dogs

A Big Day In The Neighborhood

May 12, 2013 By Brenda

Today has been a big day around here. A place where it’s normally really quiet and not much goes on.

I saw my two grand kids for the first time in a long, long time. They acted like they’d just been here yesterday. They toted and carried the dogs around, and now the dogs are plumb wore out. They didn’t like it one bit, but seemed befuddled about it all.

These two photos were taken before they arrived. Just around the time Miss Abi decided to go on an adventure. Yes, she managed to get past me at the front door and off she went like a rocket.

My word, that dog can run fast. I got in the car and started looking for her. Charlie was very upset and worriedly watching from the storm door. Chris next door got in his pickup to help.

Various neighbors I didn’t know saw her hurtling down the street like a locomotive and were looking for her. Finally I got her. Then I was worn out from nerves.

Got a bit of bad news. Chris, the Navy medic, is having to postpone medical school. He has been deployed and will leave the country in September. I will be so sad to see him go. He’s such a good neighbor. Said he found out right after he moved in.

Oh, I had such high hopes for him living in that house that had been treated so badly. I could tell he was someone who would take care of it.

My daughter and I walked down to the demolished house a bit later. So sad to see a house that’s stood for so many years reduced to a mass of debris in about 30 minutes time. Kind of amazing, isn’t it?

The neighbor next door to it came out and said the elderly woman who had lived there has been in a nursing home about four years. And she had about 20 cats. She said the city or someone closed it up. She didn’t know if all the cats got out or not. Oh, I hate to hear stories like that.

She said someone had bought the lot and had the house torn down. I just hope whoever bought it will build a house in keeping with this very old neighborhood. My house was built in 1934.

There’s still a wooden shed and part of the foundation to go. The bulldozer sits ready to start in the morning. It’s quiet there now. Just a lot full of broken concrete and shattered boards and bricks, and a bright yellow door peeking from underneath some of it.

I wondered if the woman liked yellow, a cheerful color, and maybe painted her door that color to express welcome to whoever came to see her. Before she became frail and sick and could no longer care for herself or her house.

So that’s been my Mother’s Day. A good one, except for hearing about Chris and chasing Abi all over and scaring me half to death.

I can’t stop thinking about the woman that once lived in the demolished house. Probably lived there much of her life. What memories she must have had there. Walls that held a family inside. Doors slamming with children running in and out. A typical family.

Then as she got older, she took in all those cats. Perhaps she was just lonely and didn’t want the strays to go hungry. I wonder why it is we hear so many stories of old women and lots of cats living together?

I look at the life teeming in my backyard. All the plants that have come back from last year, despite the long, long winter of cold. Colors and textures and blooms, all so happy.

Then I think about that house, empty for years. Shut up tight and the grass grown high, with no one to love it.

And that just makes me feel sad.

Filed Under: Flowers, gardening, outdoor decorating, pets Tagged With: demolished house, dogs, gardens, grand kids, Mother's Day 54 Comments

Saturday Snapshots

February 2, 2013 By Brenda

Just random photos of what I see around me today.

Sweet faces.

Judy and I clipped them the best we could the other day.

Morning sunlight streaming in the window.

Filed Under: decorating, pets Tagged With: dogs, random snapshots 20 Comments

Friends Forever

January 10, 2013 By Brenda

I think Abi might be getting a little bit better on the Prozac. She has extreme separation anxiety from me. So when I go out, she gets very upset.

My Charlie boy is a little more laid back, thank goodness.

They are staring out at the morning rain. Not much to watch. Not many dog walkers or joggers this morning.

Charlie is my little guard dog, ever vigilant for noises and things outside the windows.

Our sweet babies have personalities all their own. These two are my constant companions, loyal and attentive. What more could one ask for? Friends forever.

Filed Under: pets Tagged With: Abi & Charlie, dogs 43 Comments

My Dog Is On Prozac

December 6, 2012 By Brenda

My rock-eating, terribly anxious, terrified-I will-get-out-of-her-sight baby is now on Prozac. It will take awhile to build up in her system. But I am hoping it helps her.

It’s okay, Abs, Mom takes Effexor. And it helps me. And if it will make you feel better, I will stamp the words: “So what, I take Effexor” on my forehead. Because I would do anything for you. Anything to ease what ails you.

Charlie has his own demons to fight. He has a phobia of flying or jumping insects. Remember the post when I was in the wheelchair and rolling all over the kitchen trying to catch the cricket before he caught wind of the situation. (I did catch it and put it outside too.)

Charlie spends much of his day, when he isn’t on guard at the windows or in the chair with me at the computer, underneath blankets or anything he can hide under. You can wonder where he is, but rather than disturb him, I just walk about the house looking for little “lumps” that could be him.

