Wednesday:Words of Wisdom

I’ve spent the last two days cleaning house. My friend, Adelina, came and helped me for five hours both days. Se did the heavy scrubbing, floors, and bending. I’m still on the mend, and I get winded and dizzy if I do too much. Thank goodness for younger friends with stamina.

Unfortunately, I watch hoarders and I say, “Wow, that’s not so bad. I’ve got more junk than that.”

I’ve washed the back door glass twice. Two dogs + glass door = doggie nose art.

And a little something humorous, just because.

Theme Song Thursday: Dog’s Best Friend, Bunny’s Worst Enemy

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent.
Milan Kundera

Our dog, Bucky, doesn’t realize he isn’t a puppy anymore. He wants to play all the time and doesn’t understand why his old buddy doesn’t share his enthusiasm. He’s always doing something goofy. Thank goodness a camera is always nearby.

As I was writing this post, our dear little Buck scratched at the door, wanting to come in. He had something in his mouth. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but it wasn’t the usual stick or rock. No!!! The tiny legs protruding from his mouth, wiggling in desperation led me to believe a small creature had been captured. Yikes! Now what? I chased Buck around the yard with a broom for ten minutes yelling, “Drop it!” He jumped up on the levered door handle and ran in the house with his conquest. I finally cornered him in the family room, spritzed him with one of the many handy water spray bottles and clobbered him with the broom. (Gently clobbered) I grabbed a page from the newspaper to retrieve the stunned baby bunny and then carried him back outside. He was still alive as I placed him safely beyond the fence and away from harms way.

Poor Buck didn’t know it was bad to capture and toy with the bunny. He’s a hunting dog. It’s instinct, not malice. I think he just wanted to play with the little fury thing. It reminded me of Lennie from Steinbeck’s, “Of Mice and Men.” He just wanted to hold the soft bunny. (I hope the little thing makes it.)

Tuesday Tips and Tricks: Peanut Butter Anyone?

A puppy is but a dog, plus high spirits, and minus common sense.
Agnes Repplier

Nothing calms a fussy child like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but what do you do with a wild and crazy puppy? Why, grab a jar of peanut butter. The pet stores sell these large rubber dog toys called “Kongs” that are hollow in the middle with a small opening to put treats, cheese or peanut butter inside. The dog then spends endless hours licking the inside and playing with the toy…NOT!

Old Prince was happy to play with his Kong for about five minutes, but Buck lasted less than five seconds. After adding peanut butter to each toy three times, the jar was just about empty. “Light bulb moment!” I gave Buck, the persnickety puppy, the entire peanut butter jar. (It was almost empty, but still had some left on the sides and bottom.) I took him outside where he could make a mess and bounce around. This new amusement entertained him for at least twenty minutes. Eureka! Now, I need to buy four hundred jars of peanut butter.

Theme Song Thursday: Bosom Buddies

Wow! This wasn’t that long ago, but look how young Tom Hanks looks. “Bosom Buddies” didn’t last that long on television, (with good reason) but it had a great theme song.

Wikepedia
[Original run November 27, 1980 – May 27, 1982
Bosom Buddies is an American sitcom starring Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari created by Robert L. Boyett, Thomas L. Miller and Chris Thompson (Miller/Milkis/Boyett Productions). It ran from 1980 to 1982 on ABC and in reruns in the summer of 1984 on NBC. The show features the misadventures of two single men, working in creative advertising, struggling in their industry while disguising themselves as women in order to live in the one apartment they could afford. Gender stereotypes and male/female interpersonal relationships were frequent themes.
The show became known for its quirky humor and its frequent use of improvisation, especially between stars Hanks and Scolari. Though the show started out with good ratings, it failed to hold the public’s interest and was canceled after two seasons.]

My Life Lyrics by Billy Joel Theme song for “Bosom Buddies”
Album:
52nd Street
Lyrics:
Got a call from an old friend
We used to be real close
Said he couldn’t go on the American way
Closed the shop, sold the house
Bought a ticket to the West Coast
Now he gives them a stand-up routine in L.A.

I don’t need you to worry for me cause I’m alright
I don’t want you to tell me it’s time to come home
I don’t care what you say anymore, this is my life
Go ahead with your own life and leave me alone…

The song goes on, but this is pretty good advice. “Go ahead with your own life and leave me alone.” In other words…live and let live.

I was thinking today how our two dogs are inseparable, kinda like bosom buddies, best friends. Ergo: theme song for today.

Wednesday Words of Wisdom

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.
Lao Tzu

Oh, if it were that easy! I think I can handle the simplicity thing, and I think I’m pretty compassionate, but lately, my patience has been over-taxed. Is there a special class for puppy patience? Buck is officially one year old, but still a crazy mischievous puppy. He has to be watched every second of every day. He’s outside right now chasing those bugs that bounce up against the windows after dark. Well, he doesn’t just chase them, he eats them. At least it keeps him busy for a few minutes.

