Who here has not heard of the comic strip Peanuts?

I'm raising my paw, because until we moved to Sonoma I had never heard of a cartoon Beagle named Snoopy. Or even a real, live beagle named Snoopy. I don't think I've ever met a beagle.

However, the guy who created this thing (a "ComicStrip") lived just down the road in a town called Santa Rosa. His name was Charles M. Schultz, and he drew the characters for 50 years.

Snoopy being imaginative 

Snoopy has a gang (a WHAT?!?) he runs around with, a bunch of humans, the most famous of whom is apparently a guy called "Good-Ol-Charlie-Brown." There is also a little yellow bird called Woodstock (well, that's better - birds are for chasing!). Snoopy also envisions himself as a World War I Flying Ace and a couple other things. This dog has imagination.

Good-Ol-Charlie-Brown (GOCB) and his pals always have sometime going on. GOCB doesn't think he's well-liked because he's kind of nerdy and is really lousy at sports. 

But ya know what? The b...

Mommee and Daddee worked hard and got our catio installed.

Lookee here:

Daddeee

I'm not a very brave cat, but my brother Jackson and sister Ellie are. They're what I would call 
street cats. They would probably say they're more experienced than me in the big bad world, because they both came from places where they were semi-feral, and there were lots of cats. Jackson definitely came from a hoarding situation, and as such doesn't have great bathroom skills. But I digress, and that's for another blog.

Mommee kind of forced me through the cat door to the catio. I immediately turned around and cried to be let in. There's a window right next to the door, and I couldn't tell where the door was. It was also a long jump up from the landing pad in the catio, and that didn't work well. 

You could say I was an excellent cat to try out the configuration and see if it worked well. (Hint: It didn't.)

So some things got changed. A box is now on part of the landing pad so it's easy to go out an...

We got votes!

Cute Ree won out over Pixar Ree hands down. Not that Pixar Ree isn't cute, but he looks more cartoonish - and will be featured in other things.

But for the picture that accompanies the Blog, it's Ree the Cute. It's him, to a T. 

I'm not a big proponent of AI, being a Luddite and all (happy to tell you any time about how I went kicking and screaming into the world of Windows - and I was in PC tech support, so you can imagine how that went over). And if you're not sure what a Luddite is, look it up. Or use this handy link: WHAT IS A LUDDITE?

Now, some Luddite's shun all technology. I'm one of those people who are resistant to change. My best friend is what's called an early adopter. Not me, man. I want to make sure I still have two arms and two legs (as opposed to fifteen of each) before I'll upgrade my technology. So I have a smart phone, and I have pretty much Apple everything, after spending years supporting all the other technologies out there. I don't want to think...

Hello friends of our blogs from Ry/Ree and Huxley.

Ashara and I have been posting blogs here (on Kajabi) and on Substack for the past several months. We basically write on one platform, then duplicate on the other platform.

Ashara likes to write in Kajabi and copy to Substack.

Me - just the opposite. I write in Substack and copy to Kajabi. Oh my!

Imagine the amount of time we are using (ok, wasting) by duplicating our efforts.

WHYYYYY are we doing this?

Well, our website is hosted [tech-speak for where it lives] on Kajabi and since there is a way to write blogs there we have been doing just that for a long time. It's fairly easy but takes time to put it all together, plus setting up and scheduling the email that you get in your inbox. 

Bet you didn't know that. You see the email with a short lead-in and a button to click that let's you read the full blog post.

Frankly at this point in life writing blog posts on ONE PLATFORM IS SUFFICIENT, AMPLE, and candidly-speaking, GOOD!

St...

A friend of mine has been playing around with AI and making avatars, and she made one for Ree (who used to be Ry, but people kept calling him a bread. Since we'll continue to spell his name correctly around home and at the vet, in public print his name shall be spelled REE.).

So I want to use one of these avatars as the new face of this blog. I need your help. Which one of these two pictures do you like better?

PICTURE A - IGNORE the background and look at the cat only.

PICTURE B - IGNORE the background, and look at the cat only.

Which on pulls at your heartstrings more? Which one would you like to see on the Blog email?

I have to admit, AI and I are not friends, but when it comes to this sort of thing, well, Ree has come to life in a way I never imagined.

So what do you think?

Picture A? Picture B?

