Indoor and outdoor grievances

 Alex likes the new couch. She has more room to stretch out, as do I, 

which was the whole point of buying a new one.

 The challenge now is to keep her dirt and dog hair on the covered side.

 This is Alex's "I reject the premise of the discussion" face,

 followed by her "I can't get close enough to you with this damned pillow in the way" face.

If it's looking extra bright outside the windows in these pictures,

blame it on the April showers...

 ...which brought snow.

 We all had some choice words to say about that.

Staying busy

Making up for lost time

Alex has gotten short shrift during my blogging hiatus. No blogging = not many reasons to take pictures = not many photos of the cutest ears in caninedom.

Hence, I'm trying to make up for some lost time.

Posing comes quite naturally to her, though how that leg bend can be comfortable is a mystery.

She has a wicked side eye and is not shy about using it.

Do you think she knows she's not supposed to be on this chair?

All is forgiven if it makes for a pretty picture.

Alex doesn't spend nearly as much time outside as Smooch did. She only wants to be where I am. We are absurdly, though unashamedly, co-dependent.

She's very alert and watchful. In this case, she's keeping an eye on the chickens on the other side of the fence. She loves chickens...for lunch. E Street chicken Clarence, who hasn't learned her lesson, likes to fly into the garden. Twice I've had to remove her from Alex's locked jaw and twice she has survived, which is a damned good thing because a steady supply of eggs is important in these crazy times. 

Some things just can't be explained.

Alex turns 2 on Saturday.

Long may she live.

Remembering Smooch

I said goodbye to Smooch on Saturday. She had a seizure, and the poor prognosis convinced me

it was time to let her go. I buried her at the ranch, in a spot where she will still be able 

to keep an eye on things. 

The song is called "Story of My Life" from The Piano Guys.

Be careful what you wish for

I took Alex hiking in the mountains on Sunday. 

We were looking for adventure.

 

Alex found some before we even got out of the truck.

Four mule deer hardly constitute a grand adventure,

but it was an auspicious start, and how about that blue sky?

Mindful of recent lost-hiker stories in the news,

I texted Ethel (also known by her real name, Denise) of our plans

so she could organize a search party if necessary.

How one does that from several thousand miles away remains to be seen,

but I felt better knowing that someone would know where we were

in case we got eaten by a bear or something and didn't return on time.

This was my first smartphone-equipped hike, and I was practically giddy

when I realized I had a signal on the mountain. 

I could call or text my way out of trouble if need be.

The plan was to hike the 3.5 miles to the top, then come back down the same way.

I kept Alex on a leash because I always keep her on a leash.

Good thing, too, because we'd occasionally hear a branch snap,

followed by the sounds of a mule deer running through the trees,

followed by the sounds of me admonishing Alex to stop trying to chase the mule deer.

Texting on a hike might be the modern-day equivalent of leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.

Alex: Put the damned phone away and let's go home.

The best part about hiking up a mountain? Hiking back down. 

We had about a mile of trail left when we heard a branch snap somewhere off to our right.

I glanced in that direction as Alex got ready to pull my arm out the socket to chase a deer.

Except it wasn't a deer. It was a bear,

a very large bear climbing a tree about 50 yards away, looking right back at us.

And I had no fucking idea what to do.

Walk? Run? Hide? Google for the answer?

I opted for walking quickly and getting the hell out of there

before he could climb down the tree and eat us.

 But I did grab my phone as we scurried by and pointed it in his general vicinity to take a picture

because once a blogger, always a blogger.

Once I was semi-convinced he wasn't chasing us, I stopped and sent Denise another text.

In case we met our demise, she'd have more clues to give the search party.

Hard to say who was more relieved when the hike was over,

but we went looking for adventure and found it, so there's that.

It's been so long I may have forgotten how to do this

I never intended to stop blogging. It just happened –

no particular reason other than I haven't felt like talking.

This malaise began in early November 2016 and I don't expect

it will end before November 2020. You can figure it out.

 When last we gathered here, the door installation was mostly done,

 but it pointed to a plethora of projects that would have to be accomplished

before I could call the room complete.

I wanted to simplify the color palette, so covering up the green walls

with an off-white seemed like a good place to start.

