The Rabbit Died

Saturday morning, Josie Belle was out on the back porch.  The kids and I were up and I noticed Josie Belle was digging around in one of the unused large plastic pots.  The last time she did that, she pulled out a dead animal and ate it.  This time, I noticed she had something in her mouth, but I had no idea what it was (her back was to us).  I told the kids to look at her.  They commented things like, "gross", and "stupid dog".  We kind of giggled about it and went back to getting ready for the day. 
Then my daughter started screaming!  She is  freaked out, and I came running to the back glass door and saw Josie Belle with something in it's mouth.  It was the head of a rabbit!  The face was hanging out, you could see the cute little nose, the beady eyes, and the the ears flopping toward the ground.  She ran back and forth across the back porch and then to another empty pot and buried it.  Daughter is still freaking out, yelling things about needing therapy and I run to get my camera to take a picture.  Alas, she would stay still long enough for the Kodak moment.
It was quite the morning.  I think I need to get rid of those pots, yet strangely, I secretly love the fact that my dog's quite the hunter and saves her food.  This was not her first rabbit.  She's killed mice, birds, squirrels, and just a couple weeks ago, she tried to get a raccoon out of our garage.  What a girl!

Josie and the Raccoon.

I'm back!  Band camp was wonderful, but I'll tell you more about that another day.  Today I have to tell you about Josie and the Racoon.

On Friday morning, Foxy and I had to get up extra early because he had a stress test (as far as we know, all is well there).  We have normally been leaving the door from the garage to the back porch open, so Josie bell can come in and eat her food, and cool off.  We haven't been closing this door.  Well this morning, Foxy put Josie Belle out and all of a sudden she heard this racket in the garage.  He tried to open the door from the laundry room to the back door, but Josie was right in front of door, trying to get behind the deep freezer.  He started yelling at the dog, but she wouldn't have it.  So I came out to the dining room to see what was going on.  Foxy told me that the dog has something trapped in the garage.  I got my shoes on and went out the back door, through the porch and into the garage.  Josie was wagging her tail and barking at the thing.  Then I heard it growl.  Well, I went right over to Josie and grabbed her collar and got her out of there.  I closed the door and brought her in the house.  She went to the laundry room door, back to the back door, pacing and whining.  I left the room, and came back, and her ears were perked up and there was scratching on the walls.  It was trying to get out the way it came in.  So I went and opened the big garage door and watched.  After a few minutes, I saw a huge raccoon come out of the garage.  It was as big as Josie Belle was.  I then closed the door again and that was that.  Or so I thought.  Ever since that happened (on Friday morning), Josie has been obsessed with going out to the garage, sniffing everything out, getting behind the deep freezer.  Here is her last night just sitting waiting for someone to open the door for her.

I think she just wants to play, but she goes and spends hours in the garage now.  Over the years she has caught rabbits, birds, mice, and killed a skunk.  But she has not gone up against something this big.  She seems fearless thought.

Dog Mail

Okay, so she's only 8 years old (56 in dog years), but she received her first piece of mail yesterday.  I got several emails letting me know that it came.  Nothing extraordinary about this, except that Josie Belle Fox is a dog.  My dog.  I am into getting free stuff when I can and when it came to dog food, I thought it would be cute if it was addressed to the dog.  I was at work when the mail came, so I tried to get someone at home to take a picture of Josie and her mail.  No one did.  I had to do it myself.

It's a small can of Alpo, with a coupon!  Score!

Josie Bell is checking out her mail.

"Mom!  Quit taking my picture."  She is just like my other kids.

There's that pretty face!

She is sooooo skinny.

Tomorrow I will have pictures of the garden.  We had a lot of visitor's last night, so I didn't get out there.

4th of July Weekend Update

What a terrific weekend!  It was HOT, but yesterday it cooled off enough that the parade went off and the fireworks were wonderful.

We had a fun weekend.  Friday night was the closing program for VBS.  Saturday, we didn't do too much.  Some errands, good food, Son came home from the Amish country with the Grandparents.  We did go get our free Nestle mini-drumsticks.  It was fun. 

Sunday, we honored our soldiers and country at church.  It was kind of  an emotional day. Mom and Dad came over later and we grilled out and then went to a new ice cream place called TWIST.  The pictures are of Foxy and Son, me and Gpa, and Daughter and Gma.  It was very hot, and a great night for ice cream.

Monday, Foxy's brother & SIL came over to watch the parade with us.  Then we went out to eat.  Daughter marched.  The parade was bigger than last year and great weather, not too humid.  We got under a tree, where the shade and a breeze kept us cool.  After the relatives went home, Foxy watered the garden and Josie Belle, and I took pictures.  We then rested a bit, and then went to the Light Up the Sky in Monroe for the festival and fireworks.
Here's the garden.

The watermelon is starting to vine.

This is one of the several volunteer tomato plants.  Probably cherry tomatos.

This is our radishes.

This is the zucchini.

One of the two cucumbers plants.

We lost another tomato plant, but we still have plenty and they are starting to grow.

Here's our first green pepper.  Yumm-yumm!

Here is our wax pepper.  Can't wait to put it on pizza!

