These are a few of the splendid mushrooms that we passed on our morning stroll. There are so many, and some of them look tasty.
Then I remembered something I read in a book. “Dyin’ ain’t a good way to start the day.”
I looked up edible mushroom in our area. There is a poisonous mushroom that looks a little bit like every good kind of mushroom. My mushroom is within the margin-of-error for either species.
All those mushrooms got me thinking.
Sparky had a couple of brown blobs around his left eye. The blobs were like tiny balls of Tootsie Roll on his eyelash. It was some kind of residue. I asked to get them addressed last year when Sparky was knocked out for his belly-scrape operation last year, but the vet forgot.
She is inspecting them in this photo.
I had my corned beef hash on a piece a toast, topped with a fried egg. When Sparky realized he wasn’t getting any, he went back to bed in his crate in the bedroom.
After a good breakfast and some Youtube videos, I was ready for a nap. A minute after lying down on the couch, I heard Sparky’s nails on the hardwood. How does Sparky know? I pretended to be asleep as Sparky came out of the bedroom, checked the living room, came into the solarium, found me, and hopped up on the couch to help me take a nap.
Sparky woke me with his awkward shuffling at the base of my bed. It was “Oh-dark-stupid”1, but I got up to check on him. He didn’t need to go out. Sparky would not go out.
I went back to bed, and Sparky laid down like that.
We usually go for a walk, as opposed to just letting Sparky out for a quick wee. When we come in, it’s usually about like this.
Sparky is getting 15 to 20 Maro snacks per day just for going to the bathroom. That may seem like a lot of snacks. Big Brain Grok says:
A 13-year-old Beagle is a senior/elderly dog (Beagle average lifespan is roughly 12–15 years). In human terms it’s roughly comparable to a person in their late 60s to mid-70s
We don’t care. Sparky is pretty nimble for an old fella. He should be happy in his dotage.
At morning fellowship, I was telling Sparky about the Young Washington movie. He wanted me to take a photo where he looked like George Washington’s dog.
If we are getting up this early, Sparky prefers dawn patrol. He wants to hector rabbits, sweep for coyotes and maybe find some fresh goose shit for breakfast.
Sparky is fine with our morning fellowship, as long as we keep it professional. He just doesn’t see the point of drinking coffee at sunrise when there may be a dead bird in the yard.
Sparky was spooked by a chipmunk.
I never moved Sparky’s food bowl, and I still like to leave the patio door open so Sparky can wander out when I’m having coffee on the deck. Another chipmunk ran into the house. Or the same one, I don’t know.
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