I get teary eyed whenever I see videos of the country I came from.

Cooper is HappyCat’s best friend. It’s unusual I know, for a cat and dog to love each other. Perhaps more unusual for the love to be mostly one sided on the cat’s end.

Cooper likes Happy enough, but Happy does not run when he chases or provide him with treats (beside allowing access to the cat dish without fuss). I’ve caught Cooper grooming Happy. But not following around in complete adoration.

Happy shares Cooper’s bed, follows him from room to room, is excited when the dog returns from a long absence. He is essentially Cooper’s pet.

We adopted Happy to be Audrey’s pet. She didn’t want him. So at least the dog wanted him.

Years ago during my honeymoon in Yosemite National park I stumbled across a strange creature. It was small perhaps guinea pig sized, but looked like a giant hamster. It was adorable. I told Adam about it and we learned about the rare and mysterious Pika on a trip to the visitor’s center.

Pikas are rare, in the Sierra Nevada they are endangered. We did see another that trip, a solitary critter on a hike up mount Dana. Adam was not as excited as I was, but he did acknowledge that “yes, we would never see that in New Hampshire.”

So the rock rabbits remained this elusive animal to me. A creature that hovered on the edge of mythical. That was until we went to Colorado this summer.

The Colorado Rockies are infested by Pikas. In a good way!

Every hike we did was full of encounters with the little furry creatures. And when we didn’t see them, we heard their cries of alarms as we proceeded up the trails. We even encountered families of them along the way.

They are quite quick to hop along among the rocks, so it is difficult to get a good picture of one when your primary goal is to reach a summit before the afternoon thunderstorms roll in. I did get a couple great pictures of a Pika on a rock with a deep background, and I am always excited to see it. The exotic animal from my Western adventures.

Dear Autumn Daylight Savings Time, I love when you Fall back. I love when my brain is tricked into thinking my 4:30 am wakeup time is sleeping in. I love having some daylight in the morning (but I hate the lack in the evening), when I was a morning rower this was one of my [...]

As is common when starting a new job, my life has been hectic of late. Not only do I wake up too early, spend way too much time in my car or at work and have to do homework, but I also have responsibilities at home. A confession, some days I wish I didn’t have [...]

I’m really tired as I write this. It’s 7:30 pm after my first day of waking up at 4:30 am to get to my new job. A new job that takes me down to Massachusetts. A new job that is a one hour commute when traffic is good. The first few days, traffic was not [...]

Poodles were originally bred as a retriever. The Germans developed the breed and named them after Pudel, which means to splash in water. Well that might not have been a good trait for a water retriever. One must swim in order to get to bird the hunter just shot, not just splash around in the [...]

There’s just something about using the 1960′s filter on Picnik to show pictures from the fair. If it wasn’t for the crushing crowds and the people complaining about lack of cell phone reception one might feel taken back. Also, piglets are so much cuter than the fully grown sows. Especially when they have such fun [...]

It’s probably just me, but this 5 month blonde scottish highland cattle bull kind of reminded me of Cooper. Maybe it has to do with the color. Perhaps the shaggy hair is the problem. Or maybe I’m reminded by the way he sprawls out when he sleeps. Of course, before he spread out the calf [...]

The beauty of an autumn leaf lies not only in the beauty of it’s color, but also in the “flaws” that make it an individual. Lets remember that our “flaws” make us unique and beautiful as well. Because lets face it, the multidimensional leaves hold our attention longer.