Tag Archives: Dogs

Dec11

Writer’s Workshop – Jingle Bell Bassets

Posted on by
Standard

Writer’s Workshop – Jingle  Bell Bassets

For John’s challenge:

This Week’s Writer’s Workshop Prompts: December 11, 2025

***

  1. Write a post inspired by the word glasses.
  2. Write a post in exactly twelve (12) sentences.
  3. Write a story starting with the line “I am never at home on Sundays.”
  4. Describe how you would celebrate the holidays if it was totally up to you and money was not a factor.
  5. Write a post that one of your pets would write.
  6. Write about a time someone caught you totally off guard.

***

I’ll go with # 5.

***

Christmas Memory – Jingle Bell Bassets Click to view

***

Here’s a fun thing we used to do a long time ago.

We had two big basset hounds, Maggie and Ginger. They loved going for walks.

So on Christmas Eve night, very late, we’d put their leashes on and take a walk around the block in our neighborhood. Since it was the night before Christmas, we’d take along a large strap of sleigh bells. They were pretty loud when we shook them.

We had the thought that if any kids were still awake waiting for Santa and his reindeer, that hearing the sleigh bells jingling outside would make them think Santa was in the area.

Dog, Christmas, Holiday, Christmas Dog

photo of cartoon dog with reindeer antlers & bell (Pixabay)

***

Now that was what actually happened. Let’s hear it from the dog’s perspective!

***

Jingle jingle jingle …

Maggie, perking up her droopy ears … Do you hear what I hear!

Ginger smiling her big goofy grin … I heard the bells on Christmas day!

Me, holding the dog’s leashes … Get along little Doggies, it’s time for a walk around the block.

Maggie … Let me out the door first, I’m the oldest, and I’m your Mother!

Ginger, shoving and pushing … I’m faster and younger!

One goes left, one goes right on the sidewalk …

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?

Me … We’re going this way, and start jingling the sleigh bells making a racket

Maggie and Ginger pulling hard on the leashes, my daughters laughing and talking, and it’s very cold out, and it’s about midnight Christmas Eve/Day. We go around the block then back in the house.

We all had a lot of fun. We did this quite a few times over the years.

***

Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2019 & 2025 BS

 

Oct24

Inktober # 5 – Rowdy

Posted on by
Standard

Inktober #  5 – Rowdy

***

Today’s # 24 prompt word is Rowdy. I just used my black ink pen as usual. Now here is a real life story …

***

Rowdy’s gang. They were a rag-tag group of several little dogs that roamed around. Rowdy belonged to another neighbor, but he was always running loose with his gang. They were so funny. Rowdy was the leader, and was the only one we knew the name of the little dog. They would scrunch under the backyard fence gate one at a time, run all around then leave the same way. Every0ne in the neighborhood called them Rowdy’s gang. Here I just drew a fence and 3 dogs. This was years ago. I think the owners moved away.

******

***

Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2025 BS

Aug26

August Authors – Jacqueline Susann & John Steinbeck – Poodles

Posted on by
Standard

August Authors – Jacqueline Susann & John Steinbeck – Poodles

For Bee’s Challenge:

Author August – Patricia Cornwell – Boston

***

Bee says:

This month I challenge you to share one of your favourite authors every day. As an additional challenge also share a song that connects in some way with that author.

***

As I mostly do, I’m featuring a favorite book instead of author. To me, favorite author means I get all their books and wish for more. If I like one book by an author, that doesn’t make them a favorite author, though the book might be.

***

I just noticed a couple of things. First, today is International Dog Day! Funny I’d already planned these books for today and I didn’t even know it was a special day. Another thing I noticed, both authors have the same initials. Just saw that! JS & JS 🙂 and … they both had black poodle dogs!

***

I am featuring this author because I’ve read most all of her books. It was a long time ago,  but I do remember how much I liked them.

