Just Whistle!

Lucy is naughty. . .or have I mentioned that? Because she is a Sheltie, and the instinct to watch for danger is strong, she likes to look out the window and alert me to potential troublemakers outside. . .like walkers, bikers, babies in strollers, etc. She does this by barking and barking and barking and barking and barking. . .and so on. Shelties have VERY loud voices. Because they originated in th Shetland Islands, they were always less than three miles from the ocean. . .and their bark had to carry over the crashing waves on the shoreline.

Today I bought a whistle. I wanted a 'silent' dog whistle, but the pet store didn't have any, so while I was at WalMart, I bought a steel referee's whistle. So far so good. One blast of the whistle and Lucy stopped barking. One blast of the whistle and Lucy dropped the sheet she'd grabbed from the laundry basket. One blast of the whistle, and she stopped circling (sp?) the table (which she does when she thinks I'm getting ready to leave the house.)

Will the effectiveness of the whistle wear off? We'll see. . .but I plan to continue to use the whistle until I don't need to anymore. . .or she stops paying attention to it.

Oh. I AM still planning to get a dog whistle. This steel whistle is killing MY ears!

one more. . .

another dead baby bird in the yard today. Lucy didn't notice it, but I looked where they have been, and there it was. I didn't scream this time at least. sigh. I REALLY hope this is the last one.

Birds

I have a thing about birds. There was a turkey vulture episode a couple of years ago. . .I'll write about that another time.

Anyway, on Saturday, before I mowed the lawn, I was out scooping. There was a dead baby bird under the cedar tree, and I screamed, of course. Part of the reason I screamed was because I was surprised, but the other part was because I knew I would have to pick up the dead bird. Yuck! So anyway, after a couple more screams, I managed to dispose of the bird.

On Monday, I came home from work and was playing flippy-flopper with Lucy. She played a couple of tosses, then ran under the cedar tree, and, you guessed it, she found a baby bird. Alive. She 'played' with it for a minute before I could distract her and get her inside the house. I went to check on the bird, and it was alive, despite Lucy rolling it onto its back, but it didn't look good. I didn't have the stomach to do what needed to be done, so I called a neighbor. He picked it up, and it didn't look as bad as I thought. I don't think he had the heart to kill it, either. We put it on the outside of the fence so Lucy wouldn't get it, and hopefully the mother bird would come for it. I had to go out that night. . .when I came home, the baby bird was dead. I should have been braver earlier in the day and put it out of its pain.

Tuesday, when I came home after work, I noticed two birds hopping along the fence. Upon closer inspection, I noticed yet another baby bird out of its nest and in my yard. Sigh. I had some gardening to do, and I wanted to leave the birds to take care of themselves, so I brought Lucy out on the long leash. I tied her to the fence so she could be outside with me, but far from the birds. When I was done gardening, I called the neighbors and their sixth grade daughter came over to help me with the bird. After much scrambling (it could run really fast and fly a couple of inches off the ground), we caught the baby bird in a box and put it under a bush outside the fence. We dug up some worms for the bird, but when we got back, it was gone. We looked, but couldn't find it.

K. and I watched the nest in the cedar tree for about an hour. There are a couple more babies up there. I think another bird (darn blackbirds!) is pushing these baby birds out of the nest. I hope the others learn to fly soon so I don't have to save anymore of these birds from Lucy.

Hi!

Lucy is my dog. . .a Sheltland Sheepdog (or Sheltie) to be exact. People sometimes ask what a Sheltie looks like. I always say, "Think about Lassie. Now shrink Lassie down to 20-25 pounds. A Sheltie is a collie that can sit on your lap." Lots of people think that Shelties are miniature collies, but they are not. Both Shelties and collies are believed to have decended from border collies. Shelties come from the Shetland Islands. . .same as Shetland ponies. They are small because the Shetland Islands are rough and rocky. There isn't much food and only small animals can really navigate the conditions. I'll post some fun and informative links about the Shetland Sheepdog so if you want to know more, you can read about them from people who are experts, and not just a girl who loves her little dog :o).

Lucy is naughty. I've said it from the beginning and I'll say it again now. From very early on, I've commented, "Lucy doesn't know the rules. Lucy doesn't even think there should be rules for her. She's too cute for rules." I had another Sheltie named Molly who died at almost 12 years old a couple of months before I got Lucy. Molly knew all the rules. Molly slept 23 1/2 hours a day. There is a big difference between the behavior of a 12 year old dog and an eight week old puppy.

Lucy does lots of interesting things and keeps me on my toes. When we are bored at work, someone will ask me, "What has Lucy done recently?" They all know there will be something funny I'll tell them.

So if you want a laugh, check back here. I'm going to try to post funny things Lucy does or has done. Good times.