Kiera is the first dog I’ve lived with that has made it to twelve years old. Knock on wood–she’s going strong. I tell her I just want her to make it until fourteen. (I secretly hope she’ll make it past that, but I’ll take whatever I can get.)
As she gets older, she continues to teach me a lot about the things that matter and the things that don’t.
When she was younger, she wasn’t allowed on the furniture. Now … Read More
In a world that leaves us little time to stop and smell the roses anymore, it especially saddens me when I see owners jerking and pulling their dogs along behind them on a leash, never letting them pause to sniff the “news” left by other dogs who’ve gone before. And certainly not allowing time to let them update that news with their own “reply.”
Loosely, it’d be like you trying to catch up with your favorite bloggers, but every time … Read More
As per usual, I made the trek to Cait’s school to pick her up from after-school activities. She threw her too-heavy backpack on the back seat and slid into the front, pulling the car door closed after her. Before I could even ask how her day went, she launched into conversation.
“Mom,” she said, “You won’t believe the most wonderful thing happened today.”
Not usually the opening line when Cait hops into the car these days, I was curious to … Read More
5:00 AM: Alarm goes off (read get woken up by wet dog noses). Hit snooze button (read push dogs off bed and bury self deep under covers). Alarm goes off again (read dogs dig under covers and stick cold noses in neck and ear). Get up and take three dogs—one 11 year old Australian Shepherd, one 8 year old Border Collie mix, one 3 year old King Charles Cavalier Spaniel—downstairs to greet the day.
5:30 AM: With everyone fed, watered, … Read More
Calling all fellow book lovers who buy from Amazon! I’d like to ask for your assistance.
Maybe you’ve noticed. Maybe you haven’t. But Amazon has removed the ability to view how many reviews a reader has contributed by deleting the “?” button next to the reviewer’s name. What this valuable little button used to let us do, was to see at a glance (simply by hovering over the arrow, without having to leave the page) how many reviews each reader … Read More
Next to growing garlic, potatoes come in as a 2nd favorite on my list of most fun and rewarding things to grow. And they taste so much better than store-bought.
The other great thing about potatoes is that you can harvest them over a few months. So when I’m looking for stuff to throw together for dinner, I can go out, dig up a few, grab whatever else is ripe, and have a delicious vegetarian meal in no time at … Read More
Memories… Little treasures and traps that we collect over a lifetime. Longtime readers know that I’ve worked hard to help Cait focus on the treasures, as I try to do for myself. That’s because, as a storyteller, I’m keenly aware of the power of the stories we tell ourselves about where we’ve been, who we are, and where we’re going. Hence my desire to carry the treasures forward.
One of my favorite early memories is of going to my … Read More
I was on Craigslist recently, helping a friend who is looking for a dog for her daughter when I saw this post. Having had this exact same experience of picking up a stray dog off the street and trying to find its owner without luck, I can attest to how funny, sad, and true this is. Especially the part about wanting to find the owner if only to be able to kick his sorry a**! I say “his” rather than … Read More
