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Barrier for One Word Sunday
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Category Archives: dogs
Roof Dogs
For the fifteen or more years Frida lived with me, this is where she was most of the time, checking out the neighborhood and occasionally barking at someone who didn’t belong there.
When Frida died, I had a sculpture of her installed on the roof dome.
And Frida’s ashes went into this effigy which we concreted in place on her favorite place on the dome, to watch for as long as I have any say in the matter.
Keep a watch for us, girl .
And then, across the street on the corner of Ilie Nastase and Wm. Tilden, these puppy-sized sculptures appeared.
As new real puppies joined the family, I installed a gate to keep less experienced little feet off the dome, but inevitably, guests or Pasiano would leave the gate on the stairs up to the casita whose terrace adjoined the dome.
Neighbors snapped this photo, then called to advise me that Frida had visitors.
A year or so later, another member of the pack appeared right across from me on Wm. Tilden
Help Frida keep watch, boy!
(Frida as a puppy.)
It all started with Frida, who I first met as she trotted down the carretera traveling west as I walked with my friend Joe, going east. She was so tiny that I thought she was a big rat at first, but as she drew nearer, I realized it was a tiny puppy who, when she got up to me, immediately stopped and looked up at me with those eyes that indicated that we already belonged to each other. When she got older, for the next 15 years or so, she spent most of her days up on the dome of my house supervising the neighborhood, and when she passed away, it didn’t take long for me to figure out how she should be memorialized. It took me some months to find a terracotta sculpture that looked like her and to find men to concrete it securely in place. Inside are Frida’s ashes. There she has resided for years, surveying all who pass as she did during her life.
As new dogs arrived in my life, they took to occasionally visiting her on the roof, and then a strange thing happened. In the house kitty-corner across from me, two smaller terracotta dogs appeared, on the post beside the entry gate, Frida directly in their line of vision a story above them on my dome.
Then, less that a year ago, the house directly across the street from me sold, and a few days ago, when Yolanda mentioned my neighbors putting dogs on their roof, I corrected her that they were on a pedestal by their front gate, but she said, no–on the roof–and directed me down the street to look back at the house of the new neighbors. There, securely affixed to their chimney stack, almost obscured by the trees, was another Frida!
That is how “In the doghouse” came to be a non-derogatory term in my neighborhood. In fact, I am now just waiting for the next roof dog to show up!!
“Hot Air” Ajijic Globos Festival, 2023
Kids, bouncer balloons,
dogs
Moms and dads and grandmas. . .
all watched balloons being filled with air,
and, fires ignited,
balloons lifting off the ground,
Higher and higher they went
until they vanished out of sight.
How many balloons can you see? Can you see five?
Lucky were the ones that survived this long,
for too many turned sideways, ignite,d
and came hurtling to earth
to fall on canopies,
trees, high line wires
Everyone watched, trying to figure out what this one was.
Finally, a unicorn was fully born
and lucky that this little girl captured a shot,
for soon after this picuture was taken, it toppled over, caught fire, and never rose higher than this into the air. Sad. ,
But thers survived
to rise
and rise
and rise.
More air filled more balloons
as dad’s lauched little boys up for a better look
Giggles
Again, as many failed as those that lauched.
There were marriage proposals,
declarations of love,
and advertisements,
and more advertisements.
There were fancy shapes,
and colors
and patterns
as well as plain ones.
Everyone watched and ate and talked and drank.
and some, worn out, gave in to sleep.
Click on photos to enlarge and read captions.
(If you’re not exhausted after wading through these, you can find a bunch more photos from last year’s event HERE.)
Busy Day All Around!
When I tried to get in a little quiet time in the hot tub before a very busy day, the doggies joined me. Morrie tried to join in but then deserted for a little Zen time of his own.
The Rest of the (Second) Story
Click on photos to enlarge.
When I sent my neighbor David a thank-you for sending me the photos of Coco and Zoe on the roof—naughty kids—because their mom and Yolanda forgot to shut the gate up the stairs, he shot back this answer, which I didn’t receive until this morning:
“HECK, WAIT! There’s more. . . . and then there’s Morrie! With some prodding, he got the nerve, too . . . and joined the rooftop party!
Above are the photos I had missed last night as they hadn’t yet downloaded. If you missed yesterday’s post, HERE are the photos of Coco and Zoe he’d sent.
The Evidence
What happens when you leave an unprotected bag of Cheetos lying around at my house?
