Strange Day at Doggie Park

Guinness and I arrived as a man we know was crossing the field with his unfriendly Wheaten Terrier. Guinness couldn’t wait to get out of the car. I told him that was an unfriendly dog, but he took off racing to meet the dog. Within 20 feet or so, he “remembered” and stopped in his tracks. The owner encouraged him, so he came for pets while the dog barked at him. We crossed the field together where we encountered Frank and mad-dog Mattie. Guinny did his business in the leaves a distance from us. By the time I got there, the leaves were camaflouge and Guinness managed to clean it up himself. Yuck!

After everyone had gathered, Guinness decided to chew sticks rather than play. Today was very cold, -17 F with no snow. My plan was to chase him to give him exercise plus remove the stick. I have a tradition of falling at least once every winter. Even the winter we lived in San Diego: while walking Hershey on the uneven sidewalk, I tripped and ripped my jeans. Again today, no ice; no snow, yet Uggs are not meant to be running shoes. I think they caused me to trip on the flat frosty field sending me skidding diagonally until I finally touched down. No one saw it happen. Too bad, because I think it would have been a comical sight. I’m not sure what happened to Guinness’s stick, but I never saw it again.

With me engaged in chatter, I missed Guinness following Frank out of the park. Once I realized it, Guinness ignored my calls. I didn’t feel like running again, besides my knee was beginning to feel “wet.” My thoughts were – if he gets run over, he gets run over, and I won’t have to deal with his nonsense. As Frank reached the street, Guinness decided to heed my command. I snapped on his leash intending to leave, but Burton came racing to play, so I released him. Once they stopped running, I picked up his leash and headed home to check out my leg and throw my outer clothes into the wash.

This has nothing to do with Guinness (or does it?)

My daughter Karin put a link on her blog today to a comical blog titled “Waking up on the wrong side,” written by a friend who is also adopting from Vietnam. She began by asking if you have ever had one of “those dreams…You know, one of those dreams that just ruins your whole day from the moment you wake up? One of those dreams that manages to evoke emotions which then carry over into your waking hours, and, even though you know it was just a dream, you can’t shake the feeling with which it left you.” Her dream/nightmare caused her to lose her Vietnamese adoption because she had blogged about elves (which she had not done in wakeful life). I also had a nightmare last week that resulted in losing the adoptions. It went on and on all night, carried on through the day, and I am still thinking about it a week later. Here it is –

Karin and Kevin vanished. Someone had an inkling that relatives who are not in contact with the family had kidnapped them. No one knew where they lived exactly, but someone suspected that they were near Ottawa in a rural area. Since there was no mother in the Faulkner home, the Vietnamese adoptions were lost. Out of loneliness and grief, Steve had to leave their house for his sanity and moved in with friends as a boarder.

After we had been mourning for eight long months, Grant and I decided to try to find these elusive relatives who might know of Karin and Kevin’s whereabouts. We drove through the countryside and eventually found a remote house which seemed deserted. The door was open. The house had a sense of being a commune. It was a decent home, yet, where a fireplace had been, there was a gaping hole in the wall.

Karin and Kevin were there. They were zombies. The joy had been sucked out of them. I wasn’t sure they even recognized us. Amazingly, Steve showed up minutes after we had arrived! Simultaneously, we had all decided to begin searching on our own. The expression on Steve’s face from receiving no reaction from his loved ones was heartbreaking. Eventually, they warmed up enough to show us the room where they spent most of their days – a closet with a table and two chairs. There were forced to study philosophy in this room day after day.

Eventually, their captors appeared. We did not have much conversation with them, and I was unsure how we were going to persuade Karin and Kevin to leave with us. That was the waking up point which I came to repeatedly throughout the night. Each time, there was Guinness snuggled up to me seemingly trying to offer comfort.

The Beat Goes On

Today was another jackpot: all eight dogs were there at one time! Guinness has now discovered that he can play the mitten game with all the humans at doggie park. He attempted to pull off Ellen’s, Susan’s, and Douglas’s gloves. He succeeded with Susan. She asked if he would ruin them. “No, he will just slime them.” With Cheerios in pocket, it was a quick retrieve.

Guinness followed Frank as he left to go home, hoping for one more treat from the Candyman. I had to run across the entire field as Guinness totally ignored my commands. Frank turned around to keep Guinness from running farther towards the street. I decided that I would tell him my seismic decision, as he loves to harass me about my nationality and political views. I have decided that all the Republican frontrunners are too liberal for me, so I am thinking of voting for Obama. AND I read last night that Rush is saying the same thing! If we have to have a liberal in office, Obama is my choice. Instead of badgering me for turning my back on conservatives, he harangued on why anyone would listen to what Rush has to say.

This afternoon, I went to the grocery store for several non-grocery items. While there, I thought, I decided to buy Grant more of his favorite cheese – extra old and not cheap. I placed my groceries on the floor of the front seat. Since the cheese and some bananas were the only appealing items, I thought they would be safe for five minutes while I ran into the drugstore. NOT! When I returned, Guinness was playing with a plastic wrap. I knew it had come from the cheese which was certainly gone.

