You never know what Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle will stash in the backyard.
Day five of Photo 101 brings from Cheri the combination of Solitude and The Rule of Thirds.
This first Friday in March being a day for a big three: Picking up the monthly prescriptions from my friend Jen at Dougherty Pharmacy 35 miles down the road in Morrisville, writing a magazine feature story and attending the Syracuse Area Music Awards as a presenter this evening, solitude is not bursting out all over.
Yet the collection set down by our beloved rescue mutt Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle in the accumulated snow in the backyard of the Little Bitty shared by my dear wife Karen and I in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood caught my eye and my fancy.
Ellie B has her run of the porch and the fence yard once I let her out and return to my business inside. I wonder if she feels a sense of solitude? I know she’s hauled out her bone, a small painter’s roller and one of two gloves a workman who installed a screen to our French door mistakenly left behind this winter.
After I ventured back out to let her in, that scene, with the small shadow of early afternoon looked lonely and lovely enough to catch my eye. So Ellie’s trio of dropped possessions became my subject for today’s mash-up of solitude and the rule of thirds.
Do you have a pet who drags things in and out of your yard? What odd items have you found placed outside by your pet? How might you have played this scene differently photographically?
Mark Bialczak 
I’m a fan of the photo just as it is, Mark. Oscar doesn’t bring anything to me. Rarely leaves my side..
LikeLike
Your poor Oscar is too allergy ravaged to pick up stray stuff, Aud. He fears coughing and sneezing fits, poor guy.
LikeLike
Pathetic little beast ♡
LikeLike
Years ago, when dogs still roamed free, had a dog that would take things from the house, hide them at someone else’s house, take something of theirs and bring it back to me tail wagging, gifting me with his latest prize. No one ever caught him. Some folks found it funny, others did not. They called the dog Pack Rat, though his name was Louis. I kept a box of other people’s stuff on my porch to be perused as needed. One day Louis disappeared. His collar and tags found in the porch box.
LikeLike
Your Louis tale is precious until the last sentence, JoHanna. Oh, tragic endings such as that I like not.
LikeLike
Very artistic photo, Mark, and very creative on Ellie B.’s part. Our cats are indoor cats. So they stash their loot in creative places around the house. Beware walking barefoot. You never know what toy/sock/etc. you’ll step on. 😉
LikeLike
Ellie B can leave plenty of indoor obstacles, too, Judy. We have to look down a lot, just as you and Dave have been trained to do by your beloved cats. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The photo is great! Actually, if you wouldn’t have told us what it was, I thought the paint roller was a pipe and the bone was a “nose” for the snowman than ran away… At least that’s what the photo looked like to me. LOL! 🙂
LikeLike
I like your interpretive skills, Rachel, always. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You crack me up… You completed your homework for Photography 101 very well. But what cracks me up is… your questions at the end. Too funny!
I would not do anything differently as YOUR PHOTO IS PERFECT!
LikeLike
Thank you, Nancy. I have to admit, keeping with my style of three questions at the end of every blog post is getting tough for Photo 101, and it’s been one week. Uh-oh. But I will persist in the name of consistency. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice Picture 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks, Leyla. Ellie B was the artist. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have a son and DIL who have dogs, my brother and SIL have them, too. My Mom’s dog is funny in the way she tears up the bathroom carpet making shreds and threads to have to pick up. Mom is patient with Nicki. My kids used to drag toys and even their blankets outside.
LikeLike
Your kids were the ones that dragged things, huh, Robin? That gives me a big smile! Thank you for this one.
LikeLike
This photo looks interesting Mark – making an image jump from just a photo to actual photography is difficult sledding – this one does that for me.
LikeLike
Thanks so much, Wayne. Your compliment seriously flatters me.
LikeLike
That is one of the benefits of blogging – you start getting better at stuff. 🙂
LikeLike
Indeed it is, Wayne. 🙂
LikeLike
the shot is hilarious once i realized what it was. remember nacho the cat hauled that raw potato around my house recently ? hope all of your gigs went well today )
LikeLike
Yes, Ellie B is a funny hauler, although Nacho the cat not the chip still has her beat with the potato. The gigs went well, although I must admit I used the fact that my deadline for the mag story is Monday … I hope your San Diego visit is going great, Beth!
LikeLike
This is my kinda of grunge shot that I capture in NYC. Great shot!!!!
