First pupdate of the '20s

Pupdate! Jedi is doing well. He has a large fenced yard of his very own now, and he loves it. He also has his own Instagram account on which he discusses books, @readingbeagle.

Jedi and I tend to like the same books.

Pupdate November 2018

Jedi continues to be his hyperactive, sweet, loving self. During the day, he hangs out in my home office with me while I work. Around three p.m., Jedi wants attention so he starts knocking things over. He knocks over books, photo frames, my box of the Endless figurines from the Sandman...anything in range. One day he swiped at these books with his paw, turned around, and looked at me.

Hellooooo! I demand attention now.

Crazy beagle. Sometimes I want a change of scenery so I sit on the couch downstairs with Jedi while I work. This turns into a constant battle. I like to sit on the end of the couch next to the end table. I can have my tea within arm's reach, my phone, etc. Jedi likes this end of the couch, too. Any time I get up, he immediately makes his move.

The look on his face...

Dave wanted to get Jedi used to swimming. Of course I got Jedi a life vest. He wasn't super thrilled about this development.

He didn't hate it as much as I thought. That's it for Pupdate November 2018!

Cape May Zoo

A few weeks ago I went to the Cape May Zoo. It wasn't my first time, but I enjoy going back here from time to time. It's a great zoo.

 
There are snow leopards! They were all sleeping. The big tortoises were in for the winter, but we did see some small ones in the reptile house.

Hey, I'm not a pillow.

And this guy was right up against the glass.

Definitely stop in and visit the animals if you're in the area.

Pupdate!

I don't think I've blogged about Jedi since we adopted him, so here's a pupdate.

He has settled in nicely but is still a bundle of energy.

When he gets treats like this one he tries to hide them for later instead of chewing them right away. He loves to play with his toys, and he has a lot of them.

The frog is his favorite. Jedi lounges in his bed in my office while I'm working.

And he loves to go for walks, especially when we go to parks.

I'm so glad he became a part of our family!

Up close and personal with sea turtles

Dave and I met sea turtles a few weeks ago!

How did we get up close and personal with sea turtles? We did Adventure Aquarium's Sea Turtle Encounter. Dave loves turtles. We have four of them. So I set up this encounter as a very early birthday present. He looks like he's enjoying himself, right?

cute little hatchling

They have a limit of three people for each sea turtle encounter, but this day it was just the two of us. The encounter started with a short talk about sea turtles by our biologist guide. The aquarium has greens and one loggerhead. At the time, it also had a little hatchling that was soon to be returned to the wild. We started there and watched the little guy swim around and eat some shrimp.

me on the dock

Then we put on life vests and headed to a small dock suspended over the main tank. This is where we would feed the turtles.

Here they come!

The tank was large, but once they knew we had food, they came over to investigate.

We used tongs to first feed them lettuce, then fish. We held out the lettuce for them, and we just popped the fish right in their mouths.

Bob

Bob, the female loggerhead, was especially cool about that. She held her mouth open and waited for us to drop in the piece of fish!

Like the first photo in this post shows, we could touch the sea turtles, too. That was great!

I can't say enough about how much fun this encounter was, and the biologist leading it was fantastic. Dave and I checked out the rest of the aquarium while we were there, and of course Dave had to ride the sea turtle in the kids' area.

It was a great day. Now I just have to meet some penguins...

Meet Jedi!

I've been a little preoccupied lately. With this guy...

Meet Jedi! He's a 1 1/2-year-old beagle who Dave and I adopted from SOS Beagle Rescue. (We changed his name.) I struggled with a lot of feelings about getting another dog after losing Kenobi. But I didn't replace Kenobi. I just gave another dog who needed love the place he left behind.

Jedi's owner didn't want him anymore, but he's a sweetheart! He's friendly and loveable and snuggly and awesome and we love him already.

And unlike it seems in this photo, he is incredibly hyper! He still has some puppy in him. Welcome to the family, Jedi. You don't ever have to worry about not having a home again.

Birding in Brigantine

I went birding for the first time last month. I'm lucky enough to have a friend who is a birding master, and she invited me along with her to a national wildlife refuge in Brigantine to see the birds. I was hoping to see egrets, and of course, at least one great blue heron. We saw so many birds! There were birds that skimmed the water with their beaks as they flew by. There were a million egrets, both great and snowy. There were nesting ospreys and some ibises, and a rail, which my friend said was normally secretive. And then, there was the one I was looking for...

The great blue heron!! Woooooo!!! It was a fun day, and definitely not my last time birding.

