After being a substitute teacher for a room full of second graders yesterday, I decided that I needed a day off. So I stayed home and hung out with dogs. Shelby demonstrated relaxation techniques.
It snowed throughout the day, so in the afternoon, the dogs and I went outside to play and enjoy nature. Even 12 year old Nikki likes to lay down in the snow.
Zekie, foster dog Claire, and Baxter (rear).
Shelby stayed indoors to watch the house, but all the other dogs went outside to play. The preferred game is frisbee.
Cassius prefers a rousing game of jolly ball.
Zekie is a snow dog and will play anything you want to play.
I am recharged. Spending time with dogs always reenergizes me. Next week will bring more subbing adventures and I will be ready!
In addition to banana time, we also occasionally have orange time at our house. Our dogs love fruit. Well, except for Baxter, which is why he is not in the photo.
Even Claire, the foster girl on the far right, is getting into the act. Dogs cannot manufacture their own vitamin C, so I suppose this is not a bad thing. They only get a slice or two so as not to get upset tummies.
Me, Claire the foster dog, Cassius, and Baxter in front of the pillow.
The preferred activity around our house lately has been watching the Australian Open. For those who don’t know, this is the first of the four major tennis tournaments of the year. The tournament spans two weeks and we watch as many of the matches as we can. It is down to the semi-finals now so we don’t want to miss anything.
So this is how I watch tennis. Claire the foster dog is in my lap. She is very snuggly and this way I know where she is at all times. This saves me from jumping up every few minutes to see where she is and what she is chewing on. So far: the earbuds to my iPhone, underwear, slippers, numerous paper napkins, and a pencil. Usually I get to her before much damage is done. And really it is my fault. Claire tries to be good. Given her past experience before she came to our house, she just doesn’t understand why some things are toys and some things are not. And she looks so heartbroken when I scold her for chewing inappropriate things. It’s as if she is saying, “awww, I got it wrong again.” She is learning now if I tell her no-no that she should put the item down and that will be the end of it. I am at fault for letting her have opportunities to mess up. We will get there.
Cassius lays beside me and puts his head on Claire. He wants to emphasize to us all that Claire may be on my lap, but I am his mommy!
And Baxter is on the couch because we are and, well, the couch is soft.
A better way to watch television is not to be found. Retirement rocks!
Does Zekie still suffer from separation anxiety? I would have to say yes.
This is Zekie waiting for daddy to come home this morning. He was only gone for an hour. To be fair, Zekie didn’t hurt anything. He just waited, and waited…even though I was still home with him.
Zekie doesn’t need to go in his crate if one of us is still home. He just gets forlorn, not destructive as long as someone is there. When he becomes aware that someone will be leaving in a minute, he grabs a bone or toy and tries to entice the person to play instead of going out the door. If that doesn’t work, he can even chomp the bone at you and bark with it in his mouth. You can tell he’s saying, “wouldn’t you rather play with me and have this bone than go away?”
Well, generally, yes we would. But unfortunately, life calls.
This evening is my last night of free yoga. I have been attending these sessions at the local library and they are so much fun. Every Monday evening for the month of January the classes were offered.
It has been a great opportunity to hang out with new people as well as sharing the experience with someone who was a coworker before I retired and remains a friend. I have found yoga to be a time of relaxation, peace, and meditation, as well as exercise.
I always knew that stretching was good for you, but I never realized just how good. My knee that I hurt while hiking last spring, barely hurts at all now. The injury has caused me pain all these months and with just a few weeks of yoga, I rarely notice any pain in my knee.
At the last class they were collecting signatures to ask that the library continue the class. I sincerely hope that they do. It is a wonderful experience. People with different physical capabilities are all at home in the same room. I find it fascinating that there are exercises that I can do, but the person next to me cannot do. A few movements later, I cannot hold the pose, but that same person next to me can do it just fine. We all have different abilities.
I also like the names of the poses. Visualizing them helps me to do the pose more accurately. When I see an actual dog doing “downward dog”, I am able to do downward or upward dog better.
With any luck, the library will extend the free yoga sessions. They have been popular. Most sessions there is barely enough floor space! If not, I already have Yoga On the Courthouse Lawn marked on my schedule for summer.
Not only am I enjoying retirement, so are the dogs. Zekie still has separation anxiety, but it doesn’t rear its ugly head as often because I rarely leave home. This makes us all happy.
I am still in that adjusting and recovering from years of work phase. It takes me until 10:00 am each morning to finish drinking coffee. An acquaintance who retired a few years ago and understands, asked me “oh, you mean 10:00 pm?” So I guess I am doing ok.
In the last photo, you can see not just Zekie is enjoying this new life. Claire the foster dog and Cassius the greyhound are also on the couch with me passing the morning. The others were hanging out nearby.
Retirement is a new journey and I am ready for the ride.
Claire has been with us two weeks today. It has passed quickly, mostly because she keeps us so busy. You must keep your eyes on her at all times when she is not crated. She spent some time in her crate because she is in heat and some of the time just because we were not able to watch her every minute.
She hasn’t had a potty accident in about a week. Before that I think it was mostly marking due to being in heat and not actually accidents. Claire also wanders around the house. A lot. I don’t know if this is a trait of bitches in heat or just because everything is new to her.
