Tag Archives: Dogs

In Quick Time

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The more I slow down, the more rapidly the days seem to slip by. This oxymoron dominates my thoughts in those wee hours when I am trying valiantly to sleep. The awareness of how quickly my life is advancing into its third trimester plugs up my throat until I find it hard to breathe. I fumble for the door key, open the sliding glass doors and slip out onto the patio to gulp the cool night air.

The dogs circle round, Morrie drops hopefully in front of me, a ubiquitous green tennis ball in his jaws. There must be one of those balls hidden behind every plant in my garden.  Just four months ago, I had bought five tubes of them at the sports goods store—each containing three balls. I was about to set out on my yearly  two-month trip to the ocean. I wanted the house sitters to be well-supplied in everything, and the balls were on sale, so I had purchased what I thought would be a lifetime supply. But those balls seem to have vanished as quickly as the two months since my return home had. Two days ago, I had purchased two more tubes of balls. They sit unopened in the doggie supply vault that stores the large bin of dry dog food, a small fridge that holds the wet food I add to the dry food twice daily when I feed them, and other doggy paraphernalia: leashes, collars, medicines, rawhide bones, doggy biscuits.

And so this is a ball he must have rapidly reclaimed from some garden shadow when he heard my key in the lock to the terrace. I bend and reclaim the ball, then throw it over the pool down into the lower garden. Almost as soon as my arm falls to a vertical position, he is back with it again––everything in life seeming to speed up as I slow down.

Now, hours of insomnia and fewer hours of sleep later, I hear him whining on the other side of the security bars outside the open bedroom sliders. He would now have his morning come on more rapidly as I lie, computer on chest, writing my morning blog. I have slowed the world down for long enough. I find an appropriate ending and swing my feet to the floor, in search of Crocs. Time to get in line with the faster world’s schedule, at least for the time it takes to feed the dogs and cats.

 

Click on any photo to enlarge all.

The prompt today is rapid.

Typical

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Typical Day

Bark of dog,
Meow of cat.
Mama-san
takes care of that
with pop of can
and clink of dishes.
After solving
all these wishes,
back to bed.
Write my blogs.
Out of bed.
Put on togs.
Make a smoothie.
Read E-mail.
Into town
for writers’ meetings.
Lots of words
and lots of greetings.
Home again
to write some more.
Pepe’s ringing
at my door.
Once a week
a heavenly rub.
Body restored,
soak in the tub.
Pat the cats,
throw balls for Morrie.
Write some more,
the same old story.
Talk to Dux
many a time
throughout the day.
Sometimes  with rhyme.
Midnight finds me
in the pool
under stars
and Morrie’s rule.
Throw the ball
for him to fetch.
Exercise, then
reach and stretch
to retrieve the ball
he throws at me.
Then loft it over
bush and tree
to lower garden
for him to find.
This is our nightly
pool grind.
Go in to bed
to write some more.
Get up to check
I’ve locked the door.
Other events
often occur.
Trips to the vet
to trim or cure.
Coffee with friends,
or dinner out.
trips to the shore,
without a doubt.
Lives grow and change
often with time.
So this is just
the paradigm.

The prompt word today is typical.

Creatures under Rain

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Creatures under Rain

All day long, the rain came down
to soak the mountain, drench the town.
Each dog stayed in to curl into
his protective curlicue.
I took their lead and kept inside
as the world around me cried and cried.

Though I won’t say that I’m feeling down,
I do not choose to paint the town
and marks on paper have turned into
other than a curlicue.
I painted what I felt inside
with words that folded in and cried.

Their pigments bled and rivered down
joining currents from the town,
and tears from other creatures, too,
joined this watery curlicue.
This whirlpool that we’d kept inside
joined us together as we cried.

The sun comes up and moon goes down
over country, lake and town.
Illumination cycles, too,
through nature’s dizzying curlicue.
When we share these truths we’ve found inside,
others hear what we’ve decried.

The whole world may be feeling down
dreading contact with the town.
The words we free may catch them, too,
in their discursive curlicue,
loosening pain they’ve kept inside—
dispelling tears they might have cried.

 

I was intrigued by the self-set challenge of composing a five stanza poem where each stanza made use of the same six rhyming words in the same order. I think it isn’t terribly noticeable except for the unusual world “curlicue” that eventually tips the reader off as to what is happening.  Still, it was an engaging challenge to make it work six times.What should I name this form? Six-Step? Any other ideas? The prompt today is creature.

Lazy Monday

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Good-bye to some friends, hello to others. Could a dog be more relaxed than this?

