Three Dog Night; Five Dog Day

Either way it means it's bloody cold and unpleasant.

Given a choice I "woulda-stood-in-bed" ... but I seem to be very good at denying myself the easiest choices.

First of all I agreed to take Teddy and Shea even though I had Havoc who is a handful and unpredictable under stress, and even though Shea and Teddy are males, and three males all asserting testosterone are too many at once. So ... on the dog front: I had Teddy and Shea as well as Kenya and Havoc, and also had to walk Remi at noon.

Secondly I agreed to be a guinea pig for a travel site in the making and the appointment was at 10 a.m. which meant that I had to leave the four dogs in the house and that meant closing all doors and barricading off the main livingroom because Havoc and Shea cannot be trusted when I am away. I figured the $50 they were paying would make the trip worthwhile.

I decided to stop on the way home at Leonard's to drop off a container of meat sauce because this has been a hell of a winter for snow plowers, and he has been doing his damnedest to make sure I can get out.

Then I stopped at Remi's and walked him for twenty minutes. We were both frozen and disinterested in walking by then.

When I got home all the dogs except Kenya acted as if they thought I were never going to return, and Shea leapt up at the window, knocked the bells flying and broke the little red bird. Kenya looked at all of them as if they had gone mad. I just leapt out of the way so that they could tumble out the door without killing me, and swept up the glass fragments.

Then I phoned Magma because my internet connection was not working. The nice calm techie fixed things quickly.

Then my computer froze and told me I needed a password to thaw it out. I phoned Rob in a panic and then found the password in my file cabinet.

One of the pieces of mail was a job advertisement for English language teachers at River Echo, so I wrote a letter and posted my CV.

Although it would be nice to have another way of making money, every time I find a way to make some money I close off one more of my freedom routes. I think the secret is to have choices about how you make money. And also it is nice not to lock yourself into things. Dog sitting and ESL teaching are both drop-in/drop-out kinds of activities.

I am getting more than a little fed up with male hormones erupting.

Yesterday Havoc went after meek little Remi and looked as if he were moving in for the kill when I leapt on top of Havoc and pulled him off. Havoc doesn't have that sane civilized instinct that tells him to stop when his opponent says "Uncle" or squeaks. Of course Remi started everything by trying to assert his dominance by humping Havoc. I was really pissed off with the two of them, but especially with Havoc, when the two decided they were best friends and I was the authority figure to be avoided. Remi led Havoc on a walkabout down the road to the lake and I had to clamber through drifts and over snowbanks with cookies to retrieve them. Then I was pissed off with both of them. I have decided to keep the two male puppies separated simply because I don't entirely trust Havoc's better judgment.

Today Shea and Teddy have been miserable to Havoc all day, and Havoc went after Kenya once.

Right now Kenya is outside by herself, Havoc is in the den with me, and Shea and Teddy are downstairs. I feel as if I am running a penal institution for male dogs.

Anyway ... that has been my frigid day ... that and letting dogs in and out. Kenya would stay out all day but all the others like warmth better than playing outside in the cold, so she comes to the window and begs one of them to join her for the next half hour. They all think they're the tough guys, but in reality she is the strongest of the lot.