dry prairie.  Weird.

We stopped when we were about a 1/2 mile from the car to watch this bird fish.  We think it is some kind of grebe, but we aren't sure.

Here it is bigified so you can see what a great meal it caught!

We got back to the car and I fell asleep as soon as Mommy started driving.  It was a great 5.5 mile hike.

My Monthly Diary for March, 2013

Well, March is over and they are telling me it is spring, but I'm not believing it.  I'm not feeling too good today. I pooped in the house last night and I don't want to go for a walk, which is really not like me.  I wanted to walk right after I had my toe amputated after all.  Anyway, Mommy is a bit worried right now, but I figured it would be a good time to tell you what I did in March.

The big news is that the Tastee Freez opened on March 1st and Mommy and I took a short hike in the snow on March 3rd and then, after the hike, we stopped at the Tastee Freez and I got my first Pup Cup of the season.  Mmmmm Pup Cups...

Because Mother Nature decided to give us all our winter snow in March, Mommy had a snow day this month.  I like snow days because it means we go for walks and I get to hang out in the backyard and bark at the snowblower and stuff.  But this snow day Mommy did some in the house chores and then decided to catch up on some of the tv shows she had recorded and not watched.  This is okay, except when it was time for me to shift my napping spot from the kitchen to the livingroom MOMMY WAS ON THE COUCH!!  I went over to my livingroom bed and turned around and turned around and turned around and turned around and glared at Mommy and turned around and turned around and turned around. Mommy looked over at me and I glared at her harder and I turned around and turned around and FINALLY Mommy said, "Do you want to sit on the couch? Here, I'll move over." and she did and I climbed up and lay down and went to sleep right away.  Seriously, how slow on the uptake can she be?  A little while later we looked out the window at the bird feeders and we saw that a whole flock of red-winged blackbirds had flown in during the storm.  It is wrong for summer birds to arrive in town in the middle of a snow day.

As you know if you read my previous post, Mommy insisted on taking our Daylight Savings Hike even though it was pouring down rain all day that day.  I was not amused.  Mommy and I also took a New Year hike too to celebrate the beginning of spring.  It was much better weather that day.

Also in March I got prescribed a new walking schedule by the vet.  See, I've been having these rogue pooping incidents like I mentioned at the start.  Mommy got really concerned when one morning she heard me rustling around in my bed and then she suddenly smelled poo.  I had pooped while lying on my bed.  Luckily my butt end was off the bed, so I hadn't pooped on the bed, but I had made a circle of poo around the bed.  Mommy yelled, "What the hell?!!" and sent me outside.  She wasn't mad at me but worried because I hadn't even asked to go out.  Then that night just before we fell asleep I suddenly realized I had to poop so I jumped off the bed and ran out of the bedroom pooping all the way.  Mommy called the vet and the vet said that she thought that one of three things was happening.  They were:

1. I wasn't totally pooping when I went outside because my back hurts so I was having to poop again sooner than expected
2. Because of my back I'm not getting much warning when I have to poop and so I am surprised by it
3. Both 1 and 2

Mommy said she thought it was #3 so the vet told Mommy that I needed to

1. go out right away in the morning and not get to lie around in bed until I feel like getting up.
2. be sure to poop before bed which meant I was supposed to either be followed around by Mommy in the backyard or take a walk

Well, I DO NOT like taking walks before bed.  The first night I walked with her, but as soon as we were about two houses down I kept trying to get her to go back home.  She wouldn't, but I got my revenge by refusing to poop.  The second night I refused to leave the driveway, so I won that battle.   Then Mommy started following me around the backyard.  Well, I don't like being followed around in the backyard by Mommy when I am trying to poop either.  So when I saw what she was doing I stopped and stared at her until she went and did something else.  Our compromise is that Mommy lets me out about an hour before bed now, and then about a half hour after that and then again right before we go to bed.  This has worked really well until last night when I realized at two a.m. that I had to poop so I ran out of the room and pooped in the middle of the plant room.  Mommy wasn't happy about that wake-up call.  I have my next laser treatment on Saturday and Mommy says she is going to talk to the vet about today.  Hopefully the vet will figure out how to stop this.