red tennis balls grow on trees

The red tennis balls (aka plums) are ripening on the tree.   Penny has collected one to keep.

Fortunately, she doesn't eat the plums. She just likes to have them around, perhaps regarding them as toys.

the cone of shame picks up signals from Pluto

I had to laugh at this joke on Slavenka's site. It's funny on so many levels.

two hilarious blog posts about dogs

I've just cried laughing for five minutes. I was reading blog posts by Hyperbole and a Half. I've only read Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving and Dog.

I'm not sure if there are any other posts about dogs on the blog, but I'm too worn out from laughing to look yet.

I sure hope there are more canine-related posts to come.

apologies to blonde readers for this dog joke

I can't resist passing on this joke that came today in The Friday Funnies:

The veterinarian told the blonde that her dog needed some
exercise.

"You need to make sure the dog runs around," the doctor
said. "Try playing a game of fetch."

"I can't play fetch with my dog," the blonde said.

"Why not?" the doctor asked.

"Because," she replied, "He can't throw."

And Sheila, in her Pet Hates Cartoons blog has a treadmill joke. I'm glad Penny doesn't have to go on that one!

dogs who can sniff anything

Sheila has a new dog-related cartoon on her site. She says, of exaggerated resumes,

It’s such a fine line to walk when trying to impress a potential employer…

The cartoon reminds me of the man I met recently who has two beagles that are trained to sniff out termites. Now they have a right to boast about their resumes! I'll bet they've saved householders a packet of money.

(I have her permission to post the cartoon here.)

dogs reading their p-mails

An on-lead walk with Penny is a slow walk. An off-lead one is fast. You may ask why. Well, it's because she has to read each p-mail in our locality before we can move on, and if I'm attached to her by a lead, I have to wait around while she scans each telephone pole, fire hydrant, bush, grass clump or stone for a potential message.

Oh, did I mention that she also has to balance on three legs while she leaves her own comments on the state of the world? That takes time also.

So I laughed out loud when I read yesterday's Cartoon By Sheila. (Sheila has kindly given me permission to reproduce it here. Thanks, Sheila.)



(And I love the sign in the background of the cartoon.)

Sheila has set herself the challenge of posting 365 cartoons in 2010, so you might like to pop over there and see how she's going.

when filming the dog gets expensive

We all love filming our dogs. But I'll bet the guy who filmed his dog playing fetch wasn't too happy about the outcome! (In fact, I'd better post a strong-language warning - he really, really wasn't happy!) But I guess he got over it, because he put it out there for us to see.

And I think it's hilarious!

I found it at a German site, and couldn't figure out whether it can be embedded, so here's the link.

dogs deserve heaven too.

I read this joke today in About Seniors.

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.
He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.

When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as He got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, ‘Excuse me, where are we?’
‘This is Heaven, sir,’ the man answered.
‘Wow! Would you happen to have some water?’ the man asked.
‘Of course, sir. Come right in, and I’ll have some ice water brought right up.’
The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

‘Can my friend,’ gesturing toward his dog, ‘come in, too?’ the traveller asked.
‘I’m sorry; sir, but we don’t accept pets.’
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.
As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.
‘Excuse me!’ he called to the man. ‘Do you have any water?’
‘Yeah, sure, there’s a pump over there, come on in.’
‘How about my friend here?’ the traveller gestured to the dog.
‘There should be a bowl by the pump.’

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.
The traveller filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, and then he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.

‘What do you call this place?’ the traveller asked.
‘This is Heaven,’ he answered.

‘Well, that’s confusing,’ the traveller said. ‘The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.’
‘Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That’s hell.’
‘Doesn’t it make you mad for them to use your name like that?’

‘No, we’re just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.’

should dogs go to heaven if they won't 'give' to their humans?

Right after I blogged about Penny being in disgrace for refusing to give up her smelly stocking, I came across a funny spoof debate on Bark Blog about whether dogs can go to heaven if they've been naughty - actually, it's about whether they can go to heaven at all.

The church-sign generator looks like fun. Here's mine: