MOVING RIGHT ALONG

Leaving the Gallery today I put Doc into his crate in the Van and notice...
no
no it cannot be.
Yes it is.
No it cannot be.
Is that?
Ohhhhh................
yessssssssssssss.
snow in his black black coat.....

Little tics of it fading as rapidly as they appear.
He is unaware of the effect this has on his handler, the sinking feeling, the dread, the internalizing of SNOW.

True to form he is ecstatic about the weather. The only good thing about cold weather and Belgians is that they need another Belgian to be snow-babies in, and I have only one. That leaves....me.

 

How far away can this be? What will happen to my goldfish? I notice this morning the water is sludgier than usual, the fish not very responsive.  Will they die or make it through? I look out my front window and it is yes it is yes it is snowing. Not a lot but those big wet flakes that herald the start of the snow season. These will melt. Right away.We may even have wonderful warm weather.

 

But the writing is on the wall.

Scrabbled in black charcoal, wavery, written by an elder hand:

 

here we go again...........bwwaaaahahahhahaha

 

LEAVE IT TO ME

Leave it to me to look for news on television at 6 in the morning and instead find a program about dog breeding. Well it was a Smithsonian presentation so of course early morning routines ground to a halt while I watched. Doc watched part of it. He tends to watch commercials because I think they are more apt to have jerky movement in them, which catches his herder's eye.

 

Like squirrels do.

And stray cats across the street. Someone moved out and left their little calico kitty who now has had at least two litters, and the Village, our wonderful, on-top-of-it Village, our Tell-Them-Nothing Village, says feral cats are------------are you ready?

 

WILDLIFE!!!

 

And therefore out of Animal Control's jurisdiction.

Is that amazing, or what?

 

You want to know what's feral in this Village? Well I cannot put it in print. Admittedly there are bigger problems than feral cats but maybe if they started small...nevermind. Sorry.

 

 

Doc and I are going for a walk in awhile, while I still can move. The later in the day it gets the stiffer I become, until by 8pm I am like the tinman without oil.

Also the temp is dropping precipitously. It was pleasant at 6 when I let the beasts out, and it is now 45.

 

Alas, these days of sleeping in the hot sun, are gone..........

 

SUNDAY

A while ago John put in a small, kidney-shaped fish pond where we had had one before. We bought a little solar-powered pump, I got some plants from a friend of mine, and threw 10 (I do not think there were 10. I think there were only 7) goldfish.

 

If you are wondering why the solar panel is in a cage...

 

That's why.

The pump only works on sunny days. It doesn't store power so that on cruddy days like this morning, there's no pump.

Well so anyway, the dogs loved the pond and were fascinated with the fish. The pond is a plastic shell, pre-formed, about 2ft deep at one end and about a foot deep where the ledge is.

And then it occurred to me as I watched the dogs creep closed and closer to the edge of the water, that of four I have only 2 dogs I KNOW could get out of the pond if they fell (or jumped) in. Doc, with his long legs, and Conley, with his short but strong legs  and back.
Llewis could not possibly have enough drive in his rear to get out, and clearly, paralyzed, Nigel would drown right away.

So we put up a fence.

And now it's almost winter and is the pond deep enough to keep the fish alive?

We shall see...

 

BACK AGAIN

We grow in size but other things remain the same. Whatever kind of creature this was at one time (I think a cheetah) it is now without one leg which is kicking around the house while the rest is outside.

Doc has grown to love his walkies, even though we cover the same ground each time.

I have had arthroscopic surgery on my left knee and minor surgery on a toe on my right foot and therefore am able only to hobble for short distances. Walkies are short and sweet.

Today is Saturday, October 19, 2013.
I am driving to OHare Marriott to meet with Val Brewer from Hawaii and am very excited to meet her. I have been up since about 3:30, made extra dog food for John, and started dog laundry. I have my clean clothes laid out and the Garmin set. I will give myself an extra few minutes to get totally lost....

Earlier this week I went downtown and met MaryAnn Thomas for breakfast and a wonderful chat. I was so thrilled to meet her. I had heard so much about her from our mutual friend, Debbie Winchester.

TOMORROW

Tomorrow I have an arty thing in a neighboring Village and also my brother is coming in from California to have dinner. We had invited my daughter and her husband but I do not know if they will be there because my wonderful son in law is in the Hospital.
Anyway I will be trying to sell jewelry until about 3pm at which time I will flee for home, shower, change clothes, and head out for the restaurant.

