Easter Egg Hunt...

While on a puppy walk out in my little woods, I discovered this camouflaged surprise peeking out from beneath the leaf litter.  His shell isn't dyed fancy colors, but his face sports bright patterns in yellow, orange and red.  :)

Of course, I shared my blueberries with him....  

Name that Dog...

First, the good news.  Both Max and Simone have found new, permanent homes with wonderful people.  My house got altogether too quiet without canine chaos.  

Then, last night and this morning I got a couple of desperate emails from Second Chance.  One asking if I could provide a weekend sleepover for a dog because his foster mom was going out of town suddenly.  The second one saying about a half dozen dogs were on death row at the Humane Society, because they had run out of space.  So, Second Chance stepped in to rescue them and begged any available foster folks to take them in.  I'm happy to say that they all found foster  homes in a huge hurry, in spite of so many people being out of town for Spring Break!!  

So, let me introduce Carmello - he's my weekend guest and will go back to his regular foster mom on Monday night.  

 Isn't he a cutie??  He's a beagle/spaniel cross and I can't believe someone hasn't adopted him already!! 

Then, there's my new foster dog.  They tell me he's a miniature chow and that he was a stray nobody ever claimed.  He's one of the dogs that got pulled from death's door.  Here's my quandary: he doesn't have a name - at least not one that anybody knows.  I've tried going through the alphabet with different sounds to see if he responds to anything and so far, there hasn't been a glimmer of recognition. 

He seems sweet tempered and is hungry for affection.  He wouldn't even eat his dinner tonight - instead, he just stretched out on his side and put his head in my lap while Carmello nibbled halfheartedly on his own meal.  After Simone and Max, who were both starved and very focused on food, these guys sort of surprised me with their complete lack of interest.  

So, help me out here -- what's this fellow's name?

Soft focus...

Wow!  Another round of rain, thunder and lots of snow which is encrusting branches, bark, deer (yes, they had snow sticking all along their backs and on top of their heads between vigorous shakes to dislodge it) and pretty much everything else.  Thundersnow is sort of eerie...

 
It's also coming down thick and fast, creating a low visibility and soft focus effect that's really quite beautiful.  Of course, the critters are all out foraging for snacks, especially the poor migrants that sort of got caught in the middle of their journey.  My tree branches are not only covered with snow, but with birds of all kinds!  I counted well over twenty in one tree before the wind caused them all to shift again.

 However, the resident titmouse was my personal favorite this morning.  He stood on a branch looking cold and disheveled from the snow, but he kept bravely singing his spring courtship song in complete defiance of all evidence that he was pushing the season.