Too Long and So Long

Three years have passed and much has changed.

First, we lost Steffi in December, 2016. She was my heart dog and I still miss her terribly.

She suffered from pancreatitis over the years and ultimately, she developed an internal mass which was probably cancer, but she died before any surgical intervention could take place. She died on her own terms, next to me in our sleep.

2016 was the year that changed everything for us. In January, my horse had to be put down. He was old and had trouble chewing and swallowing his food, so I had to make that awful decision. He had a great life and many years of retirement, but still.

Then in June, my best friends moved across the country. Not having them down the street to drop in and visit any time was hard to overcome. Many tears were shed when they pulled out.

In July our renters became squatters by refusing to pay the rent. We evicted them by September and then had to clear the house, repair all the damage and put it up for sale. We sold it in November.

With everything that happened to us in 2016, we decided it was a sign, loud and clear, that it was time for us to make a move. So early in December we decided to buy a house in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

It took us the following year and a half to get our home in Oregon ready to sell and put it on the market. In March, 2018, the house was listed for sale and we closed in June.

During 2017 we drove from Oregon to New Mexico and back several times, finally settling in April 2018.

So I suppose I should rename this blog "Weim for Me" since I have only one Weim now, but I do hope to find another soon.

Until then, we are learning to love our new home.

Trials and Tribulations with Anika: When to Hire a Trainer

Anika is my third Weimaraner. After having had two prior Weims, I thought I knew how to handle them. Ha! Ha! Joke's on me!

We acquired her when she was eight months old. My prior Weim, Coco, was about 18 months old when she came to live with us. Those months make a difference. Anika always had that extra reserve of energy. Nothing wore her out. She is exceptionally suited to be the hunting dog she was bred to be. She is extremely focused on the various squirrels, cats, birds, and flying insects that enter our yard. However, my husband and I do not hunt nor do we have any interest in beginning. So our hunting dogs are pets.

Having been broken in with Coco, I thought I knew what to expect. And although Anika resembles Coco in many ways (her sire is Coco's brother), I didn't realize what a challenge she would be the first couple of years that we had her. Those first two years of Weimaranerdom are crazy! But as time went on and I researched and learned more about her behavior, I realized I had a reactive dog on my hands.

Out walking in our neighborhood, if we walked past another dog or person, she would pull on the leash, jump, bark, and bite the leash. If I was walking her with Steffi, my calm 11-year-old Weim, she would bite her and they would both pull and bark. It became not only a spectacle, but a danger since they are very strong, and once pulled my off my feet, and Anika once bit my arm in her frenzy. I had to do something other than never take her for walks.

I bought Patricia McConnell's book, Feisty Fido: Help for the Leash-Reactive Dog. Although the book was helpful, I really needed personal, one-on-one help from a trainer. If you've never had a leash-reactive dog, you don't realize how difficult it is the take a simple walk around the neighborhood. When walking Anika, I had to constantly be on the lookout for anything that might raise her threshold into the red zone. Nothing was relaxing for me or for her.

With the help of Cheryl Flemming of For the Love of Dogs, LLC, I am now able to walk her! Cheryl was recommended by my riding buddy, Betsy Adams. What a godsend Cheryl has been! We started with an at-home session where Cheryl could observe our interactions and find out what I wanted help with.

Cheryl is an advocate and practitioner of clicker training. She quickly had me clicking and rewarding Anika for walking by my side and watching me. Once we had that behavior established, outside we went on a walk. It's much more difficult out where there are more distractions, but we worked and worked on it under Cheryl's watchful eye.

After four or five at-home sessions with Cheryl and practicing on my own with Anika for several months, I've been able to manage her anxiety on our walks by watching her behavior and always having some high-value treats along to reward her. Our walks are never really totally relaxing, but they are so much better than they used to be and I now have the tools I need to help reduce her anxiety and boost her confidence.

I always bring a bag of treats with me for her and just in case I need to throw treats at a dog who's not on a leash to distract the dog from us (don't get me started on that!). Plus, I no longer walk the two dogs together.

Now when I walk Anika, I can observe her and when I see the signs of high anxiety, I stop her, have her sit and give her a few treats to calm her. Most of the time she turns back to me when she feels anxious and waits for her praise. Now my job is to fade her from all the treats, but we are not there yet!

October 1

We like to drive to the beach at least once each fall.

