May 26, 2010. Wednesday.
Situation: Last night a rare moment for us: for about an hour before dusk Moi and I sat on the lawn swing, after I convinced her that the swing was still safe to sit on. Even more rarely Mway sniffed around the yard and the weeds, without bugging us to throw the stick for her. A rabbit casually squat beneath the birch tree. Moi said that she was happy that the honey bees finally came back to their home in our chimney this spring, mentioning that Ezra hasn’t seen any bees except bumble bees around his house this year. As the light dimmed we saw bats flying out from the top of the chimney, and we wondered if they’re still living in the attic or if Moi finally managed to caulk them out completely. Moi said she saw a firefly, and flying over the willow tree, we saw two mallards, the mallards, we figured, that live on the creek, but which I mentioned that I’ve only kicked out once this year on our walks. Work tonight, and take Mway out about 1:30.
State of the Path: The main thing now is just to keep walking on the path, our foot and paw steps, and the occasional clippers, being the only thing now keeping a way open down to the creek. Notice more green blackberry shoots, some now top of the head high, especially on the side path where it turns around at the back hedgerow. The jack-in-the-pulpits are still up, their leaves six by six in size, the specimen on the side path covered with dead brown flowers fallen from the wild cherry behind it, which now has small green berries. A number of milkweeds are growing in the path just beyond; I almost hate to trample them down because this is the only place I’ve been seeing milkweeds. When I can do so without breaking my stride I whack blackberry shoots down with my stick.
State of the Creek: At the log jam, a multiflora bush beneath the locust tree extends its stems to another multiflora bush growing beneath an oak tree on the other side of the creek. This phenomenon, of two multiflora bushes reaching out to each other on either side of the creek, occurs a number of places along the way. Beneath the bushes and other weeds, the shallow brown water lies quietly, not even flowing strongly enough to wash away the locust blossoms still littering its surface.
The Fetch: Mway fetches the willow stick more times than I care to count, on each fetch ripping away more and more of the bark and etching more teeth prints onto the wood. Finally she brings the stick back and it falls apart into pieces at my feet, and I tell her, “Okay, that’s it.”
2 comments:
Are you sure you’re OK with doing this?
To tell you the truth, I was thinking of asking you if I could beg off. I’m not as young as I used to be, and the thought of injuring myself again has me worried. But the problem is not so much hopping up on the chair as it is stretching over the keyboard to operate the keys with my paws and nose. If the chair is not positioned just right, my hind leg tends to slip forward or backward off the chair. But today I’m trying out a new technique. Right now I’m resting my rump on the seat and I’ve got my spine curled firmly against the back of the chair, and I can reach out and operate the keys with my forepaws without fear of slipping. It’s nothing short of a sitting position that I’ve attained, and it’s not too different, I now realize, from sleeping on my back, which, as you know, I do quite often. I’ve always just been uneasy about resting my back on a chair, as opposed to a bed or the floor. I think your picking me up and carrying me backside down to the cellar helped me get over my fear of resting my back on anything except a very wide and secure surface. The only thing is that the chair still has to be positioned just the right distance from the keyboard, or I can foresee myself slipping off. M.
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