So much joy!
A greyhound playing on a warm day in December experiences much joy and happiness.
And being able to watch him brings equal joy to us.
Cassius playing with his Jolly Ball. These are toys that are made for horses but is the only thing we have found that holds up to this boy’s jaw strength.
Life is a ball. Live it well.
Lacey died a week and a half ago. My life has changed in many ways. She was such a part of my life that I noticed immediately, the first morning after her demise, that my world was forever changed. Here is a list of things that are no longer a part of my day.
1) There is no tiny grey cat running to greet me at the bottom of the stairs in the morning, mewing fiercely to be incarcerated in her little blue crate so she could eat her special food made from whitefish. The other cats do not get this food because it would be pricey to provide for the other three cats as well, so she did her dining in the crate. A small bag lasted tiny Lacey for a long time.
2)There is no tiny grey cat scream/mewling repeatedly that she is finished with her “fish flakes”, as I called them, and is now ready to be released from her crate. How such a big voice came from such a slight little thing I do not know.
3) I no longer need to give Lacey her two different antibiotics that she received twice a day. I could not have survived without my trusty pill gun. Lacey lived on these antibiotics for the past year and half. Every time I tried to wean her off them, she grew a massive infection on her face. She had some tumors that kept her in a weakened state and seemed to harbor infection. In the beginning one antibiotic did the trick but later it took two different kinds.
4) No small grey cat shadows me, meowing to follow her and come fill up the water bowl. She said they were all going to die of thirst if the bowl was not filled right NOW!
5) I do not have to change the newspaper and pee pads that lined the woodbin near the wood burning stove. I did this one to two times per day. Lacey was confused by senility and seemed to think this was the place to pee. Oddly enough, she still did all her other business in the litter box. She had found what she thought was a designated place for most of her peeing and I was not going to argue, because at least it was predictable and some place that I could clean. One day my husband said “so we can’t put wood in the wood bin anymore?” My response was simple. No!
6) I no longer have to preplan if it is safe to leave an item on the dining room table in case Lacey became totally disoriented, as happened once or twice a month, and peed on the table, and hence whatever was on it.
7) We can have dog beds on the floor again because they are not considered by the remaining cats, to be in the “pee zone”. Same with blankets that fall on the floor. I don’t have to run to pick them up immediately.
8) No more need to monitor Lacey’s where abouts to be sure that a dog is not going to sit on her slight body on the couch. Or that I do not jar her as I sit down, causing her to fall off the back of the couch.
In short, my life is an easier but emptier place, for Lacey was a loved part of our world. She was a lover of dogs, my affectionate companion, a compassionate and gentle soul. Easier is not always better. Lacey taught me her lessons and still has an affect on my world.
Over the Christmas season I had my Caring Revolution that you can read here https://sanctuaryacres.wordpress.com/2015/12/01/the-caring-revolution/. I tried to do one nice thing every day to increase the presence of the Christmas Spirit. I posted the above quote to my Facebook page yesterday, thinking, why should it be only a holiday thing? And so I shared it, thinking everyone could stand to benefit from this.
But then I thought some more. Rarely a good thing. So I shared this post, now what? Does it become buried in my newsfeed, never to be seen again, except perhaps next year in my Facebook memories? That’s not going to work for me. So I am going to keep a log in my Creativity Journal and try to do at least one good act every day to record. So far in 2016, three days have passed. I did a kind act to record on days 1 and 2 but nothing for the 3rd. Today is the 4th day and it is still early so I better get busy.
I will report in on this Journey from time to time with some specifics and let you know how it is going. Please feel free to join this army so that acts of kindness may be spread far and wide.
I was pondering our sleeping arrangements recently and wondered, why is it that only two of our dogs have the privilege of sleeping on the bed with us, but it happens to be our two largest dogs? This does not seem like very good planning on our part. Baxter comes upstairs in the evening and immediately jumps on the bed before I even get in. He will move on request, to make more room. He so loves to sleep on the bed that he will forgo evening biscuit time to go up with the first person to ascend the stairs for bedtime. He has also been known to continue snoozing on the bed in the morning once all humans are up for the day. Baxter weighs 55 lbs.
Phoebe, our resident greyhound, is the other dog that sleeps on the bed. She is slightly sneakier though. She comes upstairs and lays down on the dog bed on the floor. Here she stays until it is time for lights out. Some time after the light goes off she jumps on the bed, spins around as many times as it takes to suit herself and plops down. If I do not turn the light out soon enough to suit her, she starts sighing and gets louder until I am obliged to turn off the light. When she does make it up on the bed to start the spinning around, she acts like she is nesting and just making herself comfortable. I know she is really doing it to steal my covers! It does make some sense to me that Phoebe sleeps on the bed because greyhounds are so bony and angular and definite comfort seekers. Phoebe weighs 65 lbs.
