VISITORS

I have had two visitors this past week. A dramatic increase considering the past year. 

Callie and I have a set in stone morning routine.  Second thing I do after I wake up (come on, first is empty my bladder) is to let her outside for her morning toilet while I prepare her breakfast.  Her breakfast takes about one minute, then I let her back in to eat. She gets her toilet done really quickly. 

This particular morning when I let her out, she shot off the porch in full speed. There was no barking so I thought, rabbit. A little exercise before breakfast never hurts.

Normally she is waiting at the door anxious to be let back in after a minute or so but not that day.  She was nowhere in sight.  I slammed the door which usually works but no dog. Now I was beginning to get worried hoping she wasn't in mortal combat with some wild creature more fearsome than a rabbit.

I heard her snuffling at the back of the property and saw something large and brown, nose to nose with her. This was no bunny.  Luckily the offer of a cookie brought her scampering back.

Hesitantly after breakfast, I let her out again hoping whatever it was had figured out how to get out of my fenced yard.  Again she flew to the back of the property and I knew I had to do something.  I picked up my walking stick--the same one I threatened a 5 week old kitten with a few weeks ago-- and hoped for the best. 

                        Not my picture. Compliments of AKC but looks just like him.

There, cowering in the back of the property under some bushes was a beautiful, about 80 pound, purebred German Shepherd. Again by promising cookies, I got Callie back to the house. The huge dog was no threat and was actually quite frightened. 

I wasn't brave enough to confront a strange dog hiding in the bushes so I called my neighbor who said she had seen a lost dog notice on Facebook.  Seems my backyard neighbor was the father of the owner. He is our county judge so I called him at work and he came right out to claim the dog.  Phew. 

I learned he had been in training as a police dog but had flunked out. As beautiful a dog as he was, he did lack courage as my 27 pound dog had him thoroughly cowed.  

I was thinking of you all again and speculating that perhaps you might be more open to a dog "give away" than you had been with the kitten.  We all got lucky. He is now back home where he belongs though no one knows how he ended up in my yard. 

Then yesterday I was lying in my hammock just enjoying a perfect day when movement caught my eye. Without my glasses I thought it might be a giant wasp scoping me out for an attack. I reached for my flyswatter but am glad I didn't use it for not 2 feet away from my face was my first Hummingbird of the season.  He was scolding me with chirpy bird obscenities letting me know it was past time to make nectar and put it out.

He must have been the scout sent ahead to scare up food. My goodness--all ready? Actually he is a bit late. Wonder if the pandemic messed up their schedule too. This visitor was easier to satisfy than the huge dog. 

Curious though, would the Shepherd have been an easier "give away" through my blog had I not found his owner?  Keeping my options open in case I get more visitors.

BEST EVER HIT MAKER

Snow is coming down but so far, no signs of ice on the lines. We are expected to get a lot of moisture through out the day and hopefully, we stay with snow. It is just so pretty. Mighty and I will try to get in a walk down the road today before it gets too deep for him . He only has about a 4 inch clearance to his most prized possessions. To every one in the path of this monster storm covering many states, stay safe and warm.


HIT MAKER


This is an update on a previous post on the same subject. I use to think that my posts just fell into an abyss after I hit "publish" but early on, I got a site meter. It is a wonderful tool to track your visitors. Comments are only the tip of the ice berg. You can tell generally where the visitors are from, how they found you, how long they stayed, and if they visited more than one post. It will also rather cruelly let you know when you have put out a dud post with a puny hit count.

The refreshing thing is that you realized that some posts never die. Perhaps we aren't just spitting into the wind. Some in fact become regular hit generators. For a while, it was just random hits through out my blog from Google inquiries. Obviously they were looking for something else entirely when a key word brought up on an old post.

Key words will take you a variety of places as you know when you try to Google a subject, often having nothing to do with what you are searching. I have found some scary sites that way. Who would have thought Googling "toys" around Christmas would bring up a sex toy site? My, that was interesting. Did I spell "toy" wrong? And the time I Goggled "expressing anal glands in a dog" in an effort to help Mighty Dog with his problem---good grief. The picture was vile and definitely not of a dog. Googling can be an adventure.

Then I unwittingly posted something that was to become my bread a butter hit maker. Even on dud post days, it keeps up my count. Five months ago, I wrote a post about an Australian Blue Heeler named Emma Lou. Evidently the Heeler has become a very popular little dog for I have continued to get many hits every single day from all over the world.

They are coming from Google searching the Australian dog. I have featured other dog breeds in my posts, but none got the response that the Heeler got and still gets daily. According to my sitemeter, almost 40% of my hits are for that post.

A very distant second is a post about a red nosed pit named Ratty. Many of these visitors disappear quickly into cyber space when they see it is just a blog, but a few stick around, read several posts and some actually return as lurkers. As I was once a lurker myself, I do have a soft spot for them. Welcome folks.

Someone asked me if the lady in the story about Emma Lou knew about the post I had written. Somehow, I think if she has a computer, still has a soft spot for Heelers and Googles "Australian Blue Heeler", she will find it. Just hope she will forgive my prejudgment of her. Not my finest moment.

What is your biggest hit maker?

HIATUS CALLED FOR

First I want to thank everyone who felt my pain in yesterdays post and left encouraging messages. I've said it before, YOU ARE THE BEST. When I first started blogging, I actually never thought I would meet so many wonderful, funny, informative, and talented people on such a global basis. What an amazing plus. I really just thought just my family and friends would be my only visitors and that was fine. I shake my head daily as I read your comments and check my site meter. Wow.


I wanted the discipline of a daily blog for I can be a procrastinator. Not just yesterday, but many days I have stared at a glowing screen with nothing to say. Plenty of ideas, just no words to frame them. Often I would force a post but that is not fair to either of us. We could both tell when I was struggling.

Amazingly, I actually got regular followers and that was an super high. For years there were a handful of blogs that I lurked on and admired. Suddenly some of those were reading my words. I know you know how great that is. Then my blog roll expanded and I saw just how many talented people there are out there.


If I did nothing else but read blogs, I would have an enjoyable but busy day. I know my list is meager compared to some of you. I really don't know how you keep up with daily blogs, still manage house holds, some of you also work for a living yet still have time to visit all your legions of visitors. My hat is SO off to you.

For a while my posts came easy. Slowly, I had to get up earlier and earlier to get all my reading and writing done but it was very much worth it. Visits to the computer through out the day became necessary to keep up. Slowly I started to neglect daily my duties--my weeds right now are staging a coup d'etat, the windows are getting hard to see out of, long walks have become less frequent, Old Yeller, my kayak is looking positively forlorn and novel reading is almost nonexistent.

I know a balance is attainable and that is what I am seeking. I am going to take a hiatus to put things in proper perspective and charge my batteries. I really can't rely on another lightning strike to do that for me. I may have to lose my grip on the "daily blog" idea and do what most of you do, blog when you actually have something to say. No one said I was quick but I usually do learn. All ready I feel more free and excited about the coming day. First thing is those darn weeds.

I do know I "need" to blog and to visit you all, so I will be back, just going on vacation. Plan to cut the umbilical cord to my computer so I won't be visiting during the hiatus. Will miss you and should be back soon. Thank you.

SongBird Trashes Hotel

This LGB ( little grey bird) moved into the overhang on my porch in the evenings to hide from the cold. I was pleased to be able to offer sanctuary.

He or she never showed any more of its self so identity was never established. I am not good at bird identification anyway so a lot fall into the LGB or LBB ( little brown bird) category.

This little bird however showed no gratitude for the shelter I provided. Instead, pooping out the door seemed perfectly OK to him.

Those bird roosts I have been meaning to build for the winter visitors are becoming more important. Think I will shop for wood today. They are cute houses, larger than a bird house, where birds can roost together and share body heat much the way chickens roost. Also it looks simple enough that maybe even I can do it. Bet they will be fun to clean out.

I guess if I'm going to provide an" all you can eat" plan for the birds, housing should follow. What we don't do to interfere with nature. Think too many Disney movies as a kid are to blame.

