Tag: dogs

:/

Our dog is still dying. My husband thinks she’ll be stubborn and hold on as long as possible. I’m hoping and praying that she’ll let go in her sleep… and tonight would be great for that, because she is just so clearly falling apart and struggling at this point. The vet said she has numbers “off the chart” for her kidneys, which means big time kidney failure, which means her body is, basically, filling with toxins and, I guess, killing her from the inside…? Whatever the case, it sounds dreadful and she is a sad sight to behold whenever she tries to go anywhere.

She did wander around both the back and front yards today, though, and for a good chunk of the day. All willingly.

But she also just kind of toppled over several times, and she looked like she was about to topple over almost the entire time.

She clearly loves my husband very much, and shows it still. She likes me, too, but nowhere near the same as she likes him.

We both love her, and this is hard for us, seeing how hard it is for her.

God, help her to find ease and comfort, please. Release her of this burden and grant her your peace, please, and by your hand. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

This dog

She is such his dog, it’s ridiculous. She clearly likes me and all, of course. But she loves him, is obsessed with him. When he opens the door for her to let her out of her room, she jumps for joy at him and rubs up against him and all. When I get home first and go let her out of her room, she barely acknowledges my presence, and sprints to the back door to go outside and look for him. She genuinely stands there, staring at the space where his car belongs, unsure of what to do, now that she sees he isn’t home yet. And when he isn’t home at bedtime, like tonight, and I go to bed, I am super nice and invite her into the bedroom with me and pet her and all, and go to bed. Within ten minutes, though, she is inevitably up and trying to get out of the room, presumably to go wait for him to come home. It’s ridiculous.

She so obsessed with him, though I guess it takes off the pressure of my being so obsessed with him, and makes me seem less weird to him… maybe… haha 😛

Post-a-day 2023

Close caws

Well, today was an adventure. Not only did the chickens not like and squawk at and run away from the lawnmower this evening, but one of them got chased big time by the dog this afternoon. The dog snuck around the edge of the temporary fencing, and went after the single chicken that was walking around in its own while I watched over the little one they all keep picking on (I was making sure it could eat some of the feed, which the others tend to block it from having.).

Fortunately, the dog stopped the moment I hollered at her, as though she’d been smacked with a broomstick, and I knew the struggle had ended – she submitted fully to me, and it was easy to grab her collar and hand her off to my man, who had come storming outside at my shout. 😛

You’ll have to forgive the camera positioning, as I can’t change that after the fact. However, the expletives and shouting that followed were removed quite easily from the video. 😛 However, by removing those, I also removed the footage that showed the chicken very easily walking around afterward, totally alive and physically well, if somewhat emotionally traumatized.

Post-a-day 2023

Toads and Frogs

Tonight, leaving my man’s nephew’s baseball game, we crossed a small movement on the ground in the dark. After a minimal and short moment of panic, I realized it was a toad. It was right next to the dog, and the dog noticed its next move. So, I declared, “It’s a toad!”

The dog, of course, having seen the toad, goes right after it with a cute little hop to follow each of the toad’s. Seeing this, I encourage the dog, knowing she won’t hurt it, but more likely just sniff it as long as it’ll let her. “Get it, E—-! Get the toad,” I say.

There is only a moment of pause as my man and I both watch the dog hop once more after the toad, and then we hear a cute, high pitched voice declare, “I can!” It sounds like an offer, and an eager one.

We look up to see a boy from the baseball team already taking off his bag and heading straight for the toad. Instantly, of course, his mother firmly tells him, “No,” and he halts in his pursuit, only slightly dejected, but accepting of his fate.

The dog loses interest, fortunately, and the two of us snicker our way back to the car, where we can crack up at the little boy’s easy declaration of, “I can!” offering to help us capture a toad. 😛

It was a good and adorable interaction, to say the least. Thanks, little kid, for such hospitality and willingness. Haha 😀

Post-a-day 2023

Rainstorms

Whereas I love hanging at home and going to bed during rain storms, with all the thunder and lightning and wind and rain outside, the dog resolutely disagrees with me. And, frankly, tonight, she is pissing me off. If I didn’t despise having to touch her crate right now, after I’ve already showered and gotten all clean and all, I already would have pulled it out and locked her inside it. No, I don’t like trapping a dog inside its crate. But it is sometimes the only option to prevent them from freaking out so much that they destroy just about anything they can get to.

She looks at me so pathetically, yet won’t accept the comfort I offer her of a fancy faux-fur pallet on the floor right next to my bed… she isn’t even allowed in the bedroom usually. But she’s about to blow it… ugh…

Dear God, please, keep my man safe and bring him back to me safely each night, including tonight. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Sleep, ASAP

Despite the immense frustrations my man was feeling this afternoon, and my resulting increased stress for him, everything went really well tonight for our family dinner. Sure, we still have no gas, so no hot water or easy heat or effective dish washer, etc. My mom had to do some in-the-moment utensil-washing when we ran it of forks and spoons at one point, and she helped wash most of the plates after dinner. I was just grateful that I didn’t have to do it for once.

I was a touch annoyed at how my brother clearly hasn’t gotten a handle on his dog’s full training, evidenced by the craziness of the dog’s first seeing all of us and our little-in-comparison to his 150 pounds dog. Also, I just had to trust that my man will mop the floors tomorrow, and wipe down the sofa and the rug and the coffee table to clean up all the slobber that the big dog got everywhere. I love dogs, yet it was a lot. Kind of gross, actually, which was a bummer, as I’d really been looking forward to rubbing all over the puppy (yes, he’s technically still a puppy). Once he chilled out and started getting sleepy, though, it was much easier to pet him without getting totally slobbered all over. I also thought our dog might have an actual heart attack based on her initial reactions to the dog that weighs six times her weight, and is yet a puppy – annoying for her old, 14-year-old self – shoving into her personal space with such excitement. However, as he chilled out, our dog calmed down. And a bunch of treats helped them both be easier company. Our dog even got brave enough to walk through the living room past the other dog multiple times before the end there. It was cute, and I’m glad she eased down from her clearly stressful place.

Anyway, I have to sleep immediately. I have to leave for work in five hours and ten minutes. 😦

Thank you, God, for everything. It was a really good night. Please, help my man realize that it really was great for us all. Amen.

Post-a-day 2022

Getting ready

Family is coming over tomorrow for dinner. We spent today doing things on each of our to-do lists (which I had made the day before yesterday). Still no gas, so we have new oil space heaters from The Home Depot that he picked up during his several errands today. We have cute, seasonal-ish tissue boxes around the living space, now. I reasonably handled everything that I’d brought from the apartment, and so the dining room is cleared out and cleaned up. I handled whatever else I’d had sitting around the living spaces. I got my man to help remove the broken tiny lightbulb in the little chandelier in the dining room, and then replaced it with the brighter bulb and put the thing back together – looks and works great now. I set up the red and white towels and napkins and dish towels and rugs my mom dropped off yesterday for us to use as Christmas decor… and then I took most of them back down and out them in the washer, as they had obviously been in the storage unit for a few years (or more), based on their feel and sniff-scent (which is when you only can smell it up close, not a radiating scent). I poured the kettle of boiling water into the freezing cold wash, just to help however I could. Then I hung them all out to dry overnight. The big towels are resting atop parts of the oil heaters now, as they are big fluffy towels that likely wouldn’t be dry by tomorrow afternoon otherwise. (And yes, I know what I’m doing here, as I spent years drying my clothes on such heaters. Never cover the front part.) I set up the decorations I liked from the tubs my man pulled down from storage in the garage, including a little village and two tree skirts – yes, I did the one, then found a nicer one, and so put it just in top of the other, saving the effort of picking it back up – and a funky punching-bag-looking, triangular sandbag Santa and a few other little things to put around the house.

I also made a wreath from the scraps I’d picked up the other day at the Christmas tree lot. Hopefully, we can find the old door hook and hang it on the front door tomorrow.

And I wrapped all the little gifts I’d had stashed for my man, and I put them under the tree, atop the pretty little skirt.

I set up the two power strips for the village and for the lamps and internet extension and tree lights. And I put lights on the tree, as well as a single ornament I’d found of a red fire truck, old style, and a few candy canes. I left the rest of the canes for my man to dress the tree, though. I’d wanted to decode it together, but realized that neither of us has any ornaments, anyway. So, candy canes, down separately will do. He was in the room when I did the lights and candy canes, anyway. Sure, he was vacuuming, but it counted well enough for this hurried night of to-dos.

Oh, and I also put away and tidied some clothes in the spare room, put some things away, put some things in the give-away pile, made a Santa hat for our St. Francis statue in the kitchen, put various beverages tidily in our outside fridge, cleaned up the drink area of the garage, and fed us a bit.

My man ran a bunch of errands, handling a lot of important stuff for us both, and giving the dog a fun adventure. He put the stove back in its nook against the wall (even though it doesn’t have any gas yet). He built what I estimate to be about 35 feet of fence on the side of the house – and it looks good. He pulled out all the Christmas lights for the house, starting to sort them and ready them. He tidied his stuff a bit on our back patio, and a bit in the house, too. He helped me light our Advent candles on our newly-placed-out advent wreath from my mom, while I sang the lovely German song for lighting the Advent candles (and he joined for the last chorus!). And now he’s at the gym, working out and then taking a hot shower.

Tomorrow, I have to tidy the office, especially my desk; put away the hang-upside-down board (obviously, the right words are not coming to me so late at night right now…Inversion table! Got it!); wash dishes with my ridiculous boil-pour-dip method of using the water kettle to handle our lack of hot water; set up the German cookies and chocolates I got; clean all surfaces; work – yep, still have to get those few hours of coding stuff in!; take a nap; fold the napkins and put all the towels back, once all are dried… and that might be it…. Oh, and hang up the wreath on the front door! I also would like to tidy more in the spare bedroom, and handle finishing touches on everything.

My man has to work his whole work day – he’d have taken the day off, but his boss is already off tomorrow, so he’s just rolling with it – and he also has to put up the Christmas lights on the house, finish tidying in the back, and finish tidying his things inside the house. Hopefully, he’ll also get a nap!

We can do it. I know we can. God, please, help us do it with grace and ease, if you will. Thank you for everything. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2022

Such a guy

“Your girls, sunbathing by the boats,” I sent.

He replied, “Nice”.
“We miss you,” I said.

“She got a good roll in,” I said.
“Haha nice,” he replied, “I miss you too”.
And then he said, in reply to the first message, “She’s naked, why aren’t you?”
::face palm… idiot… such a guy…
And I love him.
Thank you, God, for such a man period, and especially for his presence and role in my life in particular. In gratitude, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2022

Bugs

Right about now, I am missing my old Golden Retrievers. It has been roughly 16 or 18 years since the father died, and a handful of years fewer for the sun… and yet, here we are, missing them, almost suddenly.

I want those hugs and loves and belly rubs. That was an amazing time in life.

And I want something more nowadays, please.

Post-a-day 2022