Something's Fishy

Oh my goodness...I'm so far behind in getting 'Yall' updated on all the news that it just aint not funny, is it? Because I can do this one today kinda/sorta quickly, I'll just do it. So many people have been asking about SparkyBear da Brat that I'd better let you know he's doing much better. Once in awhile he'll get to acting wild and crazy as usual with his brother, MarkyBear and then when he goes to jump up onto the couch, he's all sore again and whines for me to lift him up there along with one of his prized, raggedy toys that's hanging out of his mouth. But on the whole, he's his mischevious old self again. Remember our friend "Swag"...the lady with the most beautiful smile?Well, apparently her cat, Calliope is as sweet and as caring as her 'Mom'. She sent SparkyBear this get-well card and even signed her name! And for a cat, she sure has very pretty handwriting ;-P

Presently, SparkyBear and I are waiting for the groomer, Miss Christy, to call and let us know MarkyBear is all 'bathed and haircutted..."bzzzzz'd" and ready to come home. Both the boys got filthy last week rolling around in the yard, apparently having noticed the wonderfully yucky smell of crawfish in the soil of our yard, and had a ball digging at the 'entryways', then rolling all over them. P-U! (We may or may not have already told you about the high water-table, even in the yards in South Louisiana. Each Spring the crawfish aka "mudbugs", who live in the soggy dirt, do a little Spring cleaning, by 'spooning' up balls of old mud, with their tails, and depositing them in piles around the opening of their 'homes'. The end result is what is called 'crawfish chimneys' and can see seen by the hundreds everywhere down here).

So they got all stinky from frolicking in the crawfish dirt (they didn't give the poor crawfish any time to build their little chimney's, but rather mushed any fresh crawfish attempts to build anything. I can just see the bewilderd crawfish, all frustrated; "Dang dawgs...now how am I going to clean out my house?") We let the dogs stay messy because we were going to take them fishing. To make matters worse, each one took a dive into the bayou. SparkyBear thought he missed the boat while I waited for Cappy to park the SUV and trailor, so he swam out into the boat slip, where I frantically pulled him into the boat, fearing a gator would grab him. One of alligator's favorite meals are the big snowy white greater egrets. To my mind, Sparky, being white and thrashing around in the water might just attract an hungry ol' gator. But I got 'im. Then, MarkyBear dove in one of the back bayous, as another boat with a big yellow dog, who was barking and merely saying, "Hi!" to our dogs, but passed by too close, according to how Mark thinks. MarkyBear felt it was his duty, as family protector, to take off after him and flung himself off the back end of the boat. Now, Mark is a tank and he sank...but, it's a good thing he knows how to swim! It was an effort, but he paddled all the way around the back of the boat to where I could get ahold of him and grapple him in, and, too, all the while fearing a gator would get him, as well. But they were non the worse for wear. Bichons are durable little guys. Here's MarkyBear with his Dad, waiting for the fish to come.

And then there's SparkyBear, still sporting his Mardi Gras bandana, "guarding" the shrimp bait...having been told SEVERAL times to stay away from them. And, as you can see, he's back in fine form, intently looking at and pointing to a baby alligator sunning himself on a log, who was watching us right back. Both the alligator and SparkyBear were probably both thinking, "The one that got away".