MOVING ON WHETHER I WANT TO OR NOT

Down to three dogs. When we began owning dogs and my Mother was still alive, every new dog and cat brought a chorus of dismay. Oh no, we didn't REALLY need another dog (cat) did we?
Well no of course we didn't NEED one.
We wanted one.
Or two.
Or three. Or.....
And at one point we had 5 and then 4 and now 3.

I have friends with drop-dead gorgeous homes, who travel widely and have beautiful art and gardens and in their closets they have clothing and extra linens and good pots and pans and new dishes and in my closets I have extra blankets for the dogs, throws for the furniture, cases of KOE and enzymatic barf cleaner, stacks of paper towels: cupboards sport dog bowls, dog dishes, dog plates, extra cans of dog food, emergency dog food for sickies, and my medicine cabinet has Flagyl and Tramadol, Rimadyl and GasX, Benedryl,Reglan, a few antibiotics and a couple of tablets of Prednisone...if I cut my finger my choices are purple or green Vetwrap.

The shelf in the other room is a veritable nest of leashes: leather,nylon, show leads, braided leads, 4 foot leads, 6 foot leads and collars-- prong collars, martingale collars, buckle collars, collars with nameplates and tags, collars without, small ones for puppies, and a slew of as-they-grow sizes. Tracking harnesses, tracking leads, surveyor poles with flags and without,  and  gloves, socks, hats, wallets and little tins to use as articles on tracks.

The kitchen drawers contain special treats, Frontline, HeartGard, some old toys and some chewed up bones.

If you come into my house and inhale and say BOY THAT SMELLS GOOD I am cooking for the dogs.
Chances are good if you come in my house and inhale you may also think--wow, she needs to steam those rugs!

Decorations consist of crates, dog blankets, dog beds, little portable stairs so the Bassets can access the furniture, dog show photos, backyard dog photos, and the one or two trophies we have managed to snag.
And on another shelf, somewhat hidden away, are the cannisters and glass urns and the boxes....Walker, Quiller, Mitchell, Zelda and now Cooper. (And the cats.)

So down to three now. And it is so quiet. Way too quiet. I have begun searching for that new addition.... and when it is very very still I can almost hear my Mother saying "Oh BEVERLY, Not ANOTHER one!" But is it faint, and I can ignore it.....

CH. MIDNIGHT ACRES HIGH NOON, Hct:  "COOPER" APRIL 5, 2012

COOPER

Tomorrow Cooper will undergo exploratory surgery to see if there is anything we can do to help him eat and keep it down.

If there is not, I will let him go.

Without the surgery, he will die slowly, starving, so this is kind of a no-brainer.

I will be there so I will be able to see what is in there and make the choice.

I hope I can live up to his standards.

They are pretty high.

THE GLASS SHOW AND MOSTLY PICS

The glass exhibit is over and the kids are heading back to Tennessee. We are left with good memories, a new lamp and I have a wall-mounted glass bird. Black with beautiful sunflower yellow speckles and streaks down his back.

Over the weekend we held the show, went to dinner, cleaned the back yard and wore ourselves out. Koda, Stacey Adam's lovely Aussie-with-a-tail visited as well, altho he went for a walk with Conley he did not meet the Gang of Four head on, but spent the afternoon in the yard while Stacey, Christopher and John cleaned the yard up and I cooked stuffed Manicotti.

The banner in the window of the Salon Artists Gallery, where the glass was being shown.

A pair of birds done by Chris Szaton of Marble City Glassworks

A section of the glass exhibit. Flowers napkin holders, with tumblers and a pitcher behind them.

The pendant light section.

These are paperweights done by Matt Salley, the other half of Marble City Glassworks. He does these and Christiopher does the birds, and both of them do other items together.

My new bird, from the front.

...and the back

Our new living room lamp.

Koda, a wonderful dog

Stacey helping to clean up the backyard of cut down saplings and a winter's worth of plant debris.

Half of Marble City Glassworks, my son Christopher cleaning the yard with

his girl, Stacey and his Dad, John. It looks fabulous, the yard.All in all it was a great weekend, and I think they sold a lot and did well. I also got to see my daughter (Stacey) andher husband John Arguello, and meet their neighbor, Bonnie. My sister-in-law drove in to see the exhibit and we all went to dinner.
Last night we said goodbye to the kids and I wish Stacey A and Christopher and Koda a speed and safe trip.

Glass can be viewed and custom ordered at

www.marblecityglassworks.com
or viewed at their Etsy store
http://www.etsy.com/people/MarbleCityGlassworks?ref=ls_profile

BITS AND PIECES

I find it fascinating that the dogs get me up at 4 or 4:30 in the morning and, apparently energized, go out and check the entire yard and then, once I am up for good, go back to sleep. I mean, they are ASLEEP--- that level where they would not even hear me if I left. But if I rattle the treat box moving it aside, I have them awake and underfoot

Yesterday I took Conley and went for a walk with Stacey and Koda. Stacey power-walks or something akin to it and I was trying to keep up, but Conley and I fell behind. Conley snuffled every bush as he went but Koda, a herding breed and determined to follow instructions, did not. I can teach the Belgians to hup along and not check out every upright plant, but not the Bassets. Those noses are just the key to the world of smells, and the siren song is too strong. On the other hand, the Bassets could care less if everyone comes in when called, but the Belgian has to go back out and bring them in. Everything in it's place, I think is the herding dog motto.

