Dog Blog

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

More Men with Trucks, WTF?

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Doggone Truckers

A common sight in South Lake Tahoe is dogs riding untethered in truck beds.  Too much bother to tie them up or crate them for safety, I guess.  This is against the law, but so are a lot of other life-threatening offenses I see routinely committed by California drivers.  As I was driving down the road toward the intersection at busy Pioneer Trail, I saw an older black lab racing for all he was worth up the steep incline to catch up with one of those giant pickup trucks.  At first I thought he was being dropped, but then I saw another dog in the truck bed and figured that wasn't the case.  The panicked look on the old dog's face is imprinted in my brain as is the worried expression of the golden retriever that was still in the back of the pickup.  Since I assumed this wasn't just the Tahoe way of exercising your dog, I could only assume that the dog had been thrown from the truck bed on the sharp turn exiting from Pioneer Trail onto Golden Bear.  I can't even imagine the injury a dog could sustain from a fall like that.  I laid on my horn repeatedly to alert the driver who was oblivious to his dog's plight.  I watched him slow but only to turn into a side street in our neighborhood.  I don't know if he was ever aware his dog had fallen out of his vehicle, but I'm sure he must have discovered it when he got home and found only one dog in the back of his truck.  Why are people so thoughtless about their pets?  I turned my car around to go check if the dog was safe and uninjured from the fall and to give that brainless idiot a piece of my mind, but I couldn't locate the truck.  Probably just as well since he's no doubt a hunter and would have "stood his ground" and shot me on sight.


  

Monday, April 23, 2012

Correction: Not a quake but a sonic boom

What I thought was an earthquake turns out to actually have been a sonic boom caused by a meteor shower entering Earth's atmosphere.  Their velocity was great enough to create the earth-shattering sound that shook the whole Tahoe area.  I read a report in the Sacramento Bee today, and the description of what someone else felt on Sunday morning was what I also experienced.  I guess you had to be at a high altitude to feel it so strongly.  I've been up here before during meteor showers, which are truly spectacular in the black night sky above the Sierra, but none of them ever came close enough to cause a sonic boom!


Today is Shakespeare's birthday.  Happy birthday, Will!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Tahoe quake

We've gone from snowdrifts to snow cones in a matter of two weeks at Lake Tahoe.  It was quite warm today, and neither the dogs nor I much like it.  Their tails and tongues were dragging on our trail walk this morning, but I took them a bit too late.  It was already getting warm out.  I came to Tahoe for some cool weather, and we're getting anything but.   I have to say I've had exposure to every possible kind of weather you can get up here, including a startling seismic event this morning just before 9:00 a.m.  I was trying to catch a few more winks, while the dogs patiently lay nearby in the bedroom, when something like an explosion shook the whole house and almost knocked me out of the bed.  I thought maybe they were doing more boulder blasting somewhere nearby.  After the initial brief shock, there was a low rumbling like thunder that seemed to resonate in the distance.  Since thunderstorms have been predicted, I thought it must be that.   But when I looked outside, the sky was bright blue.


I only just now Googled Earthquakes at Lake Tahoe, and sure enough there was an M1.6 with the epicenter near Markleeville.  The dogs didn't react that I was aware of, but I sure did!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Here is my video interview with Lori Ham, a fellow mystery author and the publisher of Kings River Life, which she conducted at the "Mining for Murder" Left Coast Crime Mystery Conference in Sacramento last month.  What a fun time!  It made me realize I need to mingle more with other writers.  A lot more!  

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Peaches and Beau are Tahoe hounds for a couple of weeks.  Last week Beau got his first experience in the snow (that I know of).  Judging from his delight at the white stuff, I'd say he has never seen it before.  It was a treat for me, too, since I haven't been in snow for years.  We got a few inches, enough to cover the forest floor and make the woods look like a Christmas postcard in April.  Miraculous! I even pulled out my cross-country skis and had a go.  The snow was sticky, though, and my skis unwaxed, which was probably a good thing since I am really out of practice at the sport.  I used to love speeding along in the groomed tracks at Royal Gorge, but that's probably been a decade ago.  The skis were pulling up huge clumps of snow and dirt so it was slow going around the mountain, but still great fun.  


One day when I was walking the dogs around the neighborhood, Beau tried to do his "slider" in snow, but decided it was not quite as pleasant to do as on soft green grass.  Wish I'd had some footage of it, but of course I never have a camera with me when I need one.  The snow lasted a day or so, but then a warming trend melted it off quickly.  On our walk this morning, though, Beau found a large snowdrift and made sure to shush through it.  Who would think a basset could be a snow dog?  They are at a distinct disadvantage in deep snow. All good fun for them, though.  They do love our Tahoe adventures and provide me with lots of new material for future books.  Bless my beloved canine muses.  They are always the best company.

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Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Peaches and Beau are exploring Tahoe once again.  They both seem happy to be here, as am I.  We don't usually come this time of year.  There are still some snow patches on the ground.  Beau has never seen snow before, and he seems to really like trudging through the drifts.  I'm kind of hoping for a little snowfall while I'm here, since I get to enjoy it so seldom, but I'm glad that it's not stacked up on the cabin deck like some times we've been here, which makes it hard for the dogs to go out and do their business. 


This morning I  drove them down to our favorite spot, Tallac, but it's still gated off for the winter season, so I had to park and we walked in.  It was quite a long trek, since I don't think any of us is acclimated to the altitude yet.  We were all dog tired by the time we made it back to the car.  Now they are snoring away back at the cabin.  I feel like doing the same after our morning outing.


A couple of notable April 10 anniversaries:  The Titanic set sail from Southhampton on its fateful cruise.   Today would have been my favorite aunt Iris's birthday.  

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Monday, April 02, 2012

The Truth about Dats and Cogs.  Please, someone, tell me this is some kind of sick joke.

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Video taken this morning of Beau trying to climb up on the best seat in the house.  We usually offer him a boost, but this was just too good to miss. 

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Sunday, April 01, 2012





Last Friday I helped my mom choose a new best friend.  We first went to the Sacramento City Shelter, where there were few dogs to choose from or any that hadn't already been spoken for.  We ended up at the Sacramento SPCA, where she chose (or was chosen by) a little Yorkie/Shih Tzu mix named Peanut.  When we went out to the get acquainted area, he leapt right up into her lap and stayed there.  What a perfect lap dog!  Just what my elderly mother needed.  He has been renamed Piccolo.  New leash on life, new name.  Mom adores him, and he's a perfect companion for her.  He is eight years old, which qualified him for their Senior Adoption program.  More about that whole experience in an upcoming post.  But for now here's photographic proof of a happy ending for Peanut aka Piccolo and for my mom, who has been without a dog to love for far too long.  I noticed an immediate difference in her after adopting him.  I'm so happy for her and for Piccolo.



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