IT'S WHEELY WEDNESDAY!

Hey Pals,

It's me Bentley reporting today.


Have I got a story for you! Do you remember a while back when Butchy came home from a pawty with Lacie & he had purple duct tape wrapped around his muzzle?? The purple duct tape was put on by none other than Lacie herself. Yep, she didn't want Butchy to spill the beans about her latest adventure. Actually, the tape was put on for a few reasons, but the other reason we'll leave for another time, we can't tell you yet, hehehehe.

You see I Bentley am from England and I have many relatives that live over there & in other countries near there. Also Dr. Snitchenstein has some long lost relatives that live somewhere near the Dr. Frankenstein castle. Well Lacie decided to do some snooping and found some of Dr. Frankenstein's relatives. She ended up going to visit them & found out some shocking stories about Dr. Frankenstein.

The famous Dr. Frankenstein had some horrid experiments that went bad. Can you believe he actually tested on animals??? Now that's darn right cruelty! His relatives were very sad to even be related to him. They couldn't believe how cruel he could be to animals.

As they were telling Lacie some of these stories, she found out he had tested on a Chiltern Wheeled Foxy from England. DING DING DING DING! The bells went off in Lacie's head and she remembered that I Bentley was from England & was also a Chiltern Foxy. So with the help of Dr. Frankenstein's relatives, Lacie started searching for this poor Foxy. Can you believe she actually found him?? Yep, living in a cave in some woods. He was too ashamed to go out in public. He was terribly disfigured from the evil experiments that Dr. Frankenstein preformed on him.

Well Lacie knew just where to send this poor boy to get fixed up, the Snitchybug Dog Hospital. So she made the travel arrangements and helped him get onto his flight to the USA. She knew she just had to help this boy and then give him a new home living with her, Scruffy & BabyStan.

So guess who showed up at the doorstep of Dr. Snitchenstein???


Yep, the poor Foxy boy. Just look at him, no wonder he didn't want to go out in public.


He saw Snickers up on the deck so he hobbled on up there to say hello.


Hmmmmm, think you need some reconstructive surgery boy! and a bath!!! (that's Nurse Snickers, always telling someone they need a bath!)


Just look at how dirty his rear end is:


Must be so dirty from living out in the woods.

Dr. Snitchenstein was shocked at what her past relative had done to this poor boy. She immediately started to set things up to get him the surgeries he needs to be normal again.

We let him come into the house to get aquainted with the cats. Especially Sylvester since he is training to become a nurse.

But look what Sylvester found:



The poor boy was trying to make a bed out of papers & boxes in our kitchen when Sylvester caught him!


So Sylvester explained the facts to him about sleeping on comfy beds & cushions in the house. Then they hurried to clean up the mess before Dr. Snitchenstein could see it, hehehe.

Since the foxy boy was sooooo darn dirty, Dr. Snitchenstein decided he should have his remaining hairs shaved off just in case he would have fleas or some other kind of bugs.


So out came the electric razor. See how smooth he looks now??? Bet he feels better too.


Currently he has begun acupuncture treatments to get him mentally prepared for the many surgeries he will be having. Do you remember what I looked like before my surgeries?? Let me refresh your memory.

This is me when I first arrived here:


Didn't look so hot did I?? And this is me now:


I can hardly wait to see the foxy boy in his new skins! I've heard rumors that Lacie requested he look like Scruffy, tee hee! Only Dr. Snitchenstein knows for sure!!! I also found out he is one of my cousins! I'm so thrilled to have him here for a few weeks. Now we can catch up on family stories.

This is Bentley, signing off. We'll update you next week on foxy boy's surgeries.

Wheely Hugs,
Bentley

HOSTAS & GARDEN

Hey Pals,

We have been very busy helping Mama with the hostas & gardens around here. Today it poured rain like crazy, so we finally got some pictures ready to post. First here is one of our favorite hostas. They grow very very big! This one is right outside of our back door.


This is behind our house & it is the hosta bed that Mama & Papa just put in:


The edging still hasn't been put in to hold the rocks, but it won't take long to do that part.


Here are some closer pictures of some of the hostas:





Sylvester likes to sit in the bedroom window so he can watch Mama working:



This picture shows between the house & garage from the back side:


Most of these plants have been in since last year, but some more were moved in this year, plus others were divided & bushes trimmed, etc. Plus TONS of weeds were removed, hehehehe. Those darn things seem to always pop up.

The poor dwarf willow tree in the photo took a hard hit from this past winter. It's not doing very well. It might need to be removed in the fall.

Mama has so many hostas & daylilies that she divides them all of the time & moves more into other areas.




The wrens have already built a nest in the bird house in the tree. Wrens are pretty tolerant of humans being around their nests.



This view is from the front of the garage & house looking to the back:


Hmmmmm, does Gussie & Muzzer remember this lizard??? hehehehe!


Here is one of Mama's veggie gardens she put in this year:


Can you believe the deer already had to walk in it?? and it's right below the sunroom. Mama was NOT happy.

Here is part of the other garden. It already has a fence around it, but still needs small hole fencing added to the bottom to keep pesky rabbits out.


Here is that whole garden:


Now you know why Mama can hardly move her body, tee hee! Between the arthur itis and fibromyalgia, she is one sorry looking human, and just think, she isn't even 50 years old yet!!! Hahahaha, don't tell her we told you though.

Snickers has been doing ok the last several days. She was very very tired for several days after the seizures. But seems to be ok now. Paws crossed that Seizure Monster doesn't appear again.

Uh oh, do we smell pizza??? Mmmmmmm, think we better go beg for some pizza crust!

Wirey Hugs,
Butchy, Snickers, Ruby, Sylvester & Scuby

WE BUMMED, SEIZURE MONSTER STRIKES AGAIN

Hey Pals,

We have been very busy helping Mama plant her veggie garden for the last 3 days. It's almost done too which is good, cause Mama's body is worn out. Her arthritis does not like helping with the gardens & is causing her lots of pain. Papa has been helping divide more daylilies & hostas to sell this year. They also planted a new hosta garden behind the house. We'll take some pictures soon to show you.

Things were going pretty well today, then that MEAN SEIZURE MONSTER had to come back & bother poor Snickers. We were so hopeful that her medication increase would kill that mean monster for good. It has been 18 days since her pheno-barbie-doll increase. The medication increase would take 14 days to get up to the full level in her blood, so seizures could be expected in that time frame. But now we are just past that and the seizures are back. Such a bummer!

Snickers had 4 seizures within 30 minutes early this evening. Sure makes us sad to see her have these. So now Mama & Papa have been watching her like a hawk tonight & making her comfortable. She always gets very tired after having seizures. She'll be zonked out all of tomorrow too. Guess I'll have to help Mama in the garden by myself tomorrow. Snickers can take a sun bath & snooze on the deck. We hope everyone is having a great week!

Wirey Hugs,
Butchy, Snickers, Ruby, Sylvester & Scuby

BAMBI BABYSITTING

Hey Pals,

Man, we can't believe it's been a week since we posted. Mama has been so overwhelmed with things she thinks her head is going to fall off. First she was wore out from cleaning the ponds, then on Friday night, Snickers & Papa both got sick. Luckily Snickers only had an upset tummy until Sunday morning. Paws crossed, no seizures either! BUT, Papa was sick through yesterday. He finally went back to work today. So Mama has had NO sleep for days. Plus she had to keep cleaning things in the house cause she didn't want to catch the germs from whatever made Papa sick.

Then on Monday, her babysitting duties started. Yep, she's babysitting their friends critters while they are away. Remember Janie & Zuzu the deer?? That's who she is taking care of, plus their 5 cats, plus fishies & 2 salymanders! It's hard for Mama to get pictures of Janie & Zuzu when she is taking care of them by herself, cause they want to crawl all over on Mama, tee hee!

