Attribution: Photo by Prazanthy Ramesh on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, assist the keeper in celebrating the keeper’s uncanny foresight in buying a pair of snowshoes on the hottest day of this erratic season. It happened when Phyllis left the keeper unattended at St. Vinny’s and he spotted these beautiful Iverson snowshoes, brand new and …
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Category:Nature
Kickass and the Orchid
Attribution: WFinch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis are struggling with the emotional outfall of having house-sat for neighbor Marsha and Jack’s orchid plant while they were off on a west coast visit. Simple instructions were to give the orchid one ice cube …
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Kickass and Hal’s Coyote
Photo by Hal Bergan By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, while reporting the keeper’s unstinting dedication to truth and veracity, particularly as it pertains to his posts here, feels compelled to respond to a challenge from Hal Bergan as to whether the coyote found cowering some time ago in the freezer section of a …
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Kickass and Coyote at Aldis
Attribution: Christopher Bruno, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper notes the news that a coyote is recovering at a wildlife center after being removed from the frozen food section of a Chicago Aldis grocery store. It is speculated that the coyote entered the store after …
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Oh, Christmas Tree
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Each year, in the family holiday tradition, my wife and I venture out to buy our Christmas tree. We’re lucky enough to live across the street from a big tree lot so we don’t have very far to go—we can walk right over. It’s very convenient. It’s also …
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A Day with the Whales
Photo by Geoff Carter By Geoff Carter Last week, we had the opportunity to go on a whale watching expedition and photo shoot in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Banderas Bay, on which Vallarta is located, is a favored breeding ground for the great humpbacked whales. These magnificent creatures come from as far away as the waters …
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Time of the Season
The Pen in Hand Blog
Illustration by Michael DiMilo
Kickass and Bird Migration
Attribution: David Whelan, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis, forever attempting to establish their compatibility with the other creatures, woke up this morning of Sept. 23 with a strange sense of motion that they could not identify until they tuned in to the Cornell …
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Kickass and Oakwood Preserve
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper and Phyllis’s appreciation for a priceless hour of therapy on the trails at the Oakwood University Wildlife Area. A rare place where meddling humans have been prevented from interfering with old things naturally getting old, demonstrating the grand cycle that …
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Kickass Visits the Prairie
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper and Phyllis that this is the time of prairie glory with such expansive growth of spectacular blossoming plants as to defy description. On a recent tour of family property west of Madison, Vista West neighbors Joyce and Jerry hosted the keeper …
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Kickass and Bird Photos
Photos by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, assists the keeper today in promoting him as a unique “minimalist” bird photographer with the shot of a hummingbird at the feeder which shows only the very tip of the hummingbird’s wing and requires that a viewer take the keeper’s word for it that …
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The Birds and the Bees
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Earlier this spring, we were heartened to see our old friend the mother robin return to her nest tucked above the heater on our front porch. Last year, she hatched three broods throughout the spring and summer, and so we were able to watch the hatchlings grow until …
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