Keeping Busy

 

Personally, I feel very fortunate to be spending this part of the summer in Florida. This is the same area of Florida that we escape in the winter because it is too cold, and usually escape in the summer because it is much too hot. So far, the summer has been pleasant dur to the odd weather patterns in the US. Most days we have seen highs of 82 to 86, while much of the country is seeing three digit temperatures. How luck can we get? Of course, this has been an exceptional summer as far as rain goes at it seems to never end, but that helps keep it cool. Now, the humidity is another thing. Inside the house is very comfortable. Outside is fine if you are not doing anything. I can sit and read, but doing physical work is out of the question.

I have recently made two dog runs for LRROF, Labrador Retriever Rescue of Florida. The first was a few weeks ago.

 

I picked up this guy from Cheryl in Gainesville and drove him to Wildwood where Mike took him on the next leg of his trip. He was a perfect pooch, giving me no trouble at all and never making so much as a whimper. Somebody is going to end up with a fine Lab specimen.

Yesterday I mad another dog run. This time I met Barb up in Chiefland and drove the three dogs to Wildwood to turn them over to Mike.

The three dogs were all males. A pup named Jake, a young adult named Cole, and a n oldie but goodie called Handsome. This is handsome in the picture above and he is special. He has been abandoned. He is VERY old. He has heartworm, skin problems, has not been neutered, carries fleas and ticks and has essentially been ignored and abused by his previous family. However, he was a very mellow dog, He quickly jumped in the back of the jeep and placed his head on the console between the seats where he stayed for the whole hour that we were together.

I had to stop a couple of times to get the others straightened out. The young adult wanted to ride in my lap, so I had to re-introduce him the back and keep him there. The pup wanted to chew my ear, literally, so I had to restrain him closer to the door. Then he decided to lay down, but the tether was to short and he was unable to breathe properly. I finally got the right length so he could sleep and my ears were safe.  

The dog pipeline has been very busy and I hope that they all find good homes. I’m pretty sure that Handsome might be a ward of LRROF permanently. He has a long way to go with treatment for heartworm, large patches of skin problems and more. Older dogs are not often adopted and LRROF already fosters more that a dozen dogs that are not adoptable for some reason. No dog, that I know of, is too old, too sick, or too nasty for LRROF to foster.

Next topic! While working on the motorhome a few days ago I was crossing across the yard and notice very fresh deer tracks between the house and RV. I know that were very fresh because with all the rain we’ve been having, they would not have been so sharply defined. When I got home from my dog run, Helen told me a bout a deer she saw beside the pool enclosure.

 

The technology of cameras has reached a point where we depend on the anti-shake and auto focus and very often it results in some great pictures. Unfortunately in this case the focus was on the screen enclosure. I suspect, but cannot be sure, that the deer is a male, since it has been seen alone several times now. The females are usually found in small groups. There were no antlers, but I have no idea when the males start to grow their antlers for a new year. This morning, while at my computer I saw him roaming our back yard about 100 feet behind the house. I VERY quietly got my camera and set the focus on manual and infinity, thinking that any shot I’d get would be at a distance and I didn’t want the camera to focus on a branch in the way. Of course he was gone, back over the fence into the land behind me.

Later.