Bloodhounds Escape !!!

I'll go into more detail about the story of Sadie and Stella escaping this morning. A mistake by me while I was 'half' asleep gave Stella the chance to use her nose to move the door latch upward to open the screen door. I have no idea how long they had been outside but were easy to find. Just because they spent a lot of time this morning outside in the field on their own did not mean any walks were cancelled. By 2:30pm Sadie was demanding a walk with her stare.

I have not been staying up later than my normal time. I usually call it a day somewhere between midnight and 1am. Lately I have been waking up a few times at night with some of the strangest dreams I can remember. Some of those times are from indigestion because I have once again enjoyed some food that I know I can't handle. Foods like milk, Ben&Jerry's ice cream or it may have been those chips, melted cheese with salsa past midnight when the Reds game had a 3 hour rain delay the other night.

Anyway I haven't been sleeping well. So every morning for the past 3-4 days I get up long enough to let the hounds outside and pour their breakfast kibble. Since the overnight temps have been in the 60's I usually leave the kitchen door open so the screen door lets in the cool breezes, along with opening the windows. Evidently this morning I forgot to lock the door latch to that screen door ?

How did I find out?

Waking up a little before noon because I can being single and retired, I heard Heidi was barking to herself in the living room and saw her rolling on the living room carpet (normal for her) as I walked toward the coffee machine. At first I didn't notice the HUGE DIFFERENCE in my environment. I didn't have a large hound or two blocking my me as I walked to the kitchen counter. It didn't register in my mind until I looked around and didn't see Sadie in the big leather chair in the living room.

Then I realized I did not have to step over a sleeping Stella, who was not laying on the floor in front of the kitchen door with the cool breezes blowing on her ... were they hiding somewhere in the house? They were not in the computer room, nowhere in the living room and not in the bedroom ... They were gone !!!!

I knew what happened. I glanced at the screen door and was thrilled that the bottom screen window had not been tore out by Stella ... the answer was about 6" above ... the door lever was in the 90° position and unlatched. Stella the escape artist had decided she and Sadie needed to check out the neighborhood and had opened the door with her nose.

I slid my feet into my sandals and headed outside, without the camera. I saw Sadie in the middle of the field roaming like she always does. When I called her name she was thrilled and came sprinting to me. I knew where Stella probably was but I asked Sadie anyway "Where's Stella".  She took off running north toward the neighbors yard and never stopped.

By the time I had navigated my sandals through the overgrown field, jumped over the small drainage ditch onto my neighbors back yard ... Sadie was already heading around the front of their house with her nose to the ground. I did not see Stella near the woods or in their backyard so I followed Sadie around the front of the house.

I was happy to see no sign of Stella across the highway in the other neighbor's yard. They have a Saint Bernard in their fenced in backyard but Stella has never shown an interest in checking out dogs or cats. It has only happened maybe twice in three years, where I have found Stella a the house two doors down. So it was not a surprise as I followed Sadie to see Stella between the two houses at the edge of the field looking for something to eat. Food has always been her main motivation in life no matter what time of day or night.

When I called her name, of course she raised her head to glance at me and then went back to eating what she had found near the woods. To her, there was no reason I should be concerned about her escape. I have found in the past the neighbor will leave cat food out on the ground for the wild cat we sometimes see in the field. When I yelled 'no', that was the key word for Stella and she started following Sadie who was already running back to me ... in a proud way because she had found Stella.

I didn't yell or scream at them. I was happy to find them without too much trouble. All three of us walked back to the house the same way Sadie and I had come. I had not even finished making coffee and both hounds were passed out on the floor in a deep sleep. All was good in the world of bloodhounds, as they evidently had a fun time.

Looking at past blog posts I see that I do this weird sleep pattern in July for some reason.

We had some severe weather to the south of us this weekend. Heavy rains 200 miles north of us in Chicago but nothing here. I am not even sure the rain we got on Sunday was even measurable. So I will be watering the Azaleas and the other plants I started in July 2017 later this afternoon. They are surviving the hot summer after a colder than normal winter. I do miss the deep green Japanese Yews that I had pulled out last summer but at the same time I like the open space in front of the house. Plus it's a relief to know that the root system of the Yews are not damaging my septic system.

For you Apple users ... I think you will really like the changes in the new OS that will be released to the public this September for computers, tablets and phones. In the past I have volunteered for all the beta releases and this current macOS Mojave is the most stable beta system I have used. I enjoy both 'light' and 'dark' settings. Since I am always changing my mind about things and need different options, I alternate between them. Each choice has hit's pros and cons, like anything else.

It might be just me so I checked out what the 'geeks' were saying on the MacRumors forum about this new OS .. I am finding their browser Safari running much smoother, faster and automatically blocks all the ads and automatic videos without using any 3rd party apps that do that type of blocking. I can also see small changes from different versions, so they are listening to the feedback given to them by the beta users.