I met someone yesterday who rescues mixed breeds but not purebreds because rescuing purebreds "only encourages show people" to continue breeding and everyone knows--according to this person-- that they abandon the dogs that are not show quality. Of course this is absurd, but I kept my mouth shut. I was not at home but in a public place with other people and she was a customer and so I was quiet but when she asked whether I had dogs I said yes, I show and breed Bassets.

It was a bit of a lie, since I am doing neither at this time, but was worth it for the look on her face. Heh. I am a rotten person.

Conley, when I am in the kitchen, places himself between me and the counter or sink. It is a damnable habit and one I would stop. No matter how often or with what force he is ejected, he returns.  It isn't so much that he is waiting for me to drop something but that he is creating a situation where this is much more likely to happen. We say the Belgians need only one instance to learn something, but Bassets are not dull and need only one time with a food dropping off the counter to recognize a golden opportunity.And they are perfectly capable of projecting this into the future, so that they anticipate the event. Between leaning over the dog to the counter and the slipperly drool on the floor, Conley has created the perfect environment for an accidental dropping of foodstuff. And he knows it.

The softest spot in the house is the only place a Basset belongs.

ONCE A HOUND....

Of the four dogs three are hounds and have noses. The fourth also has a nose but I don't think he pays as much attention to smells as the hounds do, which makes sense since noses are what these hounds are all about.

So yesterday I let the dog that had accompanied my son and his girl up from Knoxville, a delightful Aussie named Koda (I think that is how she spells it) use the backyard.

We orchestrated it so that my dogs would be eating and would not even know Koda was in the yard. My dogs are not a pack: they're a Gang Of Four. I don't know how other people handle guest dogs, but I have never even tried it. I have a feeling my dogs would not greet a stranger in their midst with open paws.

Anyway so Koda came and used the yard and left without my dogs ever getting sight of him, but of course, his scent was all over the place. It was really funny. I wish I had a film of the hounds hitting the back door, shooting out, screeching to a halt, noses up, whirling around and attacking the gate. From there they put their noses to the ground and began an in-depth study of the trail that meandered about the yard --THEIR YARD!!!--- and the pee spots and so on, and the longer they tracked the more excited they got. Sometimes they would stop and peer around as if expecting a dog to materialize behind them. (Talk about a "hot track").
As they nosed their way through the grass they first began to mumble, then broke into shouting, tails going like mad they bellowed and stomped and bayed as they raced around Koda's trail. And ended up back at the gate, yelling and hollering, daring Koda to come out of hiding and show himself. He was of course, long gone.

During this time the Belgian, with his excellent but hardly comparable nose, stood and watched in amazement. (He often does this when the Bassets are on one of their Missions.) Cooper probably could smell Koda also but it never occur-ed to him to charge blindly about the yard telling the world about it. He would be more likely to sit quietly by the gate and wait to see if Koda returns.

It took quite awhile for the boys to settle down. At one point they came back into the house, ran to the front door and looked up and down the street, then ran to the back door to go out, and began all over again. It is interesting that they were able to understand that Koda had come from the front and that if they came in and looked out the window, they might see the interloper. That requires some reasoning ability, something many experts don't think dogs have. Clearly, they do.

THIS IS COOPER

This is Cooper.
Ch. Midnight Acres High Noon, HCT.
Born Nov 3rd, 2000 I think. Or 2001. He is 11. And now, he is failing.
He is my heart dog, my soul dog, my constant and enthusiastic companion.
He is an AKC Champion of record.
He was born in the country but is a city dog at heart. He finds horses, cows and sheep to be things to avoid.
He rides in cars, he does elevators. He has stayed in many motels in many places. He travels well. He guards his flock. He watches the house, he alerts to things that are a block away. He waits every day for the mailman, the UPS man, the Fed Ex man and anyone who looks suspicious--- which means anyone outside the immediate family.

Cooper is ill. A year and a half ago he lost a front leg to Osteosarcoma. Now he has some kind of lesion in his  belly, at the pyloric valve. He has trouble eating. He has lost a lot of weight. He is bleeding somewhere inside. Nevertheless he barks at strangers, guards the house, wags his tail, grins his silly Belgian grin.
I cannot bear the thought of losing him, but I will.

I am trying to prepare myself mentally and emotionally for the nights without him, for the days that I do not feed him, for the afternoons that he does not lay in the sun on the deck.

I am trying to prepare for his empty collar and his put-away dishes, For the toys he doesn't need anymore, and the silence when the mailman comes. I am trying to brace for looking in the back of the Van and seeing --- no Cooper. Because this is coming.

I am not ready. I hope he isn't, either.