FOOTPRINTS

 Aww, my company has left but she left a rather large footprint.  My friend from the second grade came and went but not without leaving an impression.

The non physical footprint was in the form of reconnecting with my friend from the second grade. We have enjoyed a long distance friendship for 70 years.

As all of you have stated, it is always so amazing that when you reconnect with a long time friend after several years. Time melts away and you are right where you were as if it were yesterday.

We were a little bit handicapped by the series of over 100 plus degree "feels like days". Mercy!!! The crazy heat made us seek mostly indoor venues with only an outdoor Hootenanny, mostly in the shade, being bearable in the heat.

Thankfully heat doesn't handicap conversation. Talking rarely works up much of a sweat unless you have polar opposite political views which luckily we didn't or at least kept to ourselves.

Sis--as I have always called her--is far healthier than I and did some of those chores that I have been unable to do. I do work my guests without a trace of
guilt.

She may be more fit than I am but I have faked her into thinking I am tech savvy. I got really tickled as I connected her to ATT on my computer to facilitate an upgrade for her cell phone.

We were in a chat with the technician who typed the phrase -- 'you will enjoy an upgrade of either 3G or 4G. :D.'  Sis wanted to know what 4 G D was. I grinned as I  told her the tech was just being cute and the :D was just a smiley face at the end, not a generation designation. Pretty sure when she gets her smart phone she will leave me in the dust tech wise. I enjoyed my moment.

The beauty of having Sis stay here is that she is an RV'er.  I love company that brings their own house with them.

I always set my RV visitors (my brother it the other one) up in my front yard but when they leave, a grass Mohawk is left behind where the camper blocked the lawnmower.

The RV's physical footprint in driveway.

Highest point--13 inches

Wow, I am reduced to posting pictures of grass. Pretty sure it is time to finish this post and hit publish.

Since  I am back to normal blogging and routine, I will be haunting your posts once more.  Hopefully my former blogger problems have magically been corrected. Point of reference, I am posting this at 6:05 CST. Have no idea if it will make your reading lists or when.

I've missed you.

PEACHES

Caution---Sad alert.

After I progressed from reading meters, I found my dream job with the power company. It was called LSA (leave service available) which entailed a multitude of field jobs. I really loved it. It had all the freedom of meter reading but was a lot easier on the body. I traveled daily into a large territory and it was not unusual to drive 250 miles a day as I covered our 5 county area.

Since I was on the road for the whole day, I always packed a cooler and would search a place with a view to have lunch. I had several choices in each county that I would repeat and schedule my work orders around. Nubbin Slough, which was a lake access and boat ramp for fishermen, usually fit into my schedule.

I normally parked on the dike so I could enjoy the larger view of the lake but this day I drove down to the water's edge. I was working on my usual turkey sandwich when I heard a soft meow. Sitting out side my truck and looking directly at me was a striking little cat. She was a soft peach, white and charcoal calico. I had never seen those particular pastel shades before. She was beautifully marked.

I pulled some turkey from my sandwich and offered it to her but she was too afraid to approach so I threw it on the ground where she pounced on it like it was a fat juicy mouse. I knew right then that I was going on a diet that day as I offered her the rest of my sandwich. That was when the tall grass around the boat ramp exploded and at least 30 cats emerged.

These cats were a terribly ratty looking group, all ages and sizes. Thinness was the fashion of the day while tattered fur and scars were the accessories. Even the pretty one upon closer examination was carrying some partially healed wounds. I always carried a small bag of dog food kibble in my truck to help with rescue when I found a stray.

I scattered the dog food about on the ground and watched them gobble 5 pounds up in a matter of minutes. Cats, as you cat owners know, generally have delightful table manners and are picky slow eaters. This was a frenzy feed with lots of snarling and posturing.

My rescue work mostly centered around dogs with a few cat exceptions. I knew this group of 30 cats was something I was not equipped to handle. That day as I worked my way around the lake and visited the various RV parks near the Slough to complete my orders, I spread the word about the herd of cats at the Slough.


