Backyard Exploring

Phew! What an awesome day! I bet by today’s title you’re expecting a photo of a huge hole — gotcha! I’ve been a good girl! Today was filled with exploration and learning. Let’s see if I can remember it all…

Early in the day, Nala and I had a great run outside — until the snake. Nala was running with her little dainty legs and I was getting away with my long, strong and powerful physique. Haha, I’m still a puppy, but it’s good to be confident. 😉

When Nala started to get tired, which wasn’t too long into our run, she started to walk away and then she jumped into the air! A really thin, black snake crawled past her. I saw her look interested in it, but she didn’t chase it. So I chased it for her. It was so fast, but I was faster! Gotcha again! The snake slithered into the neighbor’s yard before I could teach it a lesson.

Have you heard about these poisonous snakes — the ones that have red, yellow and black stripes? There are actually 2 types with the same colors — how confusing is that?! I mean, come on…I’m just a puppy. How could I remember all of this stuff?

Let’s see…the only thing these 2 snakes have in common, is that they’re snakes! Well, and they have the same colors. But not in the same order. That’s most important to remember. Here’s how my mommy told me to remember which is which:

The Eastern Coral Snake is poisonous! It has a big red stripe and a big black stripe, but they’re separated by a thin yellow stripe. The red and black never touch each other. If the following words were a snake, it would look like this:

BLACK YELLOW RED

The snake that looks almost like the Coral Snake, but isn’t poisonous, is a Scarlet King Snake. Here’s the pattern of the colors:

BLACK RED BLACK YELLOW BLACK RED BLACK

See the difference? It’s really hard to remember at first, so here’s a link to a really good picture that I’ve been studying.

Mommy told me that if I can remember the following rhyme, I’ll be OK. Woof!

Red on yellow…kill a fellow (or a puppy). Red on black, friend of Jack (or Bailey).

Did I just confuse you because I made the above text green? 🙂

The snake wasn’t the only creature out roaming today…there was a rock! What, you never heard of a pet rock? Mommy used to have one of those. How silly can humans be? SQUIRREL! Now that gets my attention! What is it with these furry, little creatures that makes them so attractive to us doggies? They make such screeching noises, and it’s like they stand there looking at me and I go crazy!

There was this one squirrel today (I named him Norman) that just laid there on top of the fence, staring at me. I think he wanted me to jump up onto the fence and chase him down! And oh boy, would I have…if mommy wasn’t watching. I would have climbed that fence and made Norman run up a tree, and… Oh, uh… lalala… POS for a minute. I would never, ever, chase Norman or any other squirrel up a tree…because that is a really bad thing to do. And very dangerous. So I would never do it.

Ahhh, mommy’s gone. POS is short for parents over shoulder…ever have one of those? Dun dun dun… I’m learning lots of things from the Internet (and some texting language)!

Norman distracted me for a few minutes, and then the dogs next door started yelling at me — they wanted to know what all the commotion was about. I went over to the fence and we talked for a few minutes. There are 2 small dogs that live next door, and they talk…A LOT! Even after I’m long gone from the fence, they’re still talking! I think it’s the little dogs that can’t stop talking…I guess they have to compensate for their lack of height.

Later on, my daddy came home and I got some daddy belly rubs. Ahhh, the perfect ending to my day! Now I think I’ll go look for that rock…maybe if I take some mud and spread it around on it, I can have my own pet rock. Who knows…maybe I could sell it on ebay. See, I told you I was learning things!

Have a wootiful night! Woof!