Outside my Windows I - A Magical Morning

[jsw4178]

Nice dogs Roc, they look like they are well trained or mesmerized by your camera.

[Rocnerd]

Well, they used to be well trained until the wife spoiled them, oh ok, me too.  They are still rather well behaved, and with a sit command and some "cute" talk they perk up just like that.  Great for pictures.  
Thanks for the compliments.  
I found myself working over in Iceland on several occasions for my first "real job" out of school and saw them working the herds of sheep near the airport.  If you ever land in Iceland in the winter months, you will know what the moon looks like (if you have any sunlight that is).  The airport is in an old lava field and it is flat expanse with broken up lava flows everywhere.  In the summer these are covered in a thick emerald green carpet of moss that is quite beautiful.  The people are very nice and the land is rugged and beautiful, great fishing too.  
Anyway, that is what started my facination with the Icelandic Sheepdog.  One day my wife, then girlfriend, said I should get a dog.  I told her if I did it would be an Icelandic Sheepdog.  No sooner did she open the paper and check the want ads did she see Icelandic puppies for sale.  I bought one from the breeder who lived up near Syracuse, then got a phone call several weeks later asking if I would like a second one for free since I lived on a farm and she couldn't sell this one.  I said yes and 7 years later I couldn't imagine not having them around.
 I know this is post is getting rather long but its late I'm getting off work and feeling long winded, I took one dog winter back packing with me several years ago up to the Adirondacks or Catskills, can't remember which.  I was with two friends of mine and we built a nice snow shelter to sleep in.  Come morning we had all packed up our stuff and were just about to set off with snow shoes to summit the peak, when my rambuctious (sp?) dog runs up on to the top of the shelter and promptly dissappears for a second before bolting out of the front "door" covered in snow.  The roof had sagged quite a bit from our breath at night and the 20 some pounds of dog was just too much and it caved in.  Funniest thing I had seen in a long time.  On the way back to the car my dog decided to cause a little more mischief by investigating the ice of the frozen, or not so frozen, stream where my friend was standing.  He evidently walked to a thinner section and fell in.  Well, my buddy walked over and grabbed him out, promptly breaking through the ice.   This is when I came in on the scene, with my ungrateful dog running up the trail in high spirits and my very wet and cold friend hauling his butt out of the creek in 17 degree weather.  I laughed my butt off when I heard what had happened.  It could have been serious but we were only about 200 yards or so from the cars so no real chance of hypothermia.  Anyway, I would say I have written more than enough.  

[Richard S]

Roc:

Post all of the dog stories you want to relate.  As a dog lover, I'll read all of them.  Just don't get me started writing about a certain Hungarian Vizsla I knew as "Gypsy."

[MountainMan]

Roc

Great story - i enjoyed it.  Dogs are a special part of the lives of many.
Dave

[Rocnerd]

From dogs to birds. . . I felt since I shared my dogs with everyone, it was only fair to the remaining member of the pet family that I share her with you as well.
Gabriel

I never thought I could get attached to a bird, but well. . .
On a side note, we get much more sun in the back yard now since Wilma.  All the blue behind her head would have been filtered through branches and leaves before the storm.

[Michigunner]

Rocnerd,

He looks like a friendly little guy.  Does he talk?

I'm always amazed to hear them say something.

Bill

[Rocnerd]

She says "Hello Baby" quite cleary, but that is about it.  Every now and then she'll warble something that sounds very close to a phrase I just said, but Cockatoos aren't known for their speech.  She is very friendly though and loves attention.

[Richard S]

Roc:

Gabriel is beautiful!  And you are to be commended (as well as Gabriel, Jack, and Jasper) for the obvious détente which you all have developed between and among a Cockatoo on the one hand and two Icelandic Sheepdogs on the other.  After all, the Icelandics were bred to guard newborn lambs from large birds.  (Not that a Cockatoo is predatory, but it is not a "small" bird.)

I would enjoy having a Cockatoo.  However, to quote one of my favorite Presidents, "It would not be prudent at this juncture."  My male cat, "Tut," who lies on my desk watching me whenever I am working at the computer, perked up his ears and demonstrated unusual interest when Gabriel's photograph was on the screen.  

[Michigunner]

I was up early the other morning, and saw a brilliant point of light on the horizon.

I raced upstairs to get the camera, but by then the earth's rotation beat me out.

Anyway, cabin fever was setting in, and this is what you do, when there's nothing to do.

Bill

[Richard S]

Bill:

I would say that you caught it in time.  That is a very rare photograph.

[R9SCarry]

Still lovely Bill - calm and serene - good for the soul.

[Rocnerd]

That is a beautiful picture.  I can almost smell the crisp air.

The cockatoo rules the roost,  .  If she comes down off the cage and the dogs are there she just chases them off.  The dogs think its play time so I need to rescue her before she gets trampled.  The dogs have taken their share of bites to the snout and to their credit have only bared teeth on one occasion when we first got her.  

[theirishguard]

Wonderful pictures guys, I love this thread.
Tom

[MountainMan]

Bill

Nice picture - nature is special.

My daughter just sent me a bunch of pictures from SF California of her apartment decorated for the super bowl since she grew up in Steeler country - one below - we'll see.

[theirishguard]

Dave, I sure hope your daughter will be OK after the game when the Seahawks win.
Tom