I take my woofing little dog a little more seriously here in the forest when she suddenly sits up and growls menacingly out the sliding glass window that steps out onto the covered porch.    The other day this happened when she was stretched atop the back of the sofa  and Lynn and I decided, without getting up to look for ourselves, that she was “barking at her reflection from the glass doors” again.    Moments later I was sitting reclined in front of the side window that looks toward the trees by the street when movement outside of the side window caught my eye and I looked up to see what I first thought was the neighbor’s dog.    However, as soon as it stepped completely out from behind the bush that has grown up to where it interferes a little with my view, I received a wonderful gift from. nature when it looked directly at me for a moment   I could see clearly, all the way from the beautiful tufted ears, to the defined stripes around its eyes and nose, on down to the bobcat’s stubby tail.   (This picture is courtesy of http://www.weforanimals.com./ )  It looked bigger than those I’ve seen next to the tigers and lions at the zoo.    By the time Lynn made it to the window our cat had stealthily crept the length of the lawn and was headed into the trees at the front of the property.      There wasn’t time to pull out the camera but we have since removed it from its case and have it sitting readily on a nearby shelf.

There’s been a lot of disturbing noise from the property behind this house as lumbermen have mercilessly “clear cut” the large trees that lined the back border and the acres behind us.     It has created a homeless situation among the wildlife that have been our neighbors   I feel sad when I think of their homes being destroyed; especially with winter blowing in so quickly.   I can’t help but wonder where all of my furry little friends will go from here.    We’ve seen squirrels, deer, and possums, and we suspect we have a midnight raccoon but we haven’t yet spotted the neighborhood’s black bears. Needless to say we are taking good care of our garbage and keeping a close eye and a short leash on little poochie while she takes care of “business”.  

We are loving our stay in the woods.     It’s different living where the skies are grey and it rains more than it doesn’t, but it has been comfortable … and healing.   As I write this I’m sitting by a crackling fire listening to the cadence of the rain that counts along with the 4/4 timing of the keyboard as I type.   The rain and I are the perfect accompaniment to the Tabernacle Choir’s rendition of “Sleigh bells”.  The stately pine trees are even swaying in sync.    I just love it, love it, love it!    A huge, from deep in the heart thank you to Warren’s friend, Tracy Green, for trusting us with his mother’s home for a few months.   Anyone would feel good here!

Two days ago my little 2 1/2 year old grand daughter accompanied us on our walk and that changed everything.       The sky was blue, the clouds were fluffy, the weeds with tiny purple flowers were pretty.   The birds were singing, a tiny stream of water was crawling down the side of the road.   One truck that passed was a beautiful bright red, another a sunny yellow.    One little girl hummed and sang and skipped and chattered as she held on to the leash attached to the collar of my little white Bichon.    She definitely took the hum out of the drum of that twenty minutes.    Any one of my seventeen grandchildren can do this for me.    I am so blessed!

Went to the doctor today for a smorgasbord of ailments and came away with a smorgasbord of prescription changes plus a 2 week trip of intense prednisone because my body has “inflammation” in diverse places and I am complaining loudly about it.   When in pain the world will know it … I don’t go down quietly.    But now we have another problem.  Prednisone keeps me wide awake 24/7.    I mean WIDE awake.   We’re talking really alert awake.  It also makes me really hot.   Not hot as in “hot mama” either.  Hot as in “hot flashes” (as if I didn’t have enough of those already!  Give me a break!)

I liked the new doctor today.   Female and friendly.   She’s probably younger than me but she could be my age I guess and just be really healthy which would make her look younger.   How would one know the age of a healthy person?    I hope she stays around and doesn’t move or retire like everybody else.    I even wanted to call her by her first name … but I didn’t.   I didn’t call her anything because it just didn’t seem like I should call her doctor after we’d become such bosom buddies (hypothetically speaking of course), and I didn’t really dare call her Kris yet.    Maybe by the 2nd visit …?

I’m back to pouring anti-fungal lotion in my ears.   What a crummy thing to have to admit, that I grow mushrooms in my ears!   Well, she didn’t call it mushrooms, she called it fungus but I figure it’s about the same thing.   I also have eczema in the ears … clear to my navel.    I sometimes lay in bed thinking things like “If I get so old I can’t take care of myself and/or communicate … how will I tell my caregivers that my ears itch?”   Sometimes I would like to get a bottle brush and stick it in one ear and pull it out the other and push it back and forth a while to stop the itching!     It runs in our family apparently … the itchy ears.   I don’t know if the others actually have a garden in their ears but I do know when we get together there is always a discussion about the itching.    That’s because we all inherited tiny ear canals.     We also inherited jumpy legs, our 2nd choice of talk topics.   When we tire of that we talk about not being able to sleep … unless we are trying to watch a move, of course.   When we run out of health issues there is always creeping underwear.

