Propane and Posts of the Week

Watch him try.

He's so spry.

Brings me my....

Propane.

(With apologies to the late J. J. Cale and to Eric Clapton.)

One morning, earlier this month, Benny started grrruffing - that combination of growls and barks which Jack Russell Terriers do so well. This meant one of the following:
a) someone was at the door
b) someone was snowmobiling across the lake
c) someone was coming down our driveway
d) a deer was wandering the property
e) a squirrel was on the deck
f) a mouse was in the basement
g) a cat was in the litter box
h) something of JRT urgency needed to be expressed
i) an icicle fell into the soft snow within a half mile radius of our place
j) someone was murmuring quietly in their own home, three houses away
k) a snowflake fell within a quarter mile radius of our place
l) it had already been a whole five minutes since the last grrrruffing espisode
... now you're beginning to get the picture of how quirky this dog is.

Anyway, in this particular instance, someone was indeed making their way down our driveway - the local propane delivery guy - here to help keep us warm through the winter.

He is amazingly adept at getting himself and a heavy hose through fairly deep snow, across our yard and around the side of the house where the tank is located. I thought you needed to see that so I snapped a few photos on this grrrruffable day. Hopefully you can handle all the excitement.


After the truck backed up and "eep, eep, eep"ed its way into position, the Kelly's Fuel guy made his way out of the driver's seat to start the process.




He approached the back of the truck and he opened the latch to gain access to the hose. Can you feel the tension mounting? That big blob of snow in the foreground of the image is the accumulation on the table out on our front deck.





Here's where we begin to feel sorry for our hero. He has to clomp and trudge his way up over the snowbank in order to begin his pilgrimage across the yard. He did assure Frank that this was just par for the course for him and that it's not an especially difficult trek. That helps to alleviate any guilt we might have been feeling about not shoveling a path for him - which would take a pretty long time - every time it snowed. We further assuaged our guilt but not allowing the crazy Benny out there with him, lest he bark incessantly at him and try to eat the hose. Still, I think we've just established that since the delivery guy is the hero in this story, surely all this snow on our yard must make us the villains. Feel free to boo and hiss, if it pleases you.





Did I mention that he's a nice guy who surely must love his work? Just look at that smile on his face. Okay, maybe it's a grimace.






Are you still with me on this thrilling journey through propane delivery day?





Oh yeah, it's a grimace, alright. And he's not even halfway to the tank yet.




He was directly outside my kitchen window at this point and only had a few more kilometres to go until he reached the propane tank and filled it up before making the long trip back to his truck. He was probably thinking that he just doesn't get paid enough for this. You're probably thinking that this is the most exciting blog post you've ever seen!



Well he might not get paid enough but the fuel company sure does - just about every winter month.

Life out here in the country is thrilling. Now you know at least one of the reasons why.

She don't lie. She don't lie. She don't lie... Propane.

❀  ❀  ❀  ❀  ❀

And now, without further delay, here are the Posts of the Week. The icon below is yours for the taking if your blog post is named as a POTW.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lonesome Tree
by Andy
at Eye Candy

Cold, Cloudy Sky
by Linda
at The View From Squirrel Ridge

A Sky-featuring Tree
by Theresa
at The Run-A-Round Ranch Report

One Last Look Back in Time
by Jake via Ruth
at Ruth's Photo Blog
  ***

A GOOD READ

Separation of Church & State // This ain't on the standardized test but---
by Brian
at waystationone

Just Last Spring
by Tabor
at Room Without Walls

***

JUST PLAIN ALL AROUND GOOD

America's Best Neighbours
by Michael
at Michael Manning.TV™
 
***

INSPIRING

How Blogging Changed My Lifeby Birdie
at Ditching the Black Dog
 

***

IT TOUCHES THE HEART
 
Hope
by MessyMimi
at MessyMimi's Meanderings

One Night in December
by Bone
at If You Only Read One Blog...

  

***

THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME

Snow Angel
by Jim
at Suldog

***

READERS' CHOICE

Recommended by: TexWisGirl
Sundog
by Brk Trt (I'm guessing it means Brook Trout)
at Small Stream Reflections.

