May 18, 2009
Returning to the New Again
This morning we woke up same as every Monday, a bit earlier than on the weekends, and went about our normal Monday morning routines. Ann with her coffee, Gretchen with her cocoa, and me curled up on my morning bed catching the last of my dreams.
Ann went off to work and Gretchen sat at the computer fiddling with one thing or another when up she rose, took a shower, ate her breakfast, took me for a walk, and then left.
Yes, left.
This is not a normal Monday, I thought to my all-alone self.
Don’t despair. Gretchen returned, but instead of walking me on our daily schedule, we headed up to school. Not a normal Monday activity and there we entered my old classroom, the one I spent my youth in, and spent the morning working with 10-year olds. Just like before.
They petted me, made me do tricks, but then I laid at Gretchen’s feet while she helped the students with their movies about saving the world.
Okay, I thought again, saving the world means our routine might get a bit disrupted. I can live with this.
Besides, the classroom floor is always covered with delicious leftovers so I was happy entertaining myself, visiting each student, while Gretchen helped the next generation make their plans.
But just as soon as I settled back into the “dog teacher” routine, we packed up and left to go back to our Monday schedule of walking Oshi and Perrito.
Fickle. Very fickle, but I’m learning to go with the flow.
The forecast called for rain today and after a cold start and some threatening clouds, the sun burst out and the three of us (and maybe Gretchen, too) got mighty warm and panty on our walk and romp.
We headed to the park to play in the cool grass. They boys have grown accustomed to wandering around with their leashes dragging behind them and Perrito even showed interest in playing a little fetch, but only just a little.
Oshi did what Oshi loves to do…roll in the grass!
Now, I’m not a dog who never rolls in the grass. I do it often in the backyard and occasionally out in public when I’m feeling particularly jovial and happy.
Oshi seems to do it every time he sees a large stretch of green stuff and will go on for hours and hours.
Okay, maybe not hours, but out of the 30 minutes we spent at the park today, he rolled at least half the time grunting and moaning the whole time. Don’t worry. He grunts and moans when he’s happy.
Go figure.
I played fetch, but even that got kind of warm so I found some shade and lounged while Perrito explored and Oshi, yes Oshi continued to roll.
Oshi also spent a lot of time staring off pensively, lost in the intrigue of his thoughts…
As I said, Perrito thought about playing fetch. He’d follow me around, but when Gretchen pulled out a tennis ball for Perrito to play with, he showed some curiosity. He didn’t do anything with the ball, just pushed it around with his nose a bit, but that’s more than he usually does so perhaps I’m having some impact on his interests.
Or maybe he just smells dog slobber on the ball. Who knows?
Perrito did try his hand at rolling in the grass, but his lampshade got in the way. Gretchen says this probably means his eye is feeling itchy, which is also a sign that it’s healing.
I’m itchy, but I think that’s because I need a bath…but don’t tell anyone because I’m not really a fan of baths!
We all got hot quickly so we laid about in the shade for awhile until Perrito looked off into the distance signalling our time to walk through the park back to home.
S0, while the day turned into any other normal Monday, there was a hint of our return to some old routines, which frankly felt kind of new and refreshing. It’s important to keep an open mind.
Have a great evening everyone. Who knows what tomorrow holds?
Rubin