Besides, I had to get the painting out of the way before I could hang

the crown jewel of the door project:

 I found a glass artist on Etsy to create a transom window 

for the empty space above the door.

 It makes the room seem taller and I am thrilled with it.

And how about the lovely chewed edge of the quilt?

Nicely done, Alex. 

Can you believe how long her tail is?

Me neither.

These two. It may look like they were posing for a yearbook photo

but they were actually watching bugs smash into the window.

Entertainment is cheap in the middle of nowhere.

 The new paint color helped me realize that the focal point of the room

should be the views out the windows, so I did not rehang most of the art

that had been on the walls. Not in the bedroom, anyway. 

 The outside of the house may be in danger of turning into a gallery of sorts

and I'm okay with that, except for the part where I realize

how badly this table needs to be sanded and repainted 

and my project list grows ever longer.

This is the part where Alex realizes she can break her pose and go play.

Anyway, back to the original bedroom project, which was crying out

for some softness to balance the other textures going on in there, so I ripped out

the barnwood that cased the picture window and replaced it with 11 yards of cotton gauze.

One more room picture, then I'll shut up about this project...for now.
I took this one while sitting on the window seat, using the phone's panorama option:

In the midst of all the d-i-y frivolity, the hockey playoffs began.

Perhaps if I had not put Alex's bowtie on upside down, the first round

would have had a better outcome.

It was not a happy ending for our team...

 ...but we're already looking forward to next season.

With any luck, I'll feel like talking/blogging again before then.

Old Dog Vestibular Disease – it's a thing and who knew?

Smooch is going to be fine. 

Let us all remember that as I recap the last few days. 

Monday morning started out no differently than any other morning around here:
feed the dogs, do barn chores, walk the dogs, then work at my desk for a few hours
while the dogs nap. Everything was so normal and ordinary. Until it wasn't. 

Smooch woke up, then started wandering around the house as if she were looking for something.
Then she tipped over. She got up, took a few seemingly drunken steps, then she tipped over again.
Within 10 minutes, Smooch was crated and in the truck, and we were on our way to the vet.
 In my mind, she had suffered a stroke and I wouldn't be bringing her back home.

The vet examined Smooch, paying close attention to her eyes and her movements.
She seemed to know right away what was happening
and went on to explain "Old Dog Vestibular Syndrome."
Apparently it's common in senior dogs and is similar to a severe case of human vertigo.
Smooch would likely be fine in three to five days.
The vet sent us on our way with a prescription for meclazine, which humans take for motion sickness
and which Smooch would take to avoid nausea and loss of appetite.

 Here we are at the Walgreen's pharmacy drive-through, picking up Smooch's prescription.

Until she's recovered, Smooch is staying in Alex's crate, 

where she's safe from the slippery floor (and Alex).

The video below was taken mid-day Tuesday, by which time Smooch was doing much better.

You're probably going to think "This is better?!" 

It is – really! But it's also scary.

I steer clear of Google when it comes to all things medical – human or animal –

for fear of jumping to catastrophic conclusions. But Danni was kind enough

to find and share with me this excellent article on "Old Dog Vestibular Disease,"
which was just what I needed to step back from the ledge.

If you share your life with a dog, you might want to read it now 

so that you won't fear the worst unnecessarily if it happens to your canine companion.

Give the dog a bone

 Keeping Alex entertained during a prolonged bout of bad weather is a challenge.

 She has destroyed every single one of the delightful toys sent to her by friends far and wide.

So I've given up on buying her toys and tried one of these dental care Nylabones.

 She loves it, has yet to destroy it, and would chew it 24/7 were it not for one thing...

...respect for alpha Smooch.

Alex: It sucks to be me.

Me: I'll buy you another one or twelve the next time we go out.

A pep talk to myself

 I've lived here for 14 winters. I know how to deal with inclement weather.

There's plenty of food, firewood, hay, wine.

I've got this.

I keep repeating these thoughts to myself so I won't fret about the next storm,

which is on schedule for later today.

 Then my mind wanders 10 years forward, when I'm 74

and shoveling paths on a 7-degree morning. Will I be able to handle it then?

I have no idea, and getting anxious about it serves no useful purpose.

 So I circle back to the beginning and remind myself, "I've got this."

Alex: Yes, you do.

Alex: Now put some more wood in the stove so I can warm up my butt.