I found a really good sale at Wally-Mart today and loaded up … on valentines.   I don’t know why.   I got these cute little mail box looking things with 32 valentines tucked inside (14 of them).  Like I said, I don’t know why other than they were cheap … only fifty cents each … and that did include 32 valentines!    Then I saw the Maxwell chocolates in red heart tins.   What would you have done if you saw them sitting there for fifty cents each tin?    Each one probably holds maybe 4 or 5 chocolates.    I thought I could freeze them for next year and give them out to my friends and everybody in the family, but Lynn informed me that won’t work  because they will go funny.    Keeeeeerap.   (That’s a carry over word from my dad.   I figure it’s not really cussing because of how it’s spelled.)   So now I have … drum roll please … 48 little red tin boxes of chocolates.    Yes, I said 48, and that’s because I didn’t get 72 so don’t give me any lip.   I guess I’ll be handing them out a little early.    They don’t say “Happy Valentine’s” on them so does it really matter?   I mean, can’t we say I love you with a red box of chocolates other times of the year?  Like for St. Patrick’s Day maybe?

Oh, if you don’t have a disability permit thing hanging in your car don’t park in the disability parking!   I saw a parking lot cop leaving this gal a ticket on her car today and danged if she didn’t come RUNNING FULL THROTTLE across the parking lot to stop him!      But it was already too late.   The ticket was written in the book with multiple copies and it couldn’t be erased.     Now she has to go before the judge and show her permit (which was in the car but not hanging) or pay $100 in a fine.    That’ll teach ya little old lady with short term memory loss who could sprint fast enough to qualify for the Senior Olympics.    Don’t forget to hang the permit!

Poor little doggy is here beside me and she is so tired she keeps asking me to go to bed with her.    I told her she could go without me but she is so loyal she just can’t do it.     There is nothing as sweet as this little girl dog.    She has love written all over her and it shines out of her eyes like  … gee, I don’t know … like a goo goo ga ga lovesick teenager.    It is really pathetic, actually, how she can’t control her love.    Imagine if I were to act like she does every time Lynn walked in the door … panting, rolling around, wagging my behind back and forth so fast I can’t keep my balance … jumping up and down trying to get him to pick me up so I can lick his face!   True love if I ever saw true love.

I have to admit … it may be 3:21 in the morning but I’m feeling pretty dang good right now.   Better than I have in a couple of months.    If everyone wasn’t asleep I believe I’d start cleaning the house.  (Whew thank goodness they are!)

And that’s about it ….

“Woof, woof woof woof, woof, woof woof woof.”

Translation:  “Thank you, Aunt Ann, for the nifty plastic thing that clips onto a water bottle.  It has been a life saver!   Tell Comet hi!”

This post is for Sandi … the sweet lady who gave me this little Lady when she heard how I’d lost Ozzy.    She looks like a wooly little lamb with the moist ocean air here.   I don’t even try to straighten her hair.

Lady and I were sitting in the warm car watching the waves come in at the beach early this evening.   She loves to sit in the front window of the car or the motor home when they are parked and watch whatever is going on outside.

Lady has turned out to be quite the traveler.   She loves it and her sweet nature has started up many conversations with people we meet.      Everywhere we go people talk to her and she gives them her special “smile”.

Sandi, she is a precious, sweet little girl and we love her so much!    She loves life and brightens every day.     There just isn’t a complete way to tell you “Thank You”.    

These two cuties went with us to Pine Valley last week.    Ande only stayed two days and one night, but what fun we had … at least until we tried to get her to sleep at night!    She insisted on sleeping between us (I say sleeping but I meant to say wrestling).    Finally, I explained to her that she had to sleep in her own little bed on the floor between our bed and the wall (it was just about a perfect fit for a little girl 20 months old).   She let out a few squawlers but surprised us both when within one minute she was fast asleep and all was quiet.    Very early in the morning we were greeted with “Hi BaPa, Hi Mum!” and we were off to the races once again.   Lynn and I were 2nd and 3rd in the races and Ande was definitely ahead by several lengths no matter what time of the day it was.   

I didn’t really say much about it in the last post but having little poochie ask to go outside and do her business is a REALLY BIG DEAL around here!     Two years ago when we got her she wouldn’t go potty outside because she’d been raised to go on puppy pads in a house with all tile floors where she lived with a wonderful woman and about 20 other Bichons or Poodles.    We’d take her outside and she would nervously anticipate going back inside to use the piddle pads.    Over time she learned to go outside some of the time, but we also had to leave pads out just in case.

I can’t even tell you how exciting it has been to have her all of a sudden “get” it.   To have her come up and give us a whine when she wants to be taken for a quick walk so she can do her dootie is about enough to move me to tears!    It is worth a standing ovation. 

Two years ago we took our first Bichon to Pine Valley and he was tragically killed by a Pit Bull.    The camp host was telling me what a cute little dog I have so I told him about Ozzy.   He said they’d told him about it when he was hired.   I’m glad to know they are being more particular about the dogs allowed into the park now.    They drove around and checked regularly to make sure dogs were on leashes and campers were obeying the rules.