But he is much more easy going than his sister. You can see it in his eyes.

I thought when I moved here, she would get better. But she soon began to start barking and wailing when the phone rang. I try to talk on the phone while trying to catch Abi so I can hold her and talk for a few minutes. I’m sure whoever is on the other end wonders what on earth is going on.

She alludes me by running all over the house, just out of reach, barking so loud I cannot hear the other person. It is an ongoing battle.

I tell myself: She watched me cry after a lot of phone calls. It has affected her so deeply she can’t get it out of her doggy mind. She continually sniffs the corners of my eyes to see if there are tears there. They aren’t there very much anymore. But Abi does or will not forget.

It’s been a tough couple of years. Don’t think your pets don’t feel it right along with you.

And as their mother, you worry. You wonder what you did wrong. What you should have done that you didn’t do to protect them. You blame yourself.

From the intensity of her reactions, Charlie has learned them too. I don’t know if he knows what he’s reacting to. But he barks and wails right along with her at times. Maybe because he doesn’t want her to feel alone in her misery.

I wonder what she sees when she’s looking out there so intently. Is it just a neighbor’s cat or someone walking a dog? Or it is something she remembers that she can’t shake? Can dogs do that, do you think?

I am in it for the long haul, guys. If you hurt, I hurt right along with you. I will shield you from pain when I can. And get you help when I can’t.

Because that’s just what Moms do.

Filed Under: pets Tagged With: dogs, Prozac 44 Comments

The Leaves Are Falling and December Is Approaching

November 29, 2012 By Brenda

I’m sitting here looking at the calendar and find it hard to believe that November just swept by like a cold wind and turned the corner.

The leaves are fast falling from the trees and laying a carpet of autumnal color across the yard.

But the sun is shining and that makes a lot of things bearable, doesn’t it?

Starting to get the Christmas stuff out. I’m not going to attempt the Christmas tree this year. I don’t want to do the lifting to get to it out of the shed. So this year it will be decorating in little pockets around the house.

The dogs are in their usual spot at the office window while I type, watching for any movement worth barking about. Abi, ever the diva, turns when she knows I’ve got the camera out.

Charlie here is all business.

Here is a vignette I’ve been working on in my bedroom, where I’ve been making lots of changes. I took the pic with the western rays of sun coming through the window in late afternoon. I will show it again when I’m finished.

Are you going whole hog with Christmas decor this year, or scaling it back?

Filed Under: Christmas Decorating, holiday decorating, pets Tagged With: decorating, dogs 43 Comments

My Dog Eats Rocks

November 13, 2012 By Brenda

This morning I awoke to spatters of blood on the floor. Abi has not been feeling well. And I know she’s been eating little stones she finds in the yard. I know because they pass right through her. (In the above photo, that’s Abi on the right.)

I had an appointment with my surgeon in a couple of hours, so I threw some clothes on and rushed her to the vet, which thankfully is only about five or six blocks away. They said they’d work her in. I go back home to shower before my appointment.

Charlie is beside himself with anxiety when sister is gone. So I gave him all the love I could.

The surgeon thinks there may be something else wrong than just my ankle. It was a complicated break, as I broke the ankle on both sides. When he repaired it in surgery, he said he was surprised it was not worse. So it’s now been over four months, and I still can hardly walk. I saw the physicians assistant, a Dr. Graham. And after doing an exam, he went to get the surgeon. They think I may have some tendon problems up my leg from my ankle. If it isn’t better with therapy and an orthotic insert that goes into my shoe, then in January they will do an MRI.

I then go downstairs to therapy, and they were gone to lunch. So no therapy today.

I get in the car and immediately call the vet’s office. They haven’t had time to see her yet. The vet is the sweetest woman named Wendy. She is very soft-spoken and just delightful.

I go home and Charlie and I wait. I call the vet’s office. They don’t think it’s pancreatitis this time, but perhaps gastritis. I had told them of her tendency the last few weeks of eating gravel that is out by the shed. They said that’s normally a mineral deficiency. But no, that wasn’t it. She isn’t anemic.

Dr. Wendy said she was ready to go home with some medicine. So I get Charlie, as he missed sister so, and we picked up Abi.

I pull into the garage. I’m hobbling from the car with two writhing dogs. I open the gate and let them down to use the bathroom in the backyard. I watch as Abi hightails it behind the garage.

Oh no, not the shed and the gravel! I hobble out there just in time to watch her gobble up a bunch and swallow. I wanted to sit down and cry. But it’s far too cold out there.

What on earth do you do with a dog that eats rocks? Does anyone else have a dog that does this?

{Note: Tweak It Tuesday is still going on. I just had to post this to see if anyone has any answers to this new dilemma. I’m stumped.}