This was our yard in Bloomington:
Long and narrow, nothing interesting, patchy grass.
You can’t even imagine how excited the boys were to see our Louisiana yard. I actually think they thought it was like a park because they spent the first couple days marking every square inch. Now that it’s “theirs” they’re really having fun.
It’s L-shaped, so here’s the bottom part of the L.
Turn the corner, and… See if you can spot Cooper (aka “I’m gonna catch a squirrel, mama! Just as soon as one comes down from this tree…”)
Then there’s the little frog pond, which John says is stocked with oak toads and green tree frogs. There are a million little tadpoles, so we’ll see what they become. (Side note: Have you heard the NPR story about the toad-licking dog? OMG. I’m having nightmares.)
There are tons of these little guys skittering all over, but the boys haven’t seemed to notice them yet? Or maybe they just don’t care? But, thankfully, there haven’t been any issues.
The one odd thing is that our yard is swarmed with dragon flies. I’ve never seen so many in one spot before. Maybe this is normal for here? Maybe it has something to do with the type of foliage in our yard? Who knows, but they’re everywhere! If you sit still, they land on you.
Cooper, there’s a dragonfly on your bum!
Overall, the boys love their new space! Unfortunately, it’s been WAY too hot for them to really enjoy it, though it hasn’t stopped them from trying!
To be honest, Emmett and Lucas started out as city dogs with no real outdoor areas, and they were totally fine. Having a backyard is more of a convenience than a necessity, in my opinion, but we love it!
Do your pups enjoy outside space? Any experience with… critters?
Maggie, it looks fantastic! It won’t be this hot forever and I imagine you’ll all enjoy that backyard.
Thanks, Amy! We’re looking forward to getting a grill and cooking out this fall! If you guys are in the area… 🙂
The new backyard looks awesome! My Angel loves the green grass. We have a peach tree that squirrels like to steal from and Angel will sit at the window and bark at them like, “get away from our peaches!” lol. One time Angel found a baby oppossum in our backyard and wanted to make friends with it…lol. We had to get animal control to come get it, poor thing. I think Angel missed it for a bit…lol.
Oh, my gosh! Good girl, Angel! Protecting your peaches is so cute! Though I’m not sure what my guys would do with a baby animal??
Awesome yard! My girls don’t care about the lizards or anoles. Swarming dragonflies are normal where its hot and humid! Maybe your squirrels will cooperate more than ours. Been here two years and nine have run down to daisy yet!! Lol
Oops. None*
I’m hoping none run down here, either! The last thing I want to do is wrangle squirrel from dog and/or collect dead squirrel…
Wow! I am sure they are loving the new yard; I know I would!!
It took them a week to feel like it was “theirs” because they were so busy marking everything. Now that that’s taken care of, they’ve settled right in! Digging, wrestling, napping, the works!
It took them about a week to feel like it was “theirs” because they were so busy marking everything. Now that that’s taken care of, they’ve settled right in! Digging, wrestling, napping, the works!
love the new yard, looks like there is lots of shade, and I’m surprised no one has gone swimming in the pond. Cash is not a swimmer, he’s not even ‘I’m going to cool
off my tooties’ kinda dog, but you’d think the boys would try to cool off in it.
when we lived waaaaay up north, years ago, we had a lot of dragonflies, they would feast on the gazillion mosquitoes. the Mosquitos would swarm at dusk by the window screens and the dragonflies would hover there eating. loved the dragonflies. we don’t have as many at this house, probably because dont have as many trees but we certainly have tonnes of mosquitoes.
I was thinking about you when you said there was a frog pond, I don’t know the story of NPR but I do know what happens when’s dog tries to eat a toad. about a year and a half ago, I was at work, my daughter called to say Cash had tried to eat a toad and was now frothing at the mouth. I told my daughter to call the vet, they asked if he had eaten the toad, he had not, they said to offer Cash lots of water and as long as he hadn’t eaten the toad he’d be fine. a few weeks later, I was at home and received a call from my frantic neighbour, both her dogs were foaming at the mouth and salivating like crazy. i knew exactly what was wrong, walked over to her yard and gave her the same advice my vet had given us, she followed up by calling her vet, who said the same thing. so don’t let the eat the toads! i don’t think Cash has not tried to eat another toad, he will paw at them if he sees them in the grass, a stern ‘leave it’ we (hubby or daughter,but definitely not me) pick up the toad and put him under the big hosta on the other side of the fence.
Cash lives to lay out in the sun, we have a hill in our yard so he lays up there looking out over the rest of the yard and up the street, because he doesn’t like to swim, we grab him and take him into the pool with us to cool off, he hates it but he cools off.
going to google that story now
Cooper REALLY wanted to jump in the pond the first day, but we made it clear to them off the bat that they couldn’t get in. It’s covered in algae and has some little critters, so… I’d rather them be safe and avoid it altogether.
YIKES!! I’m going to have to be super watchful about the toads. Scary stuff!! But good to know what to do just in case… yeesh.
thanks maggie, clicked the link. wonder if Cash enjoyed his trip?
HA!! That story killed me… I wanted to laugh, but it was also sort of sad!
I’m a city girl at heart, so moving to the ‘burbs so that Felix could have a yard was an incredible sacrifice for me. It’s worth it every single day when I see how much he LOVES it out there. It’s his own personal jungle. (I really need to hire a gardener or get off my butt and do it myself, I guess. HA!)
If it’s really hot, you might consider building a misting area for them (and you). I picked our misters up for $10 at the hardware store, but you an even do it on the cheap by threading the right size hose spiot onto a soda bottle poked with tiny holes.
I’m a city girl, too! So this has definitely been an adjustment for me, even more so than our suburban home in Bloomington.
The misters are a FAB idea!! I never would’ve thought of that, but it’s going on my project list. Thanks so much for the suggestion!
It looks like you have a wonderful new yard, Maggie! Definitely an upgrade from where you were. I think when the weather is a bit cooler you will have far more chance to enjoy it. We have a big yard and the dogs love it. No problems so far with critters here, but I think we probably have less variety up here in the Northeast! I have also read about dogs and toads but that story you shared was a new twist on what I had heard! We always keep an eye on the dogs when they’re outside anyway, as left unattended holes are dug and other mischief can happen!
Agreed!! I don’t think I’ll ever feel comfortable leaving them outside on their own here. There’s way too much trouble they could get themselves into!