Anyway … these two little roommates were a lot of fun together in the mountains and I was glad for their company.

And she turns on you?

Or, heaven forbid, dogs you all together?

In fact, sometimes life just sucks …

Well, there’s always Nintendo

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   We have smart pets.

Fresca, our Bichon, gets a treat when she comes in from outside … our way of reinforcing outside pottying.     She sure has learned fast.    She now knows if she barks to go outside for a few minutes she gets a treat when she comes in.     Now and then when she’s out she even goes potty.

We’ve been working on “HERE”.    Up ’til now she has been lured and begged using  the very latest training techniques:   “Come on, please, kissing noises, pats on the legs, and get over here!”    She doesn’t come because she is a princess.   She thinks it’s really cool for us to go pick her up and carry her.   Sometimes when you go to pick her up she actually smiles at you coyly before she rolls over on her back in case you want to tickle her tummy first.   She’s learning, though.   She’s actually comes sometimes now when I say “here”  … if she sees me get a treat out of the bottle first.

Funny thing is when we try to leave via the front door she is there in a flash, tail wagging, body wiggling in expectation and cuteness while she tries to make eye contact.  She uses her eyes to communicate and she is pretty good at it.   She is so disappointed when we say “stay” that her shoulders slump and her eyes droop and lose luster as all wiggling and tail wagging comes to a sad halt.    It’s pathetic really but it does what she intends it to do … instills guilt.    The last thing we see as we drive away is her sad little face peering through the window in the TV room.   The first thing we see when we turn into the driveway is her happy little face.

She has a spot on the back of the love seat by the window in the TV Room that has a permanent indent where she lays on it and rests her head on the window sill so she can see when the car comes back down the road.  Boy does she come to life when it does!    It doesn’t matter if it’s me or Lynn she does the same dances and circles between the window and the door until the person comes in.     She is ecstatic and grateful and in love and it shoots out of her like soda pop after a few healthy, strong shakes.  

Thank goodness she isn’t a yapper.    She only barks when it’s absolutely necessary … like in the middle of the night when she sees the silhouette of a bobbing, helium balloon in the dark.  Have you ever heard a dog bark bloody murder?    She’s scared to death of helium balloons … day or night. 

Now FiFi, our feline Queen, would never consider coming to a command even if there was a treat involved.    In fact, if she wanted to come and you said, “here kitty” she would flip you off with her tail and walk out of the room.    She scratches on doors when she wants them opened.   Try to get her to come into the bedroom before we climb into bed and you’re wasting your energy.    The best way to get her in is to turn out the lights, climb in bed, and then get comfortable.     She doesn’t give up.  She has developed a two paw rhythm with her door scratching that can go on for hours.     We used to sleep with the door open so she could come and go when she wants, but we share our house with one of our daughters and her family so we like to shut the door at night.    FiFi also scratches to go out.    She has us trained well.

FiFi also knows when I am into a writing muse and that is when she chooses to come between me and the laptop.   Usually, Fresca is already curled up at my side in the Lazy-boy as I type.   FiFi sits on my lap to make sure I can’t see the computer screen and reaches her paws up to my neck and gives me a soft massage and purrs.    I could push her away but, darn it, you learn to take her loving when you get it even if it is inconvenient.    I’ve decided it’s her way of telling me to settle down and relax.   When she does that I tip the chair back a little and close my eyes and we just sit there together … I scratch her now and then and she massages me now and then.   It is hard to stay up tight when that happens … until I start itching.     

I don’t know.    Pets take an investment of time … and money … but to me they are sure worth it.     It’s a lot cheaper than a psychiatrist and they are always here when I need them … as long as I play by their rules.    I know all I have to do to get them to come is shake the treat can, turn on the computer, watch television, or get comfortable in my bed.

These burros were across the road from a muddy field of big bulldozers and diggy vehicles by Gunlock Reservoir.   They have drained the reservoir and are cleaning out the sludge.    I don’t think the burros were part of the reservoir clean up but they seemed to have a regular job just the same.    There were a lot of logs thrown in the fenced off area that housed about 18 of them and it appeared their job was to clear the bark off all of the logs.    They didn’t seem to mind this strange way of getting their fiber … I suppose that is what those big front buck teeth are for?

I got to wondering what the difference is between a burro, a jackass, a donkey, and a mule … Well …. I found out.    A Donkey and a Burrow are the same thing.   A Jackass is a male donkey (hey don’t blame me, I didn’t decide … so it’s okay for a female donkey to say to her husband, “you’re such a jackass” but not okay for any other female to say that to her husband), and a Mule is what you get when a male horse (which is called a stallion) and a female donkey (which is a jenny) have a love child.    Mostly all I’ve known about Mules is that they are stubborn but apparently they are also stronger than a donkey and more sure footed than a horse.  Donkeys and horses are a different species but apparently they get along well enough to mate.   Mules, however, cannot reproduce.    And how do I know all this?   I asked Yahoo.