Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

My husband surprised me with tickets to see Ralphie May next month, one of my favorite comedians!

Here’s a cute little something for you:

Via: Online Accounting Degree

January 2010…. it was cold here in southwest Florida!

February 2010…. I got my first photo of a Ring Necked Duck…

March 2010… I got some of my best in-flight shots of the Barred Owls…

Also my first American Bittern:

And my first shots of a Great Horned Owl:
April 2010…
Had my first crawfish attack

May 2010… wasn’t really much of a photography month for me, but I did try to at least post something…which led to this dragonfly with my little point and shoot camera…

June 2010… we did the Humane Society of Broward County benefit shoot featuring the working therapy dogs and their owners…

I also started to sell vinyl backdrops I created at The Drop Shoppe, my online store…

Also got my first shot of Barred Owls grooming each other…

July 2010…
Did some photos for the ultra-talented LG-Ryda…please check out his contest entry for T-Pain’s contest HERE!

August 2010… This was THE month, the BIG month…the amazing and wonderful trip to Europe with my husband and 9 other family members!




September 2010… living with one dog. We had to put our male Great Dane, Gunther to sleep the previous month…so we were left with only one. Our Duchess. She actually enjoyed being the only dog for awhile

October 2010… we got our Jeep! Something we’d wanted for years!

November 2010… We got Earl! The newest addition to the family


December 2010… I got my first wild skunk photo!

And had a quiet day at home….

I can not believe we are in December already!  The time has just flown by.  The weather down here in southwest Florida has also been amazing and is going to get better.  Tomorrow they’re expecting frost…which to some people will be bad…but to me it’s great, that means it should kill off the rest of the lingering mosquitoes and other pesky things likes gnats.  Also…December means we are out of hurricane season!!!

Since we’re on the verge of Christmas, I figured I’d share a few past holiday images.

For a young pup (almost 6 months old), Earl is actually a really good boy…but I’ve forgotten how much work it still is to

have a dog so young.  He’s basically housebroken at this point, there hasn’t been one accident in the house.  But…he’s still

a little guy so he can’t hold his bladder/poo as long as a bigger adult dog can so I’ve got to watch him for signs that he needs

to go out.  Usually standing by the door, pacing, or even whining a little bit are usually the cues.

He’s doing really well with ‘listening’.  If I call him, or if I say ‘no’, or ‘leave it’, or ‘in the house’…9 times out of 10

he does exactly as I ask.

He does ‘taste’ things around the house.  He’s got that puppy urge to chew, so I usually watch him carefully…

say ‘no’ if he tries out the coffee table leg and replace it with his own toy.

Crate training begins soon.  We have one of the largest metal crates they make for giant breed dogs…but years ago

Duchess destroyed the door on it.  Yesterday my husband took the door off the crate to have a friend who is a welder

fix it for us.  In the meantime, Earl has had free access to the crate.  During the day I’ll put his bed in there and a toy,

I’ll also sneak a few kibbles of his dog food in there when he’s not looking so that when he goes in on his own he gets

‘rewarded’ with a surprise.

Earl is also doing a little TV watching.  Duchess could care less about what’s on the TV.  Our previous male, Gunther…

absolutely LOVED television.  I hadn’t ever had a dog that liked TV as much as he did.  Gosh I miss my Gooney Gunther

so much!

So it’s kinda cool to have Earl who is taking an interest in it as well.

Duchess has also really done well accepting this new dog into her life.  She’s not the queen of the castle any longer, and

has to share her home with the little guy…but she’s coming around.  They’ve also started to play together.  She thinks she

is a young dog…. but she’s 9 years old and her hind end is weakening.  She starts to play with Earl and sometimes her

back end goes out from under her.  I’ll supervise the playing, and if she starts to get too out of hand I’ll stop it.  She is

the type of dog that would play and play and not pay any mind to the fact that she is hurting herself.

Luckily, my husband hasn’t needed me in the office at work since we got Earl so I’ve been home with him every day.

Also, I’ve had a yucky head cold, and there’s no crate to put him in…so being home with him was perfect.  I had to come

in to the office today so Earl is with me.  I’m hoping the crate door will be fixed today so I can start his crate training.

One thing Earl did start with was diarreah with a little blood in it.  We took him to the vet, they did a fecal and checked

him out and found nothing.  So they gave us some anti-diarreah meds and he’s been on that.  He’s getting better, but his

bowel movements aren’t where they should be yet.  At least last night he only woke me up ONE TIME to go potty as

opposed to three times.

All in all, Earl is by far the EASIEST pup I’ve ever had.  He’s laid back, easy going, brave, and just plain fun.  We love him

a lot already and he’s only been in our lives for less than a week