Last week when he was out chasing bugs, he must have gotten up-close and personal with a snake because an hour later his paw was all swollen and it slowly worked up his leg. Long and short, he’s still alive and kicking. He was actually quiet, still, and whining for one whole evening. Lord forgive me, but I enjoyed the short night of peace? The vet gave us some pain killers and antibiotics, which had him back to his crazy self in 24 hours. Darn!

Today was the last straw! I heard some scraping noise. I thought he was just chasing bugs and bumping into furniture. But noooo! He had climbed up on the patio table and dragged down the flower planter. He was having a great time digging through the flowers and eating dirt. It took all my patience to refrain from “canineicide.” I made that up…it means not killing your canine.

So, where is old Lao Tzu when I need him?

Easy Like Sunday Morning

I love Sunday! A cup of tea, the newspaper, and crazy dogs who don’t know what day of the week it is.

Pretty much every Sunday morning, I make a big pot of green tea and sip all day. After the sale section of the paper is checked, my coupons are cut, and my phone calls are made, I fry up a couple eggs for breakfast. That sounds pretty mundane, but not the way I do it. I see everyday things a little differently than most people, needless to say.

Yes, I love lazy Sundays. Hope you had a great day too! Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Sick as a Dog Saturday

Saturday started out to be an amazing day. But now, I sit here with a debilitating migraine headache, so the highlights will wait for another day. To add insult to injury, the dogs are driving me nuts. So, I’ll leave you with the crazy dogs in my face all night.

HOPPY EASTER

Did you ever wonder what Easter has to do with a bunny, colored eggs, candy and baskets? There are a lot of theories and explanations. It really doesn’t matter much to me because, I’ll use any excuse to make cute cupcakes, dress up the dogs, and eat massive quantities of little foil wrapped chocolate eggs. And don’t forget that sadistic ritual of biting the heads off the poor little chocolate bunny. It’s all good.

I decided to do a bit of research on the Easter Bunny and share my findings. The most difficult part of this post was wrestling the squirmy 80 lb puppy in order to put the bunny ears on him for a quick photo op. Every time I managed to get the ears on, the two seconds it took to grab the camera, afforded him enough time to swipe at the fuzzy sequenced headdress and chew on it. This went on for fifteen minutes and about twenty failed blurry attempts. Old Prince was more cooperative, but his younger counterpart still wanted to rip up those ears.

“I’m not a bunny, Lady! Gimme those ears.”

“The things I’ll do for a little doggie treat!”

Wednesday: Words of Wisdom and Poetic Ponderings

Animals are creatures of habit. Our two dogs seem to magically know when it’s time to eat, even though they can’t tell time. Or can they? I understand that they wake up with the morning sun, but how do they know when it’s dinner time? Maybe they run over to the microwave and see when the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 3, and then they know it’s time for dinner. Perhaps with their super-sensitive dog ears and extreme canine intelligence, they can hear the tick-tick-ticking of the clock, and they have counted the 28,800 seconds since their 7am breakfast. This too may be possible. I know this because, it never fails, somewhere between 2:59 and 3:01pm, two big pointy noses get up-close and personal and start whining until they get their dinner.

So, the old saying, “Let sleeping dogs lie,” doesn’t really apply at my house. My dogs don’t lie around. One’s busy checking the time on microwave, and the other is counting the seconds till dinner.

What The Dog Perhaps Hears by Lisel Mueller

If an inaudible whistle
blown between our lips
can send him home to us,
then silence is perhaps
the sound of spiders breathing
and roots mining the earth;
it may be asparagus heaving,
headfirst, into the light
and the long brown sound
of cracked cups, when it happens.
We would like to ask the dog
if there is a continuous whir
because the child in the house
keeps growing, if the snake
really stretches full length
without a click and the sun
breaks through clouds without
a decibel of effort,
whether in autumn, when the trees
dry up their wells, there isn’t a shudder
too high for us to hear.

What is it like up there
above the shut-off level
of our simple ears?
For us there was no birth cry,
the newborn bird is suddenly here,
the egg broken, the nest alive,
and we heard nothing when the world changed.

Wednesday Words of Wisdom

“If your dog doesn’t like someone you probably shouldn’t either.” author unknown

There are many great quotes about dogs, probably because they are loyal, happy, and love you unconditionally. They are not pretentious and you always know what they’re thinking. If their tails are wagging, they are happy, and that’s good. If their shiny sharp teeth are showing and you hear a low pitched growl, you’re in big trouble. I guess dogs are smarter than we think, and they think we are smarter than we really are.

Here’s an oil painting I did a few years back. It was painted from an old family photo taken in the 50’s. The boy in the photo is my husband when he was about 5 years old, and the Weimaraner’s name was Prince. We have our own Prince now. It’s 50 years later, a different dog, but the same faithful companion.

“A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.”
-Roger Caras

“He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.”
– Unknown