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22
Dec

The ongoing story of the Thanksgiving Blessing

Has now turned into a Christmas hope.

Today I met Ruben. I have seen Ruben once only just a month ago. I knew him as my Thanksgiving miracle man. He is the man I saw that was feeding the stray dog right before Thanksgiving that I blogged about on Gray Gaia. Only a month later I find that Ruben has been attending to this dog’s needs for about six months now. He and his wife have built the stray, Beauty, a shelter.

Ruben is no stranger to dogs. He runs a home pet care business and pet sits. He made my Lizzie girl feel like the center of attention while were talking. As he talked I found out that he and others have been feeding “Beauty”. At first he thought it was a male so he called it Buddy but once he learned he was making friends with a girl dog he changed named so that when the dog hears it sounds like Buddy.

And back to the shelter he and his wife made, they have modified it for the winter. It is now sealed from the cold with a plastic tarp over the outside to keep out the cold. Along with this renovation they have added warm blankets for Beauty to nestle into.

I saw Beauty off in the distance watching us. We, Ruben and I, both thought she was wondering who he was talking to when she was waiting for her him. She has learned to trust him. Well, as least she has taken baby steps towards trust. He said that Beauty lets him touch her briefly now. He has noticed she needs some burrs trimmed out of her coat so he is building her trust so he can do that.

No one knows why she is there. But there is a network of people very involved in taking care of her. The place that she has chosen as “home” is on private property owned by the school district. Beauty was going over to the bus garage to beg in the beginning but the drivers were concerned she would get hit by a bus either coming or going. So when Ruben asked if he could tend Beauty on the land adjacent to the bus garage he was welcomed and approved with open arms.

This dog, this wonderful creature has found its way into many people’s hearts, including mine. I think maybe she could be an angel in disguise! Or maybe there are just nice people out here.

I will keep you posted as I learn more. Ruben is going to take pictures of her so I will be able to show you this wonderful dog when he does. I think she might be a Border Collie mix.

But we will see…..Stay tuned!

 

Category: Boomer Musings, One dog, two dog and more dog blogs  Leave a Comment
13
Jun

The jury is out until the tall guy gets home.

Why? Well let me explain. I got up at the crack of dawn, I mean literally, to take my dog for a walk so that we could both get some exercise. After days of raining it is not yet raining today. I thought this would a be a great morning to pull weeds with the earth all soft and easy to work.

And so I grabbed my garden gear and sat down on my little stool to enjoy an hour or so of gardening. It started to really shaped up and I was feeling pretty good about it. I stood up satisfied of a job well done and I started collecting tools, raking up the mess and looking around and there…… and there, at the other end of MY garden is my Lizzie digging away with great glee.

Now, I have a spot that she can dig. She knows that. Or at least up until now she knows that. It is seven years we have had Lizzie so I am pretty sure she knows her spot, right?

Well I scolded her, “Lizzie get out of my garden!”. Off she ran across the yard. Thinking that was the end of that I walked over to throw some stuff away and looked over by the veggie garden. And there she was! Digging and throwing fresh clean veggie dirt sky high! What! What is wrong with this doggie today? Is it too many days being cooped up in the house? Who knows.

I have to say in her defense, when I tell the “tall guy” about his veggie patch, that I did not stop her yesterday when she was digging behind the hydrangeas. I should have but, I will plead lack of discipline as an excuse. I knew I should let her know but I just wasn’t on top of it yesterday.

Now I am thinking this is not going to fly (ha, get it? Fly?). There was no remorse from my Lizzie girl. She ran to her spot she is allowed to dig that is littered with plastic bottles she steals out of my recycle bin and half buried stuff animals with a big muddy smile on her face.

This is not going to be easy to get her inside I tell you, I now have to lasso her with a leash and drag her over to get her feet washed off with the hose so she can come in. Another game mom, ha, okay I am in! All the while she is playing like I do not mean business. I do mean business! But just like a kid, I see her having so much fun with such a happy face and how can I be mad?

