My Birds are Back!

I've been seeing a lot of my birds come back after the hawk trouble I was having.  And my neighbor's cat was prowling and so when I began to take two little puppies out all the time, the birds watched from the trees and shrubs. Then I saw the whole colony of cardinals feeding. Though I think they lost one of their brothers to the hawk when I was gone a while back.

But it was fun seeing them again. It was getting to be dusk, and I need to clean my windows, and I was afraid to get closer to the window to really be able to stabilize the camera, so my pictures weren't all that great, but it was so much fun seeing all of them I had to try and get a few that might have turned out somewhat.

How many cardinals do you see?

All male cardinals

This really was an amazing sight to me because the hawk got one and then another bird, I found red feathers, so one day I saw a cardinal on top of the feeder that sits in the shrub. He was so wary. This time, all of them were flying down, feeding, sitting in a tree and I couldn't believe it. I would have thought that me going out with the dogs constantly would have made it worse as far as the birds being skittish. But they must realize that we're keeping the hawk and cat away.
The birds eat a lot of bugs, so I'm glad to have them.

Cardinal in the tree closer to the kitchen window

Happy New Year!
Hopefully I'll be back before that, but it's been so hectic with working on housebreaking Tanner, the youngest pup at 8 weeks. Max was housebroken when I got him at 5 1/2 months. And With company.
I started putting away some Christmas decorations, only because it's a chore with having two puppies underfoot. :) So I figure it will take me a while.

And I need to do another new release blog for Jaguar Pride. And I'm still working on Phantom Fae every day, have word count, just need to finish the book. But I have a confession. My daughter and SIL got me PC game Dragon Age: Inquisition. I love the Dragon Age stories, and I'm having a ball. Got all my characters killed off over fighting a dragon, so need to figure out how to do that, but hey, here I'm writing about dragon shifters in the fae world, so this is research. Right???

My daughter, Jennifer, and Max, me, and Tanner

We had to take a lot of pictures of both her dogs and Mike and Jenn and my dogs and Jenn and me. They were all moving, or we were moving to hold onto them.

My birds are back. The puppies are the best. I had a lovely Christmas with family, and it's time to begin the new year with lots and lots more books to write and share with you.

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
www.terryspear.com
Connect with Terry Spear:
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Wilde & Woolly Bears
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Sunset and Max and the Christmas Tree

Sun Setting

I was walking Max last night and saw this sight, ran back in the house with him, grabbed my camera and ran back out. Isn’t it great?

Sun Setting

Trees on Fire

Dark Descending

Christmas Tree Max

Okay, so Christmas is coming, ready or not. And I have to pick up Tanner today. He’s 3 months old. Max, pictured above, is 5 months old.  I have to say he’s very good about the tree. He pokes his nose at one of the balls every once in a while, but that’s it. I tried to take a picture of him closer to the tree, but he won’t sit long enough for the camera to focus on him for a picture. He comes to greet me instead. Can you tell he’s just about ready to move? So here, I had backed up yet again, told him to sit, and tried to take the shot. The first 3 were blurred Maxs. But he had been closer to the tree.

Tanner

This is Tanner from last week when I picked up Max. He’s much smaller, though bigger than the puppies from the other litter. She had two litters both born on the same day. :)

So now I’ll be training two puppies instead of one, but hopefully, fingers crossed, if they both have each other to sleep with, Tanner won’t be fussing tonight. Max has been fine since the 4th night.
We’ll have to work Tanner into our routine. Hopefully he’ll love it too. We had our 2nd official car trip ride and Max was really good. But this time I took him into a pet shop to see other people and get used to being out a little. A lady approached who had two twin 4 year old girls. They were adorable and they were so good with Max and he was so good with them. The mother scared him though. And then two groomers came to see him, for business, of course, but it was a good experience for him. But before I got him out of his carrier at home, he threw up. So the 1st official car trip was fine. The 2nd one, he got sick again. Hopefully he’ll be all right on subsequent trips. I have a 3 hour drive coming up and want both dogs to love riding in the car.

When Tanner gets home, he’ll have another dog to play with. And my daughter and son-in-law are bringing Sir Rilo and Lady Luna, their corgis, for Christmas. Both are two years old, so Christmas is going to the dogs. :) I’ll try to take lots of pictures.

I had to start writing blogs for the upcoming release of Jaguar Pride, and I’m behind on Phantom Fae (only by 3,000, though today I’m supposed to have another 2,000 also), though I keep waking and thinking about the end. I have 20,000 words left to write, so I am winding down to the end. :)

Do you have kids? Or, were you ever a kid with siblings? What order? Notice Max has lots of shots that are all just Max, because he’s the only puppy. But when Tanner comes home, what will happen? He’ll probably be in lots of shots with Max. Maybe not, but probably.

Doesn’t that happen with kids too? The firstborn has lots of pictures, then second and subsequent babies come along and all the pictures are of the toddler holding the baby, or looking at the baby, or two toddlers together, or…well, you get the picture. Second borns just don’t get the spotlight like firstborns.

So I was a firstborn. It’s all right by me. LOL What about you?

Okay, off to write another Jaguar Pride blog, the book is coming out Feb 7, and then back to Phantom Fae. Then it’s off to pick up Tanner. Have a super great Monday!

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
www.terryspear.com
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website:
www.terryspear.com
Goodreads:
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Facebook:
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Wilde & Woolly Bears
http://www.celticbears.com

Being Smarter than the Dog

I can write full-length novels, and do any number of things well. But now is the time to be smarter than the dog.


