MANY THINGS AND BABY CONLEY

First my son in law, John, has been selected to publish a blog on the online Chicago Tribune, concerning sports. I believe the title of his blog will be
"THE CUB'S DEN" and am not sure when it starts, but am promoting it starting now. So if you are a Cub's fan, watch for it to appear.

I mentioned recently that the snow has melted and left the yard looking like the Okeefenokee swamp. That I watch for alligators to pop up and eat the Bassets goes without saying, altho I do not think there are many this close to Chicago. (I have long harbored a secret desire to buy a kid's inflatable alligator swim thing and install it somewhere in the wetlands in the middle of town, partially submerged...)(Someday....)
Anyway here is a photo of Nigel. Please notice the FEET. The feet is what this photo is about: note the color...

Keep in mind that his entire belly is probably the same color-- that is black-- and that this is not normally his coloration....
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I have been looking (without success) for a batch of photos I took in the Badlands and points west. I cannot find them, but I did stumble across the photos we took of Conley the day I brought him home.

And then there were several photos of Llewis, which I can not resist adding....

And we wonder why we love them so.

I SING THE SONG OF MUCK BOOTS

I sing the Song the of Muck Boots
Black and Rubber Muck Boots
Waiting on the freezer
Full of hope.

The weather has begun to change
The yard is mud and slime
The boots await their perfect time
To go outside and range
Among the objects left behind
By the well-fed Bassets of mine.

The temp it climbs
The time is near
The Boots await
They know not fear

Wash an wear they do not care
In what they step or how it came to be
They only smile and wander on
Knowing that they protecteth me
From items in the yard best left
Unsaid, unidentified: the objects left behind
By the well-fed Bassets of mine.

I sing the Opera of Muck Boots
The Diva of the yard
The Black and Rubber Muck Boots
The Best $65 I ever spent.

A CURE FOR THE COMMON COLD

I am either getting a cold or the flu. I am runny, achy, tired, sneezy, red-eyed and ornery. Altho my husband would claim the last on that list is my normal state.
When I was little I got fearsome colds, terrible things that lasted forever and went into my chest and gave me bronchitis with a deep, bassoon-type cough that kept me out of school for days.
Mother would insist, among other things, that sleep was curative. Ah so. I think that part of her treatments was correct.
So that now, when I am getting sick, I sleep.

I went to bed at the unheard hour of 9pm. I slept. Not steadily, but well enough. I took my Zicam whenever I got up to attend to the reason for waking. I kept Kleenex by the bed (Mother said if you had it with you you wouldn't need it. She was wrong, but I cling to the hope.)
At 5:30 I was awakened by the needs of the Hounds. Actually, Cooper came and got me up.
I felt better but not well. It is, without the windchill, 4 degrees outside. On went Nigel's boot on his bandaged foot, everyone went out for a quickie pee, and I fed them, read my mail, responded to some. The dogs bedded down in the living room and Conley on my bed.

                 (Of course there was no sunlight, but you get the idea.)

I read the news, avoided turning on the radio or TV and got more and more tired again, not really ready to get up and face daylight (which was still long in the future at that hour)....

So I turned everything off, lights, computer, brain. (The latter is more often the case than I would like to admit. Getting it to turn ON is the tricky part.)
And, shoving Conley to the back of the bed I laid down with my back to him.

Now.
Conley is absolutely without question the very best snuggler I have EVER had. He is better than any male person in the Universe, sorry John, including my husband. He is, first of all, pliable. I can shove him around so that I am comfortable, too. He adjusts. I need no blankets with Conley because he is so warm and cuddles up so close to my back it is like having your very own hot water bottle.
Conley doesn't snore. He doesn't wake me up and snarl when I do. He doesn't squirrel around trying to get more of the pillow, or suggest snidely that if I were not so "large" he could have more room. He breathes softly, warmly, and evenly on my neck. For an hour or so this is the most restful, deep, relaxing and sweet sleep that I will have.
Conley makes me crazy, yes he does. He eats my food if I turn my back, he takes knives off the counter and runs with them, he picks fights with Cooper and Nigel, he pees on the floor at the Gallery, he won't put his tail up in the show ring for me.

But it's ok. I don't care. Because boy, is he the best cure for the common cold ever.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

On Feb 6, 1974 my daughter had a terrible cold. She was 4. I got up in the middle of the night, very pregnant, to go take care of my little girl, and my water broke.
I went back to bed after settling Stacey and cleaning up and called the Doctor. Was I in labor? No. He said, stay put. Don't move around. Call me when you go into labor.
I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And I did not go into labor so around 4 or 5 in the morning I called him back and said, I'm not doing anything, but every time I move I lose water. He said, get in here then.