***

Please drop by their blogs for a visit and leave a kind comment if you have the time. Also, please feel free to add your own choices (for any blog except this one) for a specific blog post in the comments section below, where others can see them.
 

Thank you

Crazy Little Thing Called Benny

Ahh Benny. He's funny, loveable, goofy and cute. And undeniably insane.

Need some examples?

Let's start with snow shoveling. If one of us takes on this task and Benny has been left in the house, he will jump at the glass door incessantly while yipping, barking and emitting mournful cries until the person who is stuck inside with him can no longer stand it, and allows him to go out.


Once released, Benny has a huge dilemma on his paws. "Do I wait at the bottom of the deck so that I can eat each shovelful of snow as it comes over the railing...






...or do I attack the shovel and derail it by emptying it just before they are about to toss it over?"

Being a relatively good problem-solver, he runs back and forth between the two and does both. The trick is to fake a snow toss in one area so he'll run to get it and then actually discard the snow where he won't be so that 1) he doesn't get buried in it and 1) he doesn't add its contents to his already full belly and increasingly extended bladder. Even clearing up after a small snowfall will result in a shivery, nauseated, manic dog. He spends the next hour throwing up and peeing excess melted snow, while never losing focus on where each and every one of those shovelfuls landed. Crazy!

Benny does not know how to enjoy a dog treat. Oh he wants the treat. He sits pretty and waits patiently while it's being retrieved from the drawer - his tail wagging and eyes focused. He'll take the offered goodie very gently from the obliging hand and that's when the crazy kicks in. All of a sudden, everyone is his mortal enemy whom he believes wants to take that treat away from him. He walks over to his bed with a paranoid skulk and tries to bury it within the folds of his blanket. If anyone dares to approach his bed over the next day or so (or until he has forgotten about it), he utters a low warning growl. He never ever bites but the closer you get to Benny and his hidden treasure, the louder and more vociferous his growling becomes. If you lean in REALLY close, he'll merely lick your face. Usually, we have to just retrieve the treat and throw it away again. Clearly he doesn't really want it but he does want to want it. He just doesn't know how to enjoy them without paranoia. He will however take cat food from my hand and happily eat it right away. Yup, crazy!


Why do we keep trying? Because it wasn't always this way. He used to love his treats. Only the odd one would evoke that reaction. Then more and more, it became a habit and there's only one treat he won't act like that over. Back in the day, he used to try and retrieve them himself, if he could. This image was taken just over three years ago at Frank's family cottage. We caught Benny trying sneak over to the treats by climbing on the sofa which backed onto the desk where we had put them during our visit.






Caught in the act, he merely closed his eyes because when it's dark like that, we obviously can't see him.

He's a good dog, for the most part and generally gets along well with visiting animals but one pooch did not go over very well with him. Frank's son Francis has always belonged to Benny and there has never been other canines with which to compete for his affection. Until recently. Frank's sons filled the void that Benny left when we moved up here by getting themselves another dog.






Meet Stella. She's a pretty good natured Olde English Bulldog and she would have been a great friend for Benny if he hadn't figured out that she stole Francis from him. He spent much of her visit being rather unpleasant to her. There were a few times that they seemed to get along better when they were outdoors with plenty of room to romp and frolic but when Stella was anywhere near him inside, Benny was not very happy. Crazy!






About a week ago, we had some mild weather. The already-frozen lake was beginning to get mushy in parts and the edges had begun to recede a little bit in places.







It was still pretty solid though, as evidenced by our neighbours taking their grandchildren out on the ice for a game of hockey. Some had boots and some had skates. All of this was very wrong to Benny. He's not used to seeing people walking on the ice to begin with. And the sound of the skates and hockey sticks made him uneasy. He spent a fair bit of time barking at them but it was later, when nobody was around that he became very fearful of going outside.

We wondered if the skating was still playing on his mind but his fear became such that he would not go out to pee unless Frank accompanied him. That's when he figured out that the lake itself was scaring Benny. Because of the melted edges, the lake was burping and belching water and gasses from underneath the surface of the ice, and releasing it where the ice no longer quite met the shore. This was a near constant sound which became loud enough over the next couple of days to be heard indoors, in the still of the night.

