Christmas with Dogs

Actually, our dogs pretty well missed out on Christmas. My husband, son and I went out yesterday, which was Christmas Day, and again today. We didn't give our four dogs anything special for Christmas and they certainly don't know enough to feel they've missed out on anything.

Of course, dogs have no idea about the Christian tradition, and they certainly don't shop. Our dogs did get fed, let out and let back in again as possible. They were all locked away when we went out, Lah Dee, our male Pharaoh Hound was shut in our bedroom, Nena, our female schnauzer was locked in a crate, and Ananka and Missy, our two female Pharaoh Hounds were locked in another crate.

I'd love it if we could leave all of our dogs loose together in the house, with easy access to the yard. Sadly, that isn't possible for us. Lah Dee digs holes in the back yard, and when he was put in the dog run this morning he began barking non-stop. He was not a happy puppy, so he came back inside.

We can't have Nena loose with either of the other two girls, because they're currently enemies. I hope they may one day become friends again, but they're certainly nowhere near that time yet.

We could have left Ananaka and Missy together in the back yard. These two are mother and daughter, and they are friends. Ananka has a higher position in our pack, and Missy is perfectly happy with that.

To add a further bit of interest to our pack situation, Missy is in an interesting condition, to put it delicately. She's been in season for over a fortnight, and judging by the way Lah Dee's acting, she's probably ovulated now. Lah Dee's been pining for her, and not eating much of his dinner, for the past couple of days.

Once Missy's back to normal, then the three Pharaoh Hounds will be able to be loose together in the house, and perhaps with Nena too. The dogs all act better together inside than outside. I'm glad about this, but we still have to keep watch on them. These creatures are dogs, and they have their own pack rules. If the people in the house get involved, then it won't be a good thing. So we keep them where they can all be happy and not have to fight to work out the hierarchy. 

This of course has nothing much to do with Christmas. We offer our dogs love and goodwill though, and that certainly is a Christmas thing. I hope you've had a Merry Christmas!

A good day's work

Some days I don't seem to do much, I just drift around the house and the internet without much to prove I've had a worthwhile day. Some days it wouldn't have made a lot of difference if I had just stayed in bed.

Well, that's not actually true, the dogs wouldn't be happy with me if I stayed in bed, because if I did that, they wouldn't be able to go out, come back in, go out again, come back in, etc! I don't mind that much being the door lady, I suppose. It's a job that has to be done, otherwise the house would get very, very messy. I'm not a great housewife, but I'm certainly not that bad!

Anyway, today wasn't one of those do nothing days. Today I was out of bed before Jake left for school. Today I finished off two subjects of my TAFE studies and sent them off to my lecturer. Today I did kennel maid duties, spoke to a person about an article in the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle. Today I bought more Viscotears for Missy's eyes, and more postage stamps for the household.

Today I also filled out and sent off a questionnaire, and filled out and sent off a form to do a new volunteer thing. So the day has been a busy and productive one. I also found out there's a brand new baby in the district, young Herbie, another son to Dylan and Bek Stodart.

So today has been a good day. Now though, even though it's getting on to my usual bedtime, I have to stay up so I can pick Jake up in Mallala after the school Forum event. It will be good for me, certainly good for Jake, and I can perhaps sleep in a little in the morning.

There, that's my day, how was your day today?

I wrote this blog post some time ago. I'm not sure why I didn't actually post it, but I'm posting it today to help me to remember that day, when I did things and thought enough of those things to write them down. I've done some things today too.

I watered some of our plants, in particular our bonsai collection. Well loved little trees in shallow little pots that suffer the most when the watering doesn't occur. I watered our hanging pots too, because Graham asked me to, and I had no reason not to do it.

I filled up the dog's water bowl outside. It is our duty to make sure the dogs always have water available. I cleaned the stove top a little (not enough to make it clean, but that may happen later). I cleaned the bathroom sink well, I put away the washed clothes from yesterday.

I put dogs out and let them back in, I put our pharaoh hound boy, Lah Dee, down the back dog run because he didn't want to come inside and I didn't want to leave him in the back yard because he loves to dig holes, and we don't want any more holes in the back yard. I can hear Lah Dee barking now, no, he's stopped again. Hmm I'll see later if he wants to come inside, or I may leave him there longer.

Some of the things I've done this morning may have been because Mum's visiting this morning and I wanted to actually do something in preparation for that. Usually I go to her place once a week, but I don't have a car available at the moment, because I crashed my car on Monday night and it's been written off by my insurance company. It hurts when I thing about that, but it could have been so much worse. My car is a wreck but I am fine...

That's enough for this blog post, I might stray into too sad places if I go further right now, and I have other things I want to do now. I've written a poem about my car crash and that makes it all feel better. Writing about things creatively is how I get my head around things. Personal creative therapy is my personal healing. It's the thing I want to do to assist other people for the rest of my life. I haven't got to that place yet, but I'm edging closer all of the time.