So John went out to start the car and it would not start. It was cold and snowy and I was pregnant and the car just sat there like the huge red lemon that it truly, honestly was.

We called a neighbor. They drove us to the hospital and went home. I never did go into labor, I was induced. They were very worried about the baby. This was long before you knew whether you were having John or Harriet. So they piggy-backed some Oxytocin into my IV. This is like going from 0 to 100 in 10 seconds. You skip over all that boring prelim stuff, like having contractions increase slowly over time. You go right into the monster contractions, no warning. One second you are laying there fretting and the next you are clawing at the ceiling. All you want is to go home and forget about it all.
I remember thinking "This was a BAD idea!" But of course, it wasn't.

Christopher John was born at noon that day. He was small but perfect and had a head of black, thick hair. He was my baby.

At home, Stacey continued with her terrible cold. She was angry. Mommy was gone, she was sick, she had been rousted out of bed and taken to a neighbor's in the middle of night, more or less. And worst of all, Daddy had no ride home. He finally called a co-worker who came and got him. Al. Al and Daddy stole a pass (no one but family allowed) and Al came to see me and the newbie, the only non-family member who got in.

And then, there was the gas shortage so that even when he got the car running, John had trouble finding gasoline. Eventually it all worked out, and I got home, and Stacey after awhile  decided the new kid was ok. Not wonderful, but at least acceptable.

Today my baby is 37. I hope he has a wonderful Birthday and I wish I could be there with him. Happy Birthday, Christopher John.

BOOKS

This is part of one of my bookcases:  (There are 5 in this room alone.)

Mushrooms of North America
A Pocket Guide to Hawaiian Birds
Guide to Rocks and Minerals
A Golden Guide to Trees
To the World's Best Mother
Advanced Birding
Bats of America
Audubon Guide to North American Seashells
In Cold Blood
Spineless Wonders
Grasses
Smithsonian Guide to Rocks and Minerals
Hawks and Owls of the Great Lakes Region
Birds of North America
The Great Influenza
Winterdance
Living to Tell the Tale
My Life
The Essential TE Lawrence
Sibley's Birding Basics
The Wit and Wisdom of Harry Truman
President Kennedy Has Been Shot
Everything Here is Mine
AKC complete Dog Book
The Gourmet Cookbook
Poisoning in Dogs and Cats
Managing the Veterinary Cancer Patient
The Basset Hound
Surviving Your Dog's Adolescence
Tracking From the Ground Up
Medical and Genetic Aspects of Purebred Dogs
The Winning Edge
Training Tracking Dogs
The Official Book of Basset Hounds
The Belgian Sheepdog
Merck Veterinary Manual
Honest Dogs
Iditarod Dreans
Canine Terminology
The Back of the Pack
Father of the Iditarod
Complete Works of the New Yorker
Ten Ever-Lovin Blue-eyed Years With Pogo
Born to Win
Lord of Misrule
Stories of John Cheever
Lucky Jim
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Secret of Germs
How to Cook Everything
From Julia Child's Kitchen
Blue Latitudes
Measuring the World
Field Guide to Warblers
Shattered Innocence
Pony Farm
The Worst Hard Time
K-9 Structure
To Kill A Mockingbird
Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders
Sibley's Birds
Cannery Row
The Comedians

and it goes on and on and on...........

BLIZZARDTIME

Offically we have 19" of snow but I am not sure, at our house, that we have that much. Nevertheless it is a substantial amount, and with the wind it has drifted badly. Keeping the doors clear has proven to be a monumental task.
I went out at 4:30 a.m. to shovel paths (very short ones) for the dogs.
When Conley went out he decided he wanted one of his own and to my total horror he struck out across the yard, with the determination that only a Basset can have, to blaze a trail.
He is not feeling well because I forgot and loaded him with vaccines yesterday instead of breaking them into small groups. So his entire rear was sore and he looked as if he ached all over. He spent last night voluntarily in his crate, and so far this morning, that was where he had been until I gave him a Deramaxx. Now he is more mobile.
Anyway here is our blizzard altho, honestly, you do not get the whole picture and the depth of the snow is somehow less impressive:

My Van. It is going to be there awhile.

Llewis in the lead, surprisingly, patient (for once) Nigel close behind, following (wallowing) along in Conley's path through the yard.

Cooper starts and then thinks about it and changes his mind. It would exhaust him to go that far through such deep snow with only 3 legs.

Conley checking to see if possible there is less snow where I am than there is where he is. It is the same.

             Dis are Cnly an I hab had enuf ob dis stinky dam snow.                                      Stay warm and safe.