Every day is an adventure. I’ve discovered this Havanese is a chow hound. Maybe because he had others to compete with back home, so he wolfs down his food and then wants to get up on the printer cabinet where I’ve measured out the rest of his food for the day so I don’t overfeed him.

He’s a jumper, so trying to jump on top of the printer stand, but he can’t make it. Thankfully.

So then his next goal–you see, just like in books, characters have to have all-important goals–so does Max. His next goal is to get the trash out of the wastepaper basket next to my desk. It’s mostly paper trash, though I throw my used up green tea bags in there too. It’s empty as it’s trash day, but I always line it with a recycled plastic bag. So he keeps getting into the wooden receptacle and I put a towel over it. Yesterday, I just put the trash can up above on the printer cabinet, but then I can’t reach it.

Sooo, have to have another solution. He tried to pull off the towel, tried to go underneath the towel, finally climbed on top of the towel. With a new mission in mind. He could use this as stepping stool to reach his food on the printer cabinet.



But the towel sank under his weight.

He’s not going for playing with his ball or chewsticks or rope pull. He wants something different. So we went to down training and he’s doing well. He still doesn’t go down on command, but he’s no longer trying to grab the treat out of my hand. Maybe because I’ve switched the treat to the other hand and he just has to follow my empty hand to the floor.

I will say that we had no accidents in his bed the last two nights and I was working on a final Christmas bear order, I know I keep saying that, but I keep getting last minute bear orders, and I worked so late, he went into his cage to sleep. Woohoo! No fussing, just is totally acclimated to it.
When I bring the other puppy home, it’s going to be a new day dawning.

I did get my word goal down for yesterday, and about 500 extra words, but still about 2500 behind. Which is a lot less than I was behind. I spent a lot of time getting packages ready to ship.


Are you ready for Christmas? I need to pick up some candy, but otherwise, I’m done.   Well, except for finishing the last bear order and then I’ll ship it tomorrow.

Amethyst Bear

It’s an Amethyst Bear like this one.

Off to work on the story before I run errands. Max finally pooped out. :) I think he was waiting for his training.

We had another fun foggy day.

A Cool Vampire Day

Even More Vampire Like?

Have a great Wednesday!
Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
www.terryspear.com
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website:
www.terryspear.com
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook:
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Twitter:
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Wilde & Woolly Bears
http://www.celticbears.com

Prince Maximilian–the Dog

Well, I finally succumbed. With all the traveling I’ve been doing, I wouldn’t have done so, but I’m not traveling as much this year and even less next year, so I decided to get a dog. I’ve always had pets, but when my standard poodle died, I was working full time and writing full time so I figured it wasn’t a good idea to get another. Then I was writing full time and taking trips all the time.

I wanted another dog that didn’t shed. I’ve had poodles, silkies, and an Afghan hound. And I had a Lab, loved her, but she shed all the time. Course I had short haired cats too, and one long-haired one. Not all at the same time.

This time I went for a Havanese because they’re supposed to be good with kids and dogs and cats and people in general. Just a sweet disposition. So this is Prince Max.

5 mos old Havanese Puppy

Max is very white and has some silver and black

He’s now crashed out on my lap. I taught him to sit this morning. So we’ll see if he remembers that later today. :)

Off to work on His Wild Highland Lass. Note the Scottish leash? If they’d had a jaguar one, I would have gotten it.
:)

Have a great Wednesday! I need to get cracking on word count for Phantom Fae too. :)
Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
www.terryspear.com
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website:
www.terryspear.com
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook:
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Twitter:
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Wilde & Woolly Bears

Last Teddy Bear of the Year! And Totally Goofy Weather!

Davidson Clan Bear

The clan fabric was ordered in Oct, but never arrived, so they had to ship it again. So here he is, finally! And that’s the last of the teddy bear orders for Christmas. I have 3 boxes of bears to ship.
I’ll be making up some more bears eventually, just to have some more ready for orders next year. That’s the only way I stay ahead of the game–make them to have a back stock. But everything’s clean and I hate making a mess again so soon.  Especially since I’ll have company again for Christmas.
I’ve been working a little on Phantom Fae. But I had 11 chapters to critique for one of the stories in the Kissing the Highlander anthology and then had to reread my chapters and upload them. So that took most of the day, and finishing up the bear and getting him ready to ship.

Now I need to finish the last 2 chapters and epilogue for my critique partner and make the changes she suggested on mine as she sends them to me. I’m also working on Phantom Fae, trying to get a 1000 words a day. Not as many as I usually try to do, but that’s because I’m still working on His Wild Highland Lass changes also. Once that’s finally done, I’ll begin formatting the anthology also for the 5 of us authors who are doing this together. So as usual, lots of projects going on!

Oh, and then before I know it, it will be the new year. And that means new deadlines all over again. Trying to get Phantom Fae done this month. :)

Anyway, I’m up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, so working on Phantom Fae edits!
If I’m not going to sleep, I might as well do something!

Ever do that?

Oh, oh, and I really should check out the weather from time to time. It was 75 yesterday! And this morning at 3:23, 63. By 8 am, it’s going to be 40 degrees. And the high today??? 48 degrees. Talk about goofy weather. And then??? On Thurs, 72, and Fri, 75. No wonder we can’t get used to the weather!

Fog

Have a super great Monday, 1st day of December! Have you got your month planned out?
Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
www.terryspear.com
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website:
www.terryspear.com
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears