Gopher gone, we have a lovesick dog

As we settle into the second day full day of the separation of Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and the backyard gopher, the sniffing and scratching continues. And my beloved 3 1/2-year-old rescue mutt looks up at me with puppy dog eyes again and seems to say: Where did my furry friend go? On Saturday,…

Bye gopher, don’t come back now, ya’ hear

Broccoli, cantaloupe and watermelon. The Syracuse-based animal control guy knew his gopher bait. Within three hours of our phone conversation today, our backyard nemesis wandered into our humane trap, and the June nightmare, the battle of wits, the terrorization of Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle, was over. The furry was stuck inside the bars and…

We gotta get rid of this gopher now

All those cute and funny names you offered for the backyard gopher my dear wife Karen have been attempting to lure into our humane trap so I can drive it away to a better life? I refuse to call it by a single one of them. I’m in no mood for cute, nor funny. X%$&@?!%^#…

It’s time to name our teasing backyard gopher

The saga of the backyard gopher, Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I continues. Call it Chapter Too Many. When my dear wife Karen and I returned from a full and satisfying day of activities on the first day of summer yesterday — a 3-year-old’s birthday party, our annual trip to the Parade of Homes…

An ocean of excitement

Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle, meet the Atlantic Ocean. Our rescue mutt was introduced to really wavy water for the first time in the fourth year of her life, when we woke up on our fifth morning not in Syracuse and decided to drive to Provincetown. Our smart dog liked the ocean more than she…

No, not that kind of pound, Dogamous Pyle

Ellie B, aka Dogamous Pyle, had her regular check-up at the vet’s yesterday afternoon. I marched her up on the scale, and she sat pretty still, as far as big rescue mutts in the vet’s office go. The nice lady behind the desk asked me the verdict, and I read out, “77 pounds.” Then we…

Now we await butterfly bushes and butterflies

The team gardening effort for my dear wife Karen and I focused this afternoon on the butterfly garden triangle in the backyard of our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. I planted the last two newbies, a pair of lavender plants to take the place of a previously hardy spreader that up and…

There’s a move on to match dogs, good homes

My dear wife Karen and I brought Ellie B, aka Dogamous Pyle, to two big doggie-themed events this past holiday weekend. I marched her around the field as part of Bark in the Park at the Syracuse Chiefs’ NBT Bank Stadium, and we marched with the patrons of the Dog Gone Inn Doggie Day Car…