WHY??---By Elmo

We were really enjoying the peace of our yard and the neighborhood in general recently and mom has been working both in the yard and in the house and then it happened!

A new dog has arrived nearby to people who shouldn't have even a stuffed toy! They brought the poor thing to their place and put it (her?) in a crate out in the yard. Swell. So today it is raining and where is this pooch? Out in the yard in the crate! These are the same dummies that had a rabbit that they didn't know how to take care of either and she died.

I understand their house is quite overcrowded with many people living there and there seems to be a steady stream of people coming and going, some with kids and some with babies.

Interesting. I mean the village has ordinances that only two dogs are allowed per household, don't they have some rules about HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN LIVE IN ONE HOUSE? Hmmm?
It seems to me that if only 2 dogs are allowed, maybe 12-14 people living in one house would be a few too many as well, don't you think?

So why did these people even get a dog? I wonder if it has something to do with the dog being a pit bull type dog and they plan on training her to fight?

Maybe these people should be deported....all of them. Or maybe they should be kept in crates in the rain and all weather first, and then deported.

Mom doesn't even leave me out very long in bad weather much less KEEP me outside. I'm a housedog and proud of it! I get sepcial treatment and I'm important!

Recently I injured my knee and mom has been taking special care of me and I've not been allowed to jump on or off the furniture so she has to assist me with navigating the bed and futon and I stay in a nice fort in the TV room (not out in the back yard!) when mom isn't home. I couldn't even go to see the ladies (groomers) until last week. I was a really mess! Mom has taken some pictures and we will have them to show you soon.

So, once again, I am a very handsome doggy dude thanks to the nice ladies at Motif Dog Grooming and Day Care, in South Elgin. They moved this year into a new location at: 505 Sundown, South Elgin. So, if you live in the area and your special pooch needs grooming or day care, this is the place to go!

THE YARD---by Momcat

Finished look of the water garden area.

Real forest grass starting to come up in front of the silk flowers.

This time of the year finds me out in the yard with all kinds of projects and work that needs to be done.

One of the first little projects was to clean up the water garden area. I've decided not to put the water garden in so something had to be done with that spot! Otherwise it just looked like a nasty hole right up by the house (outside the breakfast room windows!). So a quick and no-cost solution was to use what I had on hand and just clean it up.

Which was easier said than done, of course. First I had to remove all the rocks and junk that had been tossed in there because there was nowhere else to put the stuff!

All the rocks got taken around to the back corner behind the loosestrife. Okay, one problem solved. Rocks! What DO you do with them when you have no way of getting rid of them and your property is small.

Next I dragged out all the silk plants I had in boxes in the garage and used those to dress up the spot. And for fill around the plants I was thinking of buying some white rock.....hmmm....now why did that set off a little bell in my head? White....roundish objects to use for fill.....OMG!!! I have golf balls! Lots of golf balls! That I didn't know what to do with! TA DA! They got used for fill! They got used in the pots and around the pots and filled in the whole thing very nicely.

I guess you could say this is a good example of waste not, want not. I didn't really know what I was going to do with all these golf balls, but, hey, they worked!