Forget summer! Too many people. Too difficult to park. Too many bodies to navigate the dogs around as we make our way to the sand.

But as we have had an especially hot summer and fall, we thought we needed to make it to the beach one last time before the rains hit. Last week, Thursday, was it.

As I drove and tried to manage Anika's travelling anxiety, my phone kept receiving news alerts. Since I was driving, I didn't look to see what the alerts were. Once we had parked, I took a quick look to see that a school shooting had taken place in the lovely town of Roseburg on the campus of Umpqua Community College. By the time we were enjoying the sunshine and our lives and the joy of our dogs, nine people had lost their lives in the pursuit of higher education.There is obviously something very, very wrong with this scenario.

I had not planned to write about the shooting in this post, but as I thought about our beautiful day, I realized this was the most terrible day for many, many others.

So I leave you with this: Nature's beauty -- Haystack rock on Cannon Beach.

Weims are Aggressive Chewers

I took Anika in for a routine dental cleaning and found that she had two cracked teeth. The huge molars on either side of her mouth. The dental specialist recommended two root canals with crowns. The estimate was over $5,000! I love my dogs, and I will spend that much money to save a life, but for an optional crown? I don't think so. After discussing the options, I decided on one tooth extraction and one root canal, no crowns.

This is all because of fierce chewing on antlers and Nylabones. So I learned the hard way (no pun intended) not to give them things to chew on that can break their teeth. Consider this a warning.

Here is a pile of toys I had to throw away. You can see how much they were chewed down.

I invested in some puzzle-type toys that the dogs have to work at to get the treats out. The purple ones are not popular. The rubber tastes bad and the kibble is too difficult to get out. They end up eating the rubber. The orange balls are great, but I have to watch them at all times or they will crack the plastic. The best one is the big green toy with the yellow top. It fills with kibble and there's an adjustable opening on the bottom. The dog rolls it around by her nose and the kibble falls out. This toy seems to be indestructible. The biggest problem with all of these is that they involve treats and if you don't want to give your dog endless treats (which I don't), then other options need to be given. The green toys are like tennis balls and they enjoy chasing them and playing with me.

I give Anika one of those rawhide chews every week or so, but I am cautious with rawhide for fear it will lodge in her gut. Steffi gets a tiny piece cut off so she doesn't feel left out.

But ultimately, they need to get outside and play and run. Anika has single-handedly eradicated our yard of fledgling birds this spring. Great sport for her, but not so good for the little birdies.

What's Happened in the Last Six Months

It's been way too long since I last posted. We got busy in the fall with home remodeling and other projects.

In November, I wrote a 50,000 page novel during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so there was no time for blogging.

Not much happens in the winter, although this winter we had a real winter. The temps reached a low 12 degrees F. We had some snow and ice which makes the slight hill beside our house a magnet for kids on sleds. We had to get out and enjoy the fun one Sunday morning with our friends. We tried to make sled dogs out of Steffi and Anika but they weren't going for it.

In March I had a hip replacement which curtailed our activities a bit, but by late April I was back to gardening and walking the dogs.

The main point of this post, however, is to relay our experience with hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE). Steffi had a mild case of diarrhea that in a couple days turned scary and deadly. She started vomiting and soon the diarrhea turned bloody. 

According to www.vcahospitals.com most cases of HGE occur suddenly without warning in otherwise healthy dogs. The main and most disturbing sign is large amounts of bloody diarrhea, very often bright red. Some dogs may have a painful abdomen, decreased appetite, lethargy (fatigue), or fever. 

We took Steffi to our nearest emergency vet and she spent 3 nights there being infused with fluids, antibiotics, blood thickening agents, but the diarrhea would not stop. She also developed a case a pneumonia that the vet thinks may have been caused by ingesting some vomit. On Monday morning we took her to an internal medicine specialist for another two nights of hospitalization. She recommended a fecal transplant to introduce beneficial bacteria back into her colon. That eventually did stop the diarrhea.

We never did determine what caused the episode. We are just grateful she pulled through. I have never been so scared for the health of my dog. I blame myself for waiting too long and trying to treat the diarrhea and vomiting myself. Now I watch her like a hawk for any little sign of distress. 