Many of the northern visitors with a lot of time on their hands, volunteered to make sure the animals were fed and would try to catch them. I love it when people work together. I would have reported the cats to the Humane Society but they would have had no choice but to destroy the animals. Feral cats are not adoptable as pets.

I kept taking food to them every evening after work and noticed that I was not the only one now. My little group of Yankee recruits was doing a good job. I really thought of trying to catch that pretty one that I had named Peaches, but she stayed always out of reach. Just as well I kept thinking for I really had enough on my plate at the time.

Then one lunch hour as I drove up, I saw the pack of cats swarming like rats over a bag of food someone had left. Peaches was just looking at the food, but not eating. I noticed her tail looked like it had been severed in the middle with only a string of skin holding it together. I thought she must have been in a terrible fight.

Then she turned towards me and the shock sickened me. She had only half a face. One ear was gone, one eye, a chunk of her skull, most of the flesh on one side of her face and her teeth were exposed. The other half of her face was perfect. It was a horrible picture.

I felt tears burn my eyes. I was pretty sure what had happened. She had probably climbed under the hood of a fisherman's car for warmth and when he started it up, she got caught in the fan belt or blade. Usually this will kill a cat. She was gravely wounded but alive and trying to stay that way. I knew she needed vet care immediately. I doubted she could be saved and would most likely be euthanased but she really needed relief.

I walked towards her and while the others scattered, she stayed fast and looked at me with her one eye. I took a towel I kept in the truck and wrapped it around her. Though I had never been able to get near her before, this time she let me pick her up. I placed her in the passenger seat hoping foolishly this would work.

All was fine till I started the engine and she exploded in that small cab. For a really sick animal, she tore my truck up and I flew out the door in fear. She followed me out but stopped short after getting about 30 feet from the truck. Again she looked at me with that one eye.

I still had about 50 minutes left to my lunch hour so I drove quickly to my vets office and explained the problem. I was given an oral anesthetic which if I could get it on her tongue, it should make her safe to transport. As her tongue was totally exposed on one side, I hoped it would work. Problem would be her letting me near enough a second time.

When I got back, she was the only one left, the others had eaten all the food and scurried to their hiding places. She again watched me calmly as I approached her with the properly loaded, needle less syringe. She must have sensed that I was there to help for she made no effort to move as I squirted the liquid onto her tongue. It worked marvelously and she was almost unconscious in no time and an easy transport. I left her with the vet for my lunch hour was over and I promised to check on her after work.

My vet once joked that you could cut a cat into nine pieces, put all pieces in a room and shut the door. By morning the cat would be whole again. They do have remarkable abilities to recover but not this time. He could not fix her for her brain had been exposed too long so he put her humanely to sleep.

Some of the cats of Nubbin Slough were caught by the Yankees who were feeding them. I used a Havaheart trap to catch a few, have them spayed or neutered and then took them to local dairy farms that agreed to take them. These were feral cats and taming is a long process if it can be done at all.

Then one day, though there should have been about 18 left, there were no more cats. One of my Yankee friends said that animal control had come down and destroyed the remainder. I don't know how and don't want to know, but I am guessing poison. They were considered a health hazard by the county. I had not moved fast enough.

Some of these had once been pets or the offspring of pets that people dumped out. Cats, even more so than dogs, are considered a throw-a-way animal. With all the animal control methods and rescue foundations we have today, there was no need for that heartbreak to have ever occurred.

Same tired old message here ---Please spread the Spay/ Neuter message and if you know of someone contemplating the dumping of an animal, remind them of the Humane Society. Thank you.

BLOGANNIVERSARY TIME

It is hard to believe today is my bloganniversary. One year ago I thought, what the heck and started putting together a blog page, having not a clue what I was doing or going to write about. I just knew it was winter and it seemed like a good cold weather project. I had been lurking on various blogs for about a year and really liked the premise of blogging.

I though how neat it was to write something and have others actually read it. I had always dabbled with writing but never put any discipline into my efforts. Kind of a spurty and when the mood hit type of writer. This seemed like it would be good exercise for the brain which at my age is always a consideration.

