Cardinals

We are having a snow storm today, just a wonderful to watch from inside a nice cozy house! Nice that it is Saturday and everyone is able to hang around the house and not have to drive anywhere, although we have been out twice. Once to do a repair at my moms Condo and Hubby hurt his hand on Thursday while riding his motocross bike,or should I say falling off his bike, and today it was really swollen. I insisted we take a ride to the ER and get an X-Ray. Thankfully nothing is broken. Friday he does have surgery on the foot he broke a year ago...falling off that damn bike! So I will be back at the hospital again! Lots of feeder birds today, including a gorgeous pair of purple finches. Tonight just as I anticipated there is a FLOCK of Cardinals, about twenty or so. It's hard to count them as some of them end up under my kitchen window and I can't get them all at once. For the last decade or so I can always count on a large group from January until around March. There are up to thirty some days when the weather is really bad. Most people feel lucky to have a pair at their feeders. When we have company, if they happen to look out side and see the large number, they get so excited.

Poor Petey had no run today, too many obligations for me, and I was also a bit nervous going out there with the light covering of snow over all that ice, could have made for some very bad falls for both of us. He has had a houseful of kids to play with, so I don't think he is suffering too much!

I'm almost done on my research for Petey's backpack, and shoes too. The shoes he will need them in case of any type of foot injury while we are out backpacking. Not easy to carry a 100# boy! My boy has BIG feet! Although he is really just med-lg size dog, his shoe size on Ruff Wear is an XL...and maybe even an XXL...the size shoe that St. Bernards wear!!! He never did grow into those big feet of his! Maybe I ended up with a Dobe with HUGE feet because of the life he was going to lead, no cat feet for Petey, big giant feet with just as big nails, that are perfect for running, jumping and going over very rough terrain. Not once has he had a problem with pads or nails. He has cut pads pretty badly and they don't even bleed for more then a minute, nor does he ever limp from injuries, and they heal in no time at all. My Weims didn't have as good foot pads like Petey. I do put Mushers secret on Petey's feet a couple of times a week during the Winter, but I don't over baby his feet. His nails are pretty long too, and I only cut the tips off about every ten days. As for the backpack I think I'm going to get the Ruff Wear Palisades Backpack. It has built in water bladders. I recently purchased Petey's new sleeping pad, and it s much bulkier then I had thought, I think Daddy will be able to carry it with his own sleeping pad, not with out much complaint as it weights three pounds, but it can be used on other vacations if we decide it is just too heavy. It is also from Ruff Wear. They have wonderful products!