Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
As I drove into Yellowstone in the fall of 2007, I stopped to photograph an elk bull that was sleeping in a meadow. As I got back to the car, I noticed this bison bull laying down across the Madison River, its back frosted white by the dirt it must have been wallowing in.
Two, three, five, eight,
All our pets are really great!
Three, four, six, nine,
Next year they’ll be just as fine!
Snuggle buddies and flower aficionados Sam and Scout enjoy my favorite flower in our garden, the purple coneflower. Sam and Scout play the role of two and eight in today’s cheer, Sam turned two last month and Scout turned eight in the spring.
We bought first one hedgehog, then another, but never bothered to check if they were male or female. And so it came to pass that we now have four hedgehogs, the two adults plus two new babies.
One of the babies is stretched out like a dachshund, which is not so much a natural condition in hedgehogs as much as a result of what happens when a 70 lb. dog is constantly chomping down on you. The other hedgehog is normally shaped, just smaller than the adults, and is Ellie’s new favorite to the point that she won’t play with the others. The baby hedgehog fits more easily in her mouth, allowing her to squeak it mercilessly without interrupting her play.
Scout regales us with a story of how she once defeated a whole band of ninjas. Normally with such an outlandish story I’d assume a fair bit of author’s embellishment, except that I vividly and painfully remember the first time we gave her a bath. The first and last time we gave her a bath.
Raccoons have adapted so well to the way that modern man has transformed the American landscape that it is estimated that there are more raccoons now than ever before. This one came into our backyard a few years ago to dine on the multitude of raspberries growing near the fence. After eating its fill, it crawled up to nap on a nearby carport.
As I hiked the Kiwa Trail at Ridgefield, I saw many treefrogs but none that I could photograph until I found this well-hidden frog. It was more cooperative than the others and I like the way the out-of-focus blades of grass frame the image.
This red-legged frog had been sitting in the duckweed before hopping up onto a small rock. I wanted to convey a sense of the frog emerging from one world to another, so I placed it at the bottom of the frame with the top third green water, the middle third transitioning from water to earth, the bottom third solid ground.
This is one of the last pictures I took with my Canon 10D before upgrading to the 20D in March of 2005. It certainly wasn’t my last picture with the 10D, not even close, as I like to shoot with two cameras in the field and the 10D has soldiered on as my second camera.
Templeton didn’t care either way.
All of our cats are indoor cats, but during the warmer (and drier) months I let them outside into our fenced backyard for some supervised outdoor play. Templeton didn’t just enjoy his time in the backyard, he held court. I love the display of his proud and regal air to the minions who deign to share his kingdom.
Of my many pictures of Templeton, this remains a favorite.
This young seal was at the bottom of the pecking order when it came to places to perch and rest, occupying the first place to get covered by the sea as the tide rolled in. This particular wave though didn’t dislodge the little one and it was able to hold its position until the rock was submerged. When I was growing up we had our own bottom rung: the dreaded middle seat in the station wagon, the one with the big transmission hump in the floor where your legs should have been.
Boolie 