(Click on first photo and arrows to enlarge all photos._

 

Achoo

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Different Thanks

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Family Thanks Giving

Three dogs, paws up on the gate to the garage whenever I get home. The little one leaps up and down like some ballerina at the bar, the biggest with his irritating barks–loud and harsh and insistent—for whatever reason, be it mom’s arrival home or a dog who dares to pass by in the street. All of them escorting me to the door, attempting to help me with my bags and bundles.

The big dog sneaking into my room at night when she thinks I haven’t noticed. Wanting to be even closer than within eye-shot down the hall, she sleeps on the cold floor in lieu of her warm padded bed, perhaps because she wants to remind me that although the second dog is cleverer and handsomer and the newest dog is the littlest and most pleasant to have jump up on the bed with me, she was the very first and has known me for the longest. She has put up with intruders—both these two canine upstarts and the one human one who entered my house and stole my house guest’s laptop years ago when she was my one and only!

And although I am allergic to them, I wash off the licks of thanks that Morrie gives for a few cuddles on the bed before he sinks down to the foot to curl at a more hypoallergenic distance. Wash off my hands and arms after I’ve pulled off clumps of Frida’s thick undercoat. Dress the wounds that Diego’s claws have left on my legs and arms when he just can’t resist jumping up for closer contact. All of these wounds and welts and sneezes and wheezes just the aftermath of the constant thanks these kids adopted from the streets offer every day, as often as I will allow them.

This is a reblog from three years ago when we were a three-dog one-cat family instead of a two-dog five-cat family!  R.I.P. Frida. The prompt today is allergic.

Underdog

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Cat Woman’s sexy. Batman’s svelt
in cape and leotard and belt.
Superman in colors bright,
looks dashing flying in to fight.
But Underdog’s a lesser sort.
Sorta puny, sorta short.
His uniform? He doesn’t care.
He’s happy in his underwear.

For alternate photos for this prompt, go HERE. The prompt today is underdog.

Share Your World, Nov. 13, 2017

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One of the highlights of my week and always one of the highlights of my trips to Missouri was a visit to Evelyn’s wonderful antiques store.  She was redecorating and painting, so the stock was about half of what it usually was, but I still found some finds, including a delicious apple from her bowl put there for the taking.  I would have bought this spinning wheel if I’d had a way to get it to Mexico.  The little dog greets every visitor for a friendly rub before jumping back up to his perch.  I love this place.

(Please click on any photo to enlarge them all.)

 

 

Okay, now on to Cee’s questions for the week:

Do you ever sit on a park bench for more than ten minutes? Rarely.

When you lose electricity in a storm, do you light the candles, turn on the flashlight or use your cell phone for light? I live in Mexico, where the electricity goes off frequently and sometimes for hours and even days.  I have a handy supply of candles all over the house as well as kerosene lanterns and propane cylinder lamps that always seem to lack either fuel or mantles. In the past year I’ve purchased a few little battery-powered crookneck lamps that come in handy as well.  I have a half dozen flashlights that are never in the right place at the right time so I hardly ever use them.

Would you rather be given $10,000 for your own use or $100,000 to give anonymously to strangers? At this point, I can think of some excellent uses for the $100,000–especially for education expenses for children in the village.  I would have no problem finding proper recipients for it so I’d definitely make that choice.

What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week?  I loved not necessarily having to do anything (except blogging, of course) for the past week. For the last two days, however, most of our time had been taken up trying to figure out the intricacies of two computers with a lot of problems.  Really frustrating.  Thanks to three hours spent online via Team Viewer and Skype with a tech expert in Vancouver, we finally got some of the problems solved.  An additional two hours  spent trying to get social security problems solved via phone and internet led to no solutions at all.  All in all, a frustrating day but luckily I feel most of the computer problems are solved.  Thanks, Chad! (If anyone needs the name of an excellent and personable tech expert for Macs, I’d be glad to share his number.)

For Cee’s SYW Prompt.

Pabu at Her Best

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IMG_1733.JPG                                                                                                          photo by Allenda

Pabu’s human thought you should see her at her best.  Pretty girl.

Studies of Pabu: Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Pets

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This is my friends Allenda and Tony’s  darling dog Pabu. Limiting colors to black and white does not alter him at all. Click on photos to enlarge.

 

 

The prompt this week is pets.

Trick

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The way this works is, I sneak up on them when they are already lying down and preferably asleep.  Then, very quietly, so as not to disturb them, I whisper, “Play dead!” It works every time. If you click on any photo, they will all enlarge.

For the Halloween Challenge prompt “trick.”