Wonder where I’ve been?
Well, between that wretched cold, business travel and generally trying to keep my head above water, I have been the victim of extortion.
See this sweet little dog? She may look innocent. She’s not. She’s my extortionist.
The Extortionist, Sarah
Here’s how she operates:
She scratches at the door to go outside. I figure, “Sarah needs to go potty.”
I take her outside–in the freezing cold. She sniffs. She observes the beautiful sky. She wanders around and scratches at the ground.
Nothing. Nada.
We go back inside. A short while later she scratches at the door.
“You didn’t do anything last time.” More scratching. “You’re gonna poop on my floor if I don’t take you outside, aren’t you?”
Innocent look. (See above photo.)
More scratching at door.
We go outside. She sniffs some more. Looks around. Wanders around.
Repeat this scene about 20 times during an eight-hour period, each time with Little Miss Innocent threatening to poop on my hardwood floors.
See what I have to put up with around here? It’s a wonder I get anything done in the wintertime.
Robin
I very much love sending my imposing 10 pound Papillons to chase the deer away from our yard and garden.
Who knew that a little ball of fur could be so scary? Remember seeing Sarah terrify the deer and sending them scurrying?
Well, I am sad to report that the deer just might be catching on that my Papillons have their limits. We had a bit of a Mexican standoff this morning. Since the grass was wet, Sophie and Sarah were loathe to wade in to eat the deer.
The deer, sensing the hesitation, took advantage of the situation and stared back at the Papillons.
More staring ensued…
Until Sarah worked up her courage to wade into the high, wet grass.
The deer, finally leaped out of sight.
No more deer.
Good job, babies.
Robin
This has been a very tough couple of weeks for me and Sarah.
Walter, my mom’s repair man, has been running in and out of the house for days and days. He keeps making stinky painting smells and banging on things. Sarah and I have been trying to keep up with all our barking and monitoring of the situation, but frankly, it’s EXHAUSTING. We have practically run our short little legs to nubins keeping up with it all.
Now, with everyone gone, Mom and I (oh, and Sarah) are enjoying the quiet. Mom is also recuperating from a bit of a strange situation today.
See, coming back from the gym after lunch, she was driving past the Catholic church in our little town. Out front a woman was jumping up and down and waving her arms, looking frantic. My mom pulled over to see what the emergency was. Surely there must be a fire, a heart attack or some such emergency that required assistance, right?
As mom stopped and began to fumble for the window button in my dad’s unfamiliar car, THE WOMAN JUMPED INTO THE CAR!
“Thanks for the ride! I really appreciate it!”
What?!? Mom doesn’t pick up hitchhikers! In fact, this woman wasn’t a hitchhiker. She was someone signaling an emergency. Or so Mom thought anyway.
Well, the woman strapped herself in and proceeded to tell Mom that she needed to go to the apartment complex about a mile up the road, all the while thanking her profusely for kindly stopping to pick her up.
Mom said that the woman was too drunk to do any real harm aside from gassing up the car. And since she was hardly wearing any clothes she couldn’t be concealing a weapon. So Mom went ahead and took her there, figuring it would just be faster than trying to convince the woman that she was only stopping for a fire or heart attack, not to give anyone a ride.
It has taken all afternoon for the boozy smell to wear out of Dad’s car. I noticed that Mom also spent some time figuring out how to work the locks and windows on Dad’s car too so it doesn’t happen again.
By the way, I just took a look at Mom’s To-Do list for the weekend. Some of the items:
- Make goat cheese
- Make parmesan cheese
- Mow the lawn
- Clear tomatoes and store Texas tomato cages
- Spread manure
- Turn compost pile
- Rake leaves
- Cut back wisteria vine
- Plant 1,000 bulbs
- Transplant bushes
- Repot some houseplants
- Finish re-organizing kitchen cabinets
- Make coming home dinner for Dad and Ben
I have a pool going on how many of these items she gets done. Email me if you want in.
Arf Arf!
–Sophie (Bumblebee’s Dog)
Robin
