Ogest

This is Ogest, he was my dad's wife's dog. He unfortunately passed away a few weeks ago, at a ripe old age though. My dad's wife resides in Nizhny Novgorod, the 5th largest city in Russia. After years of paperwork and signatures she is finally able to come to the U.S. and purchased a one way ticket for August 4th. Originally she was going to bring Ogest and her second dog, a little toy Yorkie, but Ogest passed suddenly. 

I was looking forward to meeting him, over the 12+ years they have been married my dad has shown me several photos of Ogest and told me when he would travel to Russia and stay for long periods of time that he grew accustomed to his snoring. Losing a pet is losing a family member, it's something we have all had to come to grips with at some point in our lives as our pets don't outlive us. It's upsetting to accept that reality, but all we can do is make the best of our time with them and enjoy every silly animal moment. 

My dad's wife and I aren't too close, no personal reasons, we've just been an Atlantic Ocean apart so we haven't had time to really get to know one another. But I wanted to give her something when she does arrive here in August so perhaps things are a little easier. I'm sure I would have loved Ogest, how could you not with that big grin??

Bear

A couple months ago a friend reached out and told me his brother just passed away. He said he saw some of my paintings online and wanted to know if he could request something to commemorate him and their mother that passed not long before that. He told me his brother went by the nickname 'Bear' (which I think is hilarious and awesome), and that his mother loved owls. I promised him after I finished up my big "Taco" project that I would hop right on it.

I browsed the web for pictures, drawings, and paintings of bears. Black bears, polar bears, grizzly bears, you name it. I just needed something to help me figure out what to paint. I came across a sketch of a big goofy smiling bear and it was perfect. I'm sure with a nickname like 'Bear' you gotta smile a lot and have a hearty laugh. I pictured in my head what would happen if a cute little poofy owl planted itself on the bear's head, how would he react... he would probably lean his head back and chuckle.

I asked the squeeze to impersonate the bear in that moment, just to see what he would come up with. We both grabbed our sides laughing as he let out an honest and cheerful 'huyah huyah huyah!'

We both crack up whenever we look at the painting, I hope it brings my friend the same joy and entertainment it's brought us (I made sure to snap several pics so we could refer back to it if we need a good laugh)!

Big Dog

That's basically what I thought I saw on the highway the other day. It obviously wasn't a big dog but rather a huge horse sticking his head out the window enjoying the highway ride. It would have been hilarious if his tongue was sticking out and his jowls were flapping everywhere. Horses are essentially huge canines you can ride, right? Except with a dog you don't have to worry about losing a toe, or five, if they misstep.

I remember a couple years ago I visited a friend out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere Bridgton, his family had a single huge Clydesdale with his own fenced in area set up in the front yard. He.Was.Massive. I've always wondered if animals can smell fear, if they can then I probably reeked to him. I was terrified of being so close to an enormous animal, it felt like I was standing next to a dinosaur (or what I image standing next to a dinosaur feels like). My cautiousness (or fear, call it what you will) came in handy when he bumped into me and nearly crushed my foot, I jumped back but he still managed to step on the edge of my shoe and squashed my baby toe. I had a pretty gnarly bruise for about two weeks.

I'll probably just stick to actual dogs, preferably smaller ones.

Check Up

Little Pig had her official pre-Austin check up on Wednesday and she got a clean bill of health! I must admit, sometimes I haven't been the best cat parent and have neglected to take her to the vet for the past few years *hangs head in shame* I was a little nervous, and when anyone is nervous about anything medical related they temporarily transform into a hypochondriac. I feared my neglect might have led to some issues I wasn't aware of, but I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the vet looked at me and smiled. 

The only change were red freckles that have shown up near her gum-line due to her being a redhead. Phew.

She needed a couple vaccines, we learned she may need another when we get down to TX due to there being more creepy crawly things in the south. She's been lethargic the past due days, her little 6.3lb frame is probably adjusting to the dose of vaccines. But alas, we are one step closer to tying up loose ends here. I'm going to my human vet in a couple weeks to get my pre-Austin check-up as well. Hopefully I don't need any vaccines... I hate needles.

