The Hounds Roll Along

Although the days change the hounds stay the same day in day out. The weather might make them deviate from their routines but overall nothing changes with them too much, and me either. A couple of things that have, cooler temps and my 'to do' list items keep getting marked off as I complete them. I knew that once I got started the momentum would start to roll. The hounds take me for walks when I need a break.

With the extra kibble I am giving Stella I can tell that she is gaining a little weight and her ribs are starting to disappear. I also caught her trotting a few times this past week during our morning walks.

Stella was sure that she was out of my line of sight. I can't remember what I was saying to get both of their attention. Sadie's lump on the right side has not changed.

I am stuck right now on what to say ... I am almost speechless and out of ideas.

Stella's collar made it through the last load of laundry. Looks like new and she was really happy to wear it again. It's the one she came with. Hair is growing back on her ears and inside of her legs. Maybe she had only summer allergies?

One morning while I was taking pictures of butterflies and clouds, Stella was making her attempt of sneaking away toward the backyard of the neighbor. She was walking with purpose, a little faster than what she walks near me and was ignoring all of my calls.

Sadie decided on her own it was time to make a rescue.

The only problem was when she stopped to look for Stella, she was facing the wrong direction. She was facing north and Stella was walking northwest.

It seems on every late afternoon walk, on the way back to the house, Stella will stop stand and smell something toward the neighbors a couple of houses down. Or it might be that she hears someone. On this day she decided that standing wasn't going to be good enough ... so she sat, not moving facing the direction she does every afternoon. I am sure it's food she smells.

No ribs showing.

You can see the lump on Sadie in front of her rear leg. At times when she is standing still, I can barely feel the lump at all.

Through all of these walks ... this is what Heidi does 99.9% of the time. She must be preparing for the freezing temps in the winter. Well back to my tasks at hand ... I've really been in the mood to work lately. I'm getting a lot done.

It's been a great summer in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana this year.

The Hounds Enjoy My Retirement

I couldn't come up with a title for this post this morning. That doesn't mean I can't put a post together and give it some time to 'simmer' and hopefully the day will come up with something to put in that title block. The rain did not show up again yesterday, while my friend in Chicago told me she had 2" in less than 15 minutes yesterday. We are a few hundred miles south of Chicago. Like always the bloodhounds lead me outside to start a new day. If it weren't for them I wonder if I would take as many walks per day? I think I would.

I still think this is the prettiest flower in the field, no matter how dangerous it is.

I felt on Sadie's right side this morning, no change. It's not gushy with fluid, it's not hard like a rock, it's a bit smaller in area and it feels just like it would if you felt her stomach ... there's still a small lump.

Verbal herding was needed this morning and a lot of it. They did not hear the bribes I was offering them for when they returned to the house. They did not hear me mumbling to myself. They did not hear anything I told them ... nada, zip ... nothing.

I have a new container of K9 Creme that I am going to apply on Stella's elephant spots. Hopefully that will work and it will show if it does or not in the following blog posts for the next few weeks, maybe months, or longer.

Here is the only photo I could get of Sadie's right side ... she wasn't thrilled about it. If my eyes are focused correctly, I can barely see that fatty tissue ... can you?

With the morning temps in the mid-70's, it was nice and cool each time we walked in the shade. When we made the first turn, a slight cool breeze hit me from the NE ... I could tell it was going to be another nice day here in 'the tropics' ... you cannot beat summer weather like this. The Farmer's Almanac predicted it would be wetter than normal this summer ...

If you are wondering, yes I did have to backtrack and take a hold of Stella's collar to get her to move. She was in the same position you see even after I grabbed her collar and refused to move. She didn't growl ... just didn't move.

A little color in the field.

From a distance the 7 acre field looks flat. It's not. There are not large hills but there is plenty of rolling terrain as these two regular size rolls of hay show. The times I have walked from the woods up ahead, back to our direction in that area, the incline looks tall and steep.

How long will the hay sit in this field before they load it onto a trailer and take it away.

That might look like Stella is increasing her walking speed, don't let it fool you ... one paw at a time ... slow slow slow.