Grant walked in the door tonight, poured a glass of wine, and asked if I had bought any more cheese for him. I looked at Guinness who was sitting politely on the kitchen floor looking back and forth from me on his right to Grant on his left with his right eyebrow raised while looking at me and the left one raised while looking at Grant. I think he understood the conversation.

Later, we were talking to Kevin on the phone. Grampy told him that Guinness had eaten his cheese. Kevin said, “But that isn’t on the blog.” Well, it is now.

Waggish Rapscallion

This morning, everyone showed up: Riley, Marley, Mattie, Brin, Smartie, Lucy, Burton, and Guinness, of course. Lucy and Burton are the running instigators. When they are present, Guinness runs with them as if they are in a horse race. Burton’s Dad is very strict and has Burton very well trained. Guinness had the insolence to grab his glove and run. He has never been cheeky enough to steal someone’s mitten other than mine! And of all people to choose to tease! He even tried a second time which earned him a deserved pop on the nose!

Happy Dog

Guinness was delighted to return to his playgroup this morning. It was cute to watch him. His joy was obvious in spite of the frigid temperatures hovering just above 0 F with the wind chill below that. Mattie is always on leash giving her a disagreeable temperament, so no one ever plays with her. If a dog comes too close, she may attempt to take a chunk out of them. She tried to take a nip out of Guinness today, so he taunted her mercilessly at the end of her leash. He would run back and forth just out of her reach making her chase him. That is the first that he (or anyone) has ever played a game with her.

Dog Walk

Today was in the 70’s, the only nice day of my stay. The kids and I took the dogs for a walk.

I wanted to get a closer look at the oil rig that has popped up within sight of their house. This is Texas!

The Texas Granddogs

I am in Texas with son’s family including his two boxers. Duke is now 10. He lived his first weeks as a Walsh in our house in Chicagoland. He loves me and always sleeps with me.

Daisy was rescued a couple of years ago. She says that any friend of Duke’s is a friend of hers, so she sleeps with me too (or on me).

Duke is an inveterate food scavenger. I had some snacks in the side pocket of my carry-on bag. When we were out of the house, he dragged it into the living room and ruined the pocket zipper to eat my snacks. Bad dog!

Just Being Helpful, Mom

Epiphany has come and gone. Today I started removing Christmas – always a sad thing to do. The stairways have been festooned with garland, ribbons, beads, and gold silk roses for about 6 weeks. Guinness has not tampered with any of it or any other Christmas decorations at all. Although, I did not line the stairs with stuffed animals this year. That would have been too much of a temptation. In fact, I think he has enjoyed the decorations. I had not even started to remove the stair decorations. Apparently, he wanted to help, so he started undoing the stairs by pulling a silk rose out of the garland! He definitely did not want me to take it from him. He put up a chase in spite of offered treats. Then he did what he rarely does – played the part of the flower dog that he used to be and pulled the leaves off the stem!

SOCK

This sock has become a permanent toy. He doesn’t harm it (as he does not harm most of the objects he steals). He just doesn’t want me to take it from him. If it is on the floor and I approach the sock, he races to protect his possession.

Just our Average Morning

This morning, he had a string of thefts within a short period of time beginning with arriving home from doggie park. First, he grabbed a shoe in the garage. Next, it was an Ugg in the coat closet. Christmas placemats were spread out in the laundry room to dry. He took one of those which now has to be rewashed. He wanted to read a letter on Grant’s desk. He took the clean Christmas tea towels I had left on the kitchen counter to carry upstairs.

The sock is now on the bedroom floor. Perhaps it is joining his stash of toys. I am waiting for an opportunity to take a picture of it.

Socks

I keep the bathroom waste can on top of the clothes hamper in Grant’s bathroom. Otherwise, he will pull out the dirty clothes and run around the house with them.

I threw away a stack of old socks in the laundry room. Guinness opened the lid and pulled out a few. That was a new trick. Apparently, he has never been attracted to anything in that waste can before. I am letting him keep one sock just to see what he does. Whenever I come near him, he grabs it and runs away. Eventually, he took it upstairs to lay on our bed with it. It was still there at bedtime.

Scalawag

Grant was up and gone before I was out of bed. Guinness awakened me at 6:47 to get me up for playtime. I waited 10 minutes before rolling out of bed. Getting into the car was a challenge again. He wanted to run around the car before jumping in but it was pulled up too closely at the front. I had to back the car up slightly to make room for him to make a loop of the car, then he jumped in.

Doggie park was a frigid 12 degrees! Mattie and Riley both arrived about 10 minutes after us. Venus and the moon were beautiful in the clear pre-dawn sky.

Guinness was particularly persistent upon grabbing my mittens off my hands this morning. After the game became weary and my hands were freezing, I walked around like I a robbery victim with my hands in the air. He made one more swipe for a mitten as he jumped in the car, then took off, mitten in mouth. As I drove home, he tugged on my neck scarf! Fortunately, he did not become aggressive in this pursuit and choke me. As I took off my layers of outer clothing, he repeatedly tried to grab my Uggs. I finally was getting the message that perhaps this boy had not had his breakfast. Grant was unavailable for verification, so I gave him a partial bowl of food. Later I learned that that was his second breakfast of the morning.