They like to stand on their hind legs, fold their front legs under & place their knees on your back & shoulders, then lick your hair & clothes, hehehehehehehe! Silly deer. She also tried to get pictures of the kitties, but only got pictures of 3 of them.

This is Baby. He is one of the outdoor cats. He told Mama it was about time she showed up to feed him & rub his belly:



This is Butchy! Yep, that's right, another Butchy. He is the indoor boy cat.


This is Toonces, she is the oldest cat & one of the indoor girl cats. She is very old & has had some sick spells. But she still keeps plugging along. She likes to help Mama in their kitchen with things.


Now out to the deer pen. Baby always follows Mama just in case she drops some of the deer food, hehehe!


Hi girls!!


See how their hair is two colors? The light colored hair is the winter hair that has been starting to fall out now. The deep rust color hairs are the new hairs for Spring.


In a few weeks they will be totally rust color. When you pet them the winter hairs fall out all over. Mama's coat was covered in it. Both deer love to be pet.





They don't like it when it's time for Mama to leave them. They want her to stay.






We've had so many rain storms lately & things are totally soaked. So Mama hasn't walked around their pen much with them. The next 2 days are supposed to be dry so maybe Mama can get pictures of their pen area to show you. It's very very large with lots of pine trees.

Wirey Hugs,
Butchy, Snickers, Ruby, Sylvester & Scuby

POND CLEANING

Hey Pals,

We had a very busy & tiring weekend. Mama & Papa had to drain water out of the ponds, clean them out, divide & repot waterlilies. Ponds are fairly easy to keep clean UNLESS you have huge ponds like we do & have lots of nut trees surrounding the ponds. If you have small ponds, it's very easy to put netting over the pond in the Fall to keep leaves & branches from falling into the water. If you live where it freezes & you get snow, the netting needs to be removed before snowfall.

We tried using netting on our huge ponds, but when you need to remove it for winter, leaves & branches still end up getting into the water. So it's pretty much a waste of time. It's much easier to drain most of the water out of the ponds once every year to remove leaves & branches. Plus this makes it easier to remove potted plants so that the lilies can be divided. Most waterlilies need to be divided at least every 2 years. Otherwise they grow so huge they will actually bust out of the plastic pot. The leaves & flowers become smaller when the plants haven't been divided. Some of the other water plants can go 3-4 years without being divided if you use big enough pots for the yearly growth.

Here we drained most of the water out of the smaller pond. Most of the waterlilies are kept in this pond since the hungry Koi are kept in the largest pond.




As you can see, our trees are still bare here in Iowa. Only the flowering trees have leaves sprouting now.

Snickers & I started out by supervising from the deck:



Can you see all 3 cats in the window?? They weren't happy since they had to stay inside of the house.


Here is what a waterlily looks like when you remove it from the pot. This blob actually has probably 10 lilies in it.


Next Mama has to lay the root ball on it's side & start cutting the plants apart. You must be careful not to cut the newest part of the tuber & must leave enough roots for each tuber.


Here is just one waterlily cut apart:


Next you need to repot the lily.


Some of the lilies already have flower buds growing. Can you see the bright green bud in the center of the photo? That's a flower bud.


These 2 pots are ready to go back into the pond. You have to keep spraying water on the leaves & stems so that they don't dry up.


Here is Papa in his chestwaders. He gets pretty muddy working in the ponds.


Snickers & I decided to come supervise by the Fish Shack. As you can see, Snickers is sleeping on the job again, hehehehe! (she has been very very tired since increasing her seizure medication, but as long as it keeps the Seizure Monster away, we don't mind.)


I make sure the Koi are safe from the Monster Birds. Those mean heron aren't going to get my koi.


Here is the large pond. We only needed to drain down some of the water to be able to get to the pots. This pond is much deeper then the other pond so most of the pots are put on the more shallow sides.



I try to keep the Koi entertained, hehehe! They are bigger beggers then Snickers & I are!

Here is Glitter Boy & Sugar eating:


Wirey Hugs,
Butchy, Snickers, Ruby, Sylvester & Scuby