Monday, October 26, 2009

On Being a Klutz:

I discovered that someone backed into my mailbox and broke their tail light to pieces. They knocked the mailbox off its post too. Mountain Man repaired it before I could get the camera from the house for a picture, but it was a sight, all dangling backwards like it was. No note or anything. People these days.

I on the other hand, I can’t talk too loudly. I spilled my glass of juice on my laptop computer. I had to wait most of the day until it totally dried out so I didn’t kill it turning it on.

Accidents happen.

Sir Laidback, the dog, is fitting in nicely. He has some problems, but we are adjusting. He can’t see well. Not blind but he looses things easily that he is sighted on. He loves tug games but can’t play catch. If we walk too far head of him he can’t find us without smelling or listening to our calls. He stays close to the house. He prefers to have a leash on when outside and more then fifteen feet from the door. He bumps into things at times in low light. So, now that we know this, we compensate and all is well.

We all have klutzy moments for a lot of different reasons. So I’ll forgive the bump to my mailbox and move on.

I’m hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

On Rain, Rain Go Away:

It was raining at my house. It had been raining since the evening before yesterdays wash out. There were light spots at times, but mostly it had been pouring.

The dogs slept for the most part. What makes dogs sleep the rainy days away? They have been domesticated for many generations. Why sleep like the wild animals still do on a rainy day? This one is not for me to know, I guess.

I had been trying to get on the internet all of yesterday morning, but with the wet weather, the competition for telephone lines kept on knocking me offline before I could get the pages loaded for the post to my blog, but I kept on mindlessly trying.

Yesterday afternoon: Still raining. Dogs still sleeping. Internet still a bother. Still couldn’t get on.

Walking the dogs in that rain has been an adventure. Wait until the rain slows down, get the leash and run outside. The dogs hug the house and tiptoe around the puddles. Once they find a spot worth the try it is pouring again and they give up and run to the door. I was fast running out of dog towels drying them off every half an hour or so until they finally ‘did their business.’

Early this morning: No More Rain Today, Please! Oh! Singing the song over and over yesterday worked finally! It stopped sometime in the night. Phew!

There is a Hootie Owl singing in the trees just north of the house for the last few mornings. When Lady Short was first gone it was a sad sound. Now it happily greets me as I walk the dogs first thing in the morning, before it is light.

Not that I’m not still sad about her passing. Its just that it was time for her to go. She was used up and tired. And having a younger and more health dog in the house has livened up the place. I find I’m very glad we did not get a puppy. A puppy would have been too much, too soon. Lady Long is an old dog of twelve herself.

Sir Laidback is just right for us.

Friday, October 23, 2009

On The Same but Different:

Mountain Man rushed me out the door early in the morning to see if he was ready for a new dog by visiting the local SPCA.

There was the usual lot of rag tag to well groomed lonely dogs in cages. We walked around a few times to look them all over. In the very back corner was a flea bitten Puggle (Pug Beagle Mix) looking a bit stressed like the rest.

This dog was a male and Mountain Man had stated he was used to a female dog and wanted the same. He was rashy and on meds for a skin infection. He was five years old. He had been there for five days with little interest. I thought it was over when Mountain Man got teary eyed wanting Lady Short back again and he told me that, ‘No other was going to do.’

But… Mountain Man asked to have a one on one visit with this little stranger. After the short time it took for the dog to believe someone wanted to spend some time with him and him alone, the dog let Mountain Man do most anything to him he that had a mind to without complaint, but never once answered to the name written on his paperwork. (Pugs can be aloof at first, but generally like to answer to their name.)

Once Mountain Man decided that it felt like a good enough fit we had to leave him behind to get Lady Long for a ‘meet and greet’ first.

We returned with Lady Long at the meeting time we were given and after a brief sniffing over by both dogs, they went off to sniff out other things in the area. A success! (Were you in doubt?) Paper work and information was past back and forth. License and ID chip info were attached to his new collar. And Sir Laidback (not his real name by the way.) came home with us.















He is well behaved and fairly quiet, listens well and has taken to his new name like he never had another. His rash is growing smaller already and he likes his new crate.




















Sir Laidback has one thing that makes us laugh every time. He thinks the wood stove is a sun window without the brightness. Pugs like to sit in a sun puddle on the floor and bake in the warmth. And he finds it the best world ever that has a sun puddle that doesn’t move and is not overly bright.

Sir Laidback fits and it feels almost like he’s been here for months instead of hours.

We still miss Lady Short and a tear comes now and then, but the house does not feel as empty now.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

On Dog Gone:

I finally got to the point that I could go through the pictures of Lady Short and show you a few. For days every time I tried to do this, I just cried too hard to get it done.



















This is Lady Short, aka Abby, at five weeks on the bottom and eight weeks on top. The day she came home with us I got to see her bond with Mountain Man.















This is the last decent picture I have of her once she got old. The rest show how sick she was becoming and I don’t want to remember her that way.

She was a lively sweet dog all of her days.

By the way, Mountain Man is still looking for the perfect dog to be his new side kick and the Princess Daughter is helping hunt on the internet for the best adult dog for him. We have decided not to get another puppy because it would be too hard on Lady Long.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

On Lady Bugs:

Yesterday afternoon there was a Ladybug bloom in the yard. I was concerned that we wouldn’t have one this year with the early cold and snow. But yesterday the sun was out, the day warmed just enough, and the ladybug rose up out of the grass and into the air like a friendly cloud.

Most people I talk to find their gathering in the autumn annoying. They do find any open window crack or opened door filling the house with dieing bugs on the inside of windows. But I go outside and walk through the lightly held together cloud of bugs lazy flight in the air and let them land on me.

I guess that I should have put on my ladybug wings if I had wanted them to stay on me longer, but I found their tickles on my skin just at the tolerable level, so it was all good.

They would land, crawl a few inches and take off again, only to be replaced with another bug a few moments later. It was peaceful and friendly and happy for a while.

They all left me once I walked into the shade of the oak trees. Leaving me to walk on alone. But the tickle of their touch and the feeling of their friendly visits on me went with me into the rest of the day.

They floated and flew in the sun until the day grew colder. Still, just thinking about them warms my heart.

PS: Mountain Man spent hours looking at older (Not puppies any longer) Pugs and Puggles (pug beagle mix)on the internet, that are looking for a good home. He’s not ready yet, but it helps him fill the empty hours.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

On The Death of a Pet:

Hi Friends,

I’m sorry that I have been absent for so long. I know you will understand when I tell you that the Pug dog, Lady Short as she was known here, (Or Abby as she was named by Mountain Man so long ago.) has died.

She needed 24 hour care in the last weeks. And for a dog as likable and loving as she was, it was not a chore.

We had her for thirteen and a half years. And her remains are interred in the Oak Grove to the west of the house.

Although never a mother herself, she mothered and protected all smaller pets that came into the house. She would help Mountain Man by collecting sticks and twigs whenever he worked on the wood pile, a trick she came up with herself, and by helping Mountain Man through many a life trial. They were inseparable.

The empty space in our lives since her death has been enormous. And Lady Short, the Dashund still does not understand what has happened. For now it is sad days in our house, but we will overcome and love a new dog when the time comes.