We’re famous!

My friend Herb Wilson mentioned Henbogle blog in his birding column in the Maine Sunday Telegram this past Sunday, writing about the hair of the dog and the titmouse, when a tufted titmouse was pulling hair from Fishy for her nest.

I thought I’d post the links to make it easier for people to find the photos and video.

A photo of one of a titmouse in the nest box can be seen here, and photos of a disappointed titmouse attempting to collect hair from the recently clipped Fishy here. Fishy and the Titmouse, the video, can be seen here. Fishy the lion dog can be seen here.

Who’d have thunk ol‘ Fishy would be responsible for making Henbogle famous!

Fishy and the Titmouse: The Movie

I didn’t realize I had to hold the camera horizontally, but it is still pretty funny!

More titmouse tales

The intrepid tufted titmouse was back looking for more dog hair recently. You can see the bird just behind the arm of the deck chair, sizing up Fisher. Unfortunately for them, we had Fisher clipped for the summer. The titmouse was not impressed with that decision.

Their young fledge pretty quickly, so I’m wondering if they are working on a second brood for the year. I’ll have to look into that more, I haven’t seen anything so far. I did learn here that the females build the nest, so it must be Trudy titmouse pulling hair from the dog.

This is not a great photo, but if you look closely through the mesh of the deck chair, you can see Trudy perched on Fisher’s behind.

Heavenly Scent

This morning I awoke to the intoxicating scent of lilac wafting through the bedroom window on the slight breeze. If I could awaken to that scent more often, I would be in heaven!

Ocho helped make sure I awoke to catch the scent. She likes to lurk in the window sills and birdwatch –she’s quite a birder! Fortunately, she’s an inside cat.


In the front yard, the flowering crab tree fills the air with color and scent. The perfume wafts through the window of the upstairs bath, and the light reflecting off the blossoms gives the room a rosy glow. This tree is breathtakingly beautiful every spring, and without fail, later in the summer all the leaves drop and it looks very sickly, yet it still is gorgeous every spring.

Once awake, I had to arise and make coffee to sit out on the deck and enjoy the view. The sun is lighting the crab tree, in full bloom, and as the breeze stirs, the petals drop to the ground. It is amazingly beautiful.

I love the mornings this time of year, sitting on the deck with my coffee and looking over the yard. I love the garden, it fill me with happiness. When enjoying this view, I even forget about making a to-do list. For a minute or two.

Before and After

Before
After

Just kidding! This is actually the work of Fishy’s awesome groomer, Kathryn. We call him Mufasa.

An Intrepid Titmouse

The other day while Karen and Bill were here visiting, we were sitting out on the deck enjoying the late day sunshine and we saw a tufted titmouse land on the ground near Fisher. The bird hopped closer, and then hopped onto the dog. Fishy moved, and the bird flew off.

Late this afternoon, the titmouse pair was back, and as Fisher lay on the deck, one of them made repeated landings. Eventually, Fishy ignored the bird, which then proceeded to pull out a big beakful of dog hair. Fortunately, I was able to get close enough to take photos through the shed door. It was amazing!

Look at the beakful of hair! Less to vacuum :-)

Off to make the nest cozy.

Suburban dog (skunked again!)

Fisher, our bone-headed Golden Retriever, was skunked again Wednesday night, fortunately with only a light shower of scent. Yes, you may recall that he was skunked fairly recently this past summer, too. I guess we are lucky because Dan had JUST come in from the backyard after putting the chickens to bed, so he must have narrowly missed crossing paths with Pepe le Pew.

I’ve finally realized what the problem is –he is a happy & goofy suburban dog, and I grew up with smart and savvy country dogs, and expected Fisher to be the same. Recalling the dogs of my youth, (Blackie, Frisky, Rascal Caesar, Julius), I can only recall 2 skunking episodes. Blackie was skunked once, I believe when she came upon a skunk IN the barn, and Rascal was skunked once in the backyard, but never again. Those dogs were mostly allowed to roam the property unrestrained, and came inside only at night.

I guess a suburbabn dog like Fisher just lacks the collective wisdon of country dogs when it comes to skunks, and blind instinct (must chase skunk!) will triumph over reason every time. SIGH.

Fortunately, we ALWAYS have on hand the ingredients for the magic skunk potion, so Dan was able to initiate an aroma-reduction exercise. Needless to say, we’ll be replenishing our supply of hydrogen peroxide this weekend.

Adverse Aromatherapy

There were some grumpy people in our house Tuesday, after a long and unfortunately fragrant night. In addition to the skunking, Fishy, banished to the shed which connects house and barn, managed to open the door to the barn and again get into the garbage. His garbage-eating resulted in much off-gassing, leading to serious indoor air-quality issues once he was allowed inside Tuesday evening.

When not living out his ancestral carrion-eating fantasies, he barked intermittently much of the night, making sleep a challenge on my part. Thus, Tuesday was a long and not very productive day, with Dan and I both stumbling about like zombies. Skunk aroma up close leaves me with a headache, which tagged along with me all day.

This all could have been much worse — the first time Fisher got skunked with us, (actually his 2nd time –once with his previous owners) it was during a late February thaw, and it was a direct hit. We could see the dark greasy stain on his chest where the skunk got him. Even though we were able to use the miracle hydrogen peroxide cleaner, it was such a close-up hit that the odor hung in the air, permeating the house and yard. It was too cold to leave him outside even in the barn, so we let him in the laundry room. Winter meant we couldn’t open wide the doors and windows, and even though we did ship him off to be groomed the very next day, the smell lingered for quite a while.

This time, I don’t think Fisher took a direct hit, and a rain shower later in the night helped to dilute the smell from the yard. During the day, the warm temperatures allowed us to open all the doors and windows and let the breeze clear away some of the smell. Fishy, too, spent the day outside letting the sun and breeze deodorize him. Let’s just hope it is the last time we ever experience this — although yesterday I did purchase 2 more quarts of hydrogen peroxide. Just in case.

Skunked AGAIN…. Or, our Golden Retriever is dumber than your Golden Retriever

6:45 pm: Fisher gets into the garbage. Fearing digestive repercussions, we decide to leave him outside until we retire.

10:25 pm: While viewing the first episode of Boston Legal on DVD (thanks Lynn!), the dreaded aroma of skunk wafts into the house. We gasp in horror, and as one, we bolt for the door.

Alas, it is true, Fisher and skunk go round 3 — will he EVER learn? More than ever, I am convinced he really is dumber than a bucket of rocks.

Fortunately, we have on hand the skunk -scent eliminating magic potion — 1 quart of hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup of baking soda, a squirt of dish detergent. Even so, he is sleeping in the barn tonight.

Don’t feed the lion

Fishy, the mighty lion retriever, got a haircut today. To amuse ourselves, we had Katherine, his wonderful groomer, give him a lion-cut. Meee-ow!