Christmas Farm

I've come to the conclusion that alpacas are basically deer camels. Honestly I can't even remember if this is an alpaca or llama, my Google search did me no good as I'm now more confused than ever (what are you??). This is at the Christmas Farm, an adorable little house/barn/farm animal sanctuary located near the squeeze's home in Buxton. One morning the squeeze proclaimed we should visit the Christmas Farm since it was a beautiful day out, so we headed up. You can tell you're approaching the little farm because of the "fresh eggs" sign hanging on a little post, I don't think they had any at the moment though or else I would have come home with a dozen.

There was no obvious entrance and the home's front door is mainly decorative, we didn't want to go snooping too much to find the functional entryway so we cautiously walked the perimeters of the back yard. The alpacas heard us chatting and several of them poked their heads through the tiny window of the shed attached to their grazing area. They stood motionless, staring at us, it was comical yet kinda creepy. We approached the shed and took a peek through the wiring to see many others making their way towards us, one in serious need of braces with its crazy under-bite.

Eventually we bumped into the woman who lives there and she let us take a peek inside the barn where a pile of them were nestled together. "I don't even know why we have alpacas!" She said they were thinking about selling them, they had purchased the Christmas Farm from someone else and his herd of animals came with the property. What would one even do with 15 alpacas? Shear them I guess? You can't eat them or cozy up to them, seems like a cute but useless pet if you ask me.

They did have chickens though, a whole flock of them with a feisty rooster who kept loudly cock-a-doodle-dooing. I've secretly always wanted a little chicken coop with three hens. I'd give them majestic names like Florence and Charlotte. Fresh eggs for days.

Wildlife

We took advantage of the beautiful day yesterday, low 70's! last summer I took the squeeze to the Maine Wildlife Park over in Gray, he said he'd never been before so I made it my duty to bring him. We had so much fun, despite the fact that we (per usual) got there kinda late in the day and certain things were closed. Last summer they were in the midst of building the new Lynx exhibit, and a bunch of other animals were on hiatus. This time though we got there early in the day! We managed to go to the snack shack and nature store that we missed last time, and I spent way too much money on a MWP t-shirt. Anyway, here are a couple Lynx in said new habitat! They look like large house-cats in person, but their paws are massive. Like huge saucers. These guys eventually hauled themselves to the back of the enclosure, where people couldn't go, of course. But I managed to snap this picture before they fled. I love cats, no matter how big.

These two were hilarious. The big brown bear bullies the little black bear, but they were both equally adorable. There are food dispensaries around the park to feed certain animals, corn for the deer, some sort of grain for the terrifying local Canadian Geese that were hanging around (one actually attacked the squeeze), and then the bears had what looked like cat food. A mix between Cheerios and cat food to be exact. Despite the fact that it seemed silly to feed tiny Cheerio cat food pellets to these bears, they would vacuum them right up off the ground. They would even sit and beg! I tried to snap a picture as these two massive teddy bears sat up side by side with their paws up, but I didn't grab my phone in time and the brown one plopped back down. I felt bad for the lame size of the food, despite the fact that the first sign you see when you drive into the park is 'please don't feed the animals' (aside from silly Cheerio cat food pellets) I grabbed the apple I had in my purse, split it in two, and chucked it into their enclosure. I regret nothing!

This little guy was probably our favorite, he's an albino Raccoon! At first we couldn't see anything inside his dwellings, but the second he heard the crunching of a plastic bag he came running out full force. Such a curious sight to behold! I've never seen an albino Raccoon, or anything albino at that matter. A group of small girls threw him a french fry which missed the fence by inches, he stretched out his tiny little human-like hands and managed to grab the fry and devoured it. Again, my empathy for anything small and furry got the best of me and I threw him part of a cheese stick. I still regret nothing! The squeeze got very, very close to take a video, the whole time this little guy was pressed against the fence with his tiny hands stretched out trying to grab the phone. So cute!