Life in the Wild

I have a dog. I've mentioned him before. As any of you who have a dog know, the schedule never changes. If the dog goes out at 6:00 am, he goes out at 6:00 am, regardless of day of the week, or what you have going on.

As we're heading into late summer, so at 6:00 it is light out, though I wouldn't say the sun is up. It's actually a rather nice time of the day for a dog walk, especially at puppy pace. But heading out the front door, there are always at least two bunnies, several squirrels, a bird or three, and the other morning, there was a chipmunk LITERALLY gamboling across my yard. I was waiting for Marlin Perkins to emerge from the bushes and narrate.



That said, our dog walks are very nice. Pup Pup has a very good time (as most dogs do on their walks), and we get to see all his friends and a few of mine. I will say that getting a dog has done good things not only for my exercise level, but also for my social life. I just wish there were time for more dog walks, especially this time of year. After all, allergies aside, who wouldn't be happy just meandering here?

Amazing Discoveries

So, I take Pup Pup for a walk most mornings, and if I get up in time, we take a nice long stroll (at puppy pace) around the lake. The park district has added a large number of plantings on the edges of the water, apparently for goose control, though I thought it was just to make it a more natural environment.

Among the things they've planted is milkweed. Milkweed is an unusual looking plant, if you've never seen one. I've got three in my back yard, much to the chagrin of some of my neighbors. I like them because they're different looking, and in addition to having a lovely fuzzy pink flower, they attract monarch butterflies. For me, that alone is worth having a milkweed grow in my garden.

Well, at one end of the lake, the path goes through the middle of a thicket of wild flowers and bushes. It's really quite lovely, with something ALWAYS blooming in there. This morning, as Pup Pup and I were going through, I was suddenly enveloped in a glorious, sweet scent. I stopped, looked around, back tracked.

Lo and behold, I was in the middle of a HUGE patch of blooming milkweed. Who knew they smelled so good?

Puppy Love

I love my doggie.

He was a Rescue Pup, which, while wonderful, has its own set of challenges built in. He came home with me when he was 8 weeks old, complete with cute face and chunky tummy. He's now two weeks past his first birthday, FULL of energy, all boy, and very much not lone wolf material. His mother was adopted out when he was only 4 weeks old, so there are still some separation challenges, plus he still tends to nom on my arm as an expression of affection. It's much better than it was, but the jaws now exert 10,000 PSI of pressure, so it can be a little touchy. And as yet, his brother is not on board with his existence, though he has decided that there's nothing he can do to make the interloper go away. Again, improvement.

Lately, Pup Pup has been suffering from some separation anxiety. We've had way too much going on, so I've been either not coming home after work, or going out almost immediately. What this means is that, while he goes to bed fairly easily as always, he starts crying about every 45 minutes through the night. Sometimes he quiets down after a few minutes, but last night, he did not, and I finally went down to check on him.

He first gets up on my lap with his bone and gnaws for a while, then, when I pull up an afghan to go to sleep, he gets on the chair, gives me a "good night" kiss on the nose (or more appropriately, the whole face, he is a rather large dog), then curls up himself and goes to sleep.

At 5:00 this morning, I heard barking. I open my eyes to see him, still sound asleep, curled up in the chair with his nose firmly planted into the cushion, barking through closed lips and twitching his paws. Not sure what he was chasing in his dreams, but I think it didn't stand a chance.