At one point, I tried to outsmart Benny by letting him out the kitchen door on the other side of the house. Forgetting his woes, he happily scampered down the stairs but must have heard a lake burp. I closed the door behind him and turned around just in time to see him waiting impatiently by the lakeside door to get back in. Crazy... like a fox!

Not all of Benny's hyper-awareness is troublesome. During the Christmas holidays, he ran to the kitchen door and barked at what sounded like a vague tinkling noise to me and my visiting son Alex - sort of like hail hitting the window. Only it was a clear but very windy day. Nothing we could see was causing that sound. It stopped after a few seconds but Benny was clearly spooked by it. It had us perplexed but we quickly forgot about it.



A few minutes after Alex left for home the following day, he pulled over to phone me to report that two large trees were partly blocking the road a few houses over. This had to be what we heard the previous day. It was far away enough that the sounds were subtle to us but to Benny's alert ears, the breaking timber was a very troubling noise. I called the roads department and the trees were soon removed. I believe it was really just one tree, broken in two - the pieces landing quite far from one another, so my guess is that it fell from the top of the steep hill. And though I didn't notice it at the time, I can see in the picture that it seems to have taken a power line down with it. Many of the homes here are seasonal and so a specific power outage might not be noticed by anyone until spring or summer. Our own power remained intact, thankfully. Not so crazy!






This is Soul. She was not impressed with a curious Benny when he approached her by dancing, dodging, hopping and woofing. All Benny wanted to do was play but this little five month old kitty was unsure of him. Her story is a sweet one.

One of our neighbours stopped by, one November day to tell us that this little sweetie had been hanging around her place for a few days - a bit underweight (she's puffed up to look threatening to Benny in this image) and very hungry. I stopped by to have a look and we opened some cat food and watched her make short work of it. This is when I decided to join the local lost and found animal group called Home Again, on Facebook - to see if anyone might be missing this very friendly, purry cutie. I snapped the above photo and posted it to the group.

Within ten minutes, someone came forth and claimed her as hers. She had been missing for a month - since the day the teen split up with her boyfriend and he moved out. Soul must have escaped through the frequently-opened door on moving day. The astonishing part is that the distance between Soul's home and mine takes about twenty-five minutes to drive. My guess is that somebody found her wandering around close to her home and decided to bring her to live with them up my way. Soul probably got lost again up here or tried to find her way home and settled instead for the warm, blanketed box that my neighbour set up for her. Anyway, she was on her way to her home with me the next day, to be reunited with two other cats, three dogs and a couple of bearded dragons. Nothing crazy here!

But then there's Christmas. Remembering last year, Benny made it near impossible for me to wrap any gifts in his presence because all he wanted to do was get at the paper so that he could rip it to shreds. He stole the rolls from me a couple of times and whined and whimpered his way through the process each time the paper, tape, tags and bows came out. Of course, when it came time to opening gifts, he was just like a toddler. He cared not a whit about what was inside of each package, or for whom it was intended, as long as he could get at the paper. And he did a lot of that.


An awful lot of that. Crazy!







It's exhausting work.

Yes, I know there are far worse character traits than eccentricity in a dog. And Benny has a boatload of good ones. But this post is about Benny getting his crazy on and so that's what I'm sharing.


In case you haven't seen enough of his insanity to be convinced, here's an older photo of Benny "helping" my previous neighbour wash her car. Crazy? Hell, yeah!







And here he showing everyone he can float just like a bubble. Whacko! (Nah.. adorable)





I think that's just about enough crazy for one Benny post. He's not always this insane and really, there's only one time when his behaviour becomes even more loony and that's when there's a...


Oh crap.. that's tonight!

How High Can He Fly?

Yesterday, Frank's #1 Son sent me an email advising me that it was Squirrel Appreciation Day. Sure enough, MessyMimi who always announces what's going on Today in History at the end of her blog posts included it too. I'm a day late with this but I figured that now would be a good time to share a few photos taken a few months ago of Benny and a very patient squirrel.

