The photo above was taken earlier today at Mill Slough Dog Park in Kissimmee, Florida, and shows Corky the shelter dog peeking over a tree stump. The long nap, long walk, and cheese were a snap. I’ll get bacon tomorrow to complete the weekend quadfecta.

Any day is a good day going to the dog park, and after days and days of rain today was perfect. The wish list and Dog Park Weekend Challenge will be a huge success even if we miss that bacon tomorrow. With so many pals still in animal shelters waiting to be adopted, I really am a lucky dog.

Thinking of adding a pet to your family? Visit your local animal shelter to rescue a cat or dog today.

The illustration shows a Momma duck with 8 baby ducks looking at me, Corky. Notice the leash is loose so I’m free to move about while Dad was taking the photo, and then realize Momma knows I won’t lunge at her or the ducklings.

The secret to this trust is revealed in the photo insert that shows a big knife used to prepare bread cubes. Besides those pieces of bread just cut on the paper towel, some are already in the plastic bag Dad carries to entice the ducks closer (and closer).

Look in the green grass between the ducks and me and see pieces Dad tossed on the ground. He has taught me “leave it” and “stay”, so he trusts me and so does the Momma duck after getting closer and closer over weeks and weeks. That’s my secret for how you become a puppy pal to baby ducks.

The photo below shows my new pal Beauregard met outside the groomers today on my birthday. He’s a rescue dog like me. I’m 2 today and Beauregard was born a day earlier only 3 years ago. If I’d asked “What WERE you… born yesterday?” his reply would have been “yes”.

That’s me (top left) and Beauregard (right) touching noses, and then two circle photo inserts of him showing off two more views in the lower corners with his BIG puppy eyes. He’s a rescue puppy and his parents live in Jacksonville, Florida. That’s hours and hours away yet they were in Kissimmee on business, and took Beau with them!

Besides the two puppy birthday boys, @PrincessGwenie my Twitter puppy gal pal and cutie patootie was 3 today! Happy Birthday to Beau and Gwenie!

Watch my eyes and you’ll discover I’m in another world just pretending while having fun yet oblivious to anything or anyone around. Here’s another of those dogs who entertain themselves.

The photo of this medium sized brown dog stalking a dragonfly was taken 2 weeks ago at Fleet Peeples Dog Park near Orlando. The circle above his head shows the dragonfly in flight while the large insert shows an enlarged view of the bug.

Use the circle above the dog’s head for reference for a better look. How? View the brown dog stalks dragonfly wallpaper (1200 px wide) and study the look in his eyes as he stares at the bug. Remember the circle above his head, and the dragonfly should be easier to spot now.

Unlike this narrow strip illustration cropped from the original photo, the desktop wallpaper version shows a large and beautiful area of Fleet Peeples Dog Park including trees, grassy area, bushes in bloom, the wooden bench, and woods.

That brown dog stayed on the grassy area playing alone for 10-15 minutes as he leaped and chased the dragonfly back and forth in a 30 foot square open area. The fun time continued similar to me “in another world just pretending” while maybe 30-40 dogs frolicked on the beach just 100 feet away.

A dog can be alone at home or out with 40 dogs nearby while playing solo to entertain themselves. Dad’s theory concludes this canine behavior is a sign of superior intelligence. Who could argue with that?!

His owner said Brutus may gain another 70 lbs before he’s full grown. That will make him bigger than my Dad, or equal to 12 of me at 19 lbs! Click the photo or this link for Brutus in desktop wallpaper size (1200px wide).

One problem being such a big dog as explained by the owner, is most dogs don’t want to play. Brutus the Mastiff tried and tried to make friends and play with EVERY dog there, yet most ran away. How sad. He truly is a gentle giant which you will understand once you look past the size.

The 2 photos shown above are (left) the Muscovy Momma duck in the water at the edge of the canal in a closeup with some of her 13 ducklings, and then (right) a photo of me, Corky the shelter dog, less than a foot away while sniffing several ducklings.

In my dog training the leave it command can be for ducks, squirrels, cats, people, or whatever, so I don’t bark or lunge at the baby ducklings. In just 1 week they learned I won’t hurt them, so they get really really close to my sniffer. Not shown, but very cute: another duckling walked across my tail.

Follow this link to Corky photographs on Flickr and then look for the other new sets with lots of pix of my favorite park that include the Dogs at Fleet Peeples Dog Park and the Fleet Peeples Dog Park Scenery.

The thumbnail at the lower right is a video! Yup. I have a mini-video on Flickr, too. The new Corky photo set on Flickr means I’m one step closer to “almost famous”. Thanks, Dad.

The Life with Corky the Shelter Dog video series and format shown on my main website includes the transcript of each video and narration for the benefit of hearing impaired persons, or others who just want to read along.

In addition, the life story series in video is on YouTube, plus my channel has exclusive YouTube Corky videos not shown on my website.

America was born out of war, survived a civil war, and then came WWI and WWII, plus Korea, Vietnam, and more recently wars in the Middle East. There were many other conflicts that could have been listed though not mentioned. Whether you agree or disagree with the decisions involving war, the intentions of those who served and paid the ultimate sacrifice was loyalty towards protecting our rights to freedom.

Take a moment this Memorial Day to remember the brave citizens who died including those allies who likewise paid the price of losing their lives while standing by us in times of war, as well.

Free Download Note: Corky fans may download the Corky blue sky wallpaper 1200x900px version of this blog illustration, too.

For Best of Twitter the winner was @MattieDog by a landslide. He promised stuff for your vote like genuine knockoff bacon beer, tickets to go bowling, and other smooth lies that you might expect from a real politician. Congrats, Mattie!

At the end on March 31st, out of the top 25 he was #1 and the ONLY pawpal in that group. In April the Twitter critter corner came out in droves in a winner take all free for all lusting for a top spot in the online poll. March madness to get Mattie a win became all out bedlam in April.

With less than a week left in the contest the TOP 50 for Best of Twitter were ALL animals.

As a result of all that fun turning to stress, I decided I would no longer participate and tweeted my “Down with the Wall” sermon. You are welcome to use that and these other tweets for your followers if you regret being involved. Copy/paste these to tweet:

“Down with the Wall” sermon: I decided to stop visits to enter or vote on the wall.

Wall voting 10 min/day is 60 hrs/year. Time better spent: [fill in the blank]

VOTE at the wall for 1 minute and just 10 times a day? In 10 years you waste 25 days.

10 minutes a day voting is 60 hours per year or a 10 day vacation if you work 40 hours.

Want out? Follow @VoteWall. They follow back. DM them to be taken off the wall. Voila.

To my surprise you do not have to enter to be in the contest. I first discovered my spot on page 12, or the top 300 out of over 600 contestants, because a friend tweeted that they had voted for ME, and I never chose to be there.

The system allows you to vote again every 20 minutes for as many entrants as you want. Thus, vote for yourself, and you could return once their timer expired in 20 minutes to vote again, and again, and again. At last check I was in the Top 100.

The ego inflation and voting frenzy did get out of hand. Imagine pressuring yourself to vote every 20 minutes. Yikes. Some people did. As a result, claims of voting fraud, vote bots, and worse got tweeted back and forth. Early on in April that Twitter vote wall just for fun became a battleground. Catfight. Dogfight. Cat-dogfight.

Read that last tweet suggestion again. You can easily be removed from the wall contests if you notice people voting for you. Defining time better spent means feeding ME (treats) not the ego.