Butchy Been A Sick Boy

Hey Pals,
Seems like not so good things keep happening around here lately. First we've had all of the storms day after day. Then I Butchy keep getting worked up from the thunder & lightning. Then we lost our huge tree in a storm last week & have missing koi from the mean Monster Birds. Then Papa's dad passed away & Mama & Papa had to leave us alone a lot this weekend. Then Monday morning we had another bad storm with marble sized hail. Now the flowers & water plants really look like crap! Big holes in the leaves. Plus we had more huge branches fall out of the trees. Then to top this all off, I've been so stressed about the storms that I made myself sick. Dogs that have stress or anxiety, even in small amounts can bleed from the rear end if ya know what I mean. So for the last 3 days that's what I've been doing. Today it's finally getting much better. Mama talked to the vet & she is sure that my problem is from the anxiety & stress of the storms. When Mama & Papa rescued me over 3 years ago I was very scared of storms. They have worked with me trying different things & I am much much better than I used to be. I was even doing very well last Fall when we had storms. But since we've had the non-stop storms all summer, I'm getting a little worse now. I'm even on some medications during the storms but Mama really hates to give me drugs. They are helping for now, but she is still going to try some different flower essences to see if that might work. So since Mama hasn't really had time to take pictures of me & Snickers, we thought we would show you some pictures she took last week.
Here is a Monarch Butterfly:
We gets thousands of these. Mama plants lots of flowers that the butterflies like. We get many of the swallowtail butterflies too.
Here is a photo of an odd frog that was in our pond. He is not albino, but very very pale grey in color. We've never seen one like this before so we don't know if he is a certain breed or a fluke of nature:
Here are some dwarf lotus flower buds:
These are those same buds open:
This is one of our large lotus flowers:


Here is one of our peach waterlilies:
We hope every doggie & GG has a great week!!
Wirey Hugs!
Butchy & Snickers

Mr. Woodchuck & Deer Staredown

What are you doing bambi?? This is my grass to eat!Hmmmm? what???
Yeah you, quit eating my grass!!!
Hush before I stomp you with my hooves, hehehe!
Wirey Hugs!
Butchy & Snickers

TREES DOWN!

Hey Pals,
Well we survived the bad storms last night but our trees didn't. We think we had a very tiny tornado go through our neighborhood. All 3 of our yards in a row lost trees & tons of limbs & branches. Here is our 100+ year old hickory tree that fell:
The wind ripped it right out of the ground & twisted it around. As you can see in this next picture, the tree is caught on 2 other trees & can't fall to the ground. It's already crushing a nice flowering tree & caught on a nice hickory tree. If it comes down on it's own, it will ruin the flowering tree & rip all of the branches off of the other hickory tree & possibly ruin a maple tree too.
Papa might have to hire professionals to come take the tree down. It's so dangerous right now with it hanging up in the air. The good thing was that it didn't come down towards the house & sunroom. It's tall enough that it could have hit the sunroom, whew!
Here are other branches that came down from our trees:


Mama spent an hour this morning just getting branches out of the ponds. It would take weeks to pick up all of the sticks in the yard now. Maybe we better hire Bogart to come here & help us, hehehehe!

Do I Butchy look happy in this picture??
This is why:

I was scaring the nasty Mini Monster Bird away all morning. He must have flown in about 10 times. Mama said I did a very good job today. We haven't found the missing koi so we think those mean nasty birds might have eaten them. Makes us very sad. But we did find some koi & goldfish that we didn't know we had. We always keep the fish in the largest pond but sometimes the fish eggs get sucked up into the bottom drain & flow through the water pump without getting chopped by the blades & come out through the waterfall into the smaller pond. Well that happened this year. We saw several goldfish already 3-4 inches long & almost a dozen koi that are about 4-5 inches big already. Some are very pretty too. So Mama & Papa will have to drain most of the water out of that pond this fall & catch the fish to put them into the big pond for winter. And by the way, the koi were breeding 2 days ago, hehehehe! Poor Koi Baby was being chased by BenBen, Billy Bob, Snowball & Oscar.
We already had another storm this afternoon & another one is on it's way for tonight. The news said today that the reason we keep having the storms is because of the hurricane. It is stalling the weather fronts up here in the central states. We received over 2 more inches of rain already today. So since we have to keep the computer unplugged most of the time we are getting sooooo behind on reading all of our pals blogs. We hope to get caught up soon reading them, so we won't be leaving as many comments as normal until we get caught up. So please know that we do read your blogs. Here is a waterlily that did open today even though it was raining & cloudy most of the day:
Wirey Hugs!
Butchy & Snickers

NEWS FLASH: KOI & GOLDFISH MURDERED & MISSING

MISS SNICKERS REPORTING TO YOU LIVE FROM THE FISH SHACK
Today we woke up to find 2 comet goldfish murdered in our own yard! Four small koi are still reported missing at this time. The 2 goldfish were thrown from the top of this fish shack below:
And landed here onto the rocks. Their stabbed & mutilated bodies were left here to rot in the sun.
We spoke to Mama & she was so upset & crying that she couldn't talk because Koi Stanley, Simba, Jaffe Boy & Teka are missing at this time. They are no where to be found. So we went down to the pond to talk with Miss Koi Ice T.
"The perpetrators came out of no where. The little fish didn't have a chance. Us big koi are too large for these murderers to catch so we were safe." As you can see, Koi Kaylie was hiding under Miss Ice T. She was too scared to come out & talk with us.