These images were taken shortly before summer ended. As you can see, the leaves are still on the tree. What you can't see, is a mama squirrel relaxing on one of the upper branches of this tree, and she's taunting our Benny.

She's a bright little thing and knows that a dog on the ground doesn't pose much of a threat to a squirrel in a tree. But Benny is ever hopeful, and will do his best to get at her. So how high can he go?

Well that's not very high, Benny. You'll have to try harder than that.

Good jump for a little dog but she's way up there, buddy.

Now we're talking. You're getting some leverage into those jumps.

Just a bit higher and you could land on that first branch. Maybe next time.

Eventually Benny got tired of trying and went inside for a nap. Mama Squirrel immediately came down to enjoy the seed spilled on the ground.



In actual reality, Benny has chased and caught a couple of squirrels and one chipmunk. In all cases, he mouthed their tails gently and then immediately let them go. It's all in the chase for him. I'm so pleased that he is unlike so many of his breed who will hunt them down and kill them.

He's a crazy little gentle soul, that Benny. But shhhhh... don't tell Mama Squirrel that our ferocious Benny still sleeps with a teddy bear. He'll never be able to live it down.

Caption This and Posts of the Week

There's only one thing crazier than a high-energy Jack Russell Terrier. And that's more than one high-energy JRT. Here, Benny met up with one of his own, and a bit of blurry silliness ensued.

Your mission is to provide a caption for this photo. I'll turn off the moderation for the next day and a bit, but I'll publish all of your captions with tomorrow's post. Have fun with it!

And now, without further delay, here are the Posts of the week. The icon below is yours for the taking if if your blog post is named as a Post of the Week - either as top post or as a runner up.

This week's top post goes to:

Magic
by Pauline
at Writing Down the Words

Other wonderful posts are categorized below (they may well fit into more than one category but I'm only selecting one for each):

Yakity-Yak.. Don't Come Back
by Jillsy
at Jillsy Girl Studio






Phoenix Rising
by Zuzana
at Life Through Reflections

Where We Should Invest
by Rosaria
at SixtyFiveNowWhat






One Never Knows What Blows in With the Breeze
by Tabor
at Room Without Walls

One + One = Three
by Beth
at Be Yourself

A Mama's Babies
by Elizabeth
at One Magical Moment Per Day

Emergence
by Kerri
at A Little Piece of Me

Sunset Sunday
by Scott
at Just Used Pixels






Missy Was Found!
by Robin
at Robin's Nesting Place






Why Are We Not Somber?
by Michelle
at House of Lime
Recommended by: Dave

Please drop by their blogs for a visit and leave a kind comment if you have the time. Also, please feel free to add your own choices (for any blog except this one) for a specific blog post in the comments section below, where others can see them.

Thank you.

Benny's Back in Town

On Friday, after a five month absence, Benny made a return visit to our house. The cats received him in their usual manner - Zephyr with distance, and Skittles with a "Go ahead, make my day" kind of attitude. They all pretty much picked up where they left off last November.

None of you fine folks (except for Benny's dad, Frank) were following my blog back in the day when Benny first came around in the summer of 2007, so I thought I'd re-post my account of his first visit to my house. He was 6 months old at the time. He's now 4 years of age. The photos are from various other posts, all taken since that premier visit. I hope you enjoy them.

August, 2007:

This weekend we had a visitor. Having never left his part of the world before, he braved the endless hour-long trip across the city, secured in his crate.

His arrival was announced by the alarming sounds of his tiny body flinging itself against the the walls of his carrier. As it turned out, the rackety disturbance was a frenzied mere tail-wagging. He had energy to burn, and it appeared he might spontaneously combust if he couldn't explore his new surroundings RIGHT AWAY!

Benny is a six month old Jack Russell Terror Terrier. To human feline eyes, he's kind of like a large gerbil on speed. My cats are familiar with, and tolerant of the neighbourhood dogs when one or another of them come to visit. They each deal with canine intrusion curiosity in their own way.

Zephyr, who is a yellow-bellied cautious cat, tends to steer clear, and hide strategically place himself just beyond Benny's view - up on the fridge, or on a chair neatly tucked under the table.

