Hope Springs Eternal

I'm not in the least bit surprised. Roxie got up this morning, had her walk and breakfast, shared rice chex with Bob while he read the paper and then went right outside to check for any of Peter's relatives who might be stupid enough to still be hanging around.

She's circling the yard in surveillance mode, stopping to sniff from time to time.

As I type, she's sitting in the sun on the patio, waiting until it's time to make another trip around...

My heart aches for the bunnies of the world.

First Kill of the Spring...sigh......

We have been pretty lax about blogging lately because things have been so darned quiet. Just "going along"... life has been good but uneventful. Until today.

The Huntress was spotted on the porch with a furry thing in her mouth. First glance didn't make any sense... second glance made me want to vomit.

Roxie had herself a good sized rabbit and was happily eating it's back leg off.

Luckily Bob, being retired and always around, was johnny-on-the-spot to take charge. This being Roxie's second rabbit kill, I was able to keep from hurling, but just barely. Amazingly she obeyed our frantic commands to "drop it"... although she must have been thinking she could slip away unnoticed and moved her meal to the porch outdoors before giving up.

Bob confirmed complete leg dining when he shovelled Peter into a plastic garbage bag.... I'm thinking it will be 6 more days until trash pick-up... perhaps double or triple bagging is in order.

I feel ashamed that I had the presence of mind to grab the camera, but it was 6 inches from my hand and instincts are sometimes strange in the face of .... whatever the hell this penchant for rabbits is.......

A call to the vet - they hadn't heard from us in a while because, like I said before, we were coasting along on 'quiet life mode'........ when I told Barb she just laughed and laughed.... she kindly explained that Rox must have been hungry, as it was lunch time after all..... ha ha.......

Barb checked with a vet who said to not make her vomit because the leg bones could be problematic coming back up. We are to watch for vomiting, belly distention, bloody diarrhea... maybe take her in on Friday for an x-ray...

Bob just loaded her in the car for a long walk in the woods..... hopefully she will not be sick in his car like last time (that was a huge lot of fun..... blech) and that if she is sick it will be deep in the woods and the bones won't cause problems going back out.

One has to think Rox learned her lesson last time - the guts were obviously too rich for her, causing her to toss that huge glop of guts. Maybe she decided to sample the leg this time hoping it would be more palatable.

Honestly, the whole thing turns my stomach. She's a Baby Girl with a Dark Side. She's a subdivision dog with a fenced back yard, a Queen of Suburbia. How can these animal kingdom instincts play out in our back yard?! And how in the world can an 8 inch tall dog with 4 inch long legs catch rabbits?!

And she couldn't have been really hungry, we'd just had lunch and she'd finished off a plate of steamed veggies.

We had to smile when she was finally inside and finished with the cleaning of the face, lips, beard and whiskers, she let out the most melodious song. Bob was telling her what a good dog she is and she just sang and sang - clearly she was proud of her catch.

Gotta love her. Although she ain't kissin' me for a long, long time........ sorry babe.

Patiently Waiting For Spring

The snow is melting and Rox sits patiently waiting for more warm weather....

Math Test

Poor Rox failed her math test today.

Bob went out in the way back to check on roof snow on northern roof. Rox, of course, thought she was invited.

Rox is 9 inches tall at the shoulder. The snow is about 21 inches deep. If I hadn't seen her go after him, I'd never had known where she was. Not even her tail showed. I imagine she was pretty surprised!

The story ends well. I hollered and pointed. Bob trudged over and lifted her out. He carried her back to the patio where is is shoveled.

Miss Silly Girl wouldn't come in, just stood there on the patio staring at Bob and thinking of ways she could meet up with Daddy in the Deep Snow.

We know she's smart because she didn't try it a second time!

How Can I Refuse?

The weather here has been brutally cold for the past 8 weeks. Temps ranging from -14 degrees to a warm of 10 degrees. Bob won't take Rox out for walks unless it's at least 10 degrees so she has been "severely deprived" (her words).

On the rare occasions when the temp and depth of snow has allowed, they go out for short periods. Rox's shaggy feet gather snow dingles and ice balls. When it hurts she stops and raises her paw. Bob picks her up, takes of his glove and digs out the ice ball. A couple of licky kisses and off they go again.

But returning home is a real show... she comes in the door with a white, ice-ball beard, snow dingles decorating all her feet and her entire underbelly, and uncomfortable ice balls in her toes.

Oh, I should say here that Bob always gets up before me. I'm a Life-Long Late Sleeper and not ashamed to admit it.

Anyhoo, one morning I happened to get up early (before they came back from their walk) and I was horrified to see her condition when she walked in!

Immediately I wrapped her in a bath towel, sat in front of the heat vent and started picking ice balls out from between her toes. By the time I got all the snow dingles and ice balls off her, she was sleeping in my arms, wrapped burrito style.

I held her feet to my skin to warm them and rocked her until she felt warm enough to wake up again and demand her post-walk treat.

See where I'm going here?....