What I want to know is, what is wrong with the dog bed on the floor? It is large and cushy with a pillowed rim around the edge. I think sleeping with the humans is as much a status symbol as the fact they are on the bed. I imagine if we slept elsewhere, they would want to sleep there too. Sometimes I am tempted to sleep elsewhere. When the covers are pinned so tightly under the weight of dogs that I can’t turn over, or I have a paw in the face, or a hip bone in my back, I am fantasizing about sleeping somewhere other than where I am. But really folks, it dark and I am warm, and I have dogs. I’m not going anywhere. Baxter and Phoebe do get along extremely well. Baxter does often growl at Phoebe when she jumps up on the bed. That’s the end of it though. Soon we are all one big heap of humans and dogs.
The other dogs all sleep downstairs. If I had planned better I would have the 18 lb. Nikki Pouncer sleep on the bed. She wouldn’t take up much space at all. She could sleep on the pillow by my head and I would never notice her. But wait, she is an indiscriminate eater of poop. Scratch that idea. I don’t care to have an odiferous assault while I am trying to sleep. You may be thinking, why don’t you just stop her from eating poop? Right. We have between 5-7 dogs here at any one time. You do the math. I’m not that fast. Even if I picked up each time the dogs went out, I can only pick up after one at a time. I do my best.
Shelby would be too busy patrolling to keep the house safe from intruders and strange noises. She would have no time to sleep on the bed. Shelby is what we call “a busy girl”. She goes in a crate for the night so she can be off duty and get some rest.
And Roxanne is old and arthritic at 15. She is no longer able to get up the steps. At her advanced age she likes to wander around during the night anyway. This is not conducive to sleeping. She is free to wander around downstairs to her heart’s content for the night though.
By this time you may be wondering how I get any sleep. After years of practice I am able to sleep through most anything. I have slept through dogs walking across my body, through barking, through storms and loud noises. Not everyone can do this and I consider myself fortunate to have learned such a skill. Not something you can put on a resume but none the less, it is one of those important life skills that is indispensable.
I took a little walk around the property over the weekend. Started out by walking the trail in the woods so that I could get a picture of some flowers I knew were in bloom there. I’m not sure what they are. I did not plant them. Someone who lived here before me did. I find it unusual that these are blooming in the shade of the woods and others of the same kind are blooming in a flowerbed in full sun. Apparently they’re not too particular. How fortunate for me. I am also fortunate that those who lived here before me cared about plants and wildlife. It is apparent from the many plantings that grow here. It is obvious that many of them were planted to attract the birds, bees, and other animals.
We maintain a small trail so that we can walk here and get a small tractor out to a fire pit and camp site that we made. Truth be told though, we have most bonfires in the dog pasture so that the dogs can all be with us. Every day is National Dog Day at our house! In fact I think it’s safe to say that that mine could be called National Dog Life. This has been my choice and I must say, I am very happy with it.
On my way back to the rest of the property, I pass the wood crib and am thankful that we already have a good portion of the winter’s wood drying. So are the animals. They love nothing better in the winter time than to curl up in front of the wood burner and soak up as much heat as they can. When it is time to add more wood, we must forcibly move them so we can open the door to throw on another log or two.
Back to our walk. I enjoy the colors of many different plants, from the coleus, that has beautious color in its leaves, to the hydrangea with its large leaves that are stunning on their own merits and have wonderful blooms as well.
And I am getting so much joy from the verbena growing in the wall planters this year. They are a sweeping sea of blossoms with some stalks growing upright and others hanging down. When I see them all growing together, for some reason, they remind me of coral under the water in the ocean and this makes me feel that they are magical.
And so ends a brief foray into my home and mind. Both are busy places.
Last evening I had a decision to make. I was at home, finally, after working for 10 hours. There was much to be done. Things to clean, things to put away, preparations for the next day. But I looked at these eager faces, smiling at me and ready for whatever attention I would give them. So what did I choose to do? I loaded these three up in the car and we went for a long walk.
We went to West Branch State Park which is about 10 minutes from our house here in northeastern Ohio. This is the beauty that greeted us as we began our walk. This was a heck of a lot better than cleaning!
And I got to spend it with these three beautiful faces. I think that I chose wisely. One of the reasons that I like to walk here, aside from the beautiful scenery, is that I can let the dogs walk off leash if there are not too many other people around. The dogs know they are given a privilege and prance so proudly to know that I have unhooked their leashes and trust them to stay with me. Occasionally we encounter other walkers or bicyclers and I briefly leash the dogs back up until they pass. Not so much because of the dogs but because I don’t want the other people who are out enjoying their evening to be afraid. I want to be a good steward of the trail so that dogs will continue to be welcome. Baxter, in particular, gets much more exercise when he is off lead. He runs 20 feet or so ahead and circles back behind and continues to make this loop as we walk so he can monitor and sniff the area. He walks much farther than the rest of us with his loping circuits of the path. Baxter’s behavior is excellent when he is loose. When we see someone approaching, I can just tell him “over here” and point to where I want him to walk and he will stay next to me until the person passes. He is very reliable on this and I can tell that he understands because he keeps looking up at me and communicating “I’ve got this mom”. I will leash him up if I think he will make the other people nervous when they pass. Shelby and Phoebe I do usually leash up because there is an even chance that they will go up the person and demand to be petted. This might be intimidating for someone who doesn’t know them.
