Thursday, August 16, 2007

A Quiet Day and a Clean Dog

Yesterday, on his way to work at Big Map Company, Onkel Hankie Pants dropped Rusty off at the Doggie Daycare in L.L.Beanport. I had a day without dog-walking, barking, scratching, or squirrel-spotting. It was nice! I got some laundry done (without worrying about the dog getting into the basement where the cat is), went to the library, out to lunch, and to get my hair cut (observe! no annoying hair down the back of the neck -- of course, the weather is cooling down now. The Knitsgirls will be pleased to know that I made an appointment for my next cut on October 2)




without worrying about how long he could stand his crate, and made 26 servings of peach cobbler for the Tedford Shelter without having to pacify Rusty with peaches.
And, he came back a clean dog, as we had instructed the carers to give him a bath! He smelled lovely and looked very pretty too. Here are some photos showing his nice clean hair before he decides to dig in the lawn and dirty himself again:
A tired dog is a good dog, usually, and he still seems tuckered out today, although he's had his usual long walk with Onkel H. first thing, as well as a walk around the block with me at 9 am or so. When he arrived home, I had no idea where the cat was. I had brought Heidi upstairs under protest from her, and by the time I returned from the library she was nowhere to be seen. Well, it turned out she was hiding under my chair in the living room, and Rusty's inestimable tracking skills found her fairly quickly. There ensued several minutes of barking, jumping, and burrowing on his part, and growling, hissing, and batting on her part, until Rusty was put in his crate just long enough for me to extract Heidi and return her to her underground home. I don't know what we are going to do about this situation. Heidi got her name because she hid for the first week we had her, and was only slowly becoming a more affectionate cat when we introduced Rusty into the home. She doesn't like this. Rusty is interested in other cats that we see on our walks, but if they sit calmly and look at him, he will just point at them and wag his tail. I think her immediate angry reaction to his presence may have poisoned any chance of a relationship for them. Heidi is also gaining weight so I suppose we should limit her food, but then there will be complaints, which will cause Rusty to bark and try to get through the door, floor grates, laundry chute, or any other way he can think of to reach her. Advice welcome!
Today will be a long day of dog care, as Onkel H. has a 7:30 performance and won't be coming home between Yarmouth and Lewiston. I'm thinking my chief task today should be tidying my desk.

You think? By the way, the wallpaper on my computer is of a painting by Robert Spear Dunning, a distant cousin who was part of the Fall River School of artists in the 19th century. I am using the catalog from Daedalus Books to see which of the books I am interested in are available at the Curtis Memorial Library or through Minerva, our state interlibrary loan system. I think it will soon be time for another Book Diet month, maybe October (a month in which I don't take books out of the library or buy books, but only read books I already have, in an attempt to clear some of the To Be Reads off my shelves.)
It's a beautiful day today, and I'm sure Rusty and I will take a few more walks before the day is over. he has a very good memory for places where items of interest to him occur -- a tree where he saw a squirrel, a house where a cat lives, and our neighbor's rosebushes which are covered with rosehips at this season. Rosehips are one of the many fruits he enjoys, and he has an amazing ability to extract the rosehip from the thorny branch it's on with no apparent injury to himself. (I can't! Not without gloves anyway.)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Molly loved dog daycare, and Sam tolerated it to keep an eye on Molly. They really only go there now for overnights. I'm glad Rusty had fun, and a bath, too!