For the most part, with Benny about, he stayed out of reach except when a bit of bird activity drew him to look out the back door. By then Benny was mildly less energetic exhausted and only had to be restrained and muzzled told to sit and stay.

Skittles, on the other paw, is a shit-disturber more adventurous, so he tended to be rather in-your-face visible and responsive to our interloper guest.

He loved nothing better than to punctuate Benny's incessant playful barking with an occasional hiss-lunge glance, which would send Benny yelping and running for his life.

It was as if the very teeth that Skitty bared to him were actually buried deep within his flesh. He was most yappy brave until the object of his terror showed signs of life.

Benny: WOOF (I'm so intimidating)! WOOF WOOF (You're terrified)! WOOF WOOF WOOF (I am SO the boss of you). Arf (Why are you looking at me?). Whimper (Make the bad cat stop glaring at me).

Skitty: Hisssss

Benny: YELP (I've been hit. I'm a goner)!

Skitty: (leaving the room): Mrrrow (Time to pick on Zephyr).

Benny: (chasing after him): WOOF!!! (I win! I am puppy, hear me roar!)

Poor Benny. He didn't really want to intimidate upset the cats, he only wanted to play. This workout, combined with catnip for Skitty made for a relaxing afternoon. He and Benny almost tolerated each other became quite content in each others' presence.

Like most hyper-active toddlers energetic babies, Benny slept well that night. I'm sure that in his dreams he was successful at either permanently banishing a frightened Skitty, or winning him over as his friend. I'm thinking that the latter might not be impossible one day, when Benny matures some, and settles down.

Until then, Skitty will remain top dog at our house.

ADD (Attention Deficit Doggies) JRT's (Jack Russell Terriers) are very difficult to photograph, since they rarely stay still for a decent shot. Benny's ability to scamper just outside of camera-range places him in the company of other hard-to-capture creatures such as Leprechauns, Sasquatch and the Loch Ness monster.

Skitty's nemesis, Benny. Does he look demonic enough capable of harming an innocent cat?

No creatures were harmed in the making of this weekend. All scars currently present on individual animals pre-existed at the start of this event and in the nearly-four years which have followed, nothing much has changed.

A Crazy Little Thing Called Benny

This is another scheduled post brought to you through the magic of the internet while we're away at the cottage.

Wanna see a crazy little dog? I thought so. In each of the photos below, Benny is springing to action (hence the blur in some) by 1) trying to kill the water sprayed at him from a water bottle, 2) attempting to climb a tree to chase a squirrel or 3) biting bubbles which were floating around Frank's back yard. The images speak for themselves but I hope you'll enjoy the quotes which accompany them.


The most affectionate creature in the world is a wet dog. ~Ambrose Bierce




Let's examine the dog mind: Every time you come home, he thinks it's amazing. He can't believe that you've accomplished this again. You walk in the door. The joy of it almost kills him. "He's back again! It's that guy! It's that guy!" ~ Jerry Seinfeld




It sometimes takes days, even weeks, before a dog's nerves tire. In the case of terriers it can run into months. ~E.B. White




Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails. ~Max Eastman




I wonder what goes through his mind when he sees us peeing in his water bowl. ~Penny Ward Moser




They say the dog is man's best friend. I don't believe that. How many of your friends have you neutered? ~Larry Reeb




A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of. ~Ogden Nash




Dogs act exactly the way we would act if we had no shame. ~Cynthia Heimel

Back in a few days with some more photos.

It Ends With A Bang!

Benny doesn't always cooperate when we'd like him to. If he's got his mind on a squirrel or digging up snow, or sniffing the hind quarters of that little French poodle, he won't likely come when called.

Sometimes he simply turns to head off in the opposite direction.

Other times, he might acknowledge your calls by defiantly watching you while gnawing on a bite-sized piece of ice.

However, there are times when Benny will stop in his tracks, turn on a dime, run like the wind, charge in our direction, joining us in just no time at all. Only one thing can turn him into this obedient little soul.

And only one thing can make him dance for joy. You're about to find out what it is. It begins with a leap for glee and it ends with a bang. Sit back and enjoy!