Hello everyone; it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, with something quite different for you today. You may remember me from such different and unusual posts as “Watering–The Movie”, and “The Mouse Movies”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose. I like to lie under the living room window. To guard stuff, you know.
The guy I live with got plants from Wild Ginger Farm today; they’re mostly porophyllum saxifrages, which were some of the few rock garden plants my mommy really liked, and he does too (obviously), and he also wants to have more than anyone else around here. That’s not very enlightened of him, but he says nobody’s perfect. Nicely grown plants, too. 
Well, as maybe you can tell, this is really a short post about sharing. (“Except for the porophyllums”, I just heard someone say.)
We have another mouse movie for you. It’s true that the guy I live with thinks this stuff is hysterical, but notice how mean Squirrel is being. He isn’t sharing at all, and it just make him look bad. And because of this, when Squirrel went back to his dray at night, the mice came out and ate almost all the sunflower seeds. (That’s not me barking, by the way.)
We hope you enjoy this little morality play.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Thank you, Chess, for putting me in fine mood for the yoga practice I’m off to this very next minute. Watching the mice skitter near that greedy squirrel has put me in mindless state, a state thaaaat close to the mindfulness we yoginis aspire to.
I had noticed that the guy you live with is almost as greedy as that squirrel for his saxifrages, which I consider a great plant. Maybe I even have one stashed somewhere in the garden.
Absolutely adorable, you and the play toys on the rug under the window.
I have to agree, I do look adorable. My mommy made me that way. I’m really spoiled, if you couldn’t tell. Wasn’t Squirrel a big meanie? You may recall that the guy I live with built a mold so he could make more troughs for all the saxifrages, but he kind of forgot to make more troughs. Oh well.
C’mon Chess, we all know that’s you barking. We were born at night, but not last night. And the mouse thing ? I mean what about bubonic plague ? You need a cat. The cats that own my house (Ted and Doobie) have always really liked dogs. Except for the snippy Jack Russell Terrier that lives behind us and never gets to go in his house. (What ‘s the point of having a dog if they never get to go in the house ?That’s my question.) So go down to the cat rescue place and find one who likes dogs. I’m sure the guy you live with would not expect the cat to share your fort. He will let the cat sit on his lap and purr instead.
No, it was the dog next door. A retriever who barks constantly. I hardly ever do, because I’m retired. It’s squirrels who carry plague. Every so often we hear of an outbreak. The guy I live with worked in telephone repair for about fifteen years and could tell stories about outside dogs, but he won’t. Cats can’t live here, because they’d have to stay inside, and the mice are outside (mostly). We could tell stories about cats, too, but we won’t. The plan here is to move the pile of sunflower seeds further out in the garden. Today we saw a really big garter snake on our walk, and so they’re coming out of hibernation, and so, well, we won’t talk about that either.
Chess, all the problems are caused by the guy you live with, who won’t share. If he resigned himself to keeping the door open, the mice could live in the house and won’t be terrorized by the squirrel.. But no, he wants a mouse-free house. Your last sentence bodes ill for the mice.
However you, of course, look completely adorable.
Thanks; I think I am pretty adorable. Judging from how life revolves around me here, it must be true. The guy I live with does indeed want a mouse-free house, and also a mouse-free garage. The mice seem to have left the garage after he cleaned out everything and put some mouse repellent down. (It’s this stuff called “Fresh Cab” and is made from balsam fir oil.) So now they live under the troughs, which is where they’ve always lived. He feeds the birds, and birds spill seed everywhere, and so there are mice. Where there are mice, there are other creatures. It all works out. So he says, anyway.
I’m kind of horrified by my fascination with these mouse movies. I’ve watched this one 3 or 4 times already. Part of what I find fascinating is seeing them scurry under that thing on the bottom left corner. What is that? It sort of looks like a step.
I see a lot of this behavior among birds at the feeder: sometimes driving others of their own kind away; the cardinal driving the smaller birds away; the bluejay driving the cardinals away; the redbellied woodpecker driving the bluejays away; the squirrel driving the birds away — except I’ve seen the blue jays gang up on a squirrel and drive it off the deck (where the feeder is). I believe they this is what they mean by ‘pecking order.’ Who needs tv when you have this kind of entertainment? Not to mention the presence of excellent dogs.
Sometimes my dogs don’t share with each other. One will get the toy & just plop down on top of it so no one can play with it. “Dog in a manger” is what my dad called that behavior.
We won’t talk about how much attention and cuddles I tried to hog when my buddy Slipper was here. He was a third bigger than I am (or used to be….), so that’s why, of course. When my mommy and the guy I live with moved into this house, in 1985, there were some “improvements” which probably should have been corrected (ie, removed) right away. One was the patio “extension”, which was laid without any expansion joints, so during the winter of 06-07, it cracked, and some pieces lean toward the house now, which makes the guy I live with pretty dizzy. The other was a second sliding glass door; the stoop wasn’t widened, so it’s easy to just fall right onto the patio when the sliding doors are opened. My mommy made a ramp for my grandpa Flurry, when he was getting old and creaky (he lived to be 17), so he could get into the house without having to try to step up into the kitchen and fall on his face. It has a traction rug on it too. It’s very much the worse for wear, and the rug got replaced last year, but it’ll probably stay here forever.
Good guarding of your toys and the window Chess. Another enjoyable mouse movie and remember Chess that while your guy is enjoying making these movies he is at home and not leaving you alone at home while he goes to buy plants. It’s a good thing and we all enjoy them too.
I do know he’s at home, and I like that a lot. There wasn’t much to do today, because of the snow, though both of my walks were excellent. The guy I live with said he felt poorly all day long, but then realized he hadn’t really eaten anything since lunch yesterday. It’s spring and he gets carried away. I can’t imagine forgetting to eat dinner. (He has the dinner bell set on his cell phone, for my dinner, but not one for his dinner. And besides, I would definitely let him know that it’s past dinnertime.)
When mice get fed too much, they become rats. At least that’s what I’ve always been led to believe.
We have rats here, too. Pack rats. They’re pretty cute. Same size as regular rats, but tan on top, white on the bottom. Rarely see them in the yard, though. The guy I live with is going to start moving the pile of sunflower seeds farther out into the back yard. Then father, then farther. He still thinks he’s smarter than a mouse.