Days of my Life #34

My dogs are tired. Canine dogs. At least two of three of them are, tired. One of them, my cuddly Chocolate Lab Mocha, is at least 10 years old, has got nasty back, hips and probably ankles or knees and she’s got other problems too like several lipomas and a recurring ear infection which is treated daily after having spent beaucoups bucks on nada relief at the vets. Thank goddess she is not blind, but I’m sure that’s coming in due order. She follows me everywhere unless she’s sleeping too soundly in which case I tiptoe about to give her a few extra winks, only waking her when food is ready. She rarely hears the other pups which is pretty amazing. I should’ve called her Freeway since she was getting on the Freeway when I found her. It’s been a mutual love fest since.

Then there’s Porter, a black lab mixed with some other good ole dawg. He’s getting on in years too, probably twelve of the Barkiest years I’d say. As I said he’s getting older and isn’t the spry pup he was when I visited daughter in Austin back in 2009 and he jumped in my lap, shivering, for the duration of July 4th fireworks outside. This dog still barks, loudly and incessantly at passers by on bikes, skateboards, foot, stroller, scooter and definitely at the mailman, varied delivery driver plus stranger and friend alike. He’s also not a particularly discriminating barker. He’s sweet, relatively tolerant of our newest addition, Zappa, as in my ole buddy Frank, (another story) a now ten week old puppy, except when the pipsqueak wants to nibble at his ears.

Zappa, aka Chewy, when he’s gnawing on anything his little sharp as tacks teeth can get ahold of, including grandson’s ear (ouch), cords, remotes, you name it and yes we have loads of trip worthy toys for the jaws of destruction. His other nom de P.U. is Pisher or Shithead or anything that comes to mind when we are not wanting him to pee or poop on the floor just after he has been outside for a damn hour rolling in the grass! Zap does not mind thunder or lightning and is only tired after a long walk which has entailed darting in between the two other dogs and humans, testing our attempts to make him repeatedly heel, driving the older dogs to both distraction and ultimately exhaustion, played fetch with all of us, destroyed numerous potted plants and had a snack. Phew!

I suppose my other dogs are tired as well. My feet that is. We walked not particularly far today but it was the stopping and going and picking up poop and pulling the rotten sweet potato out of porter’s mouth, Yuck, avoiding the dead toads on the road, tripping over Zappa who was either chewing on a stick or chasing balls of fallen Spanish moss and being yanked away from them, me landing ankle-twistingly off a curb (thankfully only temporarily injured – I think), and almost needing to carry sixty pound Mocha three blocks. Uurgh!

I’ve now got my feet up as I write. Daughter is resting elsewhere and all three dogs are peacefully snoozing, the littlest next to me in the chair. I think I’ll join them all. Have a wonderful whatever. Zzzz

Tune in.

Here Kitty…

Well, well, guess I’m back to my 5am wake up schedule. What gives, Universe? Aren’t I worthy of a Sunday morning sleep-in? Apparently neither my bladder nor overactive brain think so.Okay, I suppose I’m awake enough to tell you about a white cat and a iridescent dragon who both saved me during last night’s slumber.

It all began (selective memory being what it is) with me…one late afternoon, standing on a precipice, ready to jump on my iridescent dragon, Flutter, to fly home to wherever that was, when I heard ever so faint “mews” from a nearby cluster of rocks. Being the curious sort, I took my feet out of the saddle (it would appear in this dream I had my dragon saddled) and hopped off, tiptoeing toward the sounds. There, behind the rocks, was a large litter of tiny kittens, crawling over one another, mewing continuously. They were old enough to have their eyes open, peering up at me with tiny eyes desperately trying to reach lil ole me. Flutter stood close by both curious about the kittens and impatient about getting home where her children were waiting our return. It was getting dark but Mama cat was nowhere in sight. I scratched my head wondering what to do. I couldn’t leave them alone atop this mountain so finally I chose to delay my departure, bedding down in the crook of my dragon’s left wing for the night. Still, no mom appeared in the morning so I scooped the squirming hungry pack into my bag and up we all flew into the heavens, landing just minutes later at my lair where friends awaited, excited to see what was inside the actively bulging bag .

I placed it on the ground and out scampered twelve kittens ready to escape their confinement and locate food. It was then I got a good look at the myriad colors of these tiny beings – the usual assortment of orange striped, brown striped, gray, black and white, solid black and speckled with the last cat to venture forward of the brightest white fur and the bluest of blue eyes I had ever seen. This one did not join the others but instead crawled up my leg, perched on my shoulder, rubbing its head on my cheek.Let me stop right here and say that, though I have had cats in my life, with one in particular being quite dear to me, I am, most certainly, a dog person, so when I woke from my dream I was quite surprised I had actually dreamt of kittens! But there it was, cats populated my dream, one in particular. Of course in this dream I also had at least one dragon, which so far has not appeared in my current reality, so cats there were…and no dogs. Hmm. where was I?

The other kittens found homes with my friends. We all went about our lives, though sometime sooner or later (probably later as the kitten was now very large (think lion) and named BG. (For Cat-White in Spanish) and we were walking in the woods when BG began to make loud clicking sounds, warning me of danger – One would assume I had learned to communicate with my feline companion prior to this walk and therefore able to determine the message.

Anyway, just beyond, i heard a branch snap and a giant alligator type beast came our way at a very fast clip. Blanco jumped between us and a battle ensued. Fortunately the gator knew he was losing, turned tail and started to split, but not before Flutter had heard the commotion, hoisted me up upon her back, (Blanco scampered up to meet me) all while sending a plume of fire, singing the reptile’s nose. And off we flew back to our lair.

I’m not sure what else happened because it must’ve been nearly 5am because I woke to see my dog, Mocha snoring with her head on the pillow next to mine.

I’m definitely a dog person.