Alison Baker

Field Notes

What Grand Dogs!

April 1, 2011

Tags: Tails From the Rescue Squad, rescue dogs

Puppies at play
Thurber and Pippin, the Rescue Squad, joined us just before Thanksgiving last fall, and several times during the holiday season I found myself wishing I could tell my mother about them. (more…)

Star of the Class

March 20, 2011

Tags: Tails From the Rescue Squad, Rescue dogs, obedience class

Once a week Pippin and Thurber, the Rescue Squad, attend a class in Obedience For Beginners. Thurber, who is around two years old, came to us pre-trained, so a lot of the course is a refresher for him. But for ten-month-old Pippin it’s brand new. (more…)

Not Another Snow Day!

March 10, 2011

Tags: Tails From the Rescue Squad, Rescue dogs, Cape Cod

Cold snowy winter
It has been such a cold, snowy winter! Last year, when My Companion and I told people we were moving back to New England, we were assured over and over again that the weather on Cape Cod is milder. But since early December we’ve been asking each other, “Milder than what?” (more…)

The Rescue Squad Stays Down

March 3, 2011

Tags: Tails From the Rescue Squad, Rescue dogs

Staying Down
I can’t move my feet. I’m seated at my desk with each foot planted firmly on the floor on top of a blue leash, and if I move, the two furry bodies attached to the leashes will leap up and rush into the living room, where they will stand at the window and bark. (more…)

Requirements For A Bolter

February 22, 2011

Tags: Tails From the Rescue Squad, Rescue dogs, runaway dogs

When My Companion and I decided to move to Cape Cod last year, we made a list of requirements for our new home. Of course, a water view would be terrific. But there were a few real essentials, (more…)

To Be Obedient, or Not

February 14, 2011

Tags: Tails From the Rescue Squad, Rescue dogs, obedience training

Scared puppy
Thurber and Pippin, a.k.a. the Rescue Squad, attended their first Obedience Class the other night. Thurber behaved fairly well. But Pippin barked loudly and frantically from the moment he arrived until the moment, an hour and fifteen minutes later, he was carried bodily out the door. I have never felt so helpless. (more…)

Returning Thurber

January 24, 2011

Tags: Tails From the Rescue Squad, Rescue dogs

Do you know that feeling that looms up in your chest when you realize you’ve made a mistake? I mean a big mistake, one that will change your life. An irrevocable mistake, the kind where you can’t say, “Oh, never mind.”

That was the feeling that hit me when we came home (more…)

An End, A Beginning

January 10, 2011

Tags: Tails From the Rescue Squad, Rescue dogs

Our little dog Emily died suddenly last fall after a spontaneous pneumothorax – a lung that collapsed for no apparent reason. My Companion and I had adopted her just a year earlier, at the age of eight, and she turned out to be an easy-going comrade for our 12-year-old golden retriever, Oakley. We’d lived (more…)

An Ovenbird

September 30, 2009

Tags: Ovenbird, death, bridge mix

I saw an ovenbird today, scuffling around in the dead leaves on the far side of the ditch. When it jumped up into the oak tree and posed on a branch, I knew at once what it was, the way you recognize things you’ve read about but (more…)

A Paucity of Butterflies

July 23, 2009

Tags: butterflies, global warming

This summer we’ve had no butterflies. Oh, we’ve seen an occasional fritillary, two black swallowtails, and a respectable – though not abundant – number of cabbage moths; but not one monarch has flittered across the deck while we eat lunch. And my common milkweed is gorgeous – six feet tall, in full bloom, and utterly (more…)