I tried to tell my self I was doing this for my own entertainment and it would be OK if no one read what I wrote, but that was a lie . Anyone who writes, wants some one else to read it, preferably when we are not present. It was getting others to read my stuff that had me a lot concerned. Who would ever find me? How do they find me? Would any one even care what I had to say? Having no answers, I went ahead anyway. Ignorance is bliss.

One of the cool things about starting a blog is that you now have a URL and don't have to resort to "Anonymous" to leave a comment on another's blog. So on my first day, I visited two of my favorites and left my first comments. Gosh that was fun. I was no longer a lurker.

I did not know blogger etiquette and didn't realize they might actually return the visit. I was a wee bit star struck at first. That Robin and Judy (two blogs that I had regularly visited) actually left comments was amazing. I did not realize they were originally just being polite. That they have stayed with me from day "one "makes them very special to me. Somehow on that first day, "Blue" also found me who is from Finland. Blue made me realize the the web was far reaching. Since then I have added New Zealand, Australia, England, the Netherlands, and India to my regular visitors as they joined those from all over the US. I then realize just how vast this web is. It truly is a world wide web.

Slowly, with help from some seasoned bloggers who graciously linked to me, my readers grew as did the list of blogs I follow. The only thing better than having others find you, is to find all the great blogs there are out there. There are a lot of talented, funny, thoughtful, insightful, educational, and some really great photographer bloggers. It seems when I just can't squeeze in one more person to visit daily, oops, here comes a can't miss blog.

What I hadn't counted on was when these blog buddies actually became friends. You laugh with them, worry with them, if you are lucky, visit in person with them, and on occasion pray for someone they know that needs it. It is a huge lovely network and I am ever so thankful that a year ago, I started clicking on the keyboard and jumped feet first into cyber space.

It has been a grand year and I really want to thank you all for being in it.

COMPANY COMING

My brother and his wife are arriving this morning and will be here for the week. They are favorite visitors, not only because they are fun but Jim, who is super handy, loves to take care of those household repairs I have been putting off paying someone to do. They are RV'ers and bring their house with them. How thoughtful is that?

I am pretty sure I won't have time to do any reading of blogs so I will see you next Monday. Hope you have a great week--- I plan to.

COMMENTS SUSPENDED

SOMETIMES IT'S HARD TO LOVE

Feel free to laugh at me, I am.

Minnie has suddenly gone from a sweet loving, affectionate cat to an animal that I will pluck off my lap and put gently to the floor with a desperate, "please go away". No, I can't be mean to her though I guess my constant rejection is in effect mean, but I can't help it. My primal instinct is to throw her through the door without opening it first.

You see, she has suddenly developed the most outrageous case of gas I have ever been around. Now I am not talking an occasional little poot every now and then. I am talking weapon of mass destruction. They are silent and lethal. She is big time aiding global warming with her methane gas donations.

She looks innocent here doesn't she. Well if I were better with the computer, there would be a giant toxic blue cloud erupting from her ass. I am not exaggerating, it makes one's eyes water. The worst of her offensive behavior occurred last week when the pollen count was super high and though I don't have severe allergies, it is more comfortable sneeze-wise if I keep the windows closed when pollen is high. Conundrum.

My house is very small, air tight and fills up with her noxious gas very quickly. I am trapped with this de-clawed house cat that cannot go out doors. Swear to God, it got so bad, it actually set off my carbon monoxide detector. The mechanical voice screamed "Warning Carbon Monoxide", accompanied with shrill blasts.

I thought that couldn't be possible but when I got my computer back and checked with Wikipedia, methane is an asphyxiant and may displace oxygen in an enclosed place. Yikes, my cat was displacing my oxygen. So open went the windows and out came the Benadryl. Guess it is better to have your eyes water from pollen than methane gas.

Of course, I immediately rushed her to the veterinarian for a check up. It smelled like something crawled up her and died. She had no parasites , anals are good and no blockages. He pronounced her healthy but most likely needing a change in food.

I had recently changed her regular dry food as her particular formula was no longer carried by the store. I had replaced it with the same brand but a slightly different formula. Anymore there are so many formulas that you can almost get a food dependant on your cat's color.