A tribute to my beagle

I lost Kenobi a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would get easier, but it hasn't. I'm consumed by grief. I cry. I can't sleep. I check to see if he has water, but his bowls aren't there. I suppose it goes to show what a special dog he was by how big a hole he left in my heart. I'm struggling to deal with his loss, so I will try to remember the joy he brought to my life.

Kenobi loved blankets. He completely wrapped himself up in them. All the time. He did it in my bed. He did it in my office. He always had to have blankets. It didn't matter if they were his blankets or mine. Who am I kidding? They were all his.

Just like these clothes...Dave made the mistake of leaving clothes on the floor. Well, Kenobi saw that as a bed. Clothes or jackets left on the floor became instant Kenobi beds. They didn't even have to be left on the floor. If I left my clean laundry on the bed and walked into another room, I'd come back to find Kenobi on top of it.

I work from home, so Kenobi kept me company every day in my office. When I needed a break, I could go over and get a hug or a snuggle. I took breaks to walk him during the day, too.

Kenobi slept in bed with me. He especially liked to snuggle next to me under the blankets. He would stand by my head near my pillow and wait for me to lift up the blankets so he could go under. If I didn't do it right away, he'd stare at me. Then he'd start to lift up the edge of the blankets with his nose to try to give me a hint.

Kenobi was loving and friendly and his tail was always wagging.

When I moved in with Dave, Kenobi opened his heart to him, just as Dave did to Kenobi. It was great to see how much they bonded. Dave said it was easy to love Kenobi because I loved him so much that it was infectious. Dave misses Kenobi, too.

Kenobi liked to watch tv.

Sometimes we watched tv in bed, and sometimes he would sit on the couch next to me.

When Kenobi was younger, we'd go on long walks together. He loved meeting other dogs and new people. Once he got older, he preferred to lounge around.

Kenobi loved the sun. If he could find any spot on the floor where the sun was shining, that's where he would lie down. He really loved being outside in the sun. I'm thankful that on our last day together, I worked outside on the deck for a few hours, and Kenobi was outside with me, lying in the sun.

I think back to when I first brought him home. He was about one and a half years old when I adopted him from a beagle rescue. I thought to myself- What will our relationship be like? Will I love this little stranger? Will we get along? Will he be a good dog?

It seems so long since he was that little bundle of energy, with so much more brown hair.

How could I have known that he would be the best dog I ever could have hoped for? He was my companion and my friend. He made me happy. He was a part of me.

I'm grateful for every day we had together. I miss him. I feel the pain of his loss every day. I just want to kiss him on the head and give him a hug one more time. I loved him. I still love him. I hope he knew how much. I think he did.

Goodbye my sweet boy. You'll always be in my heart.

Trexler Nature Preserve

When I heard there were bison and elk roaming around the Lehigh Valley somewhere, I had to go find them.

So Dave and I headed out to the Trexler Nature Preserve a couple of weeks ago. And we saw bison and elk!

We hiked around some of the trails. It's beautiful there.

After walking around the preserve, we stopped at the Lehigh Valley Zoo. It's a small zoo, but there were some cool animals. I liked the penguins. I was disappointed that the otters were missing. All in all, it was a good day.

Kenobi turns 15

Kenobi's birthday is this month! He turns 15 years old. Approximately. He's a rescue beagle, so his age isn't exact.

I'm not sure what to say about the gentleman beagle that I haven't said here, here, here, here, or here. And then there's here, here, and here. I didn't realize I had written so much about the little guy. He is doing well, despite his health issues. He ignored BB-8 at Christmas.

He made a bed out of an old jacket and some clothes I had lying around in my office.

And then there's this.

He's a good boy, and I love him. Happy birthday, Kenobi!

Beagle birthday!

Kenobi's birthday is next week. He will be 14! Well, I usually qualify that with I don't know exactly when his birthday is. I got him when he was about 1 1/2, the vet made her best guess, and we went with that. Maybe he is 14 now. Who knows?

He loves his duck.

He's a sweetheart. He has health issues, but he is still going strong despite heart disease, kidney disease, arthritis, and most recently, hypothyroidism. None of that can stop the gentleman beagle!

He did this himself.

Hm, let's say none of that can stop the beagle when he hasn't wrapped himself up in blankets. I was looking through photos of him before writing this, and of course I came across some from when he was young. It's funny how I forget that he wasn't always so grey.

Young beagle!

I love him. I don't know what I'd do without him. He's my forever dog. Happy Birthday, Kenobi!