And I mean everything seems like a new experience to her. Walking on a leash, people eating food, cats, things on coffee tables. You need to constantly watch her or she will take things and then be puzzled about why you are upset.
Claire is learning though. When I say no, she stops what she is doing to look at me which gives me a chance to praise her. She is getting along with the cats better, although she still reacts sometimes. Luckily she thinks the cats are great fun rather than viewing them as snack items.
And occasionally she will lay down. This makes me happy. A few minutes for me to relax is appreciated. She improves a little bit each day. We’ll get there.
Here’s one project I can check off my list. New dog bed is ready to use!
As our old, decrepit arm chair got disassembled to put in the trash, we noticed the seat cushion was one large piece, so we saved it to make into a new bed for the dogs. I covered it with my daughter’s old blanket that I found in the hall closet. The twin blanket was a perfect fit.
I found directions for a dog bed on-line and altered it slightly since my cushion was an odd shape. Basically, you cut fleece fabric 4-6 inches bigger than your bed and cut strips about five inches long around the edges. Then tie them all together with doubles knots. Done! You can even untie and launder the cover if you need to.
I am very proud of this bed because all parts of it are recycled keeping waste out of a landfill. The animals seem to be rather fond of it too.
A new foster dog has arrived! We have been without a foster dog for over two years. That is an eternity for us. We had not been without a foster dog before this since 2003. When Zeke came, he was such a handful that we could not deal with any other new dogs. So when I decided to adopt Zeke, we had to take a break from fostering.
Zeke is still a handful. I would say that his behavior gets marginally better all the time. At this rate he will be a normal level of crazy in several more years. Well, either Zeke is a bit better or our tolerance for trouble has increased. Because in the late fall, we decided that we were ready to foster again. Turn-ins to our group Northeast Ohio Shetland Sheepdog Rescue slowed down and we have some other great foster homes available so it didn’t work out for a dog to come to us until yesterday. This girl’s name is Topanga. We will be renaming her soon as that is quite a mouthful and she doesn’t seem very responsive to it.
Topanga was turned over to our Rescue group along with four other dogs. All of the dogs are female Shetland Sheepdogs and about 4-5 years old. Two are sables, two are tricolors, and there is one blue merle. The owner is apparently beginning to suffer from dementia and is no longer able to care for the dogs. I applaud the owner for realizing her limitations and doing what is best for these girls no matter how hard it is. Many of us could end up in a similar situation and I can only imagine the grief it would bring. The other dogs are going from their initial intake home to long term foster homes too. They will all get any updates to their care that is needed along with love. Love is what our foster homes do best.
I would like to point out that as with all Rescue groups, we have a protocol that we follow before placing dogs in adoptive homes. We require applications and then we conduct vet checks, followed by home checks. Then we place each dog into the approved home that is the best fit for him or her. We have enough approved homes on our waiting list to provide an adoptive home for all of these dogs. If you are interested in a dog, it is wise to get an application in early so you will be ready when we have more dogs come along.
I have to thank Cheryl, who picked up the dogs from the owner for us. And a big thanks also to Kathi who met Cheryl at the local pet store and both ladies spent their evening bathing, trimming, and transporting these dogs. These are two ladies from the local Shetland Sheepdog breed club as well as members of our Rescue. It is great and always a help when these two parts of the dog world can work together. Bravo ladies!
Topanga will be here for a few weeks at least while we update her veterinary needs and get her spayed. We can already tell she is quite a character. She was jumping and trying to play with me when I was grooming her yesterday. She keeps running around and trying to get the other dogs to play. She is also trying to get the cats to play but so far that results in hissing and a swat or two. I’m sure it’s only a matter of a few days before she is outside playing with the other dogs in our fenced pasture.
A popular meme says “Here’s to all those people spending New Year’s Eve at home in their pajamas with their pets”. That would be us. And we’re happy about it.
This also leaves lots of time for introspection. Where will 2020 take me? The year of 2019 was one of great change. The most significant of which was that I retired from my job of 32+ years. That leaves me wide open with lots of options. Life has so much to offer, so many possibilities. I guess I won’t know until the door on 2020 closes.
I do know that the dogs are happy to have me at home. They still follow me from room to room most of the time. Even if it’s the bathroom, they seem to think that there is a secret exit or maybe that I will make a break for it out the window if they don’t stay close at all times. I haven’t done it yet but I imagine the dogs think that is because they always accompany me. I guess we’ll never know as I haven’t been to the bath by myself in about 35 years. But that’s ok, these faces bring me joy every day.
Every single day. I was smiling recently because Zekie figured out how to open two of our trash cans that have lids. This reminded me of my heart dog Duncan, and made me smile. Zekie also chewed something up recently and that reminded me of Duncan too. The dogs that are the most trouble, take the most work, these are the ones that I bond the deepest with. And so they bring me great joy. I plan to spend lots of time with my pups this year so it should be a joyful one.
I hope each of you has great joy in the coming year as well, as you find out where your journeys take you. Happy 2020! Make the most of the new decade and take advantage of each new opportunity.
Sanctuary Acres 