Minnie had come from a sad place when I found her or rather, she found me. She had been so emaciated that I could only feed her a tablespoon of food each hour so that she could hold her food down. So she has a delicate digestive system. Obviously.

So far with some really expensive grub, she is at least livable with and she hasn't set off the alarm recently. She now only has occasional poots that waft around me but do not fill the house. It does seem there is a direct correlation between her episodes of gas and desire for affection.

Out of kindness, I am refusing all visitors for the time being. However, where are those annoying door to door salesmen, politicians, or religious recruiters when you need one? It would be such fun to lure one in to my gas chamber just to watch their reaction. Would they be polite? Would they still go for the sales pitch? Pretty sure even a burglar would leave empty handed right now.

I am hopeful in time I can get her back to her sweet smelling self. If not, perhaps I can find some nice person with really bad sinuses who would love an adorable cat. That would be an odd classified ad to phrase however. "Wanted, home for a lovely spayed, de-clawed house cat. New owner must be mouth breather with no sense of smell."

If none of the above work, I am stuck with her. I made the commitment. Are nail implants possible? I just hope this smell doesn't cling to my clothes like cigarette smoke. Guess I will know if I start clearing the aisles at Walmart.

Wish me luck.

BLACK VS WHITE

No, this is not a post on racism.  Actually it is a fashion/sports post so there should be something for everyone.

This past weekend was supposed to be dedicated to the baseball players so that they could show their individuality.  They got to wear flashy shoes, colorful belts, socks or arm sleeves. They also got to put their nicknames on the backs of their jerseys. It was supposed to be a fun weekend for them and us.

Only problem is that the league dictated the uniforms.  They were to be monochromatic, all white or all black. White with white lettering or black with off black lettering.  Home team usually wore white and visitors wore black. I could switch channels and swear I was watching the same teams. Fifteen teams wore white, 15 wore black.

For the white uniforms, it was almost impossible to read anything on the fronts or backs of the uniforms. White on white does not show up. The boys looked for all the world like a field full of ice cream vendors searching for their trucks.  The fact that white makes you look fat was made painfully clear.

The black uniforms fared a bit better. The lettering was at least readable and the often clever nick names were fun.  They seemed to be more tailored to the men's bodies and were definitely slimming.  While the black teams looked  trim and athletic,  the white teams looked more like middle aged softball players.

Don't know how the players felt but from what I've read, the fans thought the uniforms were awful.

I have always loved wearing white as I usually have a good tan and am reasonably trim besides it gives you a built in excuse to not get roped into any dirty jobs.  Boy am I having second thoughts though after this weekend. White does nothing for the body.  Fifteen teams of professional athletes could not pull it off.  Pretty sure I have been kidding myself.

Did you watch any of the games this week end?   Sports aside, do you personally avoid wearing white?

SWANS AND IPHONES

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MELINDA UPDATE

As some know from my post on Sunday, a member of my support group is in the hospital in Conway and three of us were making the trip there to visit with her on Monday. We were all quite concerned for Melinda is suffering from brain cancer and the reason for her hospitalization appeared to be grim. She was having mini strokes and severe pain. We approached her room with a lot of trepidation.

A nurse outside her door instructed us to put on disposable gowns and gloves. The gowns were bright yellow and the gloves a brilliant blue. We did a rather good impression of a trio of canaries with cold hands. Wish I had brought my camera for we were really quite strange looking. Can honestly say the get up flattered none of us. This precaution, we understood,was not to protect Melinda from our germs, but to protect us from possible MRSA which is the dreaded hospital super bug. Not a comfortable feeling to know why you are all dressed in yellow. I am not a germaphobe but could learn to be .

We were thrilled to find Melinda in wonderful spirits and feeling good. It seems there was a medication mix up which caused the pain and strokes. Medicine can save our lives but it can just as easily screw them up. With the medicine problem straightened out, she was bright, alert and full of good spirits. She is not home free but the change was almost miraculous. Too bad they hadn't found this out so she could have enjoyed her daughter's wedding pain free. Medical treatment is too often a crap shoot.

