Thoughts from Crow Cottage (My Main Blog.)
crowbelle's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dances with Dogs Dances with Dogs My life as a dog..er...WITH a dog, or rather with dogS...has changed everything for me. I grew up with dogs in my life. But I never noticed them. For some reason, my brother and I weren't given the responsibility of caring for our dogs, so they were more like toys than companions. The folks fed them, scolded them, put them in and out. They were fixtures in our lives but not quite what they have become for me now. I left home at 18 and lived on my own. Dogs never entered the picture until, several years later and, married for the first time, I found myself sharing a small one bedroom apartment not only with my student/husband, but with a stray dog named "Honey" who basically found and adopted us. She was a honey, too. She'd ride on Bill's motorcycle with him, up front, with the wind blowing in her honey-coloured furs, what a sight! She'd go to the track and run with us in the early morning hours, or after work. What a happy soul she was. When we moved from there (Maryland) to Indiana, Honey couldn't come, so we found her a new home... very sad goodbyes. In Indiana we had no dogs. Only cats, well, one cat - Bruno. He wasn't allowed in the "married student housing" we lived in but he lived there with us anyway, illegally, until the management found out and threw us all out. Many years and miles later, and living back in Mass. on the last legs of our short marriage, we found ourselves sharing life again with a dog - Corky T. Screwball was her name. And the "T" stood for Trouble! She got knocked up by the neighborhood stud, Charlie, and had puppies, under our bed, one early early morning. They were so cute. But what a mess! In a tiny cottage of a house, the six puppies, Corky, Bruno (still with us) and the two humans, all vying for a warm space was hectic to say the least. The puppies grew up, and sadly we said goodbye to them one by one as they found homes away. Then I found a home away, too. Bill and I separated and divorced. I moved on... Single again now but with no dogs. Only a new cat named Woodie Woodfin. She was roaming the streets at work as a tiny kitten, so I took her home with me. She lived to be 17, and was the greatest cat that ever lived. And no more dogs for me for another 10 years. There was always something missing. A home without a dog is, in my opinion, not complete - it's sterile. Even though my cats were the loves of my life, don't get me wrong here. I do love those warm bundles of purring fur... they were so aloof most of the time, and not really engaging like the dogs are. Not until I married Paul, and adopted (or was adopted by) his two great pyrenees, Nicodemus and Esmeralda, was the empty hole filled up again. By that time, Woodie had a sister kitty, Isabelle, and they were less than thrilled when the Pyrs came into the house, which wasn't often. They have thick coats and like to be outdoors as much as possible. One by one, they bit the dust, and that's when the collie revolution started. Muffin Collie-flower came to live at Crow Cottage around 1995 I think. She turned out to be the best dog in the world, bar none. Oh, the Pyrs were special - but they were Paul's dogs. Muffin was ours, and she was a beauty queen! A tricolor rough coated collie who had been raised in a kennel and had been a show dog. We got her from the Collie Rescue Dog network as her breeding years were over and she needed a single home - and we were it. Wow, what a girl Muffin was. I was so in love with that dog, I couldn't believe it. She'd jump up and put her front legs on my lap, wrap them around my waist and give the best "muffin-hug" you could ever want. She'd stay there as long as you'd let her. Pure love coming out of her all the time. Cancer eventually claimed our Muff and by then we'd added Jasmine Rose, a white rough-coated collie, to our brood. Jazzy is still with us, (see picture above) and we've added a spitfire sable rough-coated collie called Whitby to the crowd. They shed like mad in the house. They slurp water all over the floor. Occasionally (but mostly when they were younger) they'd have "mistakes" on the carpet so we finally had to rip it out and go with hardwood floors. They take up the whole sofa so that no one else can sit there, or else you'd have to squeeze into the tiny spot left on the end. They bark like mad when the UPS truck comes up the hill. When someone comes to the door, we don't need a doorbell... the dogs will let us, and everyone else within shouting distance, know that we have a visitor. Jazzy is old and infirm now, and we have to stay home mostly to care for her... it's hard for her to get up alone, so she needs help. But the days come, and the days go, and the nights are filled with our dogs and all that goes with them. And that's the way we like it. I can't imagine dancing through life without our doggers. They fill the hole... Cheers/Woofs, Bex P.S. Since I wrote the above, the Shrub gave his 5th State of the Union address. I couldn't watch it... I tried, but I felt nauseated so I went up and did some work. My friend, Mike, wrote a Rebuttal that deserves a bit of attention. Good job, Mike. I wish it had been you they chose to give this rebuttal last night. Not that anything will really matter until we can vote in a new and hopefully completely different crew at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in a few years. 3:53 pm - 31 January 2006 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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