“Where is the good in goodbye?”
Yesterday was a bad day all around. A friend died in the morning. She had been sick a long while, but I had come to think of her as Superwoman surviving against all odds. That was the worst part of the day. Later I heard from my dog sitter that she can’t stay when I go to Ghana this summer. That one I’ll put away for a bit as it is four months until my trip. The last was Gracie jumped the rail off my deck, landed in the herb garden and started a fight with a dog being walked on the street. There had been a bamboo barrier on the top of the rail to heighten it, put there just in case, but it had fallen apart the other day. The deck is off the second floor of the house so the jump is a long one, but that didn’t faze Gracie. I could see where she had landed: she left a similar mark in the herb garden to a long jumper’s mark in the sand, and I half expected two guys out there with a tape measure. I ran out front when I heard yelling. The woman had Gracie and one of her two dogs by the collar. It seems Gracie had attacked one and the other had attacked Gracie. I grabbed Gracie who wanted nothing more than to go after that dog and dragged her into the house. I called Skip, my factotum, who came right over to help. Luckily I had boards, all the same size, and Skip constructed a wall to replace the bamboo. It is mighty ugly, but I dare Gracie to jump that one.
The one bright spot in the day yesterday was Grace Awai, one of my favorite Ghanaian students, called me from Ghana. She was not in Bolga last summer so I didn’t see her though I asked about her. They told me she lived in Accra and they didn’t know her number. A while back Grace visited Bolga, was told I’d been there and took my number. We talked a long while. Grace says she’ll meet me at the airport and come north for a while. I reminded her how I used to visit her mother’s pito house and have pictures of one of my visits. Pito is a wine made from millet and always served in a gourd. I thought it a bit sludgy but drank it any way being the courteous type that I am.
Well, I have high hopes today will be a better day. Gracie is still in the yard though she has taken to digging in my newly planted vegetable garden. I’m thinking she needs to be hobbled.
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April 26, 2012 at 11:09 am
Told you that you shouldnt have taken Gracie to the dump on Friday, thats a Saturday adventure, her schedule has been thrown off and she decided to rebel. Nothing like some solid action with a couple of random hounds.
You built the fence higher, she is digging and thinking “The Great Escape”, hope that she cannot ride a motorcycle !
April 26, 2012 at 12:22 pm
My Dear Hedley,
You are so right-I have upset the balance in the universe. Gracie is a love with people, but other dogs are a different story. She gets fierce.
I’m going to start looking for a tunnel under the fence. I wouldn’t put it pass her!
April 26, 2012 at 11:57 am
I’m sorry about Your friend! It doesn’t help knowing that they have been sick for a long time I’m afraid.
There aren’t a lot of dogs walking outside my cottage any more (well there has never been a lot of them walking here to be honest) since everyone learned Nova is a pit-bull 🙂 🙂 🙂 She really doesn’t care about other digs at all so she’s the one that never walks to the gate if a dog would pass 🙂 🙂 🙂
I have my really bad day today but it’s to long to write here so You’ll have to pop over to me to know what has happened 🙂 But can say that it can only get better 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
April 26, 2012 at 12:24 pm
Christer,
Boxers look a bit like pit bulls, and people always ask if she is one. People walk their dogs on my street all the time and Gracie objects all the time by barking and jumping. I’m hoping I have cut off all escape routes.
You really did have a bad day! Trying to fix one problem dcreated another and so on and so on. I can’t believe you ended up with stitches. My advice is stay home with your head under the covers!
April 26, 2012 at 1:36 pm
Is this rubbish ?
One of my music chums forwarded the link below to the new Beach Boys tune “Thats why God made the radio”….a bit late with the idea and the vocals sound like they have gone through the harmoniser. No says I…Jack White isn’t great says my friend.
I think that Blunderbuss blows this away but you can decide
April 26, 2012 at 2:05 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I agree that the harmonizer had a play in this-it is too vintage a sound of the best times of TBB.
They were then-Blunderbuss is now.
April 26, 2012 at 2:39 pm
Kat
Couldnt have said it better.
Now where is Gracie and what is she digging up ? With the change in seasons, Maggie the Westie associates my return from work with a good walkies. I am getting a decent greeting from the hound when I walk in.
April 26, 2012 at 2:19 pm
There were many personal reasons we chose not to get another dog after Chessie died. Dog fights were one of them. Usually the other owner was so obnoxious and once threatened to sue. I had a six foot privacy fence built in the courtyard which solved that problem but getting another dog just brought back all those responsibilities that you don’t have with cats. Wonderful that you talked with your friend in Ghana.
April 26, 2012 at 2:29 pm
Z&Me,
Gracie loves people but hates other dogs except for a couple of neighbors’ dogs. She hadn’t escaped from the yard in a long time-out the front door, but not the yard. Now there is a new barrier, and she’ll be stuck in the yard again. As much as I love cats and have had them since I was young, I love dogs just a bit more. It would be difficult to be without one.
It was great talking with Grace after 41 years!
April 26, 2012 at 4:14 pm
My I offer you my deepest sympathy on the passing of your friend. I hope she didn’t suffer at the end. Our one surviving dog, a dash hound. He usually gets along with all the dogs in the neighborhood. Once however at the dog park he tried to hump every other dog. He humped big ones, small ones and both males and females. 🙂 This was after he was neutered. We won’t take him back because he embarrassed my wife and kids.
Have you thought about sending Gracie to one of those boarding lfacilities for dogs that are like the summer camp that my parents sent us too when they wanted to travel.
April 26, 2012 at 4:18 pm
Bob,
Thank you!
I did get a laugh out of picturing the dashound jumping to hump the big dogs. How funny the sight must have been though I do agree that it must have been ambarrassing!
I’m going to hope for a person here at the house first as I also have the two cats to think about. Last time one of my cats lost the fur on the back of her back legs from anxiety. I can’t imagine what an empty house would do-she’d be bald. I have a few ideas but if worse comes to worse I will have to board the dog and have someone in to keep the cats company for a while and feed them.
Thanks for the suggestion.