 

Jewelry going to Mokena Wine-tasting, Food-sampling and hopefully art-selling afternoon

 

Where we'll be. Sort of. The barn where the art will be is behind the building in front. I wish I could bring Doc. Wouldn't he love it??
(No, not with all the wine and food tents that he wasn't allowed to go near.)

So that's where I will be tomorrow until it is time for me to leave and go get cleaned up to have dinner with my big brother, who I have not seen, I think for a year. My daughter will be there without her husband who will be staying in the hospital a few more days.
That's all I have.
Nothing more.

 

WE ARE STILL HERE

Haven't blogged much. Thinking a lot about friends who are having troubles, I guess. The dogs have been pretty quiet.

Doc has a new game. Called "Torture The Basset". When they all go out the door he leaps over the Bassets and starts biting Conley. I know how hard he is biting. Not hard enough to draw blood but it hurts. I know this for a fact. I have experience.

This enrages Conley, whose hackles go up and he charges, attacking Doc who dodges deftly out of the way, laughing. Over and over Conley goes for him but no matter what he does unless Doc feels like quitting, Conley cannot catch him. Now and then Doc ends up on the ground with Conley straddling him, chewing on his throat. Doc doesn't care. He just gets up. Once in a great while I see Doc get worried and then he just slinks off to a corner of the yard.

 

The boys are also sufficiently interested in the new fish pond that we have had to fence it off, at least until Nigel and Llewis learn to swim. Conley and Doc could get out easily, but neither of the other two could. They would drown.

 

 

 

 

The Basset Boys are ok, even with Nigel's UTI. I think this is something we are just going to be dealing with from time to time.

I have taken him off the SO dog food without permission and switched all of them to a dehydrated raw food that they love and it's going to require that I find a job if they are going to continue to eat it. Today I see the stuff I had  been feeding before the switch has been recalled.

 

 

Nigel enjoying the yard, the sun and what is left of the "garden". Unfortunately we put a path through it and he is always getting lost in there...

 

LewisLewis, my mouth with feet. This boy just never shuts up. Walk out the door, turn around and walk back in and it is as if you have

been gone for months.

 

Conley, feeling very princely, of course.

Waiting for someone to move so he can chase them.

THE DRYER THAT EATS THINGS

One of my most prized possessions is

No, sorry Conley. Not this time. You are prized but it isn't you. It's

Ooh Llewis, you are such a sweetie but no, not you in this case either. It's

Nigel........you are very special but this time I am talking about.....

 

 

 

O

 

 

Oh for heaven's sake! NONE of you!! I am talking, this time, about

 

 

My clothes dryer. The dog towel dryer. The dog bed dryer. The crate pad  dryer. The thing I use every day at least once and without which I would surely go insane. And yes, that is a metal garden goose on the dryer. Any more questions?

 

 

This is a shedding blade. It is small to fit my hand. I use it on the Bassets. The other day I used it on Nigel and laid it on the dryer. There is still some Nigel clinging to it.

 

This is the lint trap on my Dryer. It is covered. You grab the handle and pull the trap out and clean it. Then you put it back.

This is a gaping maw of the lint thingie with the trap pulled out. It goes directly into the innards of the dryer, of course.

 

 

This is a place you should never, ever never ever leave a shedding blade, because when you whip out the lint trap to clean it before starting the next load which happens to be Mr. Biskit's undies, the shedding blade gives a little bounce and slides down the open hole into the dryer.

 

No problem, you think. I'll get Mr. Biskit to take the vent tubes off and we'll be all set.

 

 

This is the amount of space he has to work in. Nevermind the ear tips at the bottom of the picture-- he was in his crate when the actual work took place.

 

This is Mr. Biskit. He is not necessarily a handyman type person.

 

So. He took the hose off. There's a fan there. He took the top off. No way to reach it.

He took the back off. It took about 40 minutes. One of the sockets rolled under the dryer.

He discovered he had to remove the lint trap but the screws were Phillips screws and were rusted. He's an old guy but he is also very determined and he finally got them out. Thank god I had the A/C on.

The space he had to work in is about 4ftx6ft.

Once he got the filter out he pried part of the back off and just as I was saying

"We're going to have to call someone"

POOF

He held up the shedding blade, a bottle cap and some other oddment that had, over the years, fallen down that trap.

 

My Hero.

 

Honestly, he kind of is. I could not have done that. Well I take it back. I could have done that, but I would have gotten tired of it right away and called someone. Like Mr. Biskit.