Now, every morning, Bob lifts her off the bed and she runs around to my side and talks to me until I get up too. Ra-roo, ark ark, wah-oooooo......... She won't go downstairs until I'm up and going down as well!

Sometimes it's hard to believe that animals can be so smart - but she continues to train us. I often wonder if she thinks we are slow learners.

Walk, Quilt and Spaghetti Dinner

Today I finished a quilt for Roxie. Only took me 4 years to put the final touches on it.... I asked Bob and Rox to show it; Bob is camera shy and Rox is playing Peek-a-Boo.

She likes it - is laying right on top of it as I type. Won't get under it.

Today it was warm enough for Bob to take her to the park for a walk. For the last three weeks we've had sub-zero weather and hellacious snows which ruled out walks for safety reasons. Rox didn't like it! It was devastating to have to explain to her she wasn't getting a walk. I think she understood, she just didn't accept it!

So today it was 28 degrees with no wind and they headed out to the park. Rox was psyched! Bob says she ran the whole way, darting back and forth on the paths, running from one scent to the next. Usually she will amble part of the way, stopping to look around and leisurely smelling the flowers. Not today... she was just wild with pent-up energy. She LOVES her walks!

And the final high note for the day: we just finished a TASTY, TASTY spaghetti dinner. Full of carbs and wheat, but hey! It tasted divine....

Baby Girl is sleeping, Bob is watching TV and I....... well, I'm going to hijack the TV remote. Wish me luck....

Eats and Blows, 2009

One eats snow, the other blows snow....

Yes, this is last year's picture, but I could have taken it yesterday! Once again this year, Old Man Winter has gifted us with more snow than we deserve... For some reason, Roxie loves it. Bob tries to avoid long walks in low temps but Little Missy just insists.

Rox's paws are heavily covered in shaggy hair/fur... she rolls for me to pick out the snow balls from between her toes, then snuggles until everything warms up....

And then!? Why, treats, of course!

Sweet Dreams Pillow

After her walk in 10 degree weather, and a warming blanket on mom's lap, she retires to the front room. Her comfy bed apparently isn't enough; she moved the pillow into position herself and zonked out in the warm sunny room.

Life is good.

Happy New Year

We are planning a very quiet New Year's Day today. Quilting, a little house pick-up, some football on TV, turkey and scalloped potatoes for dinner....... we're feeling very contented and lazy today. I hope that doesn't mean we're going to be lazy the whole year!

Rox is sleeping in her red chair, under her quilt; well, really, they are all her quilts... sigh...... the weather is cold and snowy and we have the fireplace roaring....

One big change for us this upcoming year is our plan to move to Colorado. We lived there 30 years ago before moving to Michigan, and we loved, loved, loved the open spaces and clean air....

And that is one of the issues we are facing, that we lived here for 30 years....... 30 years of memories, 30 years of clutter, 30 years of wear and tear on the house....... am I looking forward to this move? Well, yes and no!

It seems so profoundly overwhelming and I don't want it to be. So I am doing what all the experts say to do, breaking everything down into small steps. When I was younger, I could do anything. I want to still have that drive, that energy....... I just need to work myself up to it I guess. But it really did come so easily 30 years ago....

And what about Roxie? I'm sure she'll be fine, but with her we have another criteria for house hunting. We need to find a house that has all WE want PLUS one that has good walking trails and parks for Rox. Sort of like needing to be in a good school district when you have kids.... can you imagine the realtor when I tell her our list of wants and then say, "oh and we need trails and parks close by for Roxie, that's a deal-breaker..." Well, it will give her something to talk about at her weekly meetings, I guess!

And so today, while Roxie Girl sleeps, we are going to be getting rid of more clutter so we can move to a place with good trails and parks.........

Random Thoughts with Random Photos

Roxie's one year anniversary with us quietly came and went on October 30. Bob and I feel so lucky to have this sweet little girl living with us. She has settled into our life as if she was always here. We wonder if she still remembers her life before us...

We've taken great pains to make sure she never thought she was just here temporarily. No out of town trips or overnights at a kennel. And I think she finally knows this is her home forever. She certainly thinks this is HER home - she's carefully trained us to know what she needs and wants.

The pictures below are just random ones over the past couple of months. We just yesterday had a major snowstorm with 12-13 inches of snow. Rox is not sure what to think... she went out the garage and into a blowing snowstorm. Stopped and returned to the kitchen forthwith. She told Bob she wanted to go out the front door where the weather was sure to be sunny. Makes sense in a perverse doggy-world way, I think. Each door has it's own weather?

At any rate, she is firm that her walks continue; we just have to pick the snowballs out of her face and feet when she comes in. She's comfortable with this - she gets wrapped in a warm blanket while we pick off the snowberries, then she rests there for about 20 minutes until she warms up. See the picture of Bob holding her post-walk.

This is a picture out our sun room of the snow from BEFORE the 12-14 inches we got yesterday. I may be repeating myself, but I do feel a tad better when I say I HATE MICHIGAN IN THE WINTER.... sigh........... there see, I do feel a bit better.

As I'm writing Rox is curled up in her bed with two quilts. She does know how to snuggle, that's for sure.