On the Level with Lovestead Critters

Twas a beautiful sunny day yesterday; 'tis a gloomy one so far today.

Maybe the fog will lift.

Anyway, I took my camera outside with me a few times yesterday and stuck to one theme for my photos:  on the level.

One of the rules of photography for animals is to photograph them at their level.

I decided that I'd better take advantage of this with my new lens while my knees still bend without creaking. 

So, I spent a lot of time down low, pointing the lens at Lovestead pets.

The photo above of Kiwi is my favorite from yesterday's clicking episodes.

Yes, that lens catches everything, even a fence muddied and chafed by nearby horse traffic.

In addition, it caught a usual pose exhibited by all of our Border Collies, only this time I was on the other side of the fence.  

While keeping watch on the horses, Kiwi also had her mind on that pine cone.  Besides coffee cans, pine cones and pieces of birch bark are among her "green-oriented" toys of choice. 

She had moved the cone with her nose under the fence, hoping I would come and kick it or pick it up and throw it.

 Apparently, I was too focused on taking photos, so Kiwi stuck her nose under the fence and took back the cone for future use.

Pine cones usually start out intact, but our "green-oriented" dogs don't like to waste things.  So their cones get packed around, pushed, twirled in the air and thrown---clear down to the point of just a few seed pods.

Earlier in the morning, while watching Heather slowly chew on her hay, with strands dribbling at least six-eight inches below her muzzle, I thought it would be fun to do an up close and personal study of munch time.

Humans get in trouble for letting food dribble out of their mouths, but so far I've never seen anyone chastise a horse for such things.

And, I'm thinking horses and cows are probably among the few animals that do dribble their dinner.

Cats and dogs are pretty tidy about their eating----except we have dogs who take several bits of dogfood from the dish, run out the garage door, dump the bite on the ground and then chomp on individual pieces before heading back to get another supply.

Border Collies must have a strain of squirrel blood in them. 

Horses and cows munch and dribble.

Anyway, the pictures didn't turn out to be that enlightening, but it's still kinda fun to have half a horse head looking like it's suspended in air. 

I also spent time clicking while Heather sipped on water from the horse trough.

Finally, I shot a few photos of Annie Dog, who seems to prefer gnawing off pieces of crusty snow to satisfy her moments of thirst.   She can have water, water everywhere, but give her some old, hard snow, and she's a happy old gal. 

On the level is fun with animals, and as I said, I can still bend or squat down to snap the photos.  

It can be dangerous, though, cuz when you're in squat position, holding a camera, pointing it at a dribbly muzzle, another muzzle can come up behind you and grab a big chunk of your coat.  

So far, I've survived these muzzle-loading attacks.