Fozzie and Sawyer are new friends. Fozzie is about 12 years old and Sawyer was about 12 1/2 weeks old when this picture was taken in May. Sawyer is a black Labrador who has a beautiful disposition.

This picture of Sawyer was taken in July when he was about 4 1/2 months old. My brother is trying to get a good pose for my picture.

He loves to go into his wading pool to retrieve toys and cool off. When they take him hiking he goes swimming in a local lake.

Sawyer has out grown Fozzie already! Fozzie is a miniature poodle, but still rules the roost.

Every year we have some ducks nest, I thought I'd missed the babies this year, but last night I heard them out with their mom. She spotted me on my balcony trying to get some pictures. She doubled back to collect the rest of her brood.

If you look closely you will see 7 ducklings up on the top and two below on the stairs. The two never did make it up to the top, everyone had to come down to join them.

They decided to head over to the pool.

We've had ducks nesting in our courtyard for at least 8 years.

First one and then the rest decided to jump into the pool.

Mom kept a watchful eye until everyone was in the water.

Then she jumped in and joined them for a swim. They headed over to the overhanging flowers and eventually slipped back into the garden to their nest.