Here is a glimpse of one of the perpetrators, a Green Heron:
The other suspect is a Blackbelted Kingfisher bird, aka the Mini Monster Bird! Unfortunately both bird species are on the protected bird list so no one can touch them or they will face severe penalties. Poor Mama was putting up fishing line barriers all day around the ponds to try to secure the area. She also placed empty plastic milk crates along the edges to keep the perpetrators away. Inspector Butcho chased the Kingfisher away many times during the day during his Fish Guard Duty & Mama chased the Green Heron away 2 times.

So it's been a sad day here at Mutton Hollow. Now we have ANOTHER bad storm on it's way here tonight. They are talking high winds with large damaging hail. Here is a picture of the current radar:
We live in the county which is just above Waterloo. The storm will hit within a few hours so the fish are bunkered down in the bottom of the ponds.

Soon Mama will be giving Butchy his anxiety meds to help keep him calmer during the bad storm. In the last several days we have received over 6 inches of rain.
This is Miss Snickers signing off to go for shelter, hehehehehe!
Wirey Hugs!
Snickers & Butchy
PS Update: Now we even have tornado warnings! Will this ever stop???

NEWS FLASH: Poor Butchy Fell In The Pond

REPORTER MISS SNICKERS!
Hey Pals,
I Snickers get to blog today cause Butchy isn't such a happy boy this weekend. First we keep having lots of thunderstorms with lots of rain. There are flash flood warnings all over the area. We're safe though cause the river is at the end of our road and it sits much lower than our land. We're kind of on a hill & all of the lands west of us are much lower. So since Butchy is scared of thunder & lightning, he has been one scared boy. He's kept Mama awake at night too. Plus this weather makes Mama feel awful with her arthritis & stuff she has. Well after the storm stopped for a bit this morning, we all went outside to the ponds to feed our koi. Guess what came flying over??? One of those mean nasty mini monster birds! A Kingfisher making his rackety noises. Of course Butchy heard it right away & started his funny barking noises he makes when he hears those birds. It sure scared the bird away fast. But then Butchy backed up & his back feet were on one of the big rock boulders at the edge of the pond. Since the rocks were all wet & slippery, guess what happened?? Butchy fell right into the pond! Luckily Mama had a hold of his leash & yanked him out of the water before his head went under. Poor boy, he got all wet & full of fish food. So he's not having a good day at all. He sticks to Mama's feet like glue.
Butchy wanted to show a picture of his stuffed Ladybug that Gussie gave him so I'll post it. He's so proud that it's still all in one piece! Of course it needs a 3rd squeaker put in now but Mama will operate & put one in another day.
Yesterday in between the rains we did manage to get a picture of our dwarf lotus flower that was ready to open.
We have more flower buds on the large lotus plants that formed in the last few days too. Here is a picture of one of our other large lotus flowers. It was only the first day of opening so it wasn't fully open yet. It is a double lotus flower. Our other pretty pink ones that we have posted before are single flowers.

We'll have some butterfly & fish pictures to post in the next few days. We have so many pals asking questions about our koi so we'll try to fill you in more about them too. Oh and before I forget, please visit Mama's store: SNITCHYBUG DOG DESIGNS
She posted some dresses for tiny dogs! But you can order dresses in any size, color or pattern. She has many styles of dresses that she can make. So if you would like something special, just email your ideas or pictures to her & she can make it.
Sorry we don't have a live model for this size yet. A friend of Auntie C's that has a girl Chihauhau named Mitzi was coming to town last week, but a family problem came up & she wasn't able to visit & model the dresses for us.





We hope everyone is having a great weekend and that anyone near those nasty hurricanes are safe & sound!
Wirey Hugs!
Snickers & Butchy

Koi Sunny & New Blogging Pals

Hey Pals,
We've had a koi named Sunny since last year when he was born in our pond, but we kept forgetting to tell GirlGirl. Since she lives with Sunny, we thought we would show you Koi Sunny.
He is almost 2 years old now & about 11-12 inches long, metallic golden yellow:
Here's a waterlily flower that Mama photographed early today. Can you see the bee in the center?

