Brontëology

16 July 2011

Brontë is now officially a Wright.  We signed our lives away for at least the next decade after fostering her for  a week.  Afterwards, we headed to The Dog Club of Fort Collins to enroll in the Good Puppy Class.  She's a very smart dog I believe (she can come, sit and stay within the week that she stayed with us) and it is my desire to learn from an expert before moving forward with her training.  I am hopeful that the classes will prevent any destructive behavior and teach her good manners.  Later, we paid for her license at the Larimer Humane Society where she was issued a temporary one since she hasn't had her rabies vaccine (she's too young to be vaccinated).  She'll be legally licensed once she gets the shot.

POOP SHEET
Name:  Brontë Patricia Mary Wright
Breed:  Border Collie - Labrador Retriever Mix (Borador)
Age:  10 to 12 weeks
Activities and Interests:  Eating, Sleeping, Peeing and Pooping, Playing, Walking with Mommy in the morning and walking with Daddy in the afternoon, Chewing Mommy's hair, hands, feet, slippers and anything else she can get hold of

Brontë's first day at home, 10 July 2011.  She wasn't actually included in our choices.  All three Lab mixes that we wrote down on our application had been all adopted.  I was upset but the Director of the shelter, A Puppy's Voice, mentioned that a Border Collie-Lab mix was on the way to the adoption event.  The couple who had fostered her couldn't keep her due to financial and time constraints.  We were just too happy to take her with us on a foster-to-adopt basis at first.  Who can resist that face??? 

A Puppy's Voice holds adoption events every Saturday in front of Petsmart in South College Avenue, Fort Collins.

Some of the puppies looking for a permanent loving home

We took her to the annual picnic of Northern Colorado Filipino-American Association, a first for all of us.  She made a lot of new friends.  

One of her favorite sleeping positions

Medical records.  We should see the vet within 5 days.

Avian Mugshots

Out of the 493 species in the official checklist of Colorado Birding Society (CoBus), I have so far photographed 59, some of which I look forward to seeing again for a better and closer shot (e.g. hummingbird).  Pete and I have definitely seen more than 59 but we don't cross them off the list until they are snapped and their mugshots make it to our avian wall because that will be just against the rules of the Wright household.

So ... 59 down and 434 more to go, that is after living in Colorado for 6 months.  Have we been slacking somehow?

Avian Mugshots

  

Stakeout

30 June 2011

A certain part of our group (i.e. Pete) claimed to have sighted a Blue Jay in our neighbor's backyard last Saturday.  "NO WAY!" I exclaimed since it is considered a rare species in our region.  Later in the week, he'd get a glimpse of the elusive bird twice and he'd summon me each time.  Unsuccessful on my part to catch it on both occasions, I dismissed the sighting as a figment of Pete's imagination (translation: I was sour graping).

Two days ago, however, while I was checking on my Pineapple Sage and Chives, it darted from our neighbors' backyard on our left to ours and on to our neighbors' on our right.  I froze in disbelief.

Today, I staked out in the patio while I tried to finish a Here-and-Now Collection from the Harmony Library - Jonathan Franzen's Freedom (Walter Berglund, one of the protagonists, was now on a crusade to save the Cerulean Warbler).  My camera was handy, strategically positioned for a sudden need to snap a photograph.  No luck this time but I was content nevertheless for I was not alone in my endeavor.

Meadowlark entertaining me during my stakeout.  It also gives a sterling performance every morning with the dawn chorus.

Steller's Jay ... my only Jay sighting so far.