***

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Susann

Jacqueline Susann was an American novelist and actress. Her novel Valley of the Dolls is one of the best-selling books in publishing history. Wikipedia

***

Jacqueline Susann’s Books in Order 

    1. Every Night, Josephine!: (1963)
    2. Valley of the Dolls: (1966)
    3. The Love Machine: (1969)
  • Once is Not Enough: (1973)
  • Dolores: (1976)
***
I’ve had this  book a long time and have read it quite a few times. It is really good. It tells of her life with her little dog.
Book cover of, “Every Night, Josephine”, by Jacqueline Susann. It is pink, with title in yellow writing, and shows her black poodle dog, which is wearing a black and white leopard print cape and hat.
Here is a short blurb about the book:
AI Overview

Every Night, Josephine! is a 1963 memoir by Jacqueline Susann, the best-selling author of Valley of the Dolls, detailing her relationship with her pampered poodle, Josephine. The book chronicles Josephine’s antics and appearances in popular culture, including TV commercials and encounters with celebrities, all while charming Susann’s formerly dog-hating husband. The memoir is a witty and entertaining account of life with her poodle, offering fans a lighter, yet characteristically Susann, look into her life.

***
***
Here’s another book I read many times, many years ago. … I also have read other of his books.
***
Blurb from the Wiki article:
Travels with Charley: In Search of America[1] is a 1962 travelogue written by American author John Steinbeck. It depicts a 1960 road trip around the United States made by Steinbeck, in the company of his standard poodle Charley. Steinbeck wrote that he was moved by a desire to see his country because he made his living writing about it. He wrote of having many questions going into his journey, the main one being “What are Americans like today?” However, he found that he had concerns about much of the “new America” he saw.
***
And some more of his books I’ve read:
Title and year published:
Tortilla Flat 1935
Grapes of Wrath 1939
 Cannery Row 1945
The Pearl 1947
All of these are good books to read.
***
***
And now for the music! Yay! Here’s a couple of neat songs about dogs … NOT SAD ONES 🙂
Except for some reason I can’t get the video on this here preview page, but the link will take you to the songs. 🙂
***
Jimmy Buffett, “Like My Dog”
***
***
***
“I’m Gonna Buy Me a Dog”, by the Monkees
***
***
***
Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️
© 2025 BS

Jan9

Stormy & Dusty

Posted on by
Standard

Stormy & Dusty

For Esther’s challenge:

Writing Prompts

***

I’ve written lots about the actual weather storms I’ve been in, like the EF5 tornado, the Cat 5 Typhoon, and many hailstorms, flooding rain storms, and Haboob dust storms over the years.

So this time I’ll just tell about two of my dogs I had when I was a kid … Stormy, and Dusty.

***

This photo was taken in black & white, in the back yard in 1957. Stormy was just a mixed breed white and fluffy little dog, maybe part Cocker Spaniel? I’m standing on an old weathered door that was on the ground, and wearing a print dress, and my hair was fairly short.

 

***

STORMY

I named him Stormy, King of the World

My best friend, when I was a girl

I cried and cried when Stormy died

No longer was he by my side

Now, nothing could ever be the same

Never more to call his name

Stormy

***

A strange incident was a few years later my cousin & I were playing with the Ouija board. I asked would I get a dog?  It said yes. I asked when? It said January. (this was back in the fall). Sure enough, come January, I did get a puppy. I named him Dusty, and he was an awesome dog, who lived with us for many years. The photo shows Dusty, who was the same kind of dog that Stormy was, white & fluffy.

 

***

Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2025 BS

Jan30

Just Jot It January – Canine

Posted on by
Standard

Just Jot It January – Canine

Daily Prompt – JusJoJan the 30th, 2023

Today’s prompt word is suggested by Dawn

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 30th 2023, is “canine.” Use the word “canine” any way you’d like. Enjoy!

***

Canine is a word used for dogs.

I’ve had a lot of dogs, but don’t have any now.

Here’s a list of them: I’ve written in a notebook all I remember about each one. But, this is just a list of their names.

Cindy – a black and white Cocker Spaniel

King  – a black mixed breed

Trouble – a brown mixed breed

Skipper – an English Springer Spaniel

Stormy – a white mixed breed

Dusty – a white mixed breed

Sam – a mixed Beagle

Freckles – a black & white Springer Spaiel

Bridget – an AKC Basset Hound

Maggie – an AKC Basset Hound

Ginger – an AKC Basset Hound

Bud – a mixed black Lab

Weasel – a mixed Basset Hound

We also had Misty (part bulldog) and Trixie (AKC Pomeranian) when I was a teen, but they were my sister’s dogs.

