Dog 1, Dog 2, and Me

Dog 1 is Mame (pronounced May-mee), Amy's 13 year old black lab. She was a wonderful dog, even to me, a cat person. She died two weeks ago and we buried her in the backyard. I miss her a lot.

Dog 2 is Freya, a mostly husky one year old. She's charming and bright and handsome, but she's also energetic and destructive. We're dog-sitting for a friend of a friend and we're not prepared for a juvenile delinquent. She's been with us for two days and has escaped the fenced-in yard three times. One time she got out after wiggling through a sloppily closed gate. So we kept her in and she chewed foam out of a chair seat, brought down the backdoor curtains and chewed them up, and spilled her food all over the floor. I got real tired of sweeping up the food and picking up pieces of things.

So today we kept her in the yard (after fixing the gate) and all went well for a long time. I checked on her every hour, sat on the porch for a while, etc. The last time I checked was 10:30 and she was gone. She could only have gotten out by jumping the fence. Amy had put a tag on her with phone number, so at 11:30 she got a phone call from some people up at Ingles that she'd pranced up to them and they'd hold her for pickup. The other two times people had caught her across the street and just up the street.

Tomorrow I'll be getting a long length of chain to put around the porch post and onto her harness to make sure she can't get loose and out EVER AGAIN.

I'm sure Freya will be great in about three years. I'm sure glad we aren't going to have her that long. And Sprout the cat will be glad, too; he's really pissed at this dog, rushes her hissing and spitting, and Freya cowers. Maybe that's why she's so desperate to leave us.

RIP

Alan Arbus, who played the psychiatrist Dr. Freedman on MASH. I didn't know that he'd been married to the renowned photographer Diane Arbus.

There've been some other deaths I noticed but none impelled me to blog them.

On a personal front, I didn't get the job as bookkeeper with Brother Wolf. I was one of six who were interviewed and I'm assuming I didn't get the job because I never heard from them.

I also decided not to take a job as manager of the Hotspot on Asheland Avenue, where the minumum work hours are 44 and expected is 55. I'm just too old and tired.

The new car is doing fine (yay).

RIPs

Jonathon Winters, great comedian and sketch artist.
Maria Tallchief, prima ballerina, first Native American ballerina, inspiration for Balachine.