Garden Tours, Puppies and Exercise

Every so often I get on a kick where I think adopting another dog will solve all my problems which, at the moment, are: 1) Widow related loneliness, 2) Boredom, and 3) The guilt of leaving Levi home alone while I go out searching for a cure to resolve problems number one and two. I debate in my head the pros and cons of becoming a mother to two canines and sometimes I even express this desire to other dog lovers in the family. Today I got a call from a niece-in-law who knows someone who is trying to find a home for a seven month old puppy. Just like that my day-dreaming became a pee-or-get-off-the-pot decision. The age, size and price of the dog was good. However, Bichons are not one of my favorite’s breeds---too much brushing---and I’m not fond of white dogs---too many baths required to keep them that way---but he’s house broke and even rings a bell when he wants in and out. How cute is that? I tried to teach Levi that trick but he prefers to save his bodily functions for when I decide he should pee and poop. He’s such a schmuck. A sweet schmuck, but a schmuck just the same.

Faced with the-should-I-or-shouldn’t-I-adopt dilemma, off I went to Google, trying to find out more about Bichons and the availability of rescue dogs in the area that might be more to my liking. I found out that the breed is susceptible to having skin issues if not properly brushed on a regular basis. Oh, great! Don’t I have enough issues with itchy skin and hives on my own body without having to worry about a poor dog going through the same thing? I knew there was a reason I wasn’t fond of Bichons. Poodles and Schnauzers---they suit my needs best---are few and far between on the local rescue sites and if I was really serious, I’d have to register and put in “an order” of sorts, then wait. It occurred to me that if I did that, Levi would disappear from his dog pen with its white picket fence and his photo would show up in my in box with the caption: “A sweet dog ready to adopt and for a mire $200 he can be yours.” Somewhere along the line it also occurred to me that searching rescue dog sites was a lot like looking at online dating sites for seniors. High maintenance dogs, too old dogs, dogs with attitude and dogs with questionable histories and hidden issues. Needy dogs and dogs that would run away the first time they saw me naked.

The decision still not made, I got up at the crack of dawn to go on a garden tour sponsored by the senior hall. Something didn’t look right when I pulled up to the place…not many cars parked in the lot and there was no name tag table in the lobby. Something was wrong. Turns out I was waiting for a bus that left “the station” the day before. I’d written the event down on the wrong page of my day planner. The director said at least I handled the disappointment well, another woman who had come to the center a day early for the garden tour got very rude and argumentative over her mistake. The director gave me a slide show of the photos she took and it looks like I missed a great tour of garden art, water features and Master Gardener landscape designs, plants and flowers. Boohoo, I missed the bus. In my next life I want to be Weird Al Yankovic so I can write songs about my first world problems and make a lot of money.

As long as I was at the center I decided to stick around and take a Balance class. For a long time, now, I’ve been thinking I should take advantage of one or more of the seven exercise classes they offer every week.---Zumba, Stretch and Flex, Yoga and Pilates, Arthritis, Balance, and Line Dancing.  No sign-ups, no long-term commitments or high costs. You drop in when you can and pay $1 to $3 a session at the door. It surprised me how hard the Balance class was for me---I’m so out of shape! I left vowing I will show up when I have nothing else going on. So missing the garden tour turned out to be a good thing because who knows how it would have been before I would have dropped into a class. Sometimes impromptu and spur-of-the-moment decisions turn out the best. Deciding on a adopting a second dog into the family, however, is not one of those times. I turned the Bichon puppy down with a few second thoughts. Levi is still the only one keeping the house safe from rabbit and robin attacks and I am still feeling guilty that he doesn’t have a brother or a sister to help him with that awesome responsibility. ©

P.S. If you leave a comment will you let me know if you can see the Feedjit at the bottom of the right hand column? I can't see it or those on other people's blogs and I'm trying to figure out if the problem is with my computer or Feedjit.