As we go about our walk I notice that the landscape is really quite impressive. It is a calm evening so it is quiet. One of the sounds that I do hear and love is the sound of the waves on the water. This, I thought, is not so far removed from the views I love to see when I go to Maine. Each place has it’s own beauty if you are able to see it.
Life is good. There is beauty to behold and I am able to see it in the company of three of my dogs. It doesn’t get much better.
By now it is sunset and we close out the evening with this last view. Earlier I had a choice to make of how to spend my evening. I think that I chose wisely. This is an experience that I will remember fondly.
And although it was getting dark by the time we got back to the car, you can see by these happy faces that they also think that I have chosen wisely. Let the adventures continue!
Life is busy! Thought I should keep you posted as to why I haven’t been very active on the blog though. Roxanne is failing so I have been spending a lot of time taking care of her. She went through this a couple months ago and I thought we were going to lose her then but she rallied that time. She had two feet in the grave but apparently used the other two to pull herself back out. I don’t expect that it will end that way this time but you can never count the old girl out. She had two very good quality months after the last episode.
This translates into me spending additional portions of my day taking care of her though. I wake up and put the other 4 dogs out then locate Roxanne who will be in one of her three usual sleeping areas in the house. I see if I can get her upright (not too often anymore in the morning) or then carry her outside to do her business. Even if she is ambulatory I then carry her back in the house because she can’t climb the stairs anyway and it saves time. I put her down and point her in the direction of the water bowl. She is still drinking water. When I’m sure she is done drinking, I give her the pill she gets every day. Then I find a way to get some food into her. She doesn’t want to eat anymore so this takes a long time.
After work I spend much of the evening carrying her outside and back inside. Sometimes I let her stay out for a while because she seems to enjoy it and the weather is warmer now. If she gets up during the evening and begins to wander around, I jump up and put her outside so it does not end with an accident. If I was not fast enough, or not paying attention, then I get out the mop, Lysol, etc. and take care of it. I repeat the trying to get food into her procedure in the evening too. Right now this involves boiled chicken. If she is having “potty issues” I put her in the bathtub, give her a rinse, dry her off, and then make sure she gets to the dog bed. She may make it under her own power or I may carry her. It just depends on how well she is doing.
Who knows how long this routine will last? I know our time together is limited because Roxanne is 15 years old and she is just about worn out. This girl never ceases to amaze me though!
I spent a couple of hours cleaning out the rose bed this afternoon. I foolishly thought I could get it all done in that amount of time. So far I have spent twice that working on it. One more session should finish it up. Unless you count the bulbs I want to plant next to the roses. I also have numerous punctures and scratches covering my arms that make it look like we have a kitten. These are from encounters while trimming the roses bushes, and they won. Oh well, by summer time I will have glorious pictures of flowers to show you.
After working outside I took a walk through the woods. Beautiful daffodils are in bloom. We did not plant them. Someone who came before put them there and we are reaping the benefits.
And I came upon this cross section of log that I thought was intriguing to look at. All the rings bespeak of years of life and make me ponder what happened on this property in the years before we came here.
I stumbled upon this fallen nest. The high winds we have had must have knocked it down. It is early enough in the year that it is probably a nest from last year. Of course it has copious amounts of dog fur woven into it. How soft and warm for the hatchlings.
And what first got me out in the woods today. The ground was finally thawed out enough to bury my Romeo Kitten. His grave is marked with the cross and unmarked stone. Soon it will have his name engraved on it. Beside him is dear Trevor whose stone already bears his name.
More daffodils on the way back to the house. They look so happy with their sunny faces saying “look, we survived, spring is here”.
And to complete an enjoyable weekend, hanging out with the family. Baxter puppers and Lacey cat shown, snuggling on the couch. And once again, life is good!
This picture, taken on our side porch, speaks volumes about my life. In the foreground is dog paraphernalia. A leash with choker collar so those needle nosed rescue shelties can’t get away. An Elizabethan collar from two foster dogs ago. Baxter ‘ s frisbee is there. A tote bag for my library books. Plants that I brought in to winter over: a fig tree, a seckel pear sapling, a cutting from our ancient azalea. And behind that, catnip and thyme that are dry and waiting to be stripped from their branches and stored. Not to mention everything is on the table where we sometimes eat dinner in warmer weather. So much to be gleaned from an ordinary photo. Simplicity can speak volumes.
Sanctuary Acres 