Monday and Tuesday were two of the best days I have had in MONTHS.
Unfortunately, I overdid it and am in bed all day as a result. Thanks to the laptop and wireless ‘net connection, I can post anyway.
I’m also doing some filing. The portable file containers are great.
We did go vote, got some blinds re-trimmed at Lowes, and hung out at Borders for a bit. I want to get a book I was browsing, Crucial Conversations. We had intended to go to Petco, Staples, and Kroger, but I had to safeword on those.
curiousmay9, who hasn’t ever lived with a dog before, bathed Iris last night.
While I’d mentioned a few things, she didn’t really GET the fact that even if a dog loves playing in the water, she might hate baths. Iris is like that.
Now, curiousmay9 is still recovering from mono, and she’s got an extremely tender abdomen and low energy. So trying to haul a very unwilling 100+ lb. critter across the bathroom into the shower didn’t result in feeling good. In fact, while she did go to work this morning, she had to come home early and go back to bed 🙁
Iris did get bathed and brushed. She wasn’t happy about either.
I managed to resist going in to check on the ominous thumps and thuds coming from the bathroom. I couldn’t help but envision a large, wet, unhappy dog ricocheting about our suite. I knew, however, that 1) there wasn’t room in the bathroom for me; 2) I wouldn’t be much help physically anyway. So I queued up music with lots of drums and tried to think about other things.
She saw me taking the packaging off a new leash, one of those that you can play out and reel in. She recognized that and got very excited. So excited, in fact, that despite it being 10:30 pm I couldn’t deny her the walk she wanted.
We walked down our street and the next, going down to the dead-end there. She wanted to explore the woods, but I don’t have the night vision she has (or the strength or stamina). I told her the kids would take her out today.
One dog got riled up about our presence near his yard. I was proud of our princess. She growled low in her throat, and put herself between me and the other dog—but she did NOT try to go confront him. He was confined in a fence, happily.
There are some very large dogs that were roaming the neighborhood freely, but I haven’t seen them in a while.
It’s easy to forget how different it is to live way out here. Seeing the night sky with almost no light pollution is incredible, though. We don’t have street lights around here, which can be annoying but is worth the view.
Unfortunately, Shelley is shedding incredibly and chewing on herself again. I think it’s anxiety, due to the new member of our household. She likes the fact that I’m in bed today because she feels safe enough to lay here instead of hiding in the closet again. She’s the only cat with past dog experience, and the dog is far more intimidated by her than she is by the dog. She’s old, though, and doesn’t always handle changes well.
We did get the new collars and updated ID tags on all the critters. Iris has taken two unauthorized exploratory jaunts lately, so we wanted to be sure she was wearing our phone number. We’ve had to start putting her on a leash before opening the front door because she’s terribly good at making a break for freedom. She comes home, but she is used to living in a place with many acres of land and a pond. We have a very large yard, but it must seem very confining to her.
Oh—we’ve also got three “borrowed” teens here this week. We’re missing two of the usual suspects, but the kids and Sam are having fun.
