Minor Trouble In Paradise

It's not all sunshine and flowers in the Dauch household this week.  Tex ran into some trouble out on the range (park).  He took a bad tumble in the weeds and caught his dewclaw on a root.  It was bleeding quite a bit and pointing the wrong way, but the little trooper let me put a temporary bandage on it until he could go to the pet hospital.  Our veterinarian recommended that we let him remove both of Tex's dewclaws as this is a common injury for active dogs and the dewclaw seems to be a vestigial digit with no perceivable function. Now Tex has a new nickname around the house, "Conehead".

he looks very sad, but rest assured he is milking this experience for all the laptime and cookies he can get.

On my daily strolls through our backyard, I have been noticing something is eating the leaves on the butterfly bush.  I closely inspected the bush yesterday and could not see any actual critters, so I'm wondering if the culprit is some kind of night flying snacker?   Maybe the local nursery will know.  Not that it really matters as I apply a pretty brutal "survival of the fittest" philosophy with respect to the landscape. I don't like to use pesticides as the dogs actually nibble on the plant leaves and I also don't want to hurt the bees, hummingbirds and praying mantis.