We don't have pet insurance. In 40 years of owning dogs, I haven't needed it, but now I'm considering it. This experience cost us over $4000. So if there's a lesson to be learned here, familiarized yourself with the signs of HGE and do not wait if there's blood in your dog's stool. Go to the vet. It might save you lots of money and it will certainly save your pet.

Here's my girl feeling better.

Trip to the Beach

Because we got that bark buster spray (compressed air), we were finally able to drive to the beach with Anika. She got a little restless about half way there, but we managed to calm her down.

It was definitely worth it! She has such a good time chasing sea gulls.

The first time she chased one, it flew out into the ocean and she just charged into the surf after it. But I think it scared her to be in so much water because she turned around the tried to leap out of the waves. Actually, it scared me that she might get pulled in from a sneaker wave. So I kept a pretty close eye on her and Steffi. We had a great time!

Doggy Booties!

I am a sucker for free stuff. A week ago, I got a newsletter from GoPetFriendly.Com--an excellent resource, by the way for finding pet-friendly places to stay, visit, and eat when travelling. In the newsletter was an offer to try some dog boots from a company called PawZ. So, I was one of the first 40 subscribers to reply and yesterday I got my sample dog boots.

They looks like balloons and come in a package of 12. They are very flexible, but don't look like they'd last forever, but are not meant to--hence the package of 12. I can see these being useful for Anika since she has split a toenail past the nub a couple of times now. The first time, infection set in and she needed a trip to the emergency vet. I can see how wearing one of these on an injured paw could help her not lick it so much at least. Also these little boots could really help during the hot summer when the girls have come home with blistered paws.

Anyway, they also fit loose around the paw so there's plenty of room for their toes but tight around the leg so they won't come off on their own.

It remains to be seen whether I end up using them. Anika tried one of them on and she didn't think too much of the experience.

We are going to Sunriver in a couple of weeks and bringing Steffi with us so might try these again on her.

Long Absence

Wow! I can't believe it's been so long since I posted something. I am easily distracted and this time, traveling to London distracted me.

We had a great time seeing the sites, but the girls stayed in a kennel. I wrote about my dilemma of what to do with the girls when we travel here. We opted for the kennel since I know nothing bad will happen to them there. They were tired and thin when we returned, but that didn't surprise me.

I solved one of my other major problems with Anika: the barking in the car. Well, let me say we solved it for going to the dog park. We have not tested it for a longer trip. We have plans to take her to the beach, but so far haven't done that.

Anyway, what we got was the Pet Corrector from The Company of Animals. It's basically a can of compressed air that startles them. But it really works!

Homage to William Wegman

Who doesn't love William Wegman? Almost everyone is familiar with his whimsical and ubiquitous photos of his beloved Weimaraners--on calendars, Christmas cards, tee shirts, posters, video shorts seen on Sesame Street and You Tube.

Basically, I threw together this blog entry so that I could enter the Spring Giveaway contest on Pinterest. 

But I do love William Wegman's work. 

Probably one of my favorite videos is from Sesame Street. Watch it on You Tube here. 

Enjoy!

New Fence

We have needed a new privacy fence for about 10 years. It's rotten, moldy, has green stuff growing all over it. Steffi has dug under it and escaped more times than I can count. I have placed all kinds of things in the most rotten areas to prevent inquisitive noses from investigating.

See for yourself:

So for our piece of mind and our dogs' safety, we finally scraped together the enormous amount of money to replace the fence. We have a double lot, which amounts to about 1/3 of an acre. Lots of feet of fencing!

It hasn't been an easy process. Although we have a great handyman, he is not the fastest. He said it would take about 2 weeks. HA! It's now been 3 weeks and it looks like we are about half way through. It's been hardest on the dogs. We rigged up a chicken wire fence to block off part of the yard so they could still go outside from the deck, bedroom, and garage door.

But that area doesn't give them much room to run and burn off energy. Anika basically spends her time running up and down the deck stairs and looking over the baby gate to bark at check out everyone who walks by.

As I said before, we are beginning on week 3 of this project. So far what's been constructed is beautiful, so I can't wait until it's done and the dogs and I can have our entire yard returned to us to enjoy. I've been itching to go to the garden store to add some plants to the landscape!

And the added bonus is that the cedar smells SO good that it really is a pleasure to be outside enjoying our first taste of Spring!

A Case of the Zoomies

If you have a dog, especially if you have an active dog, you have surely seen a case of the zoomies--that crazy fast run with the tail tucked under.

