A Dog, A Hog And A Blog

Dogs and hogs are highly intelligent and able to communicate with us as people.

But until now, they couldn't express themselves on the Internet. That is until my dog Dodo and my miniature hog Herbie had their ideas and feelings put online.

What ideas and feelings did they have to share? Love, compassion, forgiveness, joy, spontaneity and a bark and a snort, all of which I was happy to post.

But my neighbor Sid said, "This is ridiculous. Of what value is anything a dog and a hog have to express.

A Hummingbird Told Me

This Spring, I've been watching a very happy hummingbird family in a nest just outside my kitchen window, and I asked the father hummingbird what makes them so happy together.

The Hummingbird Wars

Many years ago, the hummingbirds in my neighborhood, as they often do, were fighting a brutal war.

But the hummingbirds in my backyard concocted the top secret Manhattan Beach Project in which hummingbirds learned to light firecrackers and then drop them on their victims.

This horrific weapon was the worst any hummingbirds had ever created.

But it was argued this weapon of mass destruction would end the war with my neighbor's hummingbirds with less loss of life then without this terrible weapon.

"Bomb 'em," shouted Give 'Em Hell, the then president of the hummingbirds in my backyard, and soon the firecracker bombs from Hell exploded.

One side of my neighbor's backyard was set ablaze by the firecrackers, killing everything in sight.

When the enemy hummingbirds didn't immediately surrender, "Bomb 'em again" shouted the president, and soon another part of my neighbor's backyard was ablaze, as my neighbor Sid ran around with his garden hose putting out the fires.

Sid's backyard hummingbirds surrendered.

But soon firecracker technology spread throughout my block, and in several yards, the hummingbirds began building stockpiles of firecrackers.