After:
If you want a hint of how that turned-inside-out and licked clean (but formerly half-full) Cheetos bag might have wound up in the pool, check out the post linked below:
And here is evidence of previous infractions:
Holy Tearer (For Forgottenman, who requested another Zoe post)
And, for a survey course in Zoe terrorism, check out this last blog:
Finally found my glasses!
Click on photos to enlarge.
Photogray, progressive lenses. So far my little darling Zoe has destroyed $1200 worth of glasses. Found these hanging on a bush. I’ve been looking for them for two weeks.
Life with Dogs, Déjà Vu for Sunday Whirl Wordle 589
Déjà vu. For some reason these prompt words for the Sunday Whirl Wordle 589 led me into a restatement of a blog I wrote 14 hours ago in what felt like the late hours of yesterday but what were really the early hours of today. It was to me as though I’d only thought it before and not written it down. It was only after I’d written this and reread the earlier blog that I realized I’d told the same story twice in different words. These are the prompt words you’ll find repeated below in the story: lockdown watch danger hunt challenge glass flesh gathering disrupt murder craft cut
Life with Dogs
Well after lockdown, my sentinels are watchful for any signs of danger. Even after their eyes close and their flesh surrenders to sleep, their ears hunt for signs of murder, mayhem or possums. I am fully awake minutes after their last return from a wild charge out the space left by the sliding glass door which I have left open the width of the security bars so they can exit as needed, not to meet the challenge of intruders, but rather to execute those calls of nature which I am most sympathetic with, being of that age when at the least one or two calls of nature disrupt my sleep nightly.
Darkness gathers me into its arms as I close my eyes once more and finally find a position comfortable enough to remain in for the remainder of the night when once again, Zoe’s loud high sliding crescendo of a bark cuts through the darkness, her claws cutting into my stomach as she uses it for a launching pad off the bed and out the door. These are the movements of a gymnast performing her high leaps with seemingly no effort—more an art than a craft—and my ears strain to hear any noise of combat, any running feet or crashing through the bushes and over the wall. Instead I hear one high keening scream, quickly cut off. It is a sound I’ve never heard before and I imagine some small creature giving voice to its death protest or a possum giving a squeal of warning , but the dog is back again so quickly that I can’t imagine any combat has occurred.
Another past-midnight mystery of life with dogs. I roll over on my left side to reach over the side of the bed and lift Zoe up for the third time this evening, and when I do, Coco crawls into the warm spot I have left. Rolling back to the right again, I push hard against her to reclaim my space and Zoe moves into the space that I make on the left side as I do so, then walks with no guilt over my breast an stomach to settle herself into the cleft between my legs. I move them apart slightly to settle some of her weight onto the mattress and try to settle myself back to sleep.
Puppy Antics
Tussling with Yolanda
Discovering toilet paper. Guess who?
ingesting Mom’s favorite Trahumara basket
Zoe goes after Jesus’s socks
Then his shoe
Bye-bye Forgottenman’s childhood photo
Shredding the handmade basket Mom made
Mom’s? Zoe’s coasters
Puppy Antics
With her instinct for mischief, my puppy is remarkable.
Every falling leaf to her is an occasion barkable.
Her sister and her brother and sometimes even me
are all her dupes as any looker-on can clearly see.
She steals her brother’s food and he just lets her be,
his look displaying an expression of futility.
She steals Yolanda’s dusting rags to stage a tug-of-war,
then drags her mop when she’s not looking, clear across the floor.
She must reconnoiter each bare ankle that walks by.
First she licks it wet , but if you wait, she’ll lick it dry.
Then she’ll tug your pants cuff or masticate your shoe,
investigating with her tongue each tasty part of you.
She’s ripped to shreds four pairs of pants, my duvet and my tote,
my tarahumara basket, a two-hundred peso note,
the corners of two cabinets and my poetic papers.
No exposed object’s sacrosanct from her destructive capers.
But when I lock her in her pen for moments of reflection,
she greets her isolation with such whines of pure dejection,
It’s lucky for my puppy that she is so gol-darn cute
that each threatened sentence I’ve chosen to commute.
Prompt words today are mischief, remarkable, futility, dupe, instinct and dry.
Bad puppy videos below. Unfortunately, Youtube will try to take you off in a different direction after each one so you’ll need to come back to this post to see each of the others.
More bad puppy videos:
Zoe Wins the War
I sent this video to Forgottenman today and he insisted I had to put it on Youtube and put a link on my blog. I always mind, so here it is. She was about a month and a half old when I recorded this big event.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 