Sarge, 9 years old. He will let his boys do anything they want to him. They seem to love putting things on his head…
The weather is finally cooling off here in Central Texas! I see a lot of folks are catching up on yard work and home improvements. I know the contractors I ‘ve talked to are sure happy about not sweating to death just from stepping out of their houses! But does this mean that we should be lured into believing that the venomous snakes are not active right now? It does not!
I have seen people share a post that gives the seasons that snakes are not out at this time of year. In my experience of almost 38 years, I’d say ignore that and pretend that even when there is ice on the ground, you could find a snake.
Just be vigilant, and then you won’t have to retrain yourself this spring. Don’t get lulled into security because some zoologist somewhere says they are “less likely” to be active. That’s the key phrase there, “less likely.” That doesn’t mean there is a 0% chance of finding them. That’s especially true if you’re moving leaves, debris, or climbing under a house where it is probably sort of warm.
What in the world would lead me to say this? Well, things have just been a bit…unbalanced this week. I’ve felt a little “off” all week, and have done some really goofy things that aren’t like me.
This is the can of delicious water that didn’t want to go in my mouth.
The biggest example is suddenly forgetting how to drink a beverage. I was sitting in my living room, watching television or reading, and I was really thirsty for that cold, fresh lemon-flavored water I’d gotten out of the refrigerator. So, while still focused on my other task, I picked it up and briskly poured it into my lap.
That certainly surprised the dog. But, really, I forgot how to put a drink to my lips? It’s like my body had a glitch. Of course, once that happened, I’ve been alert to any other motor-skills issues, so when I trip and almost fall on a tiny raised part of a sidewalk, drop what I’m carrying, etc., I think, “Oh no, I’m getting some disease.”
Vlassic took to his (my) bed to recover from my oddness.
Some days I run around doing interesting things. Some days I’m just full of deep thoughts. Not today. It was a very welcome normal day.
While dog walking, I caught Alfred and Lee adoring each other.
Everyone needs a day of downtime. I got to walk the dogs. I went to the office and did web and Facebook stuff for all my jobs, volunteer and paid. Nice.
I watched Mike S fix up the lighting in our conference room, which is good, because the light bulbs keep getting dim.
Ooh. Light fixtures!
I walked around exiting downtown Cameron and spent my Visa Gift Card Art the Bling Box.
Whew. By the time I bought some beef from the neighbor, my excitement level rose to a fever pitch.
Yet another ranch sunset.
THEN I went home and ate soup! Homemade soup! I hope Kathleen is over the flu soon, so she can make more healthy leftovers. This multi-generational household is great!
It’s a real joy to have a normal, unexciting day.
PS
Thank you to all of you who have said such nice things about my recent posts. I value your input and your thoughts.
Being away from nature for a week was hard on me! I was so glad to come home to the ranch and see familiar sights. The trees, the cattle, the birds, my dear pets. It even smelled like home.
Back exploring with my buddies.
I got to check out what has changed and what’s new this evening. I also got to walk the dogs through beautiful autumn light. Here’s a report!
The book I read all in one day is The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein (also a major motion picture, which I did not see). There seems to be an entire genre of books written from the viewpoint of dogs, these days. In fact, here’s a list of them from Amazon, and you will see it includes a book by a human with “dog” in their name.
As for this book, it’s both about racing and being a very intelligent dog observing a life. Like A Dog’s Purpose, this one posits that dogs are put on earth to protect or care for a family. When they are done, they go away and come back as something else. For our book’s dog, named Enzo, he is convinced he will come back next as a human, and he’ll know so much stuff, especially about racing cars.
I can see how this book became a “major motion picture,” because the people in it are not quite as complex as the inhabitants of the last few books I’ve read. The race-car driver dad is just plain good, with just a hint of temptation to be bad. The lawyers are just plain lawyers.
In my previous post, I talked about going on a walk with Kathleen (who will be here for the next year or so, getting our Hearts Homes and Hands business going) around the ranch for a long time and getting no “exercise credit” for it on my watch. While annoying, there are darned good reasons we didn’t just trek briskly around the property. Plus the dogs got stinky.
Kathleen is ready for checking out the nature!
It finally cooled off enough to go for a nice exploration of the woods, which is just not easy to do in the summer. The dogs were pretty thrilled at the prospect, and engaged all their sniffers.
We’re ready to sniff!
I hadn’t had a chance to show Kathleen what’s in the woods (mainly a lot of cedar elm and coral berry), so she had fun discovering the little stream (or where it would be if it rained more), then as we moved on, we saw the gate to nowhere, and other bottomland landmarks.
