SAINTS

I bet they don’t have problems with the plumbing freezing and I’ll take my chances on forest fires and earthquakes.  My laundry room plumbing was frozen this morning, but it’s in the unheated mud room so I wasn’t entirely surprised, just pissed because I’d just poured liquid laundry detergent all over my clothes before finding out there was no water.

Now, tonight, the rest of the plumbing is frozen….or maybe the well itself, since the pump can’t pump without going clunk clunk clunk.  The toilet can’t flush, the dishes can’t get washed, and I can’t have a long soak in the tub. I hate winter.

At the landlord’s request, I put my little electric oil heater on the top of the well in the little space under the house for the night.  There are some aspects of rural living that I could do without. Carol, if you hear fire trucks in the night, come rescue us!  

the process of “bonding” or the transfer of affections with dogs to a new human can be fast or slow. jack, maudie and lexie decided within hours that i am theirs and that is the end of the story as far as they are concerned. norton took a couple of weeks, dexter took over night. all the dogs eventually bond with me deeply. while i would like to pretend it is because i am such an incredible person, that would be a lie. they all bond with me because i am “it”. i am the one and only, many hours a day, consistent human in their lives. all of them will bond with another if they ever find a home. cases in point…sandy 1, murphy and phoebe. all doing well in their new homes and bonding well with their new families, and all of them finally home.

little sandy 2 has taken some time. today he is slowing down on his constant look out for his family’s return. he is actually paying attention to what i am doing for a change. he just spent my bath time, giving me little sweet kisses over the rim of the tub and laying patiently on the matt next to the tub for me to finish.

i told jean earlier this week that dogs adjust, they don’t commit suicide when their lives turn upside down. and this is true. finally, i see some signs of sandy’s adjustment but i still think it is sad that he has had to do this at this time of his life.

i think by the time humans or animals become old, they should be given an end of life grace period. if they have survived and adjusted and met all the challenges that a long life gives, to me it is only fair that at the end of their roads, their lives become predictable and safe.

sandy doesn’t love me yet, but he is tying his leash so to speak to the safest (and only) tree in his forest. next week or next month, he will give all of himself to me. because that is what dogs do, if you let them. i am still looking for a better tree for you sadman.

i got kinda behind today and by the time i was finishing the barn it was getting dark. shoot! i missed the evening walk, but then i thought, that is not fair to them. so i shoved the barn guys into their stalls and tossed them some hay to hold them for a bit. i grabbed most of the dogs but not maudie, norton, copper or jazz cuz it was just too dark to take them out, and off we went. i do not know what i was thinking, it will be another 5 days now before they get out in the evening again, cuz i am back to work tomorrow. how many more evening walks do moses, and dexter and bill actually have? not fair to rip them off because of my poor planning.  they had a blast, i think cole likes running in the shadows best anyway. the dark dogs show up against the white snow so it was easy to round everyone up again when we were done. moses couldn’t finish the walk and came home early again on his own. right after i finished feeding the barn guys and came back in, ellen arrived with some great large fleece coats for the big dogs, hey, they get cold too.. dexter is sporting a jungle print, and i am just about to go stick  a ruby flowery one on moses too. thx ellen, those are really nice and toasty after a cold winter evening run.  

i think breeders who are trying to improve their breed of choice, need to try hanging out in their favorite breeds bodies for a change.  norton is a good example. here is a 70 pound dog with twice as much weight, and twice as much spinal cord than is necessary, a big dog’s body, trying to motor around on midget sized, 3 inch legs. how stupid is that?

so we are out in the field today, and norton loses sight of me. suddenly he spied me across the field. oh my gosh, what a glow hit his face and he was off and literally running for me. i have to say it was one of the most beautiful sights i have seen, just like one of those movies with the woman running in slow motion thru the surf to her beloved.

except this was real life. norton didn’t quite make it to me. he made it 3/4’s of the way, stopped, dead in his tracks and fell over. right onto his side. then there was the scene of my frantically running towards him thinking that OMG he just upped and died, like some other kind of not so happy movie.

anyway, he wasn’t dead. i am not sure what exactly happened there. i got him back to his feet and slowly he followed me back to the house.

breeding dogs is a responsibility. no 70 pound dog deserves to be saddled with 3 inch legs despite what the breed standards say.

norton came up against his age and his stupidly bred body today, it totally wrecked his moment of pure joy in the snow.

the bank sent out an appraiser to evaluate the property so i could have a better deal on the existing interest rate on my personal line of credit (which paid for the painting and the 2 new roofs). sadly they did not send out the very nice man that appraised my house in maple ridge and really liked me and the animals. they sent out the fellow who originally appraised this place when i bought it and thinks i am crazy and the property is crap.

shit, the snow is covering the new roofs,  i forgot he was coming so the cleaning isn’t done, and there are alot of animals here for someone who thought i was crazy even before he saw the place packed full of animals….there goes the lower interest rate and the appraisal fee right out the window. oh well whatever, the horses are hungry and now i am even later feeding them then i was before. and jack and dexter don’t care about interest rates, they care more that i just ate the last peanut butter cookie.

everything is on her terms. she will let me pet her if she is not busy (but she wants to smell my hand first to find out where it’s been, if it is clean enough to touch her and/or am i really someone she knows well enough to even think about touching her in the first place). she shoves her flat little face into my cup each morning, looking to see if i am having tea or milk. she prefers milk but will sip at the tea if i am not so stupid to make it too hot.

she will climb on my lap in the evening and let me move her on and off from said lap to the chair as i get up and down, but mornings are her time to wander and check out the computer and whack at my bathrobe belt and toss a pen off the desk and onto the floor. she loathes the orange boys and especially sunny and the more she screams the closer he has to get to see what the heck is her problem.

boo would do great in a quiet home of her own. the problem is few would keep her through that year long adjustment period when she hated your gutz…ahhh boo, you are such a toad.