OTHER THINGS

Yesterday  I found my ancient iPod and decided to add some stuff to it only to find it was no longer possible to do that unless I deleted EVERYTHING I had put on it and started all over. So I did. I spent all day putting stuff into iTunes and then into the iPod. There are CDs stacked everywhere. Some are mine and some are John's.Mine are mostly bluegrass-- Doc Watson, especially. The rest are classical if you consider Enya to be classical. Lots of Bernstein, Strauss, two spoken ones: Fierce Pajamas which is stories from the New Yorker, and ...and... uh...oh. The Capitol Steps-- which is a combo of spoken and songs all terribly dated having to do with the Bush (first bush, not shrub) administration.

(This is a crowned crane.. I have to have photos in this blog or it's no good. Since I am not talking about anything important, I thought something living but decorative would be nice.)

The dogs spent most of yesterday outside. I can only let two out at a time-- puppy and Conley or puppy and Llewis but otherwise, three is a barkfest. If it doesn't bother the neighbors it drives me crazy.

Like a Tiger or Leopard, Doc goes for the back of the neck when he is "playing" I have not seen a puppy play this way before and I am not sure what to think. He does not have stripes or spots but I am wondering if this is a dominance thing, so early. He is slow to show his belly unless one of the others is REALLY pissed at him. Most of the time when that happens instead of rolling over he dashes off and stays away. Doc, I think, is not short of ego.

Beneath this sweet and innocent exterior beats the heart of a dictator. He is already losing some of this sweetie-pie look: the nose is lengthening, the eyes are more alert, the fuzz is full of sticks, twigs, leaves and some burrs which I am forever pulling out. When he plays, he bites. I gave him (he took) a huge cardboard box when he arrived. It is now two small pieces about 8" in diameter, each. Maybe six.
Every night and every morning I crawl around the room picking up tiny pieces of chewed up cardboard.
I try to picture my Mother living this way and now I know why we didn't have dogs. Or cats.
Now I understand why, when a kid says "Can I have a puppy?" the sensible Mother says "I don't know." instead of "Oooo how many??"