Her paws are clean and now I am dirtier that I planned on so it is off to shower and prepare myself to to plead her case. Will my “tall guy” be really mad? Probably not, once he reads this blog he will grant her leniency I am sure of it!

 

Category: Boomer Musings, One dog, two dog and more dog blogs, The Impatient Gardener  Leave a Comment
01
Feb

Rambling River

It was just under fifty degrees, overcast and the possibility of rain. I wanted to go for a walk but it is tax time and I wanted to get the papers prepared so I could take them to the CPA. The idea of needing to discipline myself led me to being antsy. My little dog picked right up on my mood. She watched for cues. Cues that she could read so she would know “we are ready to go!”. But I never gave her those cues because I wanted to take care of business first.

Finally. I had all my ducks in a row. The business was in order and I was ready to head out to the tax lady then, off for a walk. I was edgy, I wanted my walk, but the threat of rain was causing me to get tense. Then I thought, “oh hell, a little rain never hurt us before. I will just wear rain boots and a slicker”. So off I we went but, first turn in my taxes. I drove up to the tax lady. Dang! She wasn’t open yet so I decided to just go for the walk and rethink my priorities for this day.

My little dog wanted her walk too, she couldn’t sit still in the car. Finally we got to the forest, in sync we jumped out of the car and started out on the wooded path. This is the best part of our walk. The sudden burst of excitement to sights, smells and sounds. It was still overcast but already shaping up to be one of my better walks. We came out into the meadow, rounded the path and weaved back into a second meadow then down the trail to the peninsula. Finally all the knots were worked out my back and I was feeling pretty good. We came to the river rambling by quiet and gentle. Just then the clouds broke and a memory flooded over me.

Back in the 1960s as a pre-teen. I was antsy just like today. Couldn’t have been more that ten years old. I wandered out the back door rounded the block and started walking. I have always loved walking and I knew exactly where I would head. Back behind the Boise Cascade Lumber Mill. I skirted around the huge piles of logs as I saw the Yakima River come into sight. Ah, now this is what I needed. A walk by the river. I loved to do that then and I love to walk the Coosa River now. And for those of you who wonder yes, I did get in trouble with my mom for disappearing by myself.

Solitude has always been something I have enjoyed. Not curled up with a book or checking into a motel for quiet time but the kind of solitude that comes from a brisk walk in the woods as the oxygen courses through my bloodstream, clearing my head, and relaxing my muscles. Oh sure, there is the occasional walker I pass. We nod, pass a few pleasantries then, I move on. Mostly it is the birdsong or a croaking frog I commune with. If I stop moving long enough it gets quiet enough to hear a deer moving in the brush. Of course once I move or my dog goes on alert the deer does what it does best. Choses flight over fight as it prances lightly away.

I don’t know why I have always loved these walks. It really doesn’t matter. I have always found a place like this to walk, by myself, in no need of conversation. Except the conversation of the wind, the smell of the air and companionship of a dog. The solitude from humans is not really solitude like most people think about it. I am not lonely or scared. I don’t need to escape to regroup from life nor am I thinking deep thoughts or trying to discover purpose in the universe. I just want to be out there. Out there in the open, having my quiet time.

I have been this way since I was a child. I don’t “need” someone to go with me, I just want to ramble. Rambling on doesn’t have the same security it did back in the 1960s. Times of changed, I have grown older and aging has set in. I can’t afford to get hurt or lost now. Now I am product of the times, I carry a Smartphone with a App that lets my husband know where I am just in case he needs to find me. Most of the time he is secure in the fact he knows where I am at and when I will return. All he has to do is check his “Find Friends” App and he can track my movement. It adds a certain amount of security nowadays so I can forget about external things and just listen to the river as it slowly rolls along, gently slapping the bank. Ah, I do the river.

 

The river flows quiet and swift

It twists and turns as the waters drift

It branches and breaks__

its fingers entwine

(From the The River Flows by Kailey Jennings )

 

Category: Boomer Musings, Oh! There's a App For That!, One dog, two dog and more dog blogs  2 Comments
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