the aspens have eyes

will the real yoda please stand up.

Funny how things happen.While walking around Woodland Park, M, L & I found a Yoda sticker in the Zoo's west parking lot. I picked it up and put it (grimy as it was) in my jacket pocket. We walked through the Zoo's new entrance and a tiny snowbank begged to be the platform for Lulu's best (yet) Yoda impersonation. The sticker is not superimposed!

snowstorm

Nik and her dogs are caught in a snowstorm, lost, but only for a little while. Soon they will run up against a wall and follow it to the front door of a cabin wherein fire and food awaits, tended by the winter wise lady who lives there with a young deer she saved from a certain death at the side of its starved and frozen mother.

kick ass

One of my favorite movies is Kick Ass, about an ordinary adolescent who wants to do good. He fabricates a costume,  broaching the safety of his bedroom (where fantasies run rife) to fight crime where he finds it.

In this film, our hero doesn't have superpowers. He can't cling to the sides of buildings or destroy his opponents with superhuman prowess. His only "super power" is his desire for justice. His own ass is kicked many times over by run of the mill thugs before he encounters his nemesis, and rises to the occasion (quite literally, because, come on, if you don't have super powers you totally need the latest in technology). Right (with technological might) prevails and the world is safer for it.

eukanuba chihuahua dog food review

Maximo, Lulu and I were asked by Dogtime.com to review the dog food Eukanuba Chihuahua. Maximo and Lulu ate enthusiastically every time I fed them Eukanuba Chihuahua, and every time they also interrupted their eating to drink quite a bit of water. The food makes them thirsty!

Enthusiasm in eating is something we all look for when feeding our animals, but this should go together with a critical reading of the ingredients. Let's look at the top three ingredients in Eukanuba Chihuahua.

The first ingredient is Chicken. The second ingredient is Chicken By-Product Meal, which could include anything from entrails to beaks. The third ingredient is Corn, which has a high glycemic index, meaning that when metabolized, it raises blood sugar levels. Used as cheap filler in foods for animals and humans, corn products are implicated in rising rates of diabetes in the United States. 

Maximo and Lulu give Eukanuba Chihuahua Two Paws Up, but I am a label reader and cannot endorse this product while two of the top three ingredients are of questionable quality (such as animal by-products) and cheap fillers (such as corn).  

Thanks go to Eukanuba for the opportunity to review their new product, and to the Dog Food Advisor, the dog food watch dog!

color palette: blue sky & blushing tree

Every morning I sit in front of a large window through which I watch hummingbirds fight over their feeder, clouds stretching across the sky, and the coral bark maple (planted by me, ten years ago) responding in full color, to the season.

Today, the maple looks like Jacob's Coat of many colors. Yellow-green leaves blush as any tree might before stripped of its mantle. The sky is blue, a solemn promise that the chilling nights are but a hiccup before spring asserts itself again. The red in this palette reflects begonias blooming in pots on the stoop.

Oh, October!

strong swimmer

In three seconds Nik will open her eyes, grip the scruffs of the dogs' necks in one hand and with the other swim to the surface and safety. Nik is a strong swimmer, but even so, she struggles to keep them all from drowning in the warm, indifferent sea.