I mentioned Sunday that our group is laugh addicted and three of the worst offenders were in that room. Melinda however is a serious fourth on the laugh chart. What we didn't know was that the hospitals now days have noise level meters.

As long as the noise level stays in the green zone, all is well. Yellow is warning and red is "get out of here." We should probably should carry one of these with us when we eat out.

It seems we were dangerously close to sending the meter deep into the red zone and being expelled from the hospital. Now I totally understand the need for this. I have been a patient before and sometimes it seemed like a party was going on in the next room. Not very nice when you are feeling awful.

Visitors, often out of nervous relief and the compulsion to entertain the sick, laugh and talk too loudly. This need to make a patient laugh I feel intensifies in direct proportion to how many abdominal stitches they have. The more stitches, the greater the need to a cause a deep belly laugh. Oh, have I been there.

Luckily Melinda had no stitches but we were guilty of the need to entertain anyway. It would have been a new low for us to have been kicked out of a hospital in violation of a noise ordinance. Fortunately, we were able to keep our enthusiasm down and the meter in the "green" with occasional trips into the "yellow zone." It was a struggle though.

Good news is that if the tests that day went well, she could come home on Tuesday. Correction, not good news, but wonderful news. I want to thank all of you who offered prayers and good wishes. You are the best.

CALLIE LOVES ME LESS

Callie loves me--just not as much as she loves Arliss.

When I adopted Callie she was a wild, high strung bundle of crazy.  I volunteered at the Humane Society to walk dogs and she was my first. As she lunged wildly at the end of the leash and screamed at the other dogs I realized there was a slim chance anyone would adopt her. She was nuts. So I adopted her. Always been a sucker for the underdog and unlovable.   

Turns out she was just a high energy dog that was going crazy in confinement.  She tore around my fenced property like a greyhound on amphetamines for a solid 30 minutes that first day. Then the real Callie showed up. As she burned off the excess energy she became much calmer and I learned who ever owned her before had really worked with her.

She was perfectly housebroken, obeyed all commands and became my Velcro dog in that she is rarely 6 inches away from me. So I thought I had her unconditional love and that I was top dog in her book.  Not so.

Her true love, my friend Arliss, came to visit recently and I am only sorry I did not make a video of the incounter.  Neither of us had any idea what was going to take place at their first meeting.

Callie loves all visitors.  A burglar would probably get the same enthusiastic greeting as friends and family. However, what happened next was just bizarre. Arliss took a seat and Callie stood up on her hind legs, put her front paws on Arliss's knees then proceeded to earnestly talk to her. Yes--talk.

She got right in Arliss's face and made noises I have never heard before.  It wasn't a bark, it wasn't a growl, nor was it a whine. Over and over she made sounds that almost sounded like words. Arliss grinned with wide eyes and looked at me questioningly as she stroked Callie's head and ears. I had no clue what was happening.  There was a pleading, almost frantic tone to Callie's sounds.

I could only guess she knew Arliss from a former life and was trying desperately to make her recognize who she was but Arliss drew a blank. Then just this week Arliss had to have unexpected surgery--could Callie have been trying to warn her?  I have no idea.

Arliss was to a much lesser degree also smitten with Callie.  Too bad her husband doesn't want a dog or I would consider letting her have Callie as long as I had visiting privileges.  Love like that should be allowed to flourish. But for now, Callie is stuck with me.

Early this year I posted about a dog I had met years ago that had a similar reaction to me. The dog just went crazy when she saw me.  When I met that dog, I didn't realize how I must have made the owners feel who probably thought they were number one in their dogs life only to find out--I was.

Now I understand a little of what they might have felt. Yes, I am second on Callie's list of whom to love but that is Ok. I don't mind sharing. Besides, being second in line for a dog's affection is still pretty darn amazing. They set the bar high. However the next time Callie and Arliss meet, I will be camera ready.  This could go viral.

Have you ever had a much loved pet unceremoniously dump you for another?  Did you find it funny as I have or were you hurt?