***

Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2023 BS

Sep16

Throwback Thursday – Pets

Posted on by
Standard

Throwback Thursday – Pets

Throwback Thursday #4 – The Pets In My Life

***

This time we’re looking back at the pets we’ve had. Thanks Lauren & Maggie for hosting this fun prompt.

***

We don’t have any pets at the moment. We feed the cats outside that come around, though.

***

I’ve had pets of one kind or another since I was a little kid. Many, many pets. If I was to write about all of them on this one post, it would be pages long.

I’ve had dogs, cats, ducks, rabbits, gerbils, birds, hermit crabs, fish, and even a spider or two that weren’t exactly pets, but they hung around for a long time and I gave them a name.

***

We’ve had lots of cats too, over the years, but I’ve written about them quite a lot on here, so won’t this time.

***

It’s been quite a few years since we had any dogs here with us, but we used to have quite a few. Let me think if I can remember all the dogs I’ve had since I was a kid.

Cindy – King – Skipper – Troubles – Dusty – Stormy – Freckles – Ginger – Maggie – Bud – Bridget – Weasel – Sam

And, in my notebooks I’ve written about them all – their stories.

And, I have photos of every one of them (except Troubles).  Here’s me and Stormy. 🙂

This photo was taken in black & white, in the back yard in 1957. Stormy was just a mixed breed white and fluffy little dog, maybe part Cocker Spaniel? I’m standing on an old weathered door that was on the ground, and wearing a print dress, and my hair was fairly short.

***

A strange incident was a few years later my cousin & I were playing with the Ouija board. I asked would I get a dog?  It said yes. I asked when? It said January. (this was back in the fall). Sure enough, come January, I did get a puppy. I named him Dusty, and he was an awesome dog, who lived with us for many years. The photo shows Dusty, who was the same kind of dog that Stormy was, white & fluffy.

 

***

This was taken long ago, and is a picture of my little parakeet, named Igor. He was green and yellow.

We let him fly around all the time in the house. This photo is of him standing on one of our wine bottles that had candle wax of all colors melted down the side.

Igor was fun. We had him for quite a few years, and he could say his name, and also could say ‘Pretty Bird’.

We got him as a baby from a lady we knew who raised parakeets. She had lots of them. We’d gotten other ones from her, too.

Whenever we’d go on road trips, Igor would come along in his cage. He was a good traveler. 🙂

 

***

Here are some more of the dogs:

  • Ginger (tan & white Basset Hound)
  • Maggie (tan, white & black Basset Hound- Ginger’s mother)
  • Bud (all black maybe a Labrador but smaller)
  • Weasel (Maggie & Bud’s daughter)

IMG_2954

Ginger

IMG_2955

Maggie

img_4949

Bud

img_4950

Weasel

***

Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

Jul29

House # 21

Posted on by
Standard

House # 21

***

***

This is the second house we had in Levelland TX. I liked it a lot. It had three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, garage, and one bathroom. There was an apple tree and an apricot tree in the big fenced in back yard, too.

This house was right across the street from a nice park, and just down the street from a graveyard.

The dogs would fight over the apples when the fruit dropped from the trees, as they loved eating them. When they heard one hit the ground they would race over to be the first to get it. haha. They never wanted the apricots, though.

One day we heard a big crash, and a big hawk had crashed into our front window. He was okay, but a little stunned. The Mr. gathered him up and took him over to the park, setting him up on a tree branch. He did finally fly way.

We lost one of the dogs who crossed the rainbow bridge, which was so sad. But we gained a black cat. I found the little kitten in a parking lot and brought him home. He was a good kitty.

I liked how the kitchen was done. It was separated from the dining area by a short bar, and the room was separate from the living room instead of being all one big area. More like an old fashioned farm house kitchen, I guess you’d say.

We were here for awhile, at least a year I’m sure. Funny my daughter reminded me of the addresses of this house and the last one was almost the same – one being 703 and one 307. I’d forgotten that.

