Category: Holidays

MLK Monday ~ January 20, 2020

~ Tails Around the Ranch ~ 38 Comments

Today in the U.S. we are celebrating Martin Luther King day around the Ranch. A legal holiday, it was first celebrated in 1986, despite taking more than a decade before all 50 states adopted the holiday, it is marked every third Monday of January.

A soaring orator, Dr. King is known for many inspiring quotes. Here is one that seems even more appropriate in this day and age.

Holiday

No celebration of the life of Martin Luther King is complete without revisiting the speech that defined his life. Only one of many transformative speeches, the “I Have A Dream” speech still gives me goosebumps whenever I hear it.

We hope that whatever you do today, you contemplate the words of this remarkable man and strive to perform some act of kindness or service.

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Goodbye 2019

~ Tails Around the Ranch ~ 59 Comments

Today is the last day of 2019 and the last day of this decade. Where did the time go? We here at the ‘Ranch’ will spend a quiet evening of reflection and hope whatever you do, you do it safely. No wheels falling off, okay?

Reindeer

From all of us Knuckleheads, have a safe and Happy New Year. Make 2020 be your best year ever. Remember tomorrow begins with a blank page of a 365 page book. Write a best-seller.

New Year

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Monday Musings ~ December 23, 2019

~ Tails Around the Ranch ~ 75 Comments

Happy Monday peeps and pets. The big day is almost here…are you ready? Today is Monday and we always like to start the week out with a smile.

You may recall that last week Sam worked at hospital and West Pines bringing relief and smiles to staff and patients alike. We’ll share some details of a couple of those visits soon.

As we were leaving West Pines, for some odd reason, Sam was mesmerized by the fish tank in the lobby. In the past he’s never paid any attention to it, we’ve walked past it a jillion times. Yet, this time he just couldn’t stop watching one of the large angelfish and seemed to be captivated by this swimming creature following his every turn, from one side of the tank to the other.

Fish

Sam seemed to be wondering if Santa visits those fish. The funny thing is that fish followed him as much as Sam followed the fish. Maybe he needed some pet therapy too?

Here’s hoping the smiles are plentiful this week and you are filled with the love, joy and peace of the season. We will be taking a few days off from posting and wish you all  Happy “Howlidays!”

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Wordy Wednesday

~ Tails Around the Ranch ~ 64 Comments

SnowHappy pre-Thanksgiving Day. As many of you know, Denver was hit with a gigantic storm yesterday that buried the city with a foot of snow. It prevented Sam and I from doing our hospital visits and has us pretty much confined. It did however allow me to enjoy my favorite blizzard beverage, hot chocolate. With Schnapps and whipped cream. We are warm and fine if not a bit stir crazy. It’s too cold and deep to take the dogs for their usual walks and apparently not possible for Sam to use the dog run to relieve himself beyond the occasional pee over Elsa’s spots in the freshly created pee-atio in the dog run. Elsa however could practically pee or poop on command but Sam is nothing, if not discerning about where he goes. I have to chuckle about his refusal to not poop in the run, but know if I scooped out a square over at my neighbor’s house, he’d drop a log in a heartbeat.

Snow
Where the heck will Friday’s snow go?

We wish all of our US readers a day filled with good cheer, good food and a football win tomorrow. To all of our readers, we will spend the day staying warm, cozy and being grateful for your digital friendship and good company every week. We are truly blessed you are in our lives and we thank you for our good fortune for the connection. Cheers!

Hot chocolate

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Monday Musings ~ November 25, 2019

~ Tails Around the Ranch ~ 82 Comments

It’s almost here, the eat-yourself-stupid ‘howliday’ that dogs all over America howling their approval. Sam gave his sister the “talk” about how it goes down.

Thanksgiving

But before Thanksgiving arrives, Sam and I will be working at the hospital the next couple of days bringing cheer to patients and staff at the hospital. We will also be training a new therapy team who is joining our ranks. Woof woof! Let’s just hope Sam doesn’t give the new guy a similar Thanksgiving “talk.” Our hospital visits may limit our ability to post or comment much this week but we will do our level best.

Mother Nature plans to factor into the holiday with a winter storm watch being issued with up to 10″ of snow expected to start arriving later today. We’re keeping our fingers crossed it doesn’t impact travel plans.

We hope you have a safe and happy ‘howliday’ and Elsa in particular, is wishing you drop a few peas or gravy drippings for the 4-legged visitors. Remember though, turkey skin is bad for dogs but sweet potatoes/yams are good if you’re sharing any bounty.

