snoozing privately

In a busy household it can be difficult to get a few moments' private rest.

But Penny seems to have solved the problem. In an unused doorway that looks out to the street we keep one of Penny's many beds. This one is an elevated one and her preferred spot for sleeping or keeping an eye out for passers-by.

As I walked past, this evening, I did a double-take.

What? A closer inspection showed a canine outline inside the curtain.

Here's hoping she manages to get off the bed without tripping herself on the curtain. (You have probably guessed that we think Penny is more important than clean curtains.)

an alien visitor in the local park

We've just come home from a visit to Willsmere Park, and when I sat down to look at my photos, I clicked on a close-up of strange bumps on a tree.

But what was this? The computer's face recognition program thought there was a face peeping out of one of the bumps!

Da Dum (creepy music rising to a crescendo)... when I zoomed in on the little bump, it looked like...

an alien dog.

Do you see the ear hanging down at the right? The long line of the muzzle? 

I think it might be a visitor from Penny's planet of origin, perhaps the Canine Leader who sent her to explore Earth and see if it was fit for Doggy Colonisation.

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.

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: