Vet Gives Stella An A+

With an 11am vet appointment for Stella today, we were able to fit our morning walk between a light rain and our departure. As you will see from the photos, Stella's walk was more of a leisurely stroll  than anything else. It was 69°, all the house windows were open again and the AC was turned off. All of that did not mean that Heidi would take the morning walk with us, she didn't.

With the photos being just as dark and dreary as my eyes were seeing, none of these photos were edited. It was fantastic news last night when Barney made a comment on my post yesterday afternoon, explaining why my photos did not look as sharp, clear and crisp as Mark's over on his BoxCanyon Blog. It's the moisture in the air that makes the photo quality different than his in the mountains of Colorado.

I never thought about that. One reason is, I still think to this day that the first week of using the Nikon D3200, it's photos were much better than recent ones. Still, it was great to hear Barney's reasoning and from someone that had experienced using his camera in Colorado and Texas locations and noticed the difference.

As I approached the first turn it was good to feel less mosquitoes this morning. I hope the cooler temps tonight and tomorrow drive them away for good. Stella had to be in front of me today. Anytime I took the lead on the walk so I could take a photo in front of her, she would trot and pass me.

Finally as she found something interesting enough to stop ... I was able to move in front and get pretty far in front of her for these next pictures.

These next two photos show how slow she walks ... you can see each front leg raised, one at a time. I know they both should not be off the ground at the same time but every step is defined in a slow movement.

One thing I have noticed between the two cameras .. the Nikon D3200 and the Canon SX530 ... I am taking the same photos, holding the camera the same way and the Nikon D3200 would be 2°- 4° off in photos that had a house or a cell phone tower, maybe some trees in the photo.

That tells me that one day in 2017 when a strong wind picked up the chair the Nikon was sitting in and blew the chair/camera about 10' into the driveway, it did something to the Nikon camera. I was washing the FJ at the time and there were no signs of strong winds, until that sudden wind burst.

While I reminded Stella that we had a pretty tight schedule to keep to get to the vet on time, 12 miles away ... she continued to observe the area and walk as slow as possible. Her world moves on her time, no one else.

I am able to take better close up photos with the Canon SX530.

This is another time I wish I could find out what Stella is thinking.

Finally it clicked in her brain that it was time to leave for the vet. She was excited to go somewhere.

The vet removed the three staples on her inner left front leg. It had healed nice. The spot on her head above her right now healed quickly and is growing hair back. He thought her right eye was looking very good and I could stop the eye ointment I had been putting in her eye twice per day. He reminded me to keep her eyes clean as possible due the way a bloodhound and basset hound eyelid is designed opposite most dogs .. they fall outward.

With the off and on light rain all day, it was a good day to read the books I brought home from the library. My 'to do' list is on hold until tomorrow when the rains are gone. Plus I played a lot of games of Mahjong, trying to get more games finished under 3 minutes. You can barely see the rain going at an angle from upper left to lower right.

It is the only app I have ever bought ... 99 cents. (Mahjong Deluxe) That keeps all the advertising away. There are 4 levels with 40 games per section. One of the best time wasters I have ever found.

While Heidi refused to come out for photos ... Stella found it pretty easy to stretch out and sleep the afternoon away.

Another great day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Cool Temps Arrive

After a full day of activity outside yesterday, we went the opposite direction today. Not a lot happened and some of that was due to the light rain this morning.

It was easy to see and feel that today was not going to reach 70° and luckily with no real plans but the normal 'hanging out', it wouldn't matter if we took another day off.

Sadie and Stella were pretty energetic their 2nd trip out, right after their breakfast of morning kibble. Yet, they didn't go anywhere, just around the yard.

After the hour rain, the sunshine broke through but the temps still remained in the mid-60's. It felt like quite a change from a few weeks ago but all the windows remained open for the day. There was enough chill to the air I almost traded cargo shorts for jeans. It has to be pretty cold for me to make the change.

Heidi wasn't interested in taking the walk today but explored around the house while we were gone. At times she walks as if her hips hurt. It's hard to tell, so we may head to the vet and see what he/she has to say. I did find out in my internet searching last night for dog food to help a hound to gain weight, it suggested a food with 30% protein and 20% fat. That is hard to find, even with some of the more specialty blends of kibble.

Even with the light rain, the ground was wet but not bad enough to where we would have to cancel it. No wind, just cool temps ... a perfect time to walk.

With tails up and noses down ... the hounds were 'off to the race's as some people would say.

Stella glanced up and saw Sadie may have found something she needed. She didn't hesitate in sprinting to where Sadie was to check it out. It must have been good because she stayed behind as Sadie and I continued the walk.

By the time we got to the first turn, Stella was still not in view.

As always Stella came sprinting up behind us before we got to the back of the field. She loves to run so maybe she stays behind on purpose so she can do just that.

The is the edge along the back of the field and from their activity today, there must be some heavy deer traffic when we are not around. I could barely get them to leave that area.

There must have been at least 5 stops along that back area.

Stella tries to gradually drift off to the right away from us and towards the 'no fly zone'.

After being called a few times Stella took her own time getting back to the yard. It is temping to let both of them roam the field since I can see where they are ... but both of them are still on 'adult supervision' until they can show me they will not head to the neighbors yard on the north side of our house, or too the left side of the photo below.

Stella never looks happy when she ends her walk, but doesn't hesitate to head to the house and start her afternoon siesta.

For a change I did not do any 'enhancements' of the photos taken today. Just straight shots from the camera without any kind of editing in Apple Photos.

The day was full of a lot of book reading, many games of Mahjong, trying to get more games completed in less than 3 minutes and 15 seconds. I guess the highlight of tonight will be a rare occurrence with me tuning into a prime time tv show at 10pm, named ... Designated Survivor.

Cool temps and some rain is the forecast for the rest of the week here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella's Fear Of Thunder

Can't quite see the rain drops

Since it had not thundered much between the time Stella arrived here in 'the tropics' (Aug 30) and now, she had to remind me this morning that her previous owner had told me "Stella's afraid of thunder". I hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary in last fall's storms so I didn't think much about it when the thunder started pounding loud this morning.

The skies were getting really dark, some lightning strikes near by and a blast of thunder ... just as my morning blog post was published, I lost my satellite internet connection. It wasn't a second after it published it went out. By that time the house was dark as night and Stella was pacing and whining. She ran to the door a few times and nudge the door handle with her nose as if she needed out -- it was just needing to 'escape' that loud noise.

View from the Mahjong game

While having a reassuring chat with her, Sadie came over and placed her nose on top of Stella's head to let her know that all is well inside the house when it is storming outside. Compared to my first basset hound, Harry, this was nothing in terms of a storm. Stella did not freak out, did not pace but stood in place a few times to listen. Harry would have been pacing a hour before the storm arrived and then he would have tried fitting his basset hound body under the couch, behind tables and crying the whole time he paced.

Stella decided this was the best alternative ... let it rain all it wants outside.

With my computer turned off due to the lightning .. I fired up the laptop, running on it's own battery, on the kitchen table so I could play Mahjong and watch it rain at the same time. Here is a screen shot of my addiction .. Mahjong Deluxe, the only app I've ever paid for ... 99 cents. I started last year to get each game completed in less than 7 minutes, then 5 minutes, then under 4 minutes, under 3 min 30 seconds. There are 4 different sections with each being progressively harder and more tiles to remove per game. So about 160 games are included. I play them over and over trying to remove all the tiles as fast as I can. My time ranges from 2:15 to 4:40 with most of them being between 3:00 - 3:15.

Along with that I had to do some weather research. Under normal sunny skies there is always a chance of Stella's separation anxiety going active while I am gone. Now with thunder and her being alone I might get the double whammy on this. She was going to be left with Sadie in the bedroom as usual while I went to the store for groceries and a stop by the library to check out some books.

Taking Sadie and Stella with me was not an option on this trip. They would have been okay in back of the FJ while I was inside but about the time I would have opened the back door of the FJ to load groceries ... I would have had two loose bloodhounds in the parking lot. I didn't want to chance that. Yet, what would I do if I were traveling and needed to buy groceries?

I put my weatherman's hat on, studied the local weather on wunderground, then checked the radar out to St Louis to see what was coming towards 'the tropics' ... it looked like I had a window of opportunity to 'escape' and buy some groceries. Heidi moved out the living room where she can roam the house while I am gone. She can drink all of the bloodhound's water, check their food bowls for any pieces of kibble that might have been missed. It also prevents the bloodhounds from playing too rough with her while I am gone.

I must admit when I pulled the FJ out on the highway I was expecting the worse when I got back. Stella had been okay during my short store trips at night only a mile away and my short trip to the library downtown and back ... so this two hour vacation I was going on would be a good test for her.

When I returned, there was NO damage when I slowly opened the door expecting the worse. All of the dog bones that were left were in a different location, the dog bed on the hardwood floor was slid across the room and Sadie's tongue was hanging all the way out of her mouth as she was out of breath and panting. Obvious signs that some bloodhound wrestling had been taking place.

We headed outside for them to dump tanks and I could get a few photos after the storm had blown through. Heavy winds the other night had gusts up to 45mph, it looks like that took out part of my fence .. where did that top piece go?

I am not sure how much rain we received. I don't have the high tech rain gauge that Greg has down in Texas ... it either rained a lot or I have a low spot on my makeshift patio.

Sadie and Stella took a while to find that perfect spot ... dog owners will know what I am talking about ... these two walk forever sometimes just to find it. Luckily they have plenty of room to add new spots if they choose to.

Heidi had gone before I took the trip to buy groceries. She was only out long enough to stay out of the rain (behind the yews) and get her job finished. There wasn't time to lock and load the camera. By the time the bloodhounds had gone outside Heidi was asleep for the afternoon.

I decided to follow the Paleo Diet shopping list. That makes shopping pretty easy. It consists of the aisle for meat/chicken/fish, straight over to the the vegetables and then the fruit section as you proceed to checkout. I had to make two trips into the packaged food aisle ... Seattle's Best Coffee #5 and some extra virgin olive oil. I like that kind of shopping.

Of course since I have not decided yet if I or they will change the FJ oil, today the line and time to wait at the Walmart Automotive department was zero. I found that out with a basket full of groceries and no time to get my oil changed. If I decide to get my oil changed there, the place will be packed and the wait long. Maybe I'll try on some Sunday morning when 90% of the county is at church. Otherwise I might stop at the Toyota dealership or just do it myself.

So the fridge is stocked, a couple of new books to read plus finish Area 51. There is an IU basketball game to watch tonight. All of the hounds are in their deep sleep mode ... should be quiet here the rest of the day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.