LikeLike
Thanks, Cate! That means a lot coming from you, my friend. Wlow!
LikeLiked by 1 person
No pets Mark. I think it would be rude to mess up Ellie’s nice layout. She put some artistic effort in to color and imagination in her choice of object d’art.
LikeLike
Ellie B made some use of that white canvas, I think too, my buddy Colleen!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It looks like that Ellie did enjoy and did not want to be bored Mark 😉 Great photo.
LikeLike
When Max was younger he used to go over to the farm next door – about a half mile away – and steal their dog’s toys. MInd you, he had toys of his own. The best is when he stole an entire dog bed, Mark, not kidding, and dragged it home. We were like “Where have we gone wrong, raising this little felon?” Anyway, I think your photo is perfect.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This comment, Barb, made me chuckle about Max being a little felon! Smiles!
LikeLike
Why can’t Jen drive 35 miles down the road? That’s super out of your way. Is she bed-ridden?
LikeLike
Jen is the pharmacist. I get my medicines at her store, in the village where I used to live and prefer to continue to patronize her store. So I’m the one that naturally does the driving, Kerbey. I should have been more clear up top.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, of course I didn’t get it. Why would I? Now it makes sense. So she gives you double under the table. I see. Wink wink.
LikeLike
No, I would rather drive and give my business to my friend that has gotten on the phone and fought the silly insurance carrier for me than go to the extremely convenient chain store one minute away that would throw me under the bus in a second. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You shall be rewarded for your loyalty.
LikeLike
Very artistic… I like this arrangement… definitely a social commentary… Ellie B could have a one-dog installation show at the Museum of Contemporary Art…. I think using the name Dogamous Pyle would be more appropriate… I’ll certainly attend the opening reception. Move over, Banksy….
LikeLike
Now we’re cooking on a productive idea, Ros. I like the way you think. The Dogamous Pyle collection could be our retirement plan. 🙂
LikeLike
Great idea and a fantastic photo!
LikeLike
Thanks, TJ. I appreciate your kind words.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Many thanks from Western Australia! Best wishes!
LikeLike
That’s so funny! How cute! Three of her favorite things. :D:D
LikeLike
Maybe, PJ, or three of the easiest things to haul out there!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, true. I am sure three of yours and Karen’s things would have been her preference. 😀
LikeLike
Classic! Those three items could be the inspiration for quite a story …
LikeLiked by 1 person
Go ahead, make me work more, Jim. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
I agree with Jim, there’s a story here staring right at us. Nice work, Bills!
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike
My indoor cats drag stuff all throughout the house. They have a nose for finding twist ties and plastic bottle caps I might leave laying around. I haven’t bought a cat toy in years because… well, why bother when they seem to get more pleasure playing with the things that are already lying around like your Ellie!
LikeLike
MDW Karen and I haven’t taken that hint yet, Bill. Ellie B has a laundry basket full of bought-toys, too. We bring her with us to PetSmart when we buy the Gigunda bag of Too Expensive Blue Wilderness dog food she prefers, and she picks her own toy off the rack as we pass that aisle. With her mouth. Off the hook. One time the manager of the store saw this and cracked up laughing, and I thought that instead, he should have stuck her picture up on the bulletin board as customer of the month.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I actually really like Ellie’s positioning. I think you should consider making her your assistant.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Every day, more and more, I get the feeling that I am Ellie B’s assistant, Marissa. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I get that!
LikeLike
LOL!!
LikeLike
Nice shots
LikeLike
Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m intrigued. Why did she take those things out and then abandon them so close together? Did she take one out, drop it, then go back for the second, and so to the third? Is she building an outdoor nest? That’s a very definite track she has made. This picture is not telling us the whole story!
LikeLike
She very well could have been onto a bigger scheme and dropped them when I called her in, RR. MDW Karen and I often find many of her toys around the yard, but seldom in a clump like this. Perhaps the sun melted enough of the trail to display the bone, which could have been laid down previously. The only thing I am sure of is that Ellie B’s not saying.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They can be quite inscrutable when they want to be, can dogs.
LikeLike
I have indoor cats, Mark. As a rule, I always have less than three of them. Here’s my third and final sentence: I would not have played your photographic scene any differently.
LikeLike
Thank you, Ann. Your two cats are very photogenic, by the way. So you get to use the rule of halves in my book.
LikeLiked by 1 person