Sometimes they'll involve the dogs (sorry, cats). Sometimes they won't.

Now that we're in an area we don't know much about, it's time to explore!

Last Wednesday, we took the dogs to Kehoe Beach, which is within The Point Reyes National Seashore. We've been landlocked for a long time. It was good to see the Pacific.

Part of the beach you can take dogs. The other part, beware! Dogs stay away!

It's about a half-mile walk to the beach itself, which was fine until we got to the sand dunes, and then it was a tough slog. I'm glad we have an elderly dog, because I can blame our slowness on him (sorry, Niko). We were both panting by the time we got to the beach. Rest ensued.

Niko, the Dad, and Amy (Bernadette was behind me)

It was a glorious day, not too hot, not too sunny, and walking along the beach with the woofs was great fun. And cats, you would have been completely turned off by this place, except that it looked like a huge litter box. Water. Waves. Birds that would fight you for ...

I know it's been quiet. Maybe for you, ha ha ha, but for me, the hubs, the dogs, cats and horses, it's been a whirlwind.

We are finally in California at our new place, and this is what it looks like:

We haven't moved in a while. It's been almost 10 years, and for me, that's practically a lifetime. From the time I was 21, until this last move, I've moved 38 times. Most of those were before I was 40. Then I got together with Glenn and things really slowed down. This is only our 9th move together, and there was, as I said 10 years between the last move and this one. It's a lot of boxes, and of course the older you get the more stuff you have. You should have seen what we sold/gave away!

But enough about that. How did the animals fare?

We downsized considerably, going from 40 acres of wide open spaces to a beautiful 55+ community in Sonoma, California, where we have a large yard all fenced in for the dogs, and the cats have a new house to explore. The cats are waiting patiently (for ...

It’s a typical spring day in Colorado - snow in the morning, sun in the mid-morning, rain squalls in the afternoon and WIND all day long!

You know it’s windy when our bird friends hang out in the trees all day!

How windy was it yesterday?

Let’s just say that no one in our tree was eager to leave the cozy warmth of our nest.

You go first.  No, YOU go first!

Did you know that wind is often seen as a sign of change, and songs have been written about it?

Glenn mentioned that “Dust in the Wind,” a song by Kansas, is a ballad about how life is fleeting and everything eventually turns to dust. The lyrics suggest that everything in life is temporary, and we’re all just “dust in the wind.”

We call this idea impermanence. Everything and everyone is constantly changing, and eventually, we all leave this world.

That’s life!

Another famous song is “Against the Wind” by Bob Seger, which became one of his biggest hits. It tells the story of a journey through life, the challenges of stay...

We're not talking about silence (as in "I asked her a question and got...crickets.").

We're talking about actual crickets.

Did you know some crickets change their "crick" based on the temperature? Neither did I. A physicist called Amos E Dolbear did some research on his neighborhood crickets, and noticed that when the temperature went up, so did their chirps.

Sans down jacket. Photo by Skyler Ewing via Pexels

I wonder if the crickets were lamenting "it's hot, it's hot, it'shot, it'shot, itshotitshotitshotitshot." And when the temperature goes down, before they don their down jackets, they're saying "brrr, brrrr, brrrrr, brrrrrrr, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

Actually crickets are cold-blooded, so it's harder for them to move around when the weather is cooler, despite the down jackets.

Here's a cool article about crickets and their sounds: 

Cricket Story (thanks to Interestingfacts.com)

 Do you have crickets in your neighborhood? Give them a listen. Are they going fast or slow? How does...

Great for snow dogs, okay for squirrels, not so much for cats.

My human friend, Glenn and his family live on the eastern plains of Colorado with a spectacular view of the Rocky Mountains from Pikes Peak to Longs Peak and far off to the west.

The snowiest months in Colorado are:

• December - Often marks the beginning of the snow season with significant snowfall.

• January - Typically the snowiest month, with consistent winter storms.

• February - Continues the trend of heavy snowfall, especially in the mountains.

• March - Can bring substantial snow, particularly in late winter storms.

• April - Often sees spring snowstorms, contributing to total snowfall.

• November - Occasionally experiences early season snow, setting the stage for winter.

This winter season was anything but typical. The total amount of snow for 2025-2026 winter and spring seasons is very low. In fact, snowpack levels across Colorado are currently 37% of normal. Colorado's annual average snowf...