The Life and Times of Olive the Pug: Doggy Independence Day...

In the neighborhood where we live, we humans celebrate Independence Day each year on a day on or near the The 4^th of July.  This year, we celebrated on July 5.  It turned out to be a good call as it was pretty rainy up here on the actual 4^th thanks to Hurricane Arthur.  The 5^th turned out to be a glorious summer day.  Here comes our parade with our Grand Marshal John O’Brien leading the way.

Most of the time when we celebrate Independence Day, Olive the pug can’t do anything but watch the parade in the morning because a pug just can’t tolerate the hot weather.  But yesterday with the weather being so fine, she was able to go to the party for a while and mingle with dog and human alike.  What a day she had!

Here are some friends she met.

This beautiful little Sheltie is our neighbor’s dog.  He is actually on a leash, but because we were celebrating Independence Day, I cloned it out.  He’s a sweet little guy.  Doesn’t he look dashing in his summer haircut?!  It is my human weakness that I can’t remember his name.  I’m sure Olive remembers, but she’s not talking.

This is Freedom.  He sure has an apt name for the day.  He and Olive have been friends for all of Olive’s eight years of life.

Of course, making new friends is always good, like this beautiful seven month old Boxer pup.  We like to welcome new pups to the neighborhood.

Sometimes partying gets to be too much and a pug has to take refuge under a picnic table, but she will usually poke her head out if someone says they are willing to give up a stray piece of kielbasa or is willing to give a nice ear rub.

Olive and I are hoping all you fellow citizens of the USA have had a safe and fun Independence Day weekend!

Good simple fences...

Dropping in on The Run*A*Round Ranch's Good Fences today.  Here are a few I managed to catch this past week.

Here's a simple country fence.  I'm not sure what it's keeping in or out.

This one seems to know what it's meant for.

And you don't see this everyday.  It serves to keep the dogs safe from escaping out the window, but it does nothing for the noise control.  Cute little buggers, aren't they?

New things, opposites and other stuff…

Oh, boy, that week went by in a big fat hurry.  Here we are at Scavenger Hunt Sunday again.  This week’s prompts are school, rule of thirds, side profile, small and motion.  And here’s what I came up with:

School:  This is a picture of the elementary school that my kids attended.  However, when they went there, it looked nothing like this.  Finally after many years of overcrowding and dealing with impossible open-concept classrooms, the town voted to renovate the existing school building.  This has been done in phases and the part to the right in the picture is the old, but remodeled part and to the left is the new part.  The old school was a real mess so I am very happy for the kids who are getting to take advantage of this new school building.  I especially like the use of school bus yellow as a trim color.  Cool!  But because it isn’t completely ready yet, the whole regional system is starting a little late this year.  But lucky me! I can remain blissfully unaware of such things since my kids are 25 and 28 and way past elementary school age.

Rule of Thirds:  One of those standard rules of good picture taking and composition.

Side Profile:  One of the things I love about dogs is the infinite variety in the breeds.  At one point, we lived with a greyhound and a pug together.  Talk about the yin and yang of dogdom.  Sometimes it was hard to imagine that they were the same species.  Our greyhound has been gone a couple of years now and we miss him.  Still, if you photograph a few dogs, it doesn’t take much to show the wide range of types and personalities of dogs.  I think my pics illustrate the point pretty well.  The first is of our neighbor’s dog Max, a Labradoodle, and the second one is of Olive, our pug.

Small:  Barnacles stuck on a pier in Boston Harbor.  Pretty darn small.

Motion:  Here again is Max, the Labradoodle.  Whoever decided that it would be a good idea to put a Labrador Retriever and a Poodle together had a stroke of genius.  But, I think that particular mix means it is hard to keep the dog out of the water.  Max is a real sweetie wet or dry!

Linking to Scavenger Hunt Sunday.