Blog readers that are sports fans will understand this next part. Some times whether it be football or basketball, some teams that are playing out of their minds hate seeing halftime of the game. At times it takes away their momentum and their leads are lost. It happens enough over the years that it's a common belief among fans, not so much teams. The same thing can happen in MLB and it has to my Cincinnati Reds.

The All-Star break gave them 3 days off, unless you were an All-Star and you played in the game on Tuesday. Before that break (like a halftime) the Reds had the best record in all of MLB in the last 31 games with a 21-10 record ... losing the game right before their break.

Since that 'All-Star Break' they have lost all three of their games at home. Fans on Twitter are going crazy with some of them wondering if this team will start again 3-18 like they did to start the season. Basically the bats have cooled off, the starting pitching is terrible again and most players are moving in directions where their stats will match what you see on the back of their baseball cards ... their career averages.

You have to wonder why the MLB commissioner wants to expand MLB to at least two if not four new cities in the near future (it's money of course) ... how they have enough quality pitching to fill those 10 man pitching staffs for those possible new teams, even if it were only two new teams.

I say that because current teams do not have enough quality starting pitchers or even relief pitchers to fill their staff on a team. Every day you hear that contending teams are looking to make trades before the deadline July 31st FOR PITCHERS ... staring and relief pitchers. It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out ... but I predict we will see at least two new cities in the next few years with expansion teams, that will start their history by losing 100 games per season .... while all teams continue to look for pitchers.

The outside temperatures are cool enough for the windows to be open and give the AC a break, yet with even low humidity in the 50% range and a low pollen count ... the house seems warm enough to keep the AC on.

I did ask Heidi if she wanted to go outside when we took off for our walk. The only response I got from the stretched out sleeping basset hound on the couch was ... she opened her eyes without moving, thumped her tail on the couch a couple of times and went back to sleep ... going outside or a walk was not an option in her mind.

I might have to take the camera out later this afternoon to catch any butterfly traffic. I rarely see them in the morning walks. This afternoon's walk I saw only one black monarch and it flew away as I almost stepped on the flower it was feeding on.

It will be a great time to wash the Z4 this afternoon or the next couple of days ... I just need a little motivation to get that done.

Allergies ... no fleas ... means a daily scratch for Stella somewhere on the walk.

This was the only butterfly I was able to capture on the mid-afternoon walk. While I was editing the photo I noticed there were two of them not just the one I took a photo of. I look at every photo I download but I do not make editing changes to all of them. I leave a lot of them the way my camera captured the photo.

Another walk completed but you can bet your last dollar that around 6-6:30pm Sadie will let me know it's time for a walk. Stella is never too enthused about a 3rd walk of the day and may not attend.

It will be a couple of baseball games to watch tonight, nothing outside the normal routine. One advantage of the new 55" tv is when I split the screen with two channels, both games are on screens that are of course larger than what I had. It has taken some getting use to with the larger screen but overall I like the purchase I made. Feeding the sound from the tv through the stereo is the way to go as many of you already knew.

It's hard to believe that July is almost over.

A friend sent this article to me today about the water issues in SE Arizona. It is not just the normal news story you hear on tv about California's water problem but one of concern because it deals with the natural underground water sources in different areas of the USA. You can read the article here.

A quiet Monday here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella & Sadie Sprint Next Door

Like I said yesterday, there is never a dull moment with two bloodhounds. This morning for the first time ever, Stella ran down over the bank into the neighbors yard with Sadie showing her the way. I'll get to that story further down the post. It proved that they can hear and smell live moving things (people) a long way off.

With Heidi already moving into her winter hibernation mode she only comes outside after her lunch and then depending on the temperature, gets back inside as soon as possible. She has moved a Mexican blanket out from her spot in the bedroom to the living room and that's a sure sign that winter is just a few months away.

Starting time for the day started later than normal. We were up late with the last MLB playoff game plus an hour or two of computer work after that while I was still wide awake. When you are retired and the hounds being quite adaptable the daily schedule can be a floating one ... without dull meetings and a day of work it's pretty easy to do.

With the temps in the late morning only in the high 50's, it was still beautiful outside ... the air smelled clean, felt a little crisp but a great time to take our first walk of the day. The sky was the bluest of blue.

I was willing to let Stella do whatever she wanted to do on this walk. She lagged behind as Sadie was darting all over the field that was loaded with fresh new scents to track. It must have been a busy night in the field with deer traffic because Sadie was beside herself with excitement.

About the time I took this picture of Sadie ... Stella sprinted past me barely touching my right leg. It was surprising because from the last picture I took of her I didn't think she would be moving much in this walk.

I did catch Sadie in one of her sharp turns but missed getting all the other darting action of her.

I'm not a weather expert, nor a naturalist expert but I am guessing this fall will not be taken over by bright colors from the trees around here. What should be bright reds straight ahead are dying leaves. Yellows are nowhere to be found. There is still enough leaves and enough time to tell me I'm wrong so we will see.

I could tell by the actions of the hounds, scent tracking was the theme of the day and there were more scents to track than what they could manage. Sadie was running everywhere with Stella doing more of a steady paced search.

I had a feeling that Stella might try to duplicate her escape like yesterday so I kept an eye on her. She looked like she was sneaking away again but she stopped heading that direction when I yelled her name. She didn't turn our direction but stopped heading north.

Sadie had that look of hers when looking in Stella's direction that seems to say "where is she going now"????

Something was in the air as the hounds met on the path and took off running, leaving me way behind.

As I started heading back on the normal return path, both of them had noses to the ground at a good pace on the alternate path we take. It leads right to the north property line pole. So I moved over to that path with their suggestion.

This is where things get interesting. They NEVER are in front of me on this path. I normally have to walk back once I get into the yard and tug at Stella's collar to get her to move. Not today.

They started running .... that put my mind on the alert and I prepared the camera for possible running.

And then they started sprinting and never stopped. I had a pretty good idea what was leading them across the yard as fast as possible toward the bank by the burn pile. I started running because I was pretty sure they were headed next door to meet the neighbor for the first time ever.

Earlier I had seen the neighbor out clearing some brush in different parts of his yard and thought the hounds might have decided it was time to meet.

By the time I sprinted to the yard the hounds were out of site. I could see his truck parked near the bank, through the dead wild ragweed stems. By the time I got to the bank the hounds had ran over the bank through the weeds and had him surrounded --- blocking his way from getting out of his truck. They don't jump on people but are more than happy to let that person(s) know they are glad to see them.

Luckily he has a sense of humor. I called them to "get up here" and they both charged through the dead ragweed, up the bank and pranced around the driveway excited they had met someone new and proud of what they had done.

While we talked about the bank's future next spring I put the hounds in the house but not shutting them up in the bedroom like I usually do even when I mow the yard. That prevents Stella from eating my bowls of fruit, dragging my glasses, iPad mini or iPhone off of the counter to give them a good lick or snooping around for new stuff to taste.

So it was a test for the hounds since they had run of the house while the neighbor and I talked.

I am happy to say the glasses, iPad Mini, iPhone and my laptop were still on the counter and kitchen table when I returned. Nothing was on the floor from Stella dragging stuff off the counter and the only 'damage' was she ate one of my mangoes but left one in the bowl for me to eat later on.

Here are some photos from late yesterday afternoon. Sometime around 3pm my TMJ kicked in and drove me to my knees at one point ... not actually to my knees but you get the idea how bad the pain was. I tried 800mg of Ibuprofen ... nothing improved.

I tried rotating an ice pack and then a warm damp wash cloth on my jaw ... that didn't help. What caused it may have been a sandwich I ate mid-afternoon. With a recent dental exam giving me a clean bill of health I knew it wasn't a cavity that was causing the pain.

I lived with it until about 9pm when it finally got so bad that I stepped away from the baseball game I was watching on tv and headed for my computer. I had bookmarked two years ago a site that was about TMJ .. in fact it was tmj.org

I wanted to review what I was doing to see if I missed something. I found out that with constant pain I need to apply heat, not ice. I needed to take some more Ibuprofen (I didn't) ... so I soaked a wash cloth in hot water, squeezed out all the water and then put it in the Microwave for 15 seconds ... it was hot and felt great against my sore jaw.

As the pain diminished I massaged around my jaw bone, near my right ear, behind the ear and at the base of my neck ... a couple of hours later I noticed the pain had all gone away without taking more Ibuprofen.

The sad thing is, coffee (caffeine) is not good for TMJ. But I had to have a cup or two this morning and I thought what a good test it would be to find out if coffee would put me back in pain this morning.

I ate food on that side of my mouth to prove it was not cavity related. When I drank hot coffee before our morning hound walk I did not try to keep the coffee away from that side of my mouth. There was no pain of any kind when the hot coffee was on that side of my mouth.

It's been a couple of hours since I had that coffee and there is no pain at all in my jaw bone area or the teeth. I do sleep with a mouth guard to prevent me from grinding my teeth or clenching my jaw while I sleep. Sometimes I can feel how much I did that when I take out the guard in the morning. So the guard does work.

As I was typing this I heard two bloodhounds wrestling in the next room. It's been almost a year since Stella has wrestled with Sadie inside the house. The play ended with a yelp from Stella and I could see it's her hips or lower back that is the problem just like I have mentioned here before. She came running to my desk wagging her tail to let me know she was okay.

"No harm no foul" as the say in basketball. Sadie shared her water bowl with Stella and the both laid down beside my desk chair to take a nap and to let me know it was time for lunch even after a late breakfast.

No plans today except for more hound walks, more pictures and watching two baseball games this afternoon and tonight.

It's a beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.