We have some new blogging pals to tell you about that we met on Dogster. Their names are Maya & Kena & they are both little girl Cairn Terriers. So please go visit them on their new blog & sign their guestbook ok??
Maya: Kena:
Here is their link:
THE LIFE OF TWO LITTLE CAIRNS

Hey, tomorrow is Friday! Hope every doggie & GG has a great Friday!
Wirey Hugs!
Butchy & Snickers

Another Park & Koi Gus & Hammer

Hey Pals,
Yesterday we got to go to another big State Park here in Iowa. This one is called Pine Lake. There are 2 huge lakes & across from them is a river too. First we had to drive about 50 minutes to get there. We tried not to crush Mama this time, but it's hard not to when Snickers & I both must be in her lap, hehehe. When we got to the park, first Mama & Papa ate their lunch. Of course we begged for little crumbs. There were 2 big doggies swimming down in the river near us. I Butchy got to meet them. One was a doberman & one a golden lab I think. I got to sniff noses with the doberman. He was nice. Then it was time for us to go hiking.

We started by the trail that went around Swan Pond. They have trumpeter swans living there, but the pond is so huge & you can't get very close to it, so we didn't even see the swans. Mama was disappointed. Part of the pond is fenced to protect the swans. So we continued on our hike.
Here is a picture of part of the bike trail:
There are bike trails & wooded trails all over around both lakes that you can walk on. We walked & walked almost around one whole side of the north pond. We went by the campgrounds too & met a mean dog. It was chained to a tree (which people are not supposed to do in the park) and when we were coming up to it, the man went over & kind of held the dog, but right when we were across from him, the dog bolted right after us on the bike trail. Mama was fast & whipped me Butchy around so the dog couldn't reach me, but it did reach Snickers. It only bumped noses with her cause then Mama got her away. Mean doggie! We didn't even bark or growl at the dog, why was it so mean to us? Mama can't understand why the man couldn't hold onto his dog good enough. Why did he have the chain so long that the dog could reach people & dogs that are walking on the trail?? Geez. What if the dog had bitten a little kid?? There were lots of little kids around there too. We saw lots of them & they liked us. It was very hot, so then we headed back to our vehicle for some nice ice water.
Here is Snickers:
More please......
Here are some pictures of the North Lake:

Can you see the boat & kayaks in the pictures?? Yep, you can even rent the boats, kayaks & paddle boats. So Papa went & asked about renting paddle boats. They will even allow dogs on them. So we'll come back another day when it's not so hot & sunny & go out on a paddle boat. It will be so much fun! There is no sun protection on the paddle boats, so you don't really want to be out there for hours when the sun is so hot. It was in the 90's again. We couldn't find any good spots for dogs to go swimming in the lakes. The only beach area was for hoomans. So next we drove to another section of the other lake & went for more hiking. We were near the river & saw lots of people floating around in innertubes. The river was very low, low enough for us to go in, but the water was very dirty & the bottom wasn't nice sand like at the other park in the trout stream. Then we found where they have the cabins that you can rent & we saw the doberman & golden lab again. They were with their hoomans & had rented one of the cabins. The cabins even have air conditioning!! The doggies were very nice to us again. They were very well behaved. By then Mama thought it was time to go. We were so hot & had walked so many miles, so we headed off to the water fountain. Here is Papa holding the water for me Butchy to drink:
So next we headed back to the vehicle to go home. We were tuckered out. Snickers & I both slept most of the way home. Being in that hot sun sure does wear a doggie out.

Today we helped Mama with some of the koi babies. We had some of the babies that hatched this spring in a pond on our deck. Mama said it was time for them to go to the big ponds or for a few, time to go into the house to live for winter. We raise a few babies in our sunroom pond each winter. It's fun to watch them grow & change coloring plus they get a head start on growing since the fish in the ponds hibernate pretty much for winter. So far we have 3 babies in the house pond. Mama's not sure if the 3rd one will stay indoors. There are several others in the big pond that she would like to catch & raise indoors. So we'll see. So two of the koi have been named.
This first koi which is in the middle of the picture below, is Koi Gus! or Koi Gussie!!! Snickers told Mama that we just had to name one after Gus her boyfriend.
This fish is Koi Hammer!! Can you see that it is metallic white with metallic orange/gold/yellow spots?? Doesn't it remind you of Hammer's fur colors?? We thought so.
So Koi Gus & Hammer will be living in our sunroom til next Spring. Then they will head out to the big ponds. By that time, they will probably be about 8 inches long. There are several babies in the big pond that Mama has named, but we're not revealing the names yet. She wants to make sure the koi survive for awhile longer. She's hoping to catch them to raise indoors, then it will be much easier to take a picture of them too. Well, guess it's time to sign off. We need to go out to potty, hehehehe! Sleep tight every doggie & GG!
Wirey Hugs!
Butchy & Snickers