Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: Katie


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Playing

Wanna PLAY??

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It’s raining here, so Katie and I are playing inside.  Here are my attempts to get that perfect photo.   First the tunnel – – should be no problem, right?  Well, here’s the first shot I got!  LOL!

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So we tried again.  I couldn’t get the anti-red eye thingy to work, but it’s cute anyway:

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And then the chute, which was even more challenging to photograph.  I put her in a sit/wait  in front of it, then ran around and got ready for the photo, then yelled “CHUTE!” and she’d head through.  Obviously the first couple times I was too quick with the shutter finger!

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And then I was a little late.

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Geeze Mom!  How many times do I have to do this before you get the shot?

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A few more times baby!  OOPS!  Missed you, let’s try that again…

Katie 2616GOTCHA!!

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Later today?  We’re going to obedience class…gotta rest up…

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Shelties and their boxes

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A couple of days ago I ran across a Petco in a part of town I don’t usually shop.  I popped in to see if they happened to have Riley’s (the CowSpotDog) favorite treats and guess what?  They did!  I haven’t been able to find them for quite some time, so I picked  up a few of them for him, and Katie and I packed up a little box to mail to Riley.  Katie was very anxious to make sure that Riley got these treats, as she feels very sad that Riley’s Mom is having such a hard time getting better from surgery.  If you haven’t read about Riley you can here:  http://cowspotdog.blogspot.com/

Then later in the day two boxes came for Katie, via the nice UPS man.  She was very excited.  She got a TUNNEL!  And a CHUTE!  She could hardly wait while I unpacked the tunnel.  Here she is with it partially undone, when she just had to investigate.

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As soon as we got it open she walked casually through, then asked what treats she was going to get!  We thought she’d have more issues with the chute, but she ran through that a bunch of times in the kitchen with no problem.

I’m sure you’ll get more pictures from us once we take these new toys out in the yard!

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Settling down now

Trees 1538Yesterday was our first day of normal life in quite some time.  I’d been out of town for three weeks, home for one day and then involved in our Aunt’s medical crisis for more than two more weeks.  Yesterday we didn’t have to be anywhere, though husband did stop by the Aunt’s just to see how her first night alone in almost three weeks went.  Thankfully, she did fine and I’m sure she’s just as happy as we are to have us off her living room sofa.

Katie and I did some yard work; weeding and sniffing and such things as that.  Sometimes all we did was sit in the sun and enjoy being with each other.  I think that counts as yard work too.

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I dug up a small bed that had filled in with grass and weeds over the past couple of summers.  I’ll replant it later this spring.  It was a lot of work and reminds me that last time I dug this up I was younger and fitter.

While digging I came across these small plants, greenish red leaves and blue purple bells of flowers.  Tiny.  The smell when I crushed the leaves took me right back to my grandmother’s farm, where these lived in her lawn, particularly, as I recall, back by grandpa’s workshop.  I sat in the sun and crunched leaves and remembered playing on the farm, picking black raspberries, watching the pigs, playing with barn kittens.  It was a good place to play.  There are good memories there.

I  accidentally left a weed or two in my own garden yesterday just so I can pull them later and smell that old familiar small and relive the memories.

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Later on I got out the tiny teeter and Katie was all raring to go, walking over it, still carefully, especially at the pivot point, but without any apparent fear.  So I went and got her Dad, to show him how much more confident she is.  And guess what?  While he stood in the door watching she first refused to do the teeter at all, then CREPT up to the pivot point and laid down on it.  Well, that’s new!  And now she won’t go on it at all.

Ah Katie girl.  We’re going to school in about an hour, the first time in probably 6 or 7 weeks.  Hope you remember a little bit about heeling and staying.

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Should be interesting!


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Do you miss Katie?

Katie 2541 Me too.  I’ve been so busy away, spending most nights at the Aunt’s apartment that in the past week I’ve only slept at home twice, and both times I had somewhere I had to go during that time.

Yesterday was my birthday and the Aunt down in Ann Arbor had weeks ago invited me to see the University of Michigan’s production of the musical “Ragtime” with her.  So after a day filled with a doctor visit that included a long and agonizing walk down halls, discussions about prescriptions, arguments about things not particularly important, frayed nerves and stress, I had the evening free.

Katie was ever so happy to see me when I got home, but I only had time to shower, pet her and leave again.  Her eyes were big pools of liquid sad  when I ran out the door on my way to Ann Arbor.  Half way into the the hour long drive I had to stop and buy some caffeine as I couldn’t keep my eyes open.   Good thing I did, as I wouldn’t have wanted to sleep through the performance!  It was wonderful.

