Skip to main content

*sigh*, Oh Wally. What now?

Wonderful Wally. Damn dog. W-a-l-l-a-c-e! Good boy. Where the hell is Wally? No Wally!! 


I've said all of the above to Wally, our pure bred mutt, in the last three hours. It's not that I'm psychotic it's just there are days when this dog drives me crazy. Today is one of those days!!




Don't get suckered in by his cute face and sad eyes - don't do it! He's a sneaky not-so-little pup. He looks innocent, but he's not!!


While showering, I give fido a Kong filled with peanut butter to keep him busy. Well, today, I must have taken too long or he didn't have enough in the Kong, because in the living room were the remnants of a bagel thins package (there had been three left), the banana bunch minus one and some paper towels. Ugh!!!


I have been occasionally letting him romp in the hood. Playing with his best buddy Murphy or the new dog next door Anna, and he usually comes home within half-an hour. Today, I let him out to chase the ballsy bunny in our backyard - and off he went chasing that rabbit into the field behind our house and then he disappeared. I sat on the deck waiting for his return (hopefully sans rabbit) but after 20 minutes, I figured he had other plans. And those plans often include stealing the cat food AND cat food bowl from our neighbor's front porch. I got on the phone to call the neighbor - and yes, Wally had just been there but she managed to finagle the bowl from him before he took off with it.


"If you find any more of the bowls, I think we're still missing two," she said.




After another 15 minutes, I started to call for him. No sign - but I could hear him by the barking of other dogs in the 'hood. I saw him once run by, full speed - but before I could get to the door to call his name, he disappeared once again. Finally after an hour, I saw him across the street hanging out with the repairman. He didn't come when called, so I went to retrieve him. He had been hanging around these men for awhile they said. And  I found that he'd worked his charms on these poor, unsuspecting men.


"He's such a cute and mild mannered dog," they said.


"Oh, isn't he?", I said through clenched teeth while hooking on his leash.  On the way home, he retrieved a tube from paper towels that was laying on the front lawn. Mystery solved, to where the missing paper towels went!


When we got inside, he gulped down all the water in his bowl and plopped in his 'sun patch' by the sliding-glass door. I proceeded to go about my day, until he started to howl - have I mentioned that he's part bloodhound? - at imaginary rodents in our backyard. It has taken me an hour to write this, because I have to check on him and shush him as he barks at the UPS man, howls at those imaginary creatures, stop him as jumps to retrieve something from the counter, and whines to go outside. Not on your life, buddy boy!! I'm onto you.


I think we both need a nap. 

Comments

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

The meaning of success and how

I sat down to write today about being cast/boot free. It is a joy to be back to my 'normal' state of mobility - which is to say that I stumble and totter like a drunken sailor but at least now I'm not wearing a big black boot. Ahoy matey! But instead, I came across the above quote and being easily distracted, I began to think about it instead. (Heck, I'm tired of the damn cast and don't want to waste anymore time thinking or writing about it anyway.) It's a quote my Aunt Bonnie first introduced me too when I graduated from high school and it's come on my radar many times since then, but today for some reason it has given me pause. I laugh often, to be sure. I'm like the uncle in Mary Poppins - I love to laugh. I surround myself with people that make me smile and laugh and am grateful for a husband that still knows how to make me laugh. I'm not to sure about winning the respect of intelligent people, though. I tend to think out of the box and...

The "I'll Nevers" of growing older

  Years ago as a freelance writer, I submitted an essay entitled "The I'll Nevers of Parenting". It was a list, mostly, of things I had said prior to having children and the crow I was then eating because of the stupidity of the claims. You know little pearls of 'wisdom' that only someone who hasn't experienced the joys of  parenting could utter, like: I will never yell at my child in public or I will never let my child eat dinner in front of the television or my children will never stay up past 9 pm. I yelled at my children (usually when we were both tired and totally irrational!) in public. One time, as we were in the drop off lane at school with a long line of cars behind us, the boys hoped out of the car but Delaney was insisting on something that for the life of me I cannot recall and I was insisting that she get out of the van. We crept along, van door still open, until I got to the end of the line and yelled at the top of my voice, "Delaney get the...

Sick in St. Louis and Earthquakes in Michigan. What?

A 4.2 magnitude earthquake rattled our home a few weeks ago. Now if we lived in California (or even Oklahoma!) that would be almost commonplace but we live in Michigan where an earthquake is earth shattering, not because of the resulting damage (aside from a few funny Facebook pictures of toppled lawn furniture, I didn't witness any damage) but because earthquakes in Michigan almost never happen. Or at least ones that are felt by the average person. Or even me!  That earthquake was just the beginning of strange events, for this not-so-average person.  The day after Michigan shook, John and I went to St. Louis to see Delaney's end of freshman year performance.  One of the last times John had been to St. Louis together, was in August when he'd had his heart attack. We had dropped our daughter and a van full of belongings in sweltering heat and humidity. It was the first day of a planned two-day orientation and and the following day was the official good bye. John hadn...