Walking the Mighty Schnauzer

These past few days of rising temperatures and sunny days have elevated everyone’s mood and made it easier to move from point A to point B and beyond but I suspect it will take more than a week of good news from Mother Nature to melt all our snow. And with each layer that melts more dog poop in the Levi’s pen is revealed so I’ve had to add picking it up to my daily list of things to do. It’s not an easy task for someone afraid of falling on the icy snow pack but I have my trusty garden hoe to dislodge the frozen “logs” and my long handled pooper scooper. I also have ice fishing cleats on the bottom of my boots so eventually the job will come to an end without any broken bones. 

Sometimes I can’t believe how much Levi’s life is going to change after we move. For one thing, he’ll never get to pee or poop in private again because I’ll have to walk Levi each and every time and follow along picking up his poop as soon as he drops it. Now, his walks are sporadic and never in winter or at either end of the day. Not in the winter because I’m afraid of falling on icy sidewalks---did I mention heated sidewalks in my future?---and not in early morning or late at night because I don’t like to be dressed in street clothes any longer than I have to. And on rainy days? He’s stubborn about going outside in the rain and I’m sure his avoid-mom-dragging-him-out antics are going to amuse my future neighbors. His German roots makes him stubborn but I've been known to throw a hissy-fit right back at him.

Levi’s life this summer is going to be confusing for him as deep cleaning and maintenance people start coming in and out of the house. I’ve even started packing some stuff so when the time comes to list the house I won’t have to do so much depersonalizing the place. However, my once empty library shelves have filled up again with boxes of stuff packed and ready to list on e-Bay. It’s been a long haul getting rid of collectibles on e-Bay but with the local auction house I was using going out of business I had no real choice except to give it all away which would have been a financially stupid decision. By mid-March I'll redirect my energy to selling off art and the pieces in the garage that are earmarked to sell on Facebook Market Place. Spring is going to be busy. I also have to dismantle my shipping and packing area in my garage. Spring isn't even here yet and already I sick of the work it will bring.

Levi’s also going to be spending the spring and summer getting himself on a schedule for his body functions so we'll be doing a long walk daily---at five---and short ‘quick pees’ at 10:00, noon, 3:00, 8:00, 10:00 again and midnight. A ‘quick pee’ in dog talk means Levi gets to go out to the streetlight in front of my house and mark it which actually takes forever and a day for him to read the pee mail other dogs have left behind. (He’s not allowed to use mailboxes even though the other dogs in the neighborhood do which, I think, is rude for their humans to allow. Who wants to get a whiff of urine when they grab their mail?) This schedule isn’t too far off from when Levi usually wants to go outside but it’s me that needs the schedule more than he does. It's too easy, now, to just open the back door and let him do his thing. 

But I am looking forward to those heated sidewalks. I hope they aren’t so warm that I’ll have to start putting boots on Levi. He’s a nudist and hates wearing sweaters so I imagine trying to corral him to put him in boots would be like catching a greased pig. We used to have a poodle who wore boots and loved getting dressed up. I could have put her in a risqué bustier, fishnet stockings, high-heeled boots and red lipstick she would have paraded them up and down a runway like she owned the place. Poodles really are show offs. (Ever have a dog eat a tube of lipstick? It's hard to get mad when they look so silly and you're more worried about the color of their next bowel movement.)

I bought a neat dog walker’s cross-body bag---I'm used to just stuffing some baggies in a pocket and taking off. It’s got a place on the side where poop bags are dispensed and I added a jump ring on the other side where I can hang a full bag of poop using a bread bag clip so I can remain hands free. It has pockets for keys, a cell phone, hand wipes and treats. Another jump ring could give me a place to hang a water bottle and the bag came with a collapsible bowl. In this neighborhood there are lots of dogs that can turn Levi into the Barker-in-Chief so I'm also going to carry my anti-bark gadget. He sits sweetly when little kids approach but another dog has him pulling my arm out of its socket and we’re going to work on that over the summer. The director of the continuum care complex where I’m moving couldn’t tell me how many dogs will be moving in to my building but Levi won’t be the only one, she says. Oh, well, I’ll worry about that bridge to cross when I get there. Now, I have to come up with a $1,000 to cover the cost of some elective surgery for Levi---removing a large, fatty tumor between his tail and his rectum and while he's under they'll clean his teeth, too. I’m pretty sure my income tax refund will cover it once I get around to filing my taxes---but it's going to cut into my fund for a new La-Z-Boy, computer desk and bar-cart-turned artist-in-residence-cart. Oh, yes, I've been online shopping! ©

 

Not sure I'll ever take walks long enough to need a water bottle but this flat, reusable bottle will work great if I do.

I've already tried walking with a full bag of poop attached this way and it works great. The trick is to use a bread clip that is too big to past through the jump ring.

 

 

 

 

Walk Forward, Don't Run Away

In March of 2008 I wrote a blog entry titled ‘Immortality’ and it started out like this: “We all face our own mortality at one at point or another although some of us are good at pretending it doesn’t exist. Usually I’m able to ignore thoughts of dying or of losing someone I love, but sometimes the concept slaps me in the face and it can’t be ignored. Last week was one of those slap-downs….” Then the blog went on to talk about a heart catheterization Don went through.

I ended the essay with this: “For the next few days I worried about the ‘what ifs’ ahead of us, borrowing trouble from the future and generally forgetting the caregivers’ Cardinal Rule about living in the moment and appreciating what is here right now. The bottom line, I finally had to tell myself, is that after all the testing and all the worrying nothing has changed. Don is still in my life and he still finds life worth living. We don’t have to say good-bye just yet and I don’t have to make my way alone in the world. So I made a conscious choice to go back to the land where ignoring our mortalities makes sense in a crazy kind of logic that demands no explanation from those of us who have been there, done that.”

January 18th, 2012 I got the final slap-down, didn’t I, the mean-spirited punch from Father Fate. Don is gone and I’m trying my best to practice mindfulness but living in the moment is so much harder sometimes than others. In a book of daily meditations I’m currently reading---Wrinkles Don’t Hurt---it has a Jack Kornfield quote that is good advice for anyone dealing with grief: “Don’t run away. It’s that simple.” The meditation goes on to talk about how by letting our emotions come we can release them. If we block our pain, then we block our ability to find joy again. Sometimes I wonder if that’s not what I’ve been doing by keeping so busy ---blocking the pain because I don’t want to walk deeper into the valley of grief.

Dialogue with the Dog

Levi: “Is that all you’re going to do today is sit at the computer? Can’t you see my ball sitting there on the floor?”

Me: “Go get your ball, Levi.”

Levi: “That’s not going to cut it, old woman. Give me your full attention or I’m going to eat the schefflera plant. Again!”

Me: "Leviiiiiiii! Knock off the barking and go get your ball!”

Levi: “Not until you give me your full attention. All that New Age stuff about mindfulness you like to read about---well, you know you can’t do two things at one time if you want to practice it. Play with me! Now!”

Me: “What’s the matter, little boy? Do you miss your ball throwing partner? Do you miss Don?”

Levi: “Now we’re getting some where. Of course I miss Daddy! What a silly question.”

Me: “Want to go for a walk, Levi? Shall we clear our minds and go find out if any of your four-legged friends left you some pee-mail?”

Levi: “You’re just full of silly questions today, aren’t you!” ©