Saying Goodbye to Summer...

The summer of 2016 has been a relatively peaceful one in the Green Family Craft Zoo.  Lacy Lulu has settled down and has become a delightful dog instead of a crazy psycho puppy.

Tux is still holding his own at 14.5 years old, although he is pretty much deaf now and only responds to sight commands. Thankfully he can still see pretty well! (And this, folks, is why it is crucial to teach hand signals simultaneously with the commands to sit, come, stay, etc!!!)

And Maggie...well, Miss Maggie still barks too much but she is also aging gracefully.

Actually Miss Maggie gave us quite the scare this summer.  An undetected insect bite sent us to the emergency vet with her. That was QUITE an infection!  She wore that soft cone of shame for weeks! And, the fur still hasn't completely grown back.  She currently looks like an ad for Target!

 

Summer has been good.  Bittersweet, though, to see it turn cooler and days getting shorter.  I wish I could just hold on to summer....make it last longer.  But, I can't.  So I will remain hopeful that the next several months will be kind to us in Chicagoland and spring will arrive at the expected time.

Introducing....Ollie the Monkeyman!

For those of you who may not already be familiar with my "Ollie" stories, let me explain.  Ollie is a 5-1/2 year old Eclectus parrot who LOVES, LOVES, LOVES crafting and all things artsy, colorful and creative.  Not sure if it is the positive energy I give off when creating and creating art--or the sheer fascination he has watching things happening--but Ollie is at his happiest when he can watch creative things going on.

Lately, he has taken on new responsibilities. One of his new jobs is to tease Lacy Lulu, our 7 month old Border Collie puppy.  Like all "siblings", each wants to have what the other has.  In Ollie and Lacy's case, that means food and toys. Each, of course, will immediately grab the other's toy(s).  Ollie has also discovered how much fun it is to reinforce training the puppy by saying "Good boy!" when Lacy obeys a command and will often drop tasty bits of food off the side of his feeding station (aka the kitchen island) on purpose just to each her eat them up. Sometimes his enthusiasm goes a little into hyperdrive, however, and he will (literally) empty his entire bowl over the edge, one piece at a time. Maybe that is just his own way of expressing himself creatively!