This morning I find myself dawdling over things.  Laundry.  Playing ball with Katie.  Reading blogs.  Mindlessly watching TV.  I know it’s that I don’t want to go back to work over at the apartment.  But I also know my husband is probably going a bit nuts and needs a break after being there since yesterday afternoon.  But still.

Katie 2543 And of course I feel guilty that I don’t want to go back.   I’m not being productive  here either.  Sort of sitting in limbo, watching the time go by; not here, not there.

Katie is barking at me, that sharp little single bark that says she wants something.  But I can’t figure out what.  I’ve tried treats, playing, going outside.  Still as soon as I sit down to read she begins again.  I get up and she prances away, but doesn’t seem to want to go out.  I sit down she barks and stares at me.  I tried putting her outside in her kennel, but she immediately barked to come in.  Finally I just pick her up and hug her, rocking back and forth.  She tucks her head into my shoulder and I begin to cry.

I know baby, I know.

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A new day

Trees 1536 I’ve been staying with Aunt V these past few days.  She’s not steady enough on her feet to be alone.   But today I had jury duty, and had to be in “business attire” at the court by 8:30 in the morning.  I didn’t think I could get ready at her apartment without disturbing her routine, so my husband stayed with her last night, and I got to hug  Katie at home all night.  I’m not sure Katie really appreciated that, but she will when she’s older!

This morning as Katie and I emerged, trying to get her jobs done before I had to leave the sky was alive with fluffy clouds, the undersides of them gray, the tops tinged with pink as the sun came up.  I was sad that I was going to spend it in a jury room.  But I was also glad for the bit of freedom I had from the overly heated apartment I’ve been cooped up in since Sunday.  It’s funny how a tiny hour of freedom has so much more value when you’ve had none for a few days.

I have to give credit to those of you out there that are care givers full time, and have been for years, or face years of it in the future.  It’s a hard job.  Not to mention terribly boring!  I’m reading a good book, “Seven Types of Ambiguity” by Elliot Perlman,  recommended by another blogger, but it takes some concentration, and  it seems just when I’m getting my head back into the plot the Aunt needs something.  And of course she comes first.

She reminds me that it’s heck getting older.  Years ago when I lived in the Upper Peninsula I sometimes drove down to visit my own grandmother who was in her 90’s.  She’d outlived most of her friends and quite a bit of her family.  The last time I saw her she was walking with a walker and still living in her own home on the family farm.  She told me not to live to be her age and I wondered, in all the wisdom of a 20 something young person, what she was talking about.  Now I see it again with our Aunt.  Though she’s  smart as a tack she too has outlived her friends and much of her family.  Yesterday she started listing people, counting on her fingers over and over again, people she cared about who are gone now.  I had no appropriate response.  And it’s sad to witness.

Today’s jury duty went well.  All the cases before the two judges were settled, so they let us all go!  And today is going to be a beautiful day, high in the 80’s with sunshine.  I think perhaps Katie girl and I will have to go for a walk in the park before I head back over to the apartment to relieve my husband.  We did get some play in already, Katie and I, out in the yard.  She had a wonderful time.  Me too.

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And on a totally unrelated topic, I found a baby turtle in the driveway just a bit ago and took it over to the edge of the pond.

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He is about the size of a nickle and was warm in my palm as I carried him over to the pond.  I set him on a leaf just at the edge of the water.  I hope he makes it.

Newborn and elderly, all in the same day, with a bit of sunshine thrown in.  It’s a new day

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Pruning and teeter

It was a beautiful day today, sunny and in the 50’s, just a bit of breeze coming to us from that storm on the east coast.  So I set about doing a bit of tree trimming.  Probably no one else but me will  be able to tell what I have trimmed out of three ornamental trees.  But I know.  Plus it felt really good to be outside doing some sort of yard work.  I put a few of the trimmed bits from my redbud tree in a stone vase.  Just in case they’d like to bloom a bit early inside.

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Then since it was so nice out, and because I’m leaving tomorrow for 3 weeks and won’t have another chance, Katie and I went out to try her teeter again.  This time no towels to muffle the banging.  She did pretty good.  It’s still not her favorite thing, but if enticed with cheese she’ll slowly trot across.  She stops at the central part to wait for it to drop, and I think that’s quite smart of her.  If I don’t have the treat ready she’d still rather hop off at the middle, but if the treat is waiting for her at the end of the plank she’ll inch her way down to it.

I don’t see the exuberance she exhibited when she figured out the dogwalk though.  I’m not sure she thinks this is fun yet.

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Where’s my treat Mom?

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Is this a good 2o2o?  How long do I have to stand like this anyway?

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I hope she has a good time with her Dad while I’m gone, and that she still remembers how easy teeter is next time I get it out.  She’s a smart dog, I’m sure she’ll humor me.

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