I just got home from another fun Milam Touch of Love event, the Blessing of the Animals, which is a yearly celebration at many Episcopal churches in the US. Today the one in Cameron was at All Saints Episcopal, a church attended by a lot of my friends. They’d invited MTOL this year, and we really appreciated it.
Fifi is very friendly.
Our group brought two sweet dogs looking for homes, Henry and Fifi. The kittens Jean S. is fostering were also there, and darn, they are cute.
This sweet dog is all scarred, but so well trained and sweet, you’d never know she’d had a hard past.
I brought Vlassic along, as an example of the dogs that are dumped out in the country, which shows the need for helping animals out here. I was really proud of how well he behaved. He played a lot with Henry, who was thrilled to have a friend to play with, though he eventually wore V. out.
We have not had any dog issues since night before last. In fact, last night I sat on the back porch and watched the three younger dogs running and playing with toys for nearly an hour. Vlassic was happy as he’s ever been.
But then, last night, he was sleeping directly in front of my face, still reeking of dead mouse, so I got up and took care of some needs. When I came back, he was gone, and he never came back to bed. I found him outside in the morning. This is the first time in the over a year that I’ve had him when he didn’t sleep on me (or Lee or Anita).
I’ll just take over your bed.
That made me sad. But this morning, he was so glad to see me that he kept jumping into my hand as I tried to pet him. So, I bent down to give him some loving. Suddenly, I was off the ground. Alfred had ALSO wanted some loving, so he came between my legs. I laughed and laughed, all by myself.
There’s still at least some water. No floods here.
Penney, Carlton, and Harvey have been swimming in the pond lately. It’s quite low, but still over Penney’s head, as she discovered yesterday. Vlassic still prefers his pool. At least it got rid of some of the mouse smell.
I like stinking. I’m a dog.
We’ve been having a bit of trouble with Carlton running off to visit the calves, still. He just loves them. The cows don’t mind much, so, we’ll just keep working on him coming when called from far away.
I love cows and tug of war.
We sure enjoy these guys, even when they are challenging. Life it better with all their antics!
It looks like our newest canine companion, Penney, will be needing some training or something. She continues to poop and pee in our bathroom every night that I’m there. We have three theories: one is I’m taking up her space in the bed, and another is she’s afraid to go downstairs in the dark. A third possibility is that she’s showing irritation that Vlassic’s in the room.
Carlton the weather dog points out that it still has not rained,
Poor Little Vlassic
Penney seems to have it in for him, at least when he’s trying to do his favorite thing, which is snuggle up with me or Lee. She believes SHE is the resident snuggler. We have been working with her on this, but as you can see from Vlassic’s head, we aren’t always successful.
Ow. Also I have an owie on my tummy from last week. Save me!
Now, they are fine outdoors, and run and play very happily.
Vlassic now spends his time at the ranch either outside on the porch, or upstairs in the bedroom.
And that’s a problem when night comes, because everybody wants to be on top of the bed. Harvey likes to sleep where he isn’t touching anybody, and growls if they try. Carlton is either next to me or in the dog bed. Vlassic is usually glued to me, while Penney glues herself to Lee.
I would like to know how I never realized how much brown hair is on the back of Vlassic’s legs. I swear, I look at him all the time. Cute little butt swirls, though.
But last night, Penney apparently wanted to be next to me, and went after Vlassic for being there instead. Much screaming, peeing on my dang bed, and growling occurred. I had to spend the rest of the night downstairs with a shaking (but relatively unhurt) dachshund.
I’m glad we know dog trainers.
Also, Dogs Like Stinky Things
Lee reports that Alfred came home Wednesday night with a very large spine of something. He loved it. It smelled very bad. Thankfully, it’s mostly gone now.
Penney explores the milkweed, looking for remnants of the spine.
Then, today, while Vlassic was in the office staying safe from Penney, he jumped in Mandi’s lap, causing her to react in horror. He’d found a very dead and stinky mouse. I guess that means our mouse removal campaign is working. But wow, is it smelly in the kitchen area, and so is he. We washed him, but not well enough.
This morning I waved goodbye to Eva and Joe, found out what was going on with the rest of the family, and realized I was gloriously alone for a while. Lee and Kathleen are still in west Texas, Mandi has other issues, we canceled Sunday dinner due to stress and confusion, so no visitors today. Alone.
Part 1
Of course, being me, I felt compelled to write up stuff for work blogs and volunteering blogs. And I’m late on my LLL newsletter, so I worked on that.
Mmm. Football.
After 5 hours of writing, I’ve declared I deserve some recharge time. No one can keep going and going forever.
The Hermits' Rest 