A Pair of Days

December 28, 2009 ...December 29, 2009
8 a.m. and no word from Mud Mama ...

Where are you, girl?  I've been reading about icy roads all along your route ... and I'm getting worried.

She is safe ... arrived after a long drive through the ice storm ...

Today is the last of the mild days for a while.  The temperatures are supposed to drop from right around the freezing mark to -15 tonight and tomorrow the range will be from -15 to -20.  Brrr!

I will run my car and scrape the back window today as I have a massage scheduled for noon tomorrow.  Mmmn ... wish the cold snap were coming on Wednesday so that the massage could be on a mild day when I had to go to the village for groceries anyway.  Today Kenya and I will go for a long walk ... the road-destroying neighbours are back ... hope the road is still intact.

Last night when we checked, their car was gone.  I wonder if they drove the kids up and let them stay.  I hope not.  These kids have rifles that they aim through the trees toward the road.  Kenya has been concerned all morning about their presence.  At least now she doesn't bark incessantly ... just sits and stares up their hill from our plateau and gives the odd woof to let them know she's watching from a safe distance.

Her attention was shifted for a short time by a small animal living below the snow.  She dug furiously, tail wagging madly, in the absurd hope that she would catch it and perhaps have a playmate.  The time she caught the mouse in her cone she had no interest in killing or eating it.  It was simply an interesting diversion.  Most of the dogs I've owned have been predators, one of whom caused a mouse to flee to safety under my skirt.  They were dogs whose intentions were not kindly.  Kenya really does like other species and seems surprised every time one of them shoots a quill or lashes out with a claw.

I bought Barbara Kingsolver's book as a Christmas gift and am intrigued by it.  She writes beautifully, of course, but that is a bonus.  It's all about food ... healthy, environmentally intelligent food choices.  It's called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  So far there is nothing startlingly new in it, but it merges science, history, and philosophy to create the memoir of a family decision to live in a place where they could know and trust their food sources.  It does not read like a harangue because it is written by a very good writer who cares deeply about her subject. Kingsolver's collaborators are her husband, a biologist, and her daughter, a teenager.

I have one mitt to finish before Mud Mama's kids arrive so will work on that today as well as dipping into the book.    It is finished and wrapped.

When Kenya and I came back from our walk we met a kid heading out with a suitcase.  I asked if he was up by himself ... no there were several of them ... he mentioned that the road was getting more solid.  I said I'd had the necessary road work done; that it had been a mess before that.  He muttered that he was sorry.  Kids don't usually apologize for parents.  Was he the drunk driver or was he simply incompetent ... and where was the car ???  Mysteries ... I usually like them ... but I really wish this one would disappear along with all the people staying at the cottage next door.

Tanya came over yesterday and had lupper with me.  We exchanged gifts and talked about Oberon's upcoming visit while she and her sister go to the Middle East.  (Oberon is the king of the fairies and a very nice cat.)

Kenya and I got less than three hours sleep last night.  She was having anxiety attacks because of the wind which was hurling ice at the house and doing other scary things.  I went through my entire repertoire of ineffectual attempts to soothe and exasperated reactions, and finally put her in her crate where she cried like a puppy for a very long time.  I decided at 4 a.m. to resort to drugs but by then she was too upset to even consider the gravol crushed up in tuna juice I was offering, so I let her out where she disappeared for fifteen minutes.  At that point I was thinking that even if she ran away it would be preferable to the weeping, wailing and shivering I had been enduring since 9:30. Needless to say she came back.  We live on a private road on a tiny lake after all. She finally settled down after pacing for another half hour.  I guess she deigned to look at the tuna water, downed the pill and it finally worked.  I will intervene with gravol much earlier next time.

Kenya is now catching up on lost sleep.  I am wide awake and exhausted. Good thing I have the massage scheduled for today.  I hope I will be able to get up my hill and out of here by noon.

Does anyone have any non-chemical solutions for acute anxiety in dogs?  (Or any kind of solution for a human insomniac?)