Generally, I like to think I have an intelligent dog.  I’m trying to convince myself that he was just distracted when he was getting a drink, or perhaps he needs glasses.  How else could you miss that much water with a big tongue like that?

Sorry Bandit, we don’t have a health plan!

Just wondering, do dogs with a vision impairment need to have seeing eye humans?

All was well and good, and kinda funny while the dog was licking his hand.

But it was a cry to Mommy for help when that thing tasted his whole face with one swipe!

My new fish pond makes catching the fish a little tricky. The fish have lots of room to get away, and if you reach too far, you will fall in. (No, I didn’t – but close)

First of all, I didn’t have a net big enough. And the only pet store in town was closed. I made my own out of some netting, a wire clothes hanger, a broom handle and some duct tape. It actually worked, though I admit it was kinda crude looking.

There was also the babies I wanted to save. There was only about six survivors. They’re only about a half inch long, and hard to find, and even harder to catch. As soon as you get positioned so that you can catch one, they hide under something, scoot off to the other end of the pond, or simply vanish.

I had to set up two tanks because I was afraid the babies would become fish food.

In any event, they all are inside, and of course, I got some pictures to share.

For anyone interested, the first photo is a koi, the second is a shubunkin, the third one is a butterfly koi, and the last one is a comet. I think the shubunkin is one of the parents (probably the mother) of the babies.

And naturally, a baby photo:

Somewhere in my fish pond live about 12 fish. There are some koi, shubunkins, and common goldfish. Originally there were 14 fish. I guess a couple of them decided to move out.

I seldom get to see them. Goldfish and koi don’t particularly like the sun, so they hide under the floating plants, or inside the pipe I have scattered around the bottom of the pond. As well, the pond naturally develops algae, and it makes the water a little murky.

This morning, they were all out and looking for food, since it was cloudy and a little cooler. I thought I might be able to get a picture of them so I grabbed my camera from the house and returned to the pond.

No fish. Anywhere. All of them had disappeared.

I waited patiently, thinking that I had startled them, and they would return to the surface in a few minutes.

Wrong.

After about 20 minutes, I decided I wasn’t going to get my photos. At least not today. (more on next page)

The dog and I went for a walk today. That’s not unusual. I decided I would once again try to take some photos in Happy Valley, even though I had Bandit with me.

The ducks fascinate him. Today, he was determined he was going to get close to them. Bandit’s natural stocking instincts are a little rusty, but he did manage to get within a few feet of the birds before they flew away.

The subject has brought a lot of comments on the internet. Here’s one I thought of as just plain weird, because he is claiming those of us who treat our pet as more than a possession are probably psychologically unbalanced.

With the whole recent pet food poisoning incidents, why can’t people just buy new ones if their pet passes on?

Sorry, I’m not an animal person as I have allergies and I’m kind of ‘pro-human’ and also believe animals don’t have souls based on religious studies including the Bible. I think psychologically, strong animal lovers may have been rejected by their social human peers and so they feel hurt and can only get unconditional love through a non-speaking animal. (ca.answers.yahoo.com/)

I guess everyone has an opinion.

Of course, he may have something (and I don’t believe in his theory by any means) about the sanity of us pet owners.

A woman in Ottawa, Ontario has gotten sick from eating her dog’s food. Now at first, I assumed she was eating at because it was all she could afford. That does happen. But no – she ate it to convince her dog it was good to eat. Apparently the dog had the right idea.

An Ottawa woman says she became sick after eating a brand of dog food that has been recalled throughout Canada and the United States.

The woman said she noticed her dog wasn’t eating so she took bites of the food herself to try to trick her pet.

She said she suffered loss of appetite, vomiting and foaming at the mouth.

The complete story is at the CBC News website

SO, do you feel as though you are psychologically challenged? And more important, do you know what your pet’s food tastes like. That may answer the first question.

At least when it comes to going for a walk, with your camera, hoping for the opportunity to get some pictures of the ducks, beavers, and gophers we saw in Happy Valley the other day. Yeah, Yeah it’s not lions and tigers and elephants, but it still wildlife, and you gotta start somewhere.

Two days ago, the fact that there were all sorts of animals around us was absolutely no concern to Bandit. “We won’t bother them, they won’t bother us.” “Why are we stopping? It’s just some birds on the water.” “Come over here if you want something interesting. I found something that smells really bad. Do you want to roll on it first, or can I?” “Hey look at this – somebody left a candy bar wrapper right here!”

That was then. Today, it was “Watch this! I can scare ‘em!”

The first couple of times, I was kind of amused. And then I was frustrated. And then I was just plain pissed off.

“Bandit! Here’s the plan. We are going to sit here and wait for the ducks to come back. We are going to sit quietly. We are not going to run around after everything. Got it?”

I assumed the lick on my face, and the “I’ve been a bad boy look” was confirmation he understood the concept and was willing to comply to my wishes, however bizarre he considered them.

Until the ducks came back.

“HEY! HEY!… the ducks are back! Let’s run down close to them and bark at them. Let’s run back and forth along the side of the water. SEE! SEE! We can make them fly away! Wasn’t that fun? Let’s wait here and scare them again. Did you hear them make those noises? Wasn’t that funny??”

One more talk with the dog, and I’ll give it one last try. Besides, it’s not all that warm out here, and it’s starting to snow.

In about ten minutes, the ducks came back, and we were in EXACTLY the right position to get some good pictures. The dog appeared to understand this was important to me, and had been laying very quietly beside me. He didn’t move at all. He simply watched the ducks glide into the water, and looked at me. “They’re back.”

I picked up the camera, focused on the birds, and got a real good shot of Bandit’s ear. My next picture was of his tail. The third was a closeup of his right eye. Not willing to give up, I stood up to get the damn dog out of the picture.

This, of course, scared the already skittish ducks, who took off quacking and squawking, and Bandit was inspired to make the most of it and chase after them. This time it was not enough to stop at the water, and he jumped in after them.

In the end, me and the dog walked home – me, feeling defeated, and the dog wet and happy. I have no photos to post here, unless you want a blurry picture of a dog’s ear.

My dog only does his business on my lawn. There’s a nice park across the street where we play frisbee, but under no circumstances does he consider it the proper place to poop, and he will actually stop playing mid-stride to run home.

The other day, this happened. Bandit grabbed the frisbee, took off running to the yard. “Gotta go,” I thought to myself. “What’s wrong with all this lovely dead brown grass here? The other dogs do it here!”

Anyway, he crawls through the hedge, drops his frisbee, takes one step forward and assumes the position. One step forward places the frisbee at the wrong end, in case you’re not paying attention.

I see this happening, and I stand on the back deck watching the events unfold, snickering.

He finishes up, does the doggy equivalent of wiping (kick some dead grass at the spoils) and runs towards me.

“Where’s your frisbee, Bandit?” Being a dog, he looks at me, wags his tail and heads back to pick it up. Pleasing the human can be a dog’s greatest pleasure and honour.

“WAIT A MINUTE…” The dog looks at me with a huge question mark of horror. “Someone shit on my frisbee!” He is completely amazed at this disgusting turn of events. Just a minute ago, the frisbee was not in this condition. “Who would do this? When did this happen? How could this happen?”

Okay, so the dog didn’t really talk, but the words were there in body language.

It was hilarious watching him try to pick it up to bring it to me (and thank God he never did do it) without actually touching the frisbee. In the end, his decision was to abandon it, and I had to go get it myself.

By the way, the frisbee had a bleach bath, and is still in use.