Tulips are beautiful. I absolutely LOVE tulips. We’ve had an abnormally late start to spring, so not much more than my daffodils and crocus are blooming right now. Considering today is 82 degrees, I think spring took so long to show up, summer decided she was done waiting around for that diva and stole the show.

Well hello there sunshine and beacon of spring!

Tulips are the grand finale in the spring garden show for me….except not this year. Last fall I planted hundreds of tulip bulbs in my landscape. There has been a TON of rain here in West Michigan, so I haven’t been able to keep up with spraying them for deer and critters. Fortunately, the spray I was able to keep on my landscape beds successfully kept the deer out. Sadly, it did not keep the chipmunk that lives under the porch from enjoying a buffet of delicious bulbs.

Tulips of spring past.

I have a dog. She is 80lbs of pure fun, love and laughs. When her and I head out on our runs, she unintentionally satisfies my interval training. Running with Maggie goes something like this…SPRINT! (squirrel)….STOP (pee)….SPRINT! (rabbit)….run slow (sniff)….repeat. So, I find it incredibly ironic that this brilliant puppy who wants to chase everything knows how to sit, shake, heel, lay down and knows what ‘treat,’ ‘pancake’ and ‘go wake up the kids’ means cannot keep a darn chipmunk out of my garden. I had an old cat who did a better job at keeping the local wildlife in line better than this big old chocolate lab. Maggie looks big and scary, her bark sounds vicious, she’s not afraid of thunder or deer and she will jump into any pool of water. But can she protect the tulips? Nope. I have no tulips, but I have the love of a big old sweetheart.

“What? Oh, you mean I’m supposed to chase things when I’m OFF the leash too?”