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Remembrance Monday ~ November 11, 2019

~ Tails Around the Ranch ~ 58 Comments

Once again, today marks the anniversary to the end of World War I where major hostilities formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, and the Armistice with Germany went into effect. Originally known as Armistice Day, this US holiday was signed into law on May 26, 1954 by then President Dwight Eisenhower to honor the service of all veterans who served in the Armed Forces. The grammar police (as well as the US Department of Veterans Affairs website) say the officially correct spelling is the attributive case (rather than the possessive) as the proper reference “because it is not a day that ‘belongs’ to veterans, but rather a day to honor all veterans. Using the apostrophe is nonetheless grammatically correct.

Today we honor the service of all U.S. military veterans, and should not be confused with May’s Memorial Day which honors those who died in military service.

Veterans DayThe Ranch hands and I salute veterans who have served their country and once again pray today brings people together as this will be a very contentious week in our nation’s capitol.  Let us remember this is a country where we all long for safety for our families and our country, where we all breathe the same air and enjoy the freedom provided by those who have served their country, and not just those with whom they agree politically. More than ever,  we urge everyone to come together as a united nation as we remember those who  served this great nation.

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Happy ‘Howleween’ ~ 2019

~ Tails Around the Ranch ~ 75 Comments

We survived Snowmageddon and its evil companion, Jack Frost this week and are looking forward to thawing out and getting back to our regular long walks. We await any souls brave enough to participate in the ritual of trick or treating but personally think they might want to think twice about it since it’ll still be pretty cold tonight. Then there’s this outdoor decoration we came upon along one of our walk-abouts before the snowstorm. I can’t decide if I want to get to know these neighbors or steer clear of them. The dogs absolutely refused to get anywhere near this outdoor decoration even though it was completely quiet (thankfully). Cool or creepy?

Halloween

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Monday Musings ~ October 14, 2019

~ Tails Around the Ranch ~ 43 Comments

Monday…again?! Gosh, where the did weekend go? Let’s hope it wasn’t in a wormhole. Here’s a little smile to start out the week with a chuckle.

Humor

Today is Indigenous People’s Day (sometimes known as Columbus Day) and is a national holiday in the U.S. We like that name better considering Columbus never actually set foot on U.S. soil. The traveling Italian from Genoa first made landfall in the Western Hemisphere on this date in 1492 on one of the various islands of the Bahamas and then Cuba and Hispaniola, establishing a colony on what is known as Haiti. Today we salute the native people of the Americas.

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Paw-ty Time Highlights

~ Tails Around the Ranch ~ 55 Comments

Sam here. I managed to live through a pawsome day of celebration yesterday, otherwise known as my 14th birthday. Many thanks to everyone who left sweet comments wishing me loads of treats and many happy returns. I wagged my tail with appreciation.

Sam, BirthdayMom whipped up my favorite treat, a lip-smackin cake quiche (recipe is in our BarkBook if you want to make it for your own pup). Both Elsa and I love this snack and what could be better for a paw-ty than a tasty yet healthy birthday ‘cake.’ This time it was made extra special with the addition of rabbit meat (mom never has ham in the house and Elsa can’t eat it anyway due to the salt content when it’s cured which is bad for epi-warriors). But get this…I even ate the veggies! You guys  know I’m no  fan of veggies, right? But in this quiche…eggs, cheese and rabbit with those veggies, even this anti-veghead ate. every. morsel. Can you say….Y.U.M.?  It was so tasty in fact, the Ninja snarfed two of the bone-shaped mini-quiches before mom had her camera focused. #baddog

Mom took that photo of me before we were allowed to dig in (but after Elsa made like a thieving raccoon hitting garbage bins around the neighborhood). The Ninja however, absolutely refused to wear the birthday celebration hat though. Little brat…you know I’d do it for her. Oh well, she said she wanted to enjoy the game of pinning the ‘Tail on the Squirrel.’

Squirrel

So, do you think she should have been allowed to nosh on that tasty goodness?

Elsa

Thanks again for making No. 14 extra special. It was the pawfect autumn day, very sunny and bright. Mom says our forecast calls for a big freeze with the first snow by Thursday. What the dog?! Good thing I’m good with snow. So long as I don’t have to wear those stupid boots. Happy Tuesday.

Live, love, bark! 🐾