Trixie

Trixie was a little Pomeranian/mutt mix who came to live with us when she was 10 weeks old.  She was so tiny that she would fit on one hand.  Her mom was a Pom and her dad was a mixed mutt, but a very tiny one.  When full grown, Trixie was around 6 lbs.

She was certainly the smallest dog I’d ever had before – but she seemed to have no idea she was small.  Trixie was absolutely fearless.  She used to drive Angela crazy by attacking her ankles whenever she walked by her and she did the same to Dakota once Dakota moved in. (Dakota was 80 lbs)

Trixie was a yappy little dog.  I swear she could hear a car door close from 10 blocks away and she would be yapping to let us know.  Obviously there were a lot of car doors that would be slamming in those 10 blocks, so some days it seemed that she never stopped barking.

Something must have happened to Trixie one day when she was 12 or 13 years old and when I was at work and Angela was at school.  I assume it was a head injury of some kind and have no idea if Dakota had taken exception to her yapping or biting her legs or if something else happened.  Trixie began walking into walls or things on the floor and we realized that she was blind.  Not only that, but she would lie down and hardly move some days.

We got her to the vet and they kept for for the day and gave her a shot of something.  Angela went and picked her up after school and they told her then that she might not make it through the night.  But she surprised us all and a couple of hours later she was back to her same never ending energy and could obviously see just fine.  When I got home from work, she was running circles around me.

This only lasted a few weeks though and before we knew it she was blind and had no energy again.  The next shot hardly lasted a week and since the vet had no idea what the problem was and the cost of this treatment was way above what I, as a single parent could provide any more, we made the decision to have her put to sleep at that time.

Dakota & Trixie

Trixie and Dakota at the Dog Park with Morgan and Tessa

Tessa, the Golden Retriever had never seen Trixie before and just about fell over when she stopped in her tracks to check her out.

Trixie

Trixie

So far on Africam today, we have seen Warthog, Waterbuck, Terrapin, Elephant, Nyala, Bushbuck, Impala, Wildebeest, Baboon, Woolly-necked Stork, and Common Duiker.  Click here to see all of today’s pictures.

We are starting off the day here with a temperature of -12C and a windchill that feels like -20C.   It will be a chilly walk this morning.

Zip Lining Adventure

Wow – what a rush!  I knew I was going to love zip-lining and I really did.

Yesterday, my daughter Angela and I went to Hi-Wire Zipline Adventures and had a wonderful time.  We were warned about the long hike up the hill after the first zip, and it was hard, especially because it was 29C and humid – but we survived the walk and the zips.    The scenery up there was beautiful and worth the trip even without the zips – but the zips were fantastic.  I could do that again anytime.  If it is this hot the next trip, I just might pay the extra $5. for a ride up that first long hike though.  It was 800 meters and a very steep climb

I realized afterwards that I didn’t get a picture of the 3 dogs that did the whole course on foot, plus several extra miles racing around while we were up in the hills.  They must all be fairly young dogs to keep that up 4 times every day and I couldn’t help but think about how much Dakota would have loved doing that in her younger days.  Chester also would love that and would probably even love it now, but with the vet saying to limit his walking distance, I wouldn’t want to take the chance with him.  I cam home with 1 wood tick on me, so I can imagine how many the dogs would bring home.

The only problem I have with Hi-Wire is that their web page says “This is a 2 hour adventure to last a lifetime.“, but is is 1 hour.  There were only 7 people in our group, which would have sped it up a bit – but only by a few minutes as the actual zips are less than 1 minute each.  The group before us were also back in 1 hour, so I’m not sure why they say its a 2 hour adventure.  It was great and I loved it and will certainly do it again, but you go there thinking that you will be on the course for 2 hours and it is only 1/2 that time, you leave feeling that you missed something.  Next time I’ll know that it is for one hour.

Angela

View from Above

View from Above

I have 3 short videos of the zip lining and have been trying to find a movie maker that will combine them into one.  Windows Movie Maker that I used to use, does not do MPEG files and that is what this camera makes.  I have downloaded and tried several trial versions of programs and not one of them works.    One of them said it would do up to 5 minutes, but is partially combined 2 of these into a big 16 seconds – so that was pretty useless.  All 3 of them are only a few seconds each and its such a nuisance to have to open 3 of them, but that is what you’re going to have to do if you want to see them unfortunately.

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,300 times in 2010. That’s about 3 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 58 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 279 posts. There were 676 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 36mb. That’s about 2 pictures per day.

The busiest day of the year was September 22nd with 33 views. The most popular post that day was R.I.P. Dakota May/97 to Sept 22/10.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were africam.com, facebook.com, mail.yahoo.com, bellaonline.com, and en.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for jan21cam, snow covered berries, giraffes giraffes, snow covered flowers, and peaceful snow covered mountains.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

R.I.P. Dakota May/97 to Sept 22/10 September 2010
3 comments

2

About Mavis August 2008
8 comments

3

June 11th June 2010
1 comment

4

August 19th August 2009

5

August 15th – Cheetahs, Lions, Wild Dogs and Elephants August 2009

R.I.P. Dakota May/97 to Sept 22/10

Early this morning Dakota got off the bed in the dark (around 5 am) and landed heavily.  Her back legs were in an awkward position, so I helped her get comfortable, as she seemed unable to move them herself.  He had had a difficult time getting up the stairs last night, needing extra help, so I had been concerned about getting her down in the morning, but she had no desire to come downstairs at all.

She refused her food, that I brought up to her – first time in her life that she refused food.  After I made several attempts to get her on her feet, she continued to make no effort or even try to get up.  Her eyes had definitely lost the shine that I am so used to seeing.

Chester stayed right by my side at every step this morning, which is very unusual for him – but when I went upstairs to sit with Dakota, he stayed downstairs.

Unfortunately, the veterinarian that Dakota loves, does not make house calls and she is too heavy for me to carry – so I had to spend time calling the mobile vets in the city to find one that would come out to see her.  The only one who could come today, wouldn’t be able to make it for several hours and I was just not prepared to wait that long, as I am sure she was in pain.  I called my vet’s office again and asked if they could help her in, if I could get someone to help me get her out of the house and into the car and they assured me that they would do that.  After calling a few, and finding no one home (of course, this is a working neighbourhood), I was just about ready to go to the house under construction next door to see if I could borrow one of the workers for a few minutes.  At that point, Dakota moved her back legs and I decided that I could get her downstairs on my own, if she would help herself.

It was a slow journey down the stairs, but we made it and then headed out to the car.    The vet’s office is only a few minutes away and we were helped in and right into a room that had been set up for her.  Dakota did manage to get enough interest in things to convince them that she should have some treats and they obliged.

Dakota is now pain free.

Dakota

Chester had an extra long walk when I returned home.

September 17th

The days are getting longer in Africa (which I love), but they are getting shorter and cooler here (which I’m not thrilled about).  Today the high was 10C  – I’m not impressed!

Dakota continues to do well today, I am happy to say.  She is still an old dog, but she is a happy old dog. 

Over this past week, I had a new roof put on my shed and today I cut down more of the troublesome branches that did so much damage to the old roof.    This probably would have been easier with a sharper saw – but I used what I had – LOL

Of course I have pictures!

Shed Roof with Cedar Singles off

Looks pretty scary 

Shed Roof with Cedar Singles off

The hole in the center used to have a plexiglass cover, which had broken off in places.

Shed Room all done

All the overhanging branches are gone now and my arm has done more than its share of work in cutting them all down.   Now, I have to get all the branches and all the old shingles out of my yard.  I am offering them on freecycle first and if no one wants them, I guess I’ll be renting a truck to haul them to the dump.  The first thing I ever offered on freecycle was wood and it was grabbed up very quickly, so hopefully this will too.

I still have to find my bird book for Canadian birds – but here is a little guy I saw yesterday sitting on one of my trees.

bird

I know where my Birds of Southern Africa is, but not where my Birds of Canada is – LOL

A couple of days ago, I saw this bird land on top of a tall pine tree while I was out walking.  Again, not sure what it is though.

Hawk

It has been awhile since I have posted anything on Africam – but needless to say, I still spend my free time and some of the time that really wasn’t free, watching the cams and chatting to the other Africamers online.  It is such a thrill to be involved with this organization.

Here are some of the pictures that I’ve taken over the past few days.  If you want to see all the pictures from September 17th, you can click here.  I missed the giraffes, but you can find pictures of them by following the link.

Elephant at NK Sept 16

Impala, Hadeda Ibis and Oxpeckers at EP Sept 17

African Hoopoe at NK Sept 17

Sunrise at EP Sept 15

I have a sunrise picture of my own taken a couple of days ago – although, I probably shouldn’t show it right after the African sunrise.

Sunrise Sept 14

Dakota

Last weekend Dakota really had me scared.  I wrote this thinking that I would not have her at this time and this was to be the story about the end of her life.  She fooled me 

On Friday night Dakota wanted outside, so I put both dogs out as usual.  She doesn’t like to stay out for long, and normally lets herself back in the house,so when she was still outside 10 minutes later, I went to let her in.  When I looked out, she was standing in the middle of the yard with her head down and her tail down.  She did not respond when I called her, so I went over to her.  I talked to her and then I touched her – again with no response, so I took her by the collar and brought her back into the house.  She came in fine and then came over near to me and stood in the same position with her head and tail down until I finally convinced her to lie down.  For at least 45 minutes, she lay there breathing very heavily and then finally she settled into normal breathing again.

About a 1/2 hour later, she got up for a drink, but was still walking very slowly, with her head and tail both down and when she came back, she just stood there like that again until I convinced her to lie down.  She has been carrying her tail much lower the last few weeks and according to the vet, this is because it is attached to her spine, and because of her arthritis, it hurts to put it up – so she carries it low.  She normally still wags her tail frequently, so I’m thinking that it causes no pain when she has it low.  The head held low was different and she did not wag her tail at all.

At bedtime, she didn’t want to move, but I got her to get up and to lie down on her blanket in the sunroom near the bottom of the stairs, as I was sure she would not be able to make it upstairs, even with my help.  About 10 minutes later though, she was attempting the stairs on her own, so I went back down to help her up.  She made no attempt to get onto the bed and settled down on the floor beside the bed, and for much of the night, I listened to her breathing very heavily.  I was worried about how to get her downstairs in the morning – but by morning she was feeling much better and had no problem getting down on her own.  She was also fine for our walk in the morning and seemed to be back to normal.

The real surprising thing is that each day since then, she has improved slightly.  I’ve noticed her tail up a bit higher on our walks and her pace has picked up.  She is getting up quicker when I come home and she wants outside more often – not because she has to go, but because she wants to go outside.  Today, when I was filling the water bucket outside for them, she even played with the water from the hose (which she used to love to do, but has not done at all this year.

I know I’m still going to have to face the day that will be her last – but for now, things are looking good.

Dakota

August 21st

What a beautiful day here today.    Sun was shining all day and the temperature is in the mid 20′s so quite comfortable.   I’d be happy if these temperatures would last until the end of October.

I’ve had recurring problems with my tool shed the last few years.  First my bicycle was stolen out of it and a couple of weeks later it was broken into again – probably someone thought I would buy another bike and put it back in the tool shed.  I did buy another bike, but have been bringing it into the house each day.  /It has been broken into twice since then and the last time they took my gas can that was about 1/2 full of gas.  I had to buy another gas can so I could cut my lawn 

So I hope the problem has now been fixed.  The door to my shed is now inside my back yard instead of facing the back lane.  Outside this door was mud though so my weekend project was to build a sidewalk in front of it and amazingly enough I’ve done just that.  I still have to paint the whole shed, but that will be another weekend project. 

After new door and before the sidewalk

Materials all ready to start the job

Digging up the site

Base put down

First slabs down

Thats it for day 1

Day 2 - 95% done

As the sand and dirt settle, I will add more and whatever dirt is left when it is finished will be put against the lowest parts around the house, which is where the rest of it ended up today.

I was definitely stiff and sore today and I expect the same for tomorrow – but it feels good to have done this myself.

Next project will be to pain the tool shed

My rose bush has a beautiful flower on it right now and here it is 

Rose

My dogs met the 2 dogs who are waiting to move into the house next door when it is completed.  It went fairly well for a first meeting.  Dakota was fine with them, but she loves everyone – so that wasn’t a surprise.  Chester is not a sociable dog, so he did interact for a few minutes and then went under the deck by himself.  Of course when they went back to their own yard,  he was jumping at the fence to get at them – goofy dog!

I didn’t take pictures of the meeting, but I (of course) have new pictures of Dakota and Chester to show you.

Dakota Aug 21

Chester Aug20

On Africam today, we had a crash of Rhinos visit Nkorho. You can see all the pictures from today here and if you want to see the video of the Rhino visit, you can Click here.

Have a great day!

August 15th

Here we are in the midst of yet another rainy weekend in the summer.   It is quite cool outside also with 13C being the temperature at 1pm – so we know it isn’t going to get much (if any) warmer for the day.

The last few days have been pretty busy.  Thursday was a vacation day and since my sister and her entire family were in the area, with 3 cottages rented about an hour north of the city, I went up to visit with them for the day.  My daughter and her boyfriend also spent the day there and my Mom was staying there as well.  We had some fun, ate lots of food and (of course) took some pictures.

the kids playing lawn darts

This is all my nieces’ kids playing lawn darts beside their grandparent’s cottage.   I took way too many pictures to put up here, so please feel free to check out the rest of them on my facebook page.

Then, on Friday (which was supposed to be my weekend), I had to go to a training session with all the other full time sales & services staff from all the branches at the Y here.  We had the session at Camp Y, which is a new camp about an hour outside of the city.  It is actually an old camp and the Y is working hard to get it up to standard for year round use.  Right now, it is being used by the day camps for the outings and there is lots to do.  We were supposed to get an opportunity to use the swimming pool, high-ropes course, climbing wall and zip line – but the rain ruined that, so we just had our training.  It was fun and we got to meet some of the other staff from the other branches, who we often talk to on the phone.  It will be nice to be able to put a face to the name now.    I did get a day off work to replace my Friday – which is why I am at home now.  I didn’t have my early Sunday shift to work this week.

Dakota is still plugging along.  I don’t think the Cartrophen Vet injections did anything to help her out with her arthritis.  It may be that she is a bit less in pain – it is hard to tell.  She still gets her same walks at her speed and the walks are the same speed as they were before the injections.  She still wants to go further – but does not object when I go out with Chester now.  I have learned that if I let her go further, she will have quite a bit of problems in the evening with her legs collapsing on her.  It does take her a few minutes at any time after she has been sleeping, to get those legs moving correctly under her.

Chester, on the other hand has no end to his energy.  His motto is “Lets GO” so he and I have quite a long walk along the Red River on most days.  There has been absolutely nothing to take pictures of though.

I am so excited!  My tool shed is fixed.  I have had problems over the years of the tool shed being broken into – just because it was so easy to break into it.  The doors to the shed opened up onto the parking spot in the back lane and the doors were only locked by a chain and padlock.  Many times I wondered if it was possible to lift the shed up and move it around so that the doors are on the inside of the yard, but thought that would be a huge and very expensive job, so I did not follow through with it.  It is a big wooden shed and this year, it suddenly occurred to me that a solution would be to just block the old doors off and build a new door inside the yard.  I found someone to do it and I now have a real door, instead of the flimsy doors from before and it is inside my yard with a deadbolt lock on it.  I will have to pick up some paint to paint the whole shed and make it look as new as the door and I will have to get some sidewalk blocks down in front of the new door.  I plan on doing both if it ever stops raining on a day when I don’t have to work.

Africam continues to take a lot of my time as the critters continue to visit the waterholes. One night we even had a leopard climb a tree – right in front of us. The Baboons and the Hadeda Ibis were sure unhappy about that! You can see the video that Morris made for us at Leopards. The zoomie did a great job of following him up and down the tree.

Today on Africam, we have seen Cape Buffalo, Zebras, Hadeda Ibis, Cape Turtle Doves, Reedbuck, Grey Go Away Bird, Water Monitor, Impalas, Waterbuck, Nyalas, Elephants, Wildebeests and more. Take a look at today’s pictures here.

July 31st

What happened to July??  After today, it will be gone for another year and it hardly seems to have stayed for 31 day.  We had a bit cooler weather yesterday – but its hotter already today.

I had Thursday off work this week – vacation day – and I took my annual trip to the zoo.  I got lots of pictures, especially of one of the new Asian Lions – a male named Xerexes.  The female, Kaya is apparently a slow eater and had not come out yet at the time I was there.  At first Xerexes was pawing at the door wanting to go back inside, but after awhile he  started walking around and he gave me some awesome roars.  I wished I had my glasses with me, so I could have seen to change the setting on my camera to video to capture it – but instead, I snapped tons of pictures of him.

Xerexes

I have all the pictures on my facebook page and you do not have to have a facebook account to see them.

Click here to see all my pictures from the zoo trip.  

Apparently we lost our Grizzly Bear over the winter as he did not wake up after hibernation.  He was a pretty old guy, so it was not unexpected.  The bear enclosures are now under construction, so the Black Bears have been moved out temporarily.  When they return, it will be to a newly renovated area.

Dakota has finished her 4 Cartrophen Vet injections, but the results are less than satisfying.  She seems a bit better – although she doesn’t walk any better, she does not seem to be in pain at this time.  The vet pointed out a few things that I had kind of noticed, but didn’t realize what they meant.  One of these things was the way he holds her tail.  She used to always have her tail up above her back, but now holds it much lower.  She still wags it frequently though, so I wasn’t concerned.  Now, I know that because she isn’t walking normally, her back is a little out of joint and putting her tail up hurts her back.   The vet gave me some physical therapy exercises to do with her, which may help her mobility some too.   I knew going into this that there was no guarantee that the Cartrophen Vet would work – but it was worth a try and even a little better is better than it was for her.

Our walks along the Red River have not resulted in any pictures for some time now.  Of course there is the river – but, as you know, I am looking for critter shots     Chester, of course is enjoying his longer walks, while Dakota is pretty tired with her short and slow walk around the block these days.  Chester gets to go for several blocks and chases shadows every step of the way.  One of the common shadows these days is from dragon flies.  In an effort to reduce the spraying for mosquitoes, the city has released millions of dragon flies and they are everywhere.  They are obviously eating millions of mosquitoes but occasionally, the city still has to spray some areas.

To get you some critters pictures, I have taken some at Africam – where the sightings were great last night and this morning.

Impalas at EP

Duiker at NK

lions at NK

hippo at EP

warthogs at NK

The picture of the lions was taken from a video by Morris and you can see the video here.
The lions were following herd of cape buffalo that had just gone by and here is a video showing the nervous buffalo.

For more pictures from today click here.

The house next door is moving along.  Apparently the delay had been the windows and now they are in, the work is progressing again.  Since most of the work is now going on indoors, there isn’t a lot of change on the outside, but here is the front, side and back currently.

front

side

back

Thats it for today 

July 17th

How unusual – its raining here!!!   Of course, there is also thunder, because this summer one doesn’t come without the other.   No air conditioning costs today because it is a little cool, actually refreshing if it wasn’t for the rain.  I have also saved on water costs, since I have not had to water my yard or flowers at all this year either.  So there are slight positives to this rain – but I would sure love some hot, dry weather at some time this summer.

Dakota has had 2 or the 4 Cartrophen Vet injections and so far I haven’t noticed any difference in her.  This is not uncommon and I am willing to wait until all injections are given to see an improvement in her movement.  They say 80% of the dogs will show improvement, but that does leave 20% who will not and I sure hope Dakota is in the 80%.  I guess we will know in 2 more weeks.  Please keep your fingers crossed for her.   She has to be able to move on her own because I simply can not carry an 80 lb dog.

Dakota is a good eater.  If she ever fails to eat a meal, I will know that something is seriously wrong.  Chester, however is a different story.  Food is not important to him, although he does end up eating most meals.  The dogs always have to sit to get their meal and they both sit when they see me approach with their dishes.  Dakota gets hers and begins eating.  Chester gets his and looks at me.  I used to pick up his dish and tell him to sit again and after anywhere from 3-10 times, he would begin eating.  Not too long ago (I’m a slow learner), I decided that instead of picking up the dish, I would leave it where I put it and after he sat, I would give it a little kick and he would get up and think about whether to eat or not.  This would still last between 3-10 times and he would then decide to eat.  A little while ago, he started not getting up after each sit and would remain sitting between kicks at his dish.  I still would say sit and kick the dish and he would stay sitting.  After the usual 3-10 times, he would get up and eat.  Guess he decided that if I wasn’t going to bend down to pick up the dish, he wasn’t going to get up before sitting again.  If it goes for more than 10 kicks, I know that he has decided not to eat that meal and the dish would be returned to the cupboard for the next meal.

After not much happening on the house next door for several days, a crew arrived on Friday to do the soffits.  It looks like that was finished, so hopefully they will get working on more this week.

July 17th soffits

The lions on Africam continue to provide a lot of interest, as we can usually hear lion roars at night and sometimes even get to see them.   There is a lot more movement than usual as the male coalitions jockey for control and the prides try to stay out of the way.  Anything involving lions is exciting to see and hear.

Our dog walking along the Red River this week has not resulted in any pictures at all.  I did take one picture of a mourning dove one day, but didn’t notice how out of focus it was until I got home.  I was surprised to see the dove because they had been very common around my house years ago, but I hadn’t seen one in many years now.  This one was several blocks from my home and I was quite excited to see it.

Summer daycamp is well underway at the Y now, so 100 extra children, plus the counselors and volunteers have taken over the building.  Its ok as long as the weather is good because they are all outside most of the day then, but when we get rain, they stay indoors and it is bedlam at times.  Thursdays are good because that is the outing day and they are gone for most of the day.

Since I don’t have any wildlife or scenic pictures to show, I decided it was Jewel’s turn to show off here.

Jewel

Jewel

Jewel

Jewel

Jewel sure does love to pose for the camera.  I have trouble taking videos of her because she stops moving and talking while on camera.