Fun Friday – How I’m Making My Pup’s Top 7 “Menu” Items Work For Me

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

1) Plastic Flower Pots – Don’t ask me where my pup keeps finding these. But I’m thinking that the zigzag chew marks around the top will appeal to eclectic collectors. E-Bay auction here I come!

2) Rubber Boots – Around here rubber boots are worn to muck out the farm animals. Dog eats your boots…Someone else will have to do the mucking out. I’m thinking Win-Win. Dog’s happy. I’m happy.

3 Cucumbers – Yes, fresh from the garden, vine-and-all cucumbers. I must admit this one miffed me at first. After all, I enjoy a good cucumber. But…no half bushel of cukes means no obligation to spend hours canning relish and pickles. It works for me!

4) Sofas – Yes, what pup doesn’t like to gnaw on a good sofa? The thing is old, old, old anyway. What better excuse do we need to replace it? Word of advice: wait until pup outgrows chewing phase.

5) Miscellaneous Tools – Maybe the man in your life will start putting them away instead of leaving them lying about. A cause for celebration…okay, if he doesn’t send the dog packing first!

6) Wood – Sure that cord of wood was supposed to be for cosy fires in the dead of winter, but we can always use the bits of wood for kindling…or garden mulch!

7) Remote Control – Clearly the dog is trying to tell us that the time has come for a new T.V. The analog receiver on that old TV doesn’t work anymore, anyway. And all the shows appear as a narrow band across the middle. The pup did us a favor! Or…maybe she’s telling us we need to spend more time walking than watching!

Fridays are my days for fun posts about the “characters” in my life and at large. Lately, our young pup is the biggest character in our lives and rich fodder for blog posts!

And yes, that is something new she’s found to chew–an eavestrough end cap and down spout strap. Ugh! No wait a minute…I’m thinking scrap aluminum prices are up these days. We’re good.


Moral of this story: Look for the silver lining in the trials of your day. And if all else fails. Laugh about it.

Your turn: Got a story to share?

The Fragrance of Life

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard
Scent is a powerful thing. The slightest whiff of a particular scent can rouse memories you haven’t thought about in years, evoking unexpected emotions. The fragrance of my mom’s favorite hand lotion will bring memories of her flooding back to me. For others the smell of oil might take them back to their first car, or a day spent with their dad working on the old jalopey. The smell of leather might remind you of that cool guy you dated in twelfth grade.
Since I write romantic suspense, you’re probably thinking–fragrances…romance…I know where she’s going with this. Trust me when I say…probably not.

Do you have Japanese beetles where you live?
They’re quite attractive, with shiny green and bronze shield-like backs. But destructive! Think plague of locusts.
I knew we had to take action when the leaves on my linden turned to lacy skeletons and began falling in mid-June, a full three months too soon. 
When the beetles, migrated to my bean plants, we declared all out war. 
We discovered a nifty way to catch these beetles without using pesticides. You hang a plastic bag, like the one in the picture, upwind from the infestation and place a pouch of female beetle pheromones inside.
Instantly, hundreds of beetles lifted from our bean plants, and swarmed to the source of the scent.
Wow, that was one powerful fragrance.
It reminded me of the verse in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?
A humbling thought, isn’t it? 
When I catch myself acting not so fragrant, I think of that swarm of beetles and how very much I want to be the fragrance of life to those around me. How about you?
Today’s smile:
You remember Bella, my connoisseur-of-hubcaps pup?
Well, she felt sorry for all those Japanese beetles doped up on pheromones. After all dogs have an acute sense of smell. So… she liberated them!
Yup, it’s true. As my daughter told my husband, “You had to know that was going to happen.”
Have a fragrant weekend! 

We’re Talking Character

Posted on: by Sandra Orchard

Okay, so this blog is about characters… And I have a real one in my house. 
The dog. 
She’s graduated from ripping apart rubber boots to gnawing on my hubcaps! 
Now, in fairness to the poor puppy, it’s not as if she ripped them off my car. 
If she had I’d be signing her up for the next movie spoof on street crime in Harlem.
No, she snatched them from the garage. But really…what was my son thinking not putting them back on the car when he changed out the snow tires?
We’re talking puppy here. And well…hubcaps they look like giant Frisbees. Don’t you think?
She apparently thinks they’re the greatest thing since—well—rubber boots.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Hubcaps are metal. How much damage could one little puppy do? I mean she’s so sweet she flops over dead if you so much as say bang— unless you don’t have a visible treat, then she moans a lot on the way down. Come to think of it, maybe the movies is where she really needs to be…
But back to my hubcaps. Did you know hubcaps have these little plastic tabs that hold them in place. Plastic! What teething pup could resist plastic?
I must say to her credit that as soon as you tell her not to chew something, she stops and won’t do it again. She has lots of perfectly sound chew toys to prove it. My mistake was in only telling her not to chew hubcap number one!
Your turn: What’s the funniest, cutest or most annoying thing your pet has ever done? Click on “Comments” to share.