Hunting Dog: The Bugs

Lulu has become a very skilled hunter. She takes a different approach depending on her prey. She stalks cats and birds, chases squirrels and harasses turtles. When she sees a bug, she prefers to sit as close as possible and observe it. She really likes it when they are injured and can’t go very far. I videoed her watching a big beetle stuck on its back one morning. She stayed outside for 20 minutes without taking her eyes off him. When we were in Tulsa, a locust fell out of a tree, so that was also really exciting for her. I took a video of that too, but I was afraid to get too close. It kept buzzing and I was afraid it was going to get me. Unlike Lulu, I do not like bugs!

yucky bug!

Lulu and the Beetle

Got him!

Proud pup!

Lulu and the Locust

Hunting Dog: The Turtle

We were having breakfast at Mer’s house and I looked out the window and saw Lulu really focused on something in the back corner of the yard. I put on my shoes and went out to see what she found and I saw this cute little guy:

He was minding his own business and munching on a worm. Lulu was behaving pretty well; she just sat in front of the turtle and watched him. I didn’t want anything to happen, so I picked him up and carried him through the fence to the front yard. I put him down in some bushes and we all went back inside. Not even five minutes later I heard Lu whining at the door to go out. I looked through the glass and that crazy turtle had made his way back under the gate and was crawling right across Mer’s patio! Lulu had a fit! I videoed her watching from inside, then I felt bad and let her back out. She wasn't so nice to the turtle this time (see videos below).

Please let me out!

trying to be good 

poor turtle

plotting her attack

After all that excitement, I decided to take the turtle far away. I walked him through the front gate and across the neighbors yard. I put him in a nice little flower bed where he would be safe. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later he came crawling back through the fence. We decided that "he" must be a "she" that had some babies in Mer's yard, because that was one determined turtle. Of course Lulu greeted her at the fence and got a little out of hand. 

Can I keep it, mom?

Finally Erik decided to just move the turtle to a safer spot in Mer's yard. Lulu eventually got bored with him and moved on to better things. I took a few more pictures before we said bye bye to the turtle. 

Bye turtle, I'll miss you!

Hunting Dog

I think Lulu has finally found her true calling in life. She tried the interior decorator route and that didn’t go so well. Next she decided to try her luck with landscaping. That’s become more of a hobby lately. Her full time focus is now “hunting dog.” Lu has always enjoyed chasing birds, and now she’s taking it to the next level. Her first order of business when she goes out in our yard is to run as fast as she can around the perimeter and scare all birds away. She also thought this was necessary when we went to visit my grandma (Mer) in Tulsa this weekend. She also enjoys stalking cats when we go for a walk. We visited some neighbors a few weeks ago and she chased their sweet little kitty up a tree. She was very proud of herself. 

As I mentioned earlier, we went to Mer’s house in Tulsa this weekend for a family Fourth of July gathering. Lulu was definitely in her element in Mer’s backyard. We had several critter encounters and I was lucky enough to have my phone handy for most of them. I’ll have to break it down into different posts because there’s a lot of pictures/videos. I’ll start with her crazy tree-climbing episode. I never actually saw a squirrel go up, but Lulu sure thought she saw something in the tree. Claire was a little puzzled too. 

Claire says "What on earth are you doing Lulu?"

Big tree, small dog!

Tired from all the hunting!

Spirited Art Night

Erik and I finally had a weekend with nothing to do and no travel plans, so we decided to have a fun date night. We went to this place called Spirited Art where you paint and bring your own wine (or any beverage). It worked out perfectly because Saturday night was “paint your pet night.” We brought the same picture of Lulu to paint because I had a feeling mine wouldn’t turn out and I wanted to have something to hang on the wall! The one time I tried to paint some fruit I messed it up completely and ended up with an “abstract” piece, so I wasn’t expecting much out of my Lulu painting. The teachers were very nice and they guided us through the painting process step by step. We started out with a sketch and then transformed it into our sweet little pup! I worked really fast and I would never wait on my paint to dry before moving on, so I was always the first one done with each step. Since I had to wait on everyone else, I decided to document the painting process so you can see the transformation of my canvas in the pictures below. I was so surprised at how well our paintings turned out. I guess I just needed the right subject to really let my artistic skills shine! 

Ready to paint!

Nice apron

Our inspiration!

My sketch

Erik's background

My background

 

Getting started

Coming to life!

Almost done!

finished!

Our masterpieces!

Asleep on the Job

My little guard dog got sleepy this morning and decided to take a break from barking at the garbage truck to nap on her new favorite perch. I don’t know if she was really tired or if she was just pouting because I had to get onto her for chewing the paint off the windowsills, but either way, she was acting so cute. She had the couch cushions positioned just right so she could sink down and snuggle. She stayed in that position for a while until she heard a loud a noise and decided to pop up and resume her duties. Check out these pictures of my sweet little baby:

Notice the missing paint on the window frame

Precious!

All the picture taking woke her up!

Back to work!