A smaller roll and was probably the last bale the did. It was rather a poor outcome with about 50% of the hay they normally get from the first cut of the summer.

Hard to see but the trees near the house show the slight breeze from the NE.

Is it food she smells, does she hear people talking, or is it some kind of other noise?

When everything seems to be green, including the house (painted to blend into the environment) ... this bright red leaf stood out 100' away.

I did a flea search on Stella last night with one of those metal flea combs that will bring a flea to the surface ... not one flea was found. So it has to be allergies, maybe environmental? Pollen? Grass?

Allergies reminded me of all the different kinds of Grain Free Food I was feeding the hounds a couple of years ago. I found this article this morning to be interesting and concerning. If you feed your dogs Grain Free Food ... take a look.

FDA warns pet owners about the dangers of Grain Free Food ... here.

Since February of 2017 all three of the hounds have been on Chicken and Rice or Lamb and Rice without the long list of fruits and veggies. I stuck with it because it because Heidi got results in battling her skin issues and Stella's coat was softer than ever plus she started gaining her weight back. Sadie's coat was also and continues to be softer than ever.

A vet told me when he was looking at Heidi at her worst, in his study on food allergies for dogs, only 3% of those allergies were food related. He said they had found that one cause was the beef in Heartworm meds. Yet, Heidi never responded to treatment in 2015 (?) with environmental allergy meds. She did not respond to Grain Free Food but she did respond to a food with fewer ingredients.

Of course I have a spreadsheet to compare all the different foods I fed the hounds, listed by each ingredient.

The following photos are going to give you a pretty good idea of the daily routine of the hounds after their lunch. I don't know why, but rarely do they do anything more than this. Today was very nice outside, nice enough to sit outside and just enjoy the day ... but it wasn't more than 15 minutes where they wanted back inside.

They don't understand that it's a life of retirement that gives them this opportunity in the middle of the day. A little over 4 years of me being retired and I still enjoy each and every day as they do also.

Obviously from the photos you can see they do a lot of thinking about possible plans or scents to check out that they missed in the morning.

With Stage 10 of the Tour de France being in the Alps today, it was nice to watch that in the middle of the day, fast forwarding through the 3 minute commercials. Fantastic shots of the Alps taken from the aerial tv cameras during the race. It's really unbelievable country and villages in France.

It looks like Stella could sleep there all afternoon but she was at the door wanting back inside within 10 minutes after Sadie, Heidi and I had gone inside.

Of course after watching all of that bike riding up 7% - 9% mountain grades, for over 100 miles having a few flat sections between climbs all of us were exhausted by the time their 4 hour race was over. They moved from their living room sleeping spots to the bedroom floor while all of us took a nice long siesta. Just another advantage of being retired.

The highlight of the night will be watching the MLB All-Star game. I will not tune in until after all the 'made for tv' introductions are finished. I will miss all of the pre-game festivities. I just like watching the game itself. Anymore it seems like the MLB, NBA, and the NFL all try to be more extravagant than the other sports All-Star games or the NFL Super Bowl. As a long time sports fan I will say it's all out of control anymore ... a topic I find very irritating.

Although it was 88°, the cooler wind from the north made it possible to take a late afternoon walk. Sadie took her normal path while I walked Stella on the retractable leash.

Another fantastic day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Start a New Week ... But Who's Counting?

All the rain in Sunday's forecast never arrived. It did not rain a drop. So with lower percentages for this afternoon and tonight I don't feel real confident we will get the rain we need. It wasn't soon after the sun tried to come up that all the white flowers were back today. I saw a few in different parts of the field. Most things I did today was inside and although it seemed pretty slow, time passed faster than ever.

Sadie's lump felt no different this morning, except a little smaller. Every time I tried to get a photo of her right side, she would move.  LOL

A few steps outside this morning I decided I was going to let Stella do what she wanted. She started the walk like she has the past few weeks, starting on the path and then slowly veering left.

Looking at her I was sure she was headed to the woods. I stood and watched as she stopped walking, looked in the direction of the neighbors backyard then turned right and started walking toward our path. I was in total shock, speechless.

I gave her a few pats on the head and some positive praise as she walked closer to me. She is not in that LOL ... she kept walk right past me ... acting like I was in her way.