Our dearly departed Greyhound, Bella, could outdo any dog on the zoomies. The upside is that it's hysterical and beautiful to watch a dog (especially a Greyhound) get up a head of steam and careened around the yard. The downside is the landscape plants are trampled and the dog sometimes returns with an injury.

In fact, one afternoon I was selling a kayak and just as the guy arrived to pick up the kayak, Bella had ripped her leg open racing around the yard. It was that really delicate area on the lower leg where there's not much to stitch together. I was frantic and stressed. I completed the transaction, raced to the vet and handed over the kayak sale proceedings and then some to the vet.

Anyway, I digress.

I have never seen Steffi with the zoomies. But Anika, being the younger and far more energetic Weim, has them in the house, in the yard, but never at the dog park, where it would be perfectly OK to have them.

There's nothing you can do once the dog starts the zooming. Just sit back and enjoy the sight. And pick of the pieces later.

If you want to watch Anika zooming around the yard, click here to see a YouTube video of it.

Finding a Dog Sitter

Finding a decent, reliable dog sitter is virtually impossible. We are planning a trip to London in April and the dog sitter we had been using pretty much flaked out on us last year.

At the beginning of the year, I began trying to locate another dog sitter. I looked into local dog daycare facilities, a local doggy day camp, Craig's List, and the Internet. We had a meet-and-greet with someone we contacted through the website Dog Vacay. I was looking for someone who would be home all day. I thought I had found the perfect match, but she was worried about the dogs getting on her furniture. I don't think she was accustomed to the high energy these kinds of dogs have. We mutually decided it was not a good match.

Over the years we have used a variety of people to help us with our dogs. Professional dog sitters are difficult for us because our dogs are used to us being home all day with them and basically catering to their every whim. Most professional dog sitters have other clients they need to visit every day so you're lucky if you get two 30-minute visits.

Basically what I need is another me. A fairly young retired person, or someone who works from home and can bring her work to our house, like a freelance writer, and who loves dogs and loves to be interrupted frequently! Tall order, I know.

I do think, however, that Dog Vacay is a great website and good service. After our experience, we were contacted by the folks at Dog Vacay who helped find a few other possible sitters. But we reluctantly decided to board the girls at a local kennel. We had tried it once before with Anika and she was fine. At least with a kennel, I don't have to worry about the girls getting into fights with other dogs, getting away from the sitter, being too much to handle, getting on someone's furniture, chewing a toy they are not supposed to have, etc.

What do you do with your dogs when you go on vacation?

Thinking about Gardening

As we begin the new year, I wistfully gaze out the window at the bleak, gray landscape and try to imagine what my spring and summer garden will look like. It's a always a challenge to maintain a garden that can coexist with dogs who like to dig and run like crazy around the perimeter and through the shrubs.

I'm looking for bare spots to fill in with new shrubs that can withstand Anika racing around the yard in hot pursuit of a squirrel or just a case of the zoomies. With all the rain we get, I find new puddles and small streams where holes have been dug and paths have been created for running. Steffi is my digger and Anika gets the zoomies.

Over the years I have learned the hard way of what not to do:

• No little wire barrier fences for protecting young plants--danger! danger! Those cause leg lacerations and cost several hundred dollars in vet visits.
• No roses except in planters. Again, thorns can lodge in an ear or a leg and cost lots of money to treat infections.
• Do not use homemade compost, fish emulsion, or any organic plant fertilizer unless you want every plant to be dug up after your hard work transplanting. The dogs love the taste of that stuff and cannot resist.
• The same goes for planting bulbs with bone meal. Forgetaboutit!
• No bird feeders with sunflower seeds--they attract rats, which carry disease. I feed hummingbirds and put out some suet feeders in the winter. But even those suet cakes are too irresistible to the squirrels and then the dogs are frantic about the squirrels.
• As I mentioned in an earlier post (here), I don't use pesticides. I sometimes use an herbicide to kill unwanted weeds, but I spray it on and then keep the dogs out of that part of the yard for the rest of the day.

