It's been a ZOO around here

Last week Abby rescued this turtle from the back corner of our garage. Actually, Katie rescued it after Abby "sniffed it out."

At first no one wanted to touch the turtle...and two thirds of my children want to be a vet or have an animal shelter. I thought I was going to have to rescue the poor turtle but Katie stepped up and eventually they wanted to keep it. Especially Ellie ... and she is NOT in the vet/animal shelter camp. She begged and begged...but instead we decided to....

play with him for a little while...

get a good look at his cool markings...

and release him back into his habitat (not our garage)

He seemed pretty happy about that.

And here are the barn swallows that hatched on our front porch.

There are four and we have been enjoying watching them grow and get fed by their mama and papa. I have to tell you they weren't this cute at the beginning, they were pretty homely. Unfortunely, this is what it looks like under their nest.

Celebrating Beach Style

A couple of weeks ago...time sure flies...Katie and I got away- just the two of us!- to the beach. Wade was in NJ doing some training and Ellie and Madison were at camp so we took full advantage of the opportunity for some mother daughter bonding and headed for Pensacola for a couple of days. We celebrated Katie's graduation from the 8th grade- and had a wonderful time - I thoroughly enjoy her company!

The Tale of the Droopy Tail

Once upon a time there was a sweet dog named Abby who needed a bath. One hot, sunny day the three sweet sisters in her family decided to give her one. They all had fun in the sun, got the job done, and Abby was happily soft and sweet smelling after.

Hold up a minute... the very next day said sweet dog would not have anything to do with the sweet sisters and in fact would not wag her tail or even move it. She spent the day alone in the garage, would not even eat a treat, and winced when anyone touched her tail. Concerned that her tail was broken or that there was something else seriously wrong with her (have you seen Marley and Me?) we googled "limp tail lab" and found this website: http://www.thelabradorclub.com/subpages/coldwatertail.php

Poor Abby has something called "limber tail syndrome" or "cold water tail" that sometimes occurs in dogs (often labs) that have been in cold water recently. Sort of like a delayed onset muscle soreness in humans.

I am happy to report that she is slowly getting her wag back :)