I didn't do much over the weekend--mostly stoked the stove and tried to keep the house warm. At which I was pretty successful. The high on Sunday was 8, and it was windy so it was even colder outside. Not bad inside. I went to the dump on Saturday; seems to be tradition that I go on one of the coldest, most miserable days of the season. Sunday I went to the Holts' to do laundry, and since the heat had been turned on in anticipation of their (cancelled) visit, it was warm enough to stay there while the wash was running. I read the book group book (Chocolat, by Joanne Harris), which is OK. I saw the movie a long time ago (let's hear it for Johnny Depp!) so it's a familiar story but I think the book is different from the movie because there are parts that I don't remember. Or else I was so gobsmacked by Johnny Depp's beauty that I paid no attention to the plot...
Things are going well for the most part. No dog crises, no cat situation. The dogs are all getting along well, and I'm training Tess and Treasure to come home when they hear the car horn honk. Two days in a row it's worked like a charm. They come running in from the woods (which is better than seeing them coming up the driveway, from the road), out of breath but excited. Nothing like a self-exercising pet.
I'm weeding the adult non-fiction books (forever, it seems) and finished up with the pet section. My favorite title was "Your first pocket pet," which is about small rodents like mice, rats, hamsters, etc. It reminded me of our childhood, when we perpetually had white rats for pets. What, they were cheaper and easier than dogs? No, my father for some reason got into the habit of bringing home the lab rats from the college Psychology Dept. at the end of the semesters. Sometimes the rats would be trained to do certain things (nothing useful, like reading a book or cooking dinner). I learned a lot about animal behavior by having them--like, if you have too many in a cage they'll eat their babies, and that rats have the most revolting long scaly tails, but are pretty much nice animals and make OK pets. They only got loose once that I remember, and my mother found the elusive rodent in the washing machine. Before she did the wash. My sister had the most famous rat of the bunch, one named Gretchen, who lived for years. Rats generally live for 1-2 years, but Gretchen was in our lives for a long time. My sister was really good at training animals--when we had parakeets she had hers (named Happy)(mine was white and was named Kitty--why Kitty? oh, who knows) trained to do things. Mine, she was trained not to bite me and that's about it. When she died we buried her in a shoe box, then, as children do, we dug her up later to see what she looked like. A dead bird. We raised canaries for a while, successfully breeding and having 3 babies hatched. My sister & I played with the 2 pretty to death, and the piebald, not-so-attractive one lasted for 11 years. He was a really nice pet, sang so beautifully. My sister had him for a while but (as I remember it) brought him into my bedroom one day, announcing that she didn't want him anymore so he was mine. I did enjoy having him, and would love to have birds now but my house is too drafty and cold, plus what would I do with the birds when I traveled?
I usually watch the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, it's often the highlight of my otherwise pretty much uneventful winter. This year I tried to watch it but dozed a lot and missed most of it. I saw the hounds, one of my favorites, and the sporting group, my real favorite, but pretty much missed the rest. Which was fine, since the winner was a gross little rodent-like thing. See below. The Lab came in 4th in Group, which is better than they usually do. It was a beautiful black Lab, from Roscoe, Ill., near Rockford. It sounds made up, but when the Lab appeared on the screen, Treasure perked up, got off the couch for a closer look at the TV, then walked around behind the set to (presumably) look for the dog. She's a clever one, that Treasure. She does watch TV, which my dogs have never really done. She barks at other dogs or strange noises. She's a cutie, and is working out well. Tess is very tolerant of the attention I pay to Treasure, which is important. I try not to favor one over the other but having 3 dogs sucks a lot of the time. Treasure likes to CHEW socks, which is a real drag. Tess has always taken great pride in her ability to carry socks around, it's been her trademark. Now she has to cut back on that because her sister will take the sock from her mouth & chew on it. Treasure is a bit more orally obsessed than Tess (which, for those who know Tess, seems impossible). She likes to chew cans, like a goat. I once heard that goats only chew cans because they like the glue that holds the labels on. Don't know what appeals to Treasure about cans, but she chews soda bottles and cans endlessly. Cheap toys, huh.
Today I'll work at the Plattsburgh
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