I have a broad definition of “pets” that includes any animal that lives in or travels through my yard, including bunnies and squirrels (aka “yard pets”), birds and insects. If I can contribute to its well being through fresh water, food, habitat etc., it is a pet.
This was taken April 18, 2021, when the pictured pup was not quite 1 year old. Mosi brought me one of her Most Treasured Objects … one of two remaining remnants of a pair of my canvas Keds I gave her as a baby. I let her destroy them and she never damaged any other footwear.
The Lab technician brings me these small treasures – “toys” of chewed cardboard scraps, milk caps – hoping I will toss them in the air for her. And I do.
Mosi, aka the Lab Technician, crashed against my rib cage while I ate a late lunch and watched “The Chef’s Table” featuring Magnus Nilsson on Netflix. His now-shuttered restaurant in remote Sweden posed an interesting juxtaposition to the many eateries that boasted of local ingredients: How does that play out when for six months of the year, NOTHING grows? His response was that when you harvest something in the fall and serve it in the spring, the preservation process has added some interesting dimensions.
In our parlance, favored insects count as “yard pets.” Hope they stay put long enough for me to get a better shot another day, but I liked this moment. The plant is an anise hyssop that volunteered itself from another spot in the yard.
This swallowtail joined us in the backyard Sunday and I was SO excited. We are used to monarchs (more on those later) and cabbage whites, but this is first of these we’ve seen this summer.
Our newest yard pet. We have found it numerous times just steps away, and today it has spent much of its time in the immediate vicinity of not only us humans, but the Lab assistant, who is 10 and pays it little mind.
It’s like she’s running in her sleep. ❤
From last night. You know, in case you were wondering what the back side of this looked like.
Beth's Planet 