She made a left onto our path and started her walk along the edge of the field.

Once Sadie got ahead of her, she glanced back at Stella to see if she was going to have a partner to explore with or was this going to be another solo walk. Sadie has never liked waiting too much for anyone.

Overcast, not really hot but really muggy ... it felt like rain was right around the corner this morning. By lunch that would all change to bright sunshine and the thought of rain was just a rumor.

I tried to sneak on the left so I could take a picture of Sadie's right side but she caught me ... and started running toward me.

A lot of the times Stella likes to follow last summer's ATV path that is now grown over. I can tell by the way she is hanging her mouth that it's hot. She might pick her pace up to get back to the house for some air conditioning relief.

I tried some different things today as far as focus, cropping and settings of 'single point' and 'auto focus area'.

If I had a Facebook account this is a photo I would have posted for some friends to see that don't read the blog. I don't miss Facebook and it's now been over a month since I deleted my account. I also changed to DuckDuckGo for my search engine and only use my gmail account to log into this blog.

Every morning walk, Sadie will get some running in.

Stella sticks with one pace, no running and very little trotting if any at all anymore. Last week when I asked, the vet did not feel anything abnormal with her hips and Stella did not show any signs there was soreness in that area.

The butterflies are slowing coming back ... not a lot of them yet but I'll be taking photos of them when I see them. I see most of them on our afternoon walks.

I looked these up on google search last year and named them in a blog post. I can't remember the the names but do know this is the first 'orange' we have had this year in the field.

Stella didn't stop to scratch herself this morning. She walked without stopping straight to the door ... she was hot and wanted her air conditioned room to sleep in.

This is about as far as Heidi went today after lunch. Of course Sadie had to run over and check to see if she was okay and what she had been sniffing. You never know, it might be food.

When I asked Heidi if she wanted to go for a walk (already knew the answer), she trotted to the door to go inside. She jumped on the couch from a sprint and was asleep within 10 minutes.

I ended up buying a $99 Audio Technica turntable the other day. I was guessing my ears at this stage of life would not be able to tell the difference between a $99 stylus and a $499 stylus. The vinyl LPs are old but are sounding great. Some of them have not been played in over 25 years, just sitting on the shelf.

I did buy the 55" TV. I did have it setup and operational by 3:58pm Saturday with the Reds game starting at 4:15pm. That was after a 45 minute drive each way. I am slowly getting the picture the way I like it with adjustments that are available. I am glad that someone stated on their customer review, the tv would need to be adjusted because the picture "out of the box" was terrible. In fact it was scary how poor the quality was when it was first turned on.

I watched a Blu-Ray DVD last night, so that is hooked up correctly since I had a picture and sound. You would not believe how many people on forums are looking for either a picture or the sound when they hook their tv up.

I was able to check the picture for any changes by setting 7' and then 10' from me. No matter what the distance will be, it will not miss the flying drool that Stella spreads sometimes before I can ask her to move or stop her. I think bloodhound drool could peel paint if I didn't clean up soon after I see it. I also saw signs where she had licked the new remote control for the stereo receiver.

Needless to say ... the bloodhounds are so different than basset hounds.  Entirely different.

For those that use to get emails as soon as I posted a new blog post, something is wrong with that feature on this blog. It's not Blogger because this morning I typed in my own email address in the settings of my private blog and got the invite to accept and get my new blog posts immediately after I saved my settings. I did a one line test blog post and got that in my inbox in less than a minute ... but not on this blog.

I have relisted all of your email address that use to have that and asked for you to get back to me and let me know when you received the invite. So far one reader has replied that they have not received the email and it's been over 6 hours. When I added my email I received the invite email as soon as I saved my blog settings.

Something is going on with Blogger in the background.

With no baseball games tonight I'll probably be in the movie mode. Once the hounds wake up, the bloodhounds and I will go for our afternoon walk.I'll ask Heidi if she wants to go but for some reason ... she has zero interest. I might have to carry her to the field and go on a walk with just her to see if that makes a difference.

Checking the weather radar there is not a storm cloud within 200 miles west of me ... so no rain today.

All is good though here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.