If Millie were a school girl, I think she'd very much resemble me as a school kid. I was inspired! Sometimes. And I was bored -- other times. And you don't want to know how I dealt with that! I was lively and very much attuned to those around me. I kept my eye on them all -- perhaps even more than on what I should have been studying. Sounds like my pup! Millie gets inspired and then you think she is one whip-smart little pup. Sometimes. She gets bored and then she looks for trouble -- a common little ploy now is for her to go straight to the chair by the window and find something or someone to bark at. A raucous follows. She is indeed lively. Today's zoomies were epic!
And yes, her eyes never leave me. Never. I will think she is sleeping and tiptoe to the bathroom and look up to see her standing in the doorway. And of course, if anyone comes here, or near here, she stares them down with an intense eye, until they're gone or out of sight.
But Millie does suffer now once more from separation anxiety and in this way, we are different. I suffered no separation anxiety. I never got homesick at camp, or sleepovers, or spending summers at my grandma's and I liked it when my parents went out and I could hit the TV (which was in their bedroom), not necessarily observing the limits imposed by them on watching sitcoms. But Millie -- she's back in panic mode if I put her in her crate and go out. For any amount of time. That means that today, while she is at doggie daycare, I want to fit in everything that needs to be done that I simply cannot do with her at home.
It's a loaded day.
Millie wanted to start the day super early. I did not. Once she bounced off the bed (at 4:45 a.m.! really Millie??), I put her in her crate by my bed and told her to keep quiet for another hour. And she did.
We ate breakfast, it was lovely, she barked hardly at all.
(it's peach and berry season!)
And just after 9, I take her to Happy Dogz. And now comes my whirlwind: I go grocery shopping -- it's the first time I set foot in the store since coming home from the June trip. I do some returns at UPS. I give back the internet modem to the management of Sally's House. That's a lot of driving and Millie is not a huge fan of car rides.
At home, I get out the lawn mower. I cant get it started. I call Ed. He come over. I show him the problem and miraculