Daisy’s 7th Anniversary in New Mexico!

Hi everybody! Daisy Jones-Klein here, back after a long winter’s nap. 2012 was such a busy year, I decided to take it easy for a while. After the holidays, most days I chilled, usually just napping, eating, taking walks, barking at Carl the UPS guy, and watching TV with my Peeps in the evening. (Actually, it wasn’t all that different from last year, now that I think about it ….)

Mainly, I took a break from blogging. But it seems that even with being on sabbatical I’m still the Internet’s “favorite dogblogger”. (Go ahead and ask the Google! I am so not making this up.)

Lots of stuff has happened! But it’s a beautiful day out today, so take hold of my leash and come walk with me, and I’ll catch you up on what’s been going on.

 

First, the Big News! It’s our seventh anniversary here! That’s right, it was this time in 2012 that me and my Peeps packed up the cars, left our Virginia Forever Home, and drove out here to our new Forever Home in New Mexico. Time surely does fly! And for those of you who want to calculate that in Peep-years, I think you’re supposed to divide by seven or something. But math’s not really my forte since counting on my fingers is problematic.

Winter here was kinda cold, especially at night. But it was a really pretty time of year, especially when there was snow on the ground. And as a bonus, we got to see all the paw prints and tracks that the critters and birds left in their comings and goings.

And in January, my Peeps took me to Camp for a few days. Since it was a Camp for dogs (and, regrettably, a few pesky cats), my Peeps had to find something else to do without me. They went to a place called Monument Valley, on Navajo Nation land on the Arizona-Utah border, where there’s all this amazing scenery that you see in the western movies. They went there with some friends to be part of a chase team at a hot air balloon rally. When you combine iconic scenery with hot air balloons, it’s pretty spectacular. Here are some pictures they sent me:

 

 

 

 

Back when we lived in Virginia, the tall trees and gentle hills usually kept us from noticing how much the paths of the sun and moon change over the seasons. But out here in New Mexico, up so high and with such long views, we really notice these things. When we first moved here, the sun and moon were setting behind the high peaks of the Jemez Mountains to the northwest. But as summer gave way to winter, the settings gradually shifted further and further to the southwest, less over the mountains and more over the rolling hills. Here’s what the setting moon looked like just before sunrise in late February:

But now we see the sun and moon on the move again, setting further and further northwest. It makes for exceptionally nice sunsets over the mountains:

But Spring is finally getting here, and it’s about time! The days are getting longer, the temps are really comfortable, the morning sun comes in so warm and golden, and soon the deck gets nice and toasty for my mid-day nap.

The shrubs and trees are waking up and turning all green and flowery:

 

 

And the cottonwood trees that grow along Tesuque Creek are waking up from their winter naps, turning green and highlighting their path as they snake down the valley.

And all the other critters are starting to wake up, too! Lots of birds and bees flitting about, doing their Spring chores. We even got visits from our first two hummingbirds of the season, with many more to come. We’re beginning to see lizards on our walks, just daring me to catch them. And other critters, big and small, are showing up around the neighborhood, but they're learning soon enough that I'm one terror of a terrier!

 

And speaking of the birds and the bees, there seem to be bunnies everywhere! We see them year-round, but recently it seems there are a whole lot more. Dunno how that happens. I chase them, of course, ‘cause that’s what I do, and I’m pretty sure that real soon I’m gonna catch my very first one. But I’ve noticed something else that’s a little strange … Each year the bunnies seem to be getting just a little bit faster than the year before. I don’t know if any of you have noticed that where you live, or if it’s just something that happens with living at higher elevation. (And don’t get me started about how the couches are a little higher each year!)

And on Mother’s Day weekend, we all watched Driving Miss Daisy.

I thought the movie was going to be a documentary all about me and how my Peeps chauffeured me out here to New Mexico last summer. But it turns out instead that the movie was about some Peep named Daisy and her driver. I got named Daisy by Russell Rescue; I’m not sure where she got her name. But even though the movie wasn’t all about me, it was still fun to watch, especially after Dad told me this FUN FACT: He and that other Miss Daisy are cousins! True dat! Alfred Uhry based Miss Daisy on his grandmother, and her Dad and my Dad’s great-great granddad were brothers. And since my Dad grew up in Atlanta, he knew all the places in the movie. 

But watching that other Miss Daisy being driven around reminded us of our own driving excitement last year, and our Big Move out here to the Land of Enchantment. Me and my Peeps read back over our travel blog and decided to put it all into a book for us to keep. That gave us a chance to reflect on what a busy, exhausting, but ultimately fun and fulfilling year it was, and we also spiffed up some of the pictures and texts. So if you want to download a copy of Dan & Robbyne & Daisy’s Excellent Adventure, you can use this link. (My getting third billing in the title is a gross injustice, if you ask me. Just sayin’ …)

Gotta go! I hear my name being called, so it’s probably time to help Mom with her deskwork. After that, an evening walk, then dinner, then maybe some TV. I tell ya, the days are just packed! But around here you have to be able to multitask.

I like our evening walks. It’s good to give my Peeps a little exercise, and it’s a nice way to wind down the day, not to mention that there’s a certain bit of business I need to attend to. And who knows, today might just be the day that I catch that bunny!

So in closing, in case you were ever in doubt, it’s still good to be Daisy. And I hope it’s still good to be you, too.

Daisy Jones-Klein

Santa Fe, NM

May 2013

At the Calendars' Ends

Hellllllllllloooooooo????  Is anybody out there???? Anybody????

Oh! There you are! Daisy Jones-Klein here. I wanted to give y’all a seasonal update, but with the end of the Mayan calendar and so much more going on, I wasn’t sure that anyone would be around to hear what I’ve got to say. But since you're still here, too, c'mon up!

Were you also surprised that the world didn’t end with the Mayan Apocalypse last week? I sure was. Just a couple of days earlier, my Peeps gave me a bath, which for some of us is pretty close to an end-of-the-world near-death experience, and about as frequent, too! So I figured, yeah, it’s probably coming. Plus, the weather forecast earlier in the week seemed pretty convincing:

But Saturday came and went, so I guess it wasn’t the end of the world after all. And a good thing, too! There’s been lots to do here. Cousins from Colorado came in over the weekend to visit, and now we’ve got friends from Washington DC in for the week. That’s a lot more barking for me, and a whole lot more plates in need of a pre-wash. Plus, the days are shorter, which means I’ve got to be a lot quicker in finding and pinning down the sunbeams. But I’m pretty good at that:

As the days have gotten shorter and colder, we’ve also gotten a couple of snowfalls. It was up to my armpits, which can make it tricky to get around if you don’t have four-on-the-floor!  But the snow and the winter light make for some nice walks, even when it’s cold and your undercarriage gets a little damp:

 

 

 

With all the snow, we can also see prints in the snow, telling us who else has been out and about. Apparently, it’s not just Peeps and doggies and bunnies; there are more kinds of critters than we thought. One of our neighbors set up a camera to see the wild vicious things. There’s deer and coyotes and even a mountain lion:

His camera even caught photos of something huge and hairy, which probably would’ve been terrifying if it wasn’t carrying such a cute package!

There’s also a bear in the neighborhood, though we haven’t yet seen it. But I’m keeping my distance, thinking it's better to play it safe. As I figure it, any animal that leaves a pile of poop about the size and color of a Jack Russell Terrier is probably someone not to be trifled with. Even my legendary fearlessness has its limits!

 
So having made it safely past the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar, we’re now deep into the holiday season. Here in Santa Fe, the town Plaza is all lit up and decorated.

 

And on Canyon Road, with all its art galleries, is Santa Fe's Christmas Eve walk, and all the townsfolk and their better-behaved doggies stroll up and down, sharing cider and cookies and music, and admiring the corner bonfires and the farolitos all lit up.

  

Season's Greeting to all! Enjoy the holidays, be it Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Winter Solstice or even Festivus. Whatever works for you.  And try not to worry so much about the end of the Mayan calendar, or the Fiscal Cliff, or the Debt Ceiling, or the Zombie Apocalypse, or any of the actual things that really happened and are too sad to mention here.

“But Daisy!”, you may ask, “How can I not worry with so much going on?” If you asked this, Gentle Reader, then you’re probably a biped, since my fellow quadrupeds have long ago figured out chillin’. Just ask Harley, Blue, Bailey, Ginger, & Kayla in McLean VA, or Goldie in Atlanta, or Indy in Colonial Beach VA, or Madison in Deer Canyon East, or Rufus, Toby, & Maggie here in my Santa Fe neighborhood, or Boo Radley and Henry in Laguna Beach CA, or Sadie & Zoey in Leesburg VA, or Lucy in Mariaville ME, or Jackson the donkey and those noisy goats Grub, Blizzard, Brownie, Sebastian & Cormack in Asheville NC, or even pesky cats like Lexie and Sinatra in Littleton CO, or Jasper in Washington DC, or Roberto in Colonial Beach VA, or Hal & Sweetpea in Asheville NC, or Norman in Mariaville ME. They all know how to live in the moment. So as my holiday gift to all you Peeps, I’m sharing the following:

 

• It's okay to mess up occasionally. Every rescue dog knows that there can be second or even third chances to get things right.
  
• Remember that even most bad days with your Peeps are better than most good days in the shelter.
  
• You don’t always need a reason to bark. Sometimes you just need to let your Freak Flag fly.
• Try to make every walk a “meaningful” one.
• Let your senses be collectors, not filters. Look, listen, and sniff. Good stuff’s out there, just waiting to be found.
• Catching bunnies can be a thrill (or at least I imagine it will be, soon), but giving chase is its own reward.
• Go to sleep at night, and leave the old day behind you.
• Wake up in the morning, open to the possibilities of each dawning day.
• And if you like your Peeps and they like you, show your appreciation. A little lick on the nose works for me. My Peeps seem to like this so much that they rarely even think about the last place I licked.

There you have it! So to all you Peeps and to all you finer critters out there, a Happy and Healthy 2013 to everyone! It's good to be Daisy, and hopefully it's good to be you, too.

And if your New Year’s resolutions are like mine, may you also be bath-free, not get eaten by a coyote, lick lots of plates, stay away from the vet, wag more, nap in the sunshine, get lots of belly rubs, let your inner puppy play, and catch many bunnies. There’s treasure everywhere!

     
Daisy Jones-Klein