Then, we tried again to get a house back in our home town of Lubbock. We went house hunting several weeks, as we were wanting to buy one. Finally, we did find one and signed the papers right before midnight that night. I think (not sure) that our GI loan time period was going to run out to use it at midnight of that last day when we signed.

Then came the part of moving I don’t like. Actually packing up everything and moving it. Ugh what a job!

But we did it, and the next house is the last one. We’ve been in the last one for over 20 years now. 🙂

 

***

Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

Jul27

House # 20

Posted on by
Standard

House # 20

***

Our years at Ft. Hood/Killeen TX were done, as the Mr. retired from the Army. We were moving back to our home town of Lubbock. We looked at houses there, but couldn’t find any we liked, or that would rent to people with pets. At the time we had 4 dogs and a rabbit.

So we went to another smaller town about 30 miles down the road – Levelland TX and found this one. It was pretty nice, a brick, 3 bedroom, kitchen, and living room one. There was a really big shed in the big back yard, too.

This first photo is of the back yard and a part of the shed. There was a covered patio, too, and you can see a couple of our dogs out there. The rabbit was kept out in the shed in his cage, and we’d get big hay bales to scatter around on the floor for the dogs to burrow down into if they wanted.

The second photo is one I got from a google search of the address of the front of the house. We were there for at least a year.

There was one thing that stands out while we were there. Right behind us was a tall pole with the emergency alert system/siren on it. They would run a test at least once a month, with announcements, and blowing the siren for several minutes. Oh my word it was loud! The dogs would be scared and howl.

We’d moved in here on Halloween of that year. haha! Actually, it felt so strange that after living so long on the mostly enclosed community of base housing at Ft. Hood, we were a bit anxious to be out in the ‘wild’ open kind of town. We did finally find our way around the small town.

And then we had to find another house in the town, because the owner of this one we were renting had sold it. So we were out. It didn’t take long though, to find another house.

That will be next time.

 

***

Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

Dec24

Countdown to Christmas – Day # 24 – Presents

Posted on by
Standard

Countdown to Christmas – Day # 24 – Presents

Tourmaline .’s Countdown to Christmas – Presents

***

click to enlarge photos

Several nicely wrapped presents waiting to be opened while a few stuffed critters keep watch on the window sill.

img_4699

This photo is of our Christmas tree from many years ago. It’s pretty, isn’t it? Now, look close. See that red ribbon going horizontal in front of the tree? That is the top of a fence…a fence made of chicken wire. Yep, we had to fence in our tree that year. We had some dogs…they liked to get into all the presents under the tree. They chewed up a lot of them. That’s why I made a fence to keep them out. We had the chicken wire on hand, because we used it for around our vegetable garden the past summer, so that was good.

The chicken wire fence wasn’t all bad. I hung some ornaments from it, and it made for some fun conversations. I know we will always remember this Christmas. 🙂

***

Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2020 BS

Dec6

Christmas Memory # 2 – Chicken Wire Fence

Posted on by
Standard

Christmas Memory # 2 – Chicken Wire Fence Click to view

 

***

For the days up until Christmas I’ll be sharing some short memories of Christmases past that I remember.

***

***

Some of you may have seen this one before, as I posted it in 2016, but it’s still a funny story.

It’s another one about those dogs of ours tearing into the presents under the tree. They even ate a golf ball shaped present of chocolate, along with other things.

We fixed the fence going from the edge of the couch to the entertainment shelves (not shown). At any rate, it worked keeping the dogs out. 🙂

You can click photo to enlarge:

img_4699

This photo is of our Christmas tree from many years ago. It’s pretty, isn’t it? Now, look close. See that red ribbon going horizontal in front of the tree? That is the top of a fence…a fence made of chicken wire. Yep, we had to fence in our tree that year. We had some dogs…they liked to get into all the presents under the tree. They chewed up a lot of them. That’s why I made a fence to keep them out. We had the chicken wire on hand, because we used it for around our vegetable garden the past summer, so that was good.

The chicken wire fence wasn’t all bad. I hung some ornaments from it, and it made for some fun conversations. I know we will always remember this Christmas. 🙂

***

Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2019 BS

 

***