This week begins my grateful list. Finding and keeping my sense of humor is top of the list. This is another thing I have discovered is like a muscle. It must be used regularly, or it will be lost. I find myself looking for things to laugh at, for, about. All of it.
Last week I was caring for my in-law’s dog Daisy. (See photo). The interactions between my 14-year-old, 70+ Lbs Napoleon and 6-year-old 10 Lbs Daisy are priceless. Daisy preferred Napoleon to the human caretakers (Tom & me) but she understood we must be tolerated. Every morning when I woke at 5:00 am to let out the dogs, the look of absolute incredulity that Daisy shot me, made me laugh out loud. Napoleon by contrast was grateful. He was so happy to see me, wagging is tail, as he shot outside to pee. Meanwhile Daisy slowly moved outside wondering WHY we must be awake at this ridiculous hour. “It is still dark outside” I could see her thinking. Napoleon happily gobbled down his food in less than 1 minute and settles down again for his early morning nap. Daisy would just look at me, “No, I do NOT eat at this hour”, as she sat on her cushion which a I placed in a cozy spot for her to have her own space, but still close to Napoleon. We discovered she preferred to be close to Napoleon at night than to have her own bedroom to sleep. During her visit the only time Daisy was apart from Napoleon was when she was eating. This was a delicate and drawn out process during which she needed to be fenced off from Napoleon. Napoleon could not understand why she took so long to eat her food. Daisy would take each morsel out of the food bowl, put it on the floor, look at it and then eat it. Napoleon found this insane and a bit maddening. During Daisy’s eating events Tom often would take Napoleon outside for home sanity. Daisy needed to have a witness to her eating, in other words, she would not eat with out me nearby watching her. Oh, yes, very interesting.
We have a nice size yard and we can let both dogs out to roam in the space. Daisy is accustomed to only being out on a leash, but she took to this new option, like a duck to water. She enjoyed exploring every corner of the yard and even barked at a rabbit, lending support to Napoleon’s effort to keep the rabbits out of the yard. Her 10 decibels bark was nothing compared to Napoleon’s 50 decibels, but it was cute to see her helping.
Daisy is back at home now with the humans she loves. Perhaps she misses Napoleon or maybe not. Both thoughts make me laugh as I give Napoleon and extra hug.