This is Josie Bell getting sprayed.  She actually barks until we spray her.  With all her hair, it really cools her down!

 Hope your weekend was just a great.  I'll try and put some fireworks pictures I took up tomorrow.  Have a great Tuesday!

Thursday Muses

Did anyone else watch So You Think You Can Dance last night?  WOW!  My favorite dances were Melanie and Marko, they were covered in a white powder, looking like stone statutes.  The dance was choreographed by Travis Wall.  It was amazing!  I totally loved it!  Then there was the Broadway number with Jess and this is sad...I don't remember who he was paired with.  That is how good he was, I think.  And of course, Tyce Diorio was their choreographer.  Anyway, those were my two favorite numbers. 

My dog, Josie Belle, thinks I am starving her.  I had been putting out dry dog food every day and she would eat when she wanted.  Well, I am out of that and have been feeding her cans of Pedigree that I got for $.054 a piece.  I feed her early, and then around supper, plus she is licking pans, plates, whatever she can find, clean.  But last night, I let her in and she laid on the couch as I watched Hot In Cleveland.  When I got up to go to bed, she went to the kitchen.  I tried to get her to go to the bedroom, but she would not have it.  She just kept running around the house.  I eventually realized that she wanted more food.  So I fed her.  But she had to sleep outside last night because the last time I fed her that late, she ended up puking on my bed because she ate too fast.

Son had a basketball game last night.  It's a high school league, but I was under the impression that he would play other teams that were junior varsity, like him.  Last night, most of those boys had muscles bigger than his body!  LOL.  See what I mean?

Son is in white, facing the camera.  The boy is black is actually a junior, who was good natured, but we played pretty good against them.  At one point we were down 21 points, but only lost by 12 in the end.  We have a boy that is very short, compared to Son, (like barely comes to his armpit).  The other team was kinda laughing at him, trying to figure out how to defend.  Shorty got 6 points off them.  That'll show 'em!

I consider today Friday because tomorrow I only work four hours.  That's what we do every Friday between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  That makes me happy!

Have a great day!

Weekend Update Movie Reviews, Dog doings

Happy, happy Monday.  I had a pretty boring weekend, which hardly every happens in the cfoxes haushold.  So I had the really fun blog about Son being in jail and all, but I can't find the pictures.  So that will have to wait a day or two.  This week is going to be pretty busy too! 

Friday I went home, we decided to take the kids out to eat before they left for Minnesota, and before the movie.  So we went to a chinese buffet.  It was good.  Then we went, picked up a friend of Daughter and BFF so they could spend a bit of time together before the movie.  If you remember, I was finally going to see Eclipse.  Then ran to the Family Dollar to pick up cheap snacks.  I hate spending $3.50 for a box of M&Ms when I can get them for $1.00 somewheres else.  That's what big purses are for!

We went to a 9:45 pm showing of the movie.  We got there, spent our money, went directly to the theater and climbed up stairs to the tippey-top.  The teenagers sat in a corner and Foxy, Son and I  sat a few seats over from them.  Son and Friend kept shushing each other all night. 

Surprisingly, the theater was still pretty packed.  We waited and waited for the lights to go out.  When the previews started, I was enthralled.  Harry Potter!  Charlie St. Cloud!  Chronicles of Narnia!  I love previews.  I love dreaming of what is to come.

Eclipse was amazing, as most of you know.  I have a read a lot of your reviews for the movie and know that some of you loved it, some of you hated it and some of you were somewhere in the middle.  As for me and my house, three out of four cfoxes would recommend it to a friend.  Son was the one who didn't care for it.  Probably because the rest of us liked it so much.  I think it was a little too mushy for him.

Anyway, I loved it!  The drama, the action, the fighting, the racing hearts and my favorite scene...Charlie (Bella's dad) and Bella talking about safe sex.  I found that to be hysterical.  It would be just about like Foxy trying to talk to Daughter about it.  When she blurted out that she was still a virgin and the priceless look on Charlie's face so, so, Bahahahaha!

Saturday was spent getting the kids ready for their trip with Gpa and Gma.  We ran to the warehouse.  I bought snacks and steaks (for me and Foxy), and shears.  The shears were used in cleaning up Son's mohawk.  He is again looking like a Native American from the neck up.  Daughter and BFF babysat Bff's little sis.  So Son had Big T over and we watched a movie Foxy received for Father's Day; From ParisWith Love, or something like that. It stars John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.  I love Travolta and in this movie, he did not disappoint with the one-liners or the action.  I had no knowledge of what this movie was about, just that Travolta was in it.  Aside from it being very heavy on the bad language, I thought it was a fun movie.

Sunday, we went to church.  We went to lunch, and then we sent Son and Daughter off with Gpa and Gma to the Mall of America.  So we are kidless this week, but not dog-less.  Josie Belle was barking up a storm, really bothering me last night.  Usually she doesn't bother me when she barks, but she was driving me insane.  I don't usually hear her, but maybe it was because the kids were not at home, but I ended up bringing her in.  She ran around looking for the kids, made Foxy pet her, tried to eat a mint (which would have helped her breath), and kept waiting for us to go to bed.  She is funny that way.  When she is ready for bed, she will go down the hall to the bedroom, then come back to the living room and stop.  She will look at us and turn around.  If I get up, turn off the tv and the lights, she jumps up and takes off to the bedroom.  She loves to be in bed with us.  She sleeps at my feet, usually.

When we went to bed, Foxy noticed that one of his pillows was kinda tore up.  The cover was ripped.  Josie always goes in and pushes his pillows around with her nose.  I think she likes the smell of his nasty pillows.  I told Foxy he needs new pillows, and he says he just got these broke in.  Well, he definitely needs new pillows now.  Maybe I'll run to the warehouse club and get him some.

Well that's all the weekend news I have.  Hope your weekend was fun too!

The Marriage Ref and Adventures with Josie the Dog

Friday is upon us again.  Last night I was watching that new show, The Marriage Ref.  Have you seen it?  They bring three "stars" on as the panel and they have this guy, who is the host, and maybe even a therapist or something, though in reality he is just really funny.

Anyway, last night, Howie Mandel, Bette Midler, and some person I didn't know, Craig Robinson was on the panel. 

The format is that a couple will air their "problem" to the nation and these three talk about it.  Then the host makes "The Call" and tells the couple who is right, or who wins the argument.

I think this show is funny because you actually see the "stars" in rare form.  There have been some doozy's on...Gweneth Paltrow, Martin Short, Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, some big names. 

Last night, there was a husband that was irritated that his wife was always on her Blackberry.  Instead of having a conversation with him at supper, she would answer text messages and emails. 

I see his point on this.  If you have kids with cell phones, you probably have had issues like this.  Sometimes I think I am like that.  If I am in a text conversation with a friend, and my husband is trying to talk to me, it is difficult to hold both conversations.  I try not to do it, but well, you know.  Anyway, if you make a date or are trying to be attentive to your mate or whoever you are with, then put the electronic device down.  That's all I am saying.  What is your opinion on this?

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My dog was acting weird last night.  She is a 7 year old chow-chow-german shepherd mix.  She has the body of the shepherd, the hair of the chow.  She is beautiful and playful.  She stays on the enclosed back porch during the day and we let her in at night...sometimes.  Last night, it was so humid in the house, that I figured she wouldn't want to be in.  So when I went to turn out lights, she was at the back door looking at me with those big brown eyes.  So I let her in. 

Josie Belle wanted to play.  She wanted to run around the house, and play with me.  I will bat at her with my hands and when I turn my back, she comes up and jumps up and hits me with her paws, like tag.  She is so funny.  So I played with her for a while like that. 

I finally got her to settle down and I decided I wanted to go to bed.  She wouldn't come to the bedroom.  I love Josie, but she is not going to wander our house freely.  She will get into the trash and whatever else she can find.  Nope, not going to do it.  So I walked down the hall to our room and I clicked my tongue at her.  Nothing.

I whispered, "Josie, let's go to bed."  Still nothing.

So I walked backed up the hallway and there she was sprawled out on her side, lounging on the floor.  She looked up at me like "What?" 

I nudged her with my foot, but she laid there like a lump.  I told her, "Well, it's either the bedroom or you go back outside.  Your choice."  She blinked.

So I sat down on the couch, turned the tv back on and laid there for a few minutes.  I woke up later and my husband came out of the bedroom to get a drink.  I turned off the tv and grumbled, "Stupid dog." 

I stumbled down the hall into my room, got my jammies on, put my earbuds in and turned on my Ipod.  I put the Ipod under my pillows and laid down and started to drift off, when all of a sudden...POUNCE!

There was Josie, up on the bed, walking over my legs to get to the outside part of the bed (the one next to the window), panting.  I scooted my legs over to make room for her and drifted off to sleep.

Now usually, sometime around 4 AM, Josie Belle wakes me up wanting to go outside.  It usually goes like this:  Josie gets up, walks up to the head of the bed, sits on my pillows and pants over the top of me.  Sometimes she paws me in the face to wake me.  That makes me get up. She will follow me down the hall to the back door.  I thought that would happen last night as hot as she was, but when I got up at 5:30 AM, she was laying at the foot of the bed, panting and restless. 

I started out to the shower and looked at her and said, "Let's go", and walked away.  I hear her jump off the bed and down the hall, she turns left and goes into the living room, I had turned right to walk toward the front door. 

I turn left and there she is, trotting toward the backdoor.  I slide the backdoor open and she takes off, sniffing the air.  As I close the door, she lets out a bark to wake up the neighborhood.  Dumb Dog!

Pictures of Enjoyment

People don't learn to enjoy pictures because they seldom look at them; and they seldom look at pictures because they have never learnt to enjoy them.

-Mortimer, (Charles) Raymond Bell
  Try  Anything Once.

Today is what I call "Here is what I am enjoying this week" post.  

I know, I know, I need a pedicure badly.  But it is so nice to wear flip flops!

This is Josie Belle.  She is enjoying being out on the grass on her chain in the sunshine.  She totally loves it out there!  I love seeing her happy.




I also enjoyed finishing The Time Traveler's Wife.  It was a really good book.  


What are you enjoying this week?