I do love attracting wildlife to my garden. I didn't have Weimaraners when we bought this house and I started the garden. But I have decided that with this breed it's exactly like inviting hunters into the wildlife sanctuary. No bird that has nested in my garden has lived to nest again. All fledglings have perished from the relentless canine hunters. Many squirrels have too. Some snakes. The yellow jackets fight back and the dogs end up with swollen muzzles or eyes. Thank goodness they are not allergic! Nobody has tangled with a raccoon yet, but they've come close. I'm lucky to have lots of neighbors with backyard chicken coops that are much more interesting to the raccoons, so they stay out of my hostile environment.

Anyway, I am planning for fresh bark mulch to fill in the worn out areas. I am thinking about putting in a swale to help with drainage on the west side of the house. Like this:

And finally, the big one--we have to build a new privacy fence because ours is so rotten that one big wind or a dog jumping on it might knock it over. It's only a matter of time and I can't risk that.

Until next time, Happy New Year!

Getting Ready for Christmas

We don't do too much around here for Christmas. With family far away, we don't enjoy fighting the weather, crowds, and expense of travel to spend the holiday with them. I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about the holiday in general, but that's another blog post!

But we (I) do like to decorate -- put up a tree, wreath, string lights outside. It really makes the long, dark winter days much more palatable.

And I like to bake. This year I made almond spice cookies, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, toffee, and spiced nuts. I'm thinking of making some pumpkin bread too. I also included my doggie friends in my baking. I made pumpkin dog cookies for Anika and Steffi. And to give away to our neighbors' dog Norah (who will be going back with her family in January) and for their soon-to-be-adopted new dog, Jubilee.

Anika and Steffi think they turned out pretty good. Here's the recipe, courtesy of  California German Shorthaired Pointer Rescue:

Pumpkin Dog Biscuits

2 eggs*
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 tablespoons dry milk*
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 1/2 cups brown rice flour **
1 teaspoon dried parsley (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

In large bowl, whisk together eggs and pumpkin to smooth. Stir in dry milk, sea salt, and dried parsley (if using, optional). Add brown rice flour gradually, combining with spatula or hands to form a stiff, dry dough. Turn out onto lightly floured surface (can use the brown rice flour) and if dough is still rough, briefly knead and press to combine.

Roll dough between 1/4 – 1/2– depending on your dog’s chew preferences, – and use biscuit or other shape cutter to punch shapes, gathering and re-rolling scraps as you go. Place shapes on cookie sheet, no greasing or paper necessary. If desired, press fork pattern on biscuits before baking, a quick up-and-down movement with fork, lightly pressing down halfway through dough.

Bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully turn biscuits over, then bake additional 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely on rack before feeding to dog.

* I didn't have any dry milk, so I used almond milk. I found the dough exceptionally dry, so the added moisture helped!

** I couldn't find brown rice flour, so I used 1 1/2 cups white rice flour and 1 cup barley flour.

So to all the hungry dogs out there: Happy Howlidays!

Our Squirrel Saga

Last week, Anika captured her first squirrel. To say she is obsessed with squirrels is an understatement. But I never thought she could catch one.

It's hard to believe this sweet looking dog is so blood thirsty.

It went like this:  I saw her outside with the squirrel in her mouth.I commanded her to drop it. And like a well-trained Weimaraner (not!), she did. The squirrel scurried into the garage and hid under the car. Meanwhile, the dog is going crazy trying to get at the squirrel. My husband held the dog while I opened the garage door and tried to scoop the squirrel outside.That squirrel was having nothing to do with that idea.

I did manage to get him outside into the fenced-in part of the yard though and put the dog into her kennel for a couple hours.

I searched the yard for the squirrel and found him under a fern. I nudged him with a shovel and he scampered up the tree. I knew he was injured and I hoped he would wander into someone else's yard and die.

In the middle of the night I let the dogs out and heard the dog scream and the squirrel squeal. Got the dog in, dabbed the cuts on her face with antiseptic soap and went back to sleep.

In the morning we did a full sweep of the yard and Anika found the dead squirrel hiding behind some fencing.

I should have just let Anika kill the squirrel when she had the chance because that poor squirrel suffered for a long time before it died. 

But I think the word is out:  I haven't seen another squirrel in the yard since then!

Christmas came early for the Weims

I ordered a beautiful new bed from Orvis for the girls that came last week. I get only one bed because they really don't sleep in the bed, just lounge in it while they chew bones. And only one dog uses it at a time.

Might I add that almost every bed I have ever bought ends up having holes chewed in it and the stuffing pulled out in no time. I usually cover the beds in a throw so the dogs can root around and nest in the throw and chew on the throw if they must chew on something. And might I also add that I usually don't leave the dogs loose in the office when I leave the house. They are put in their kennels.

You can probably guess where this is going. I felt sorry for Steffi the other day when she balked at going into her kennel, so I left her loose in the office. When I came home, sure enough, she had chewed a hole in the new bed.

It had lasted a week, maybe two.

Fortunately, I can turn the pillow over and it's not noticeable. Until another hole is chewed. Oh well. I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. I just wanted it to be later.

Orvis advertises a sturdy, "chew-proof" fabric covering for some of their beds. I might have to try that, even though those beds don't look very comfy.

Car Trips = Fail

I posted earlier about using the Thundershirt during car rides to alleviate Anika's excitement. I have also used a herbal calming medication provided by a friend. Neither works for her.

I have come to the conclusion that the barking is excitement, not anxiety. She doesn't like to sit still either, even though I have her in a seat belt. If I didn't use the seat belt, she would be in the front seat trying to paw at me, which is definitely a recipe for disaster.

I have more or less thrown up my hands in resignation to her barking and don't take her for many car rides. I think the only solution at this point may be to hire a professional trainer to come offer some help.

Something to Chew On

My Weims love to chew. I cannot buy them anything rubbery, like a Kong, because once the inside junk is licked out they chew the rubber Kong. Or anything fuzzy and squeaky because they will eat the fuzzy part to get at the squeaky part and in a matter of minutes the whole toy is destroyed. Tennis anyone? No. I can't use tennis balls because they eat them too! I can throw tennis balls and this other squeaky/bone/tennis ball material thing as long as I put it away when I'm done.

If I leave it with the dogs to play with alone, it's gone. I have had lots of scares, but fortunately I have not had to have emergency surgery to remove a chewed-up toy.

I usually look for toys for tough chewers. And most websites say upfront that the toys are durable and strong, but not indestructible. For example, this nice boomerang-type thingy: It's strong, but not indestructible.

So mostly all I buy them are Nylabones. And only the Wolf-sized kind. Here is the basket of chew toys for the girls. Those purple rubber bones are good, but they don't like the taste. I don't recommend them.

But, I came across some people on one of my favorite Internet forums: Weimaraner Addict, discussing the merits of antlers. So I ordered some elk antlers from Mountain Dog Chews. I got 2 of the Medium Whole, and although at over $15.00 a piece are pretty pricey, they are worth it. They seem to last a long time, and I know they are good for the dogs' teeth.

To say my girls loved them is an understatement! It gives them almost all the satisfaction of chewing on a real bone, but without the mess. They also don't smell or splinter. And although they chew on them for a long time, they haven't given up on the Nylabones, I'm happy to say.

This is not meant to be a product endorsement, even though I guess I am endorsing their product. I will definitely order more of these!

Meanwhile, happy dogs = happy life or something like that.

Stuck in the House

The rainy season has begun. For the next 6 months that means:

• No more trips to the dog park for off-leash runs--the grassy part of the dog park is closed. 
• Walks around the neighborhood only when it's not pouring since nobody likes to get drenched.
• Inside zoomies, which make me crazy. 
• Lots of towels at every door to wipe off paws. 
• Extra laundry to wash and dry said towels.
• Frustrated dogs chewing on their nylabones.
• Pacing dogs.

The transition from nice weather to awful weather is the hardest. Once we all get used to staying in more, we all adapt, but these first few days are awful. Plus we are having very heavy rain for the next 6 days. Yuck and yuck!

Raining Feathers?

The other night I was watching TV in the living room when I looked out the window to see what I thought was ash floating through the air. Worried there was a house on fire, I ventured out on to the deck. I didn't smell smoke, but continued to see this stuff floating in the air. I soon realized it was feathers! Needless to say, Anika could smell the bird and was frantically racing around the yard trying to find the source of the feathers. Since I have a superior mind (!) I figured out there must be a hawk in the tree having a snack. I watched the breeze lift the feathers from the trees and tried to find their source. Finally, I spotted the hawk half way up an oak tree. I went to fetch my binoculars to get a closer look. And there he was. I watched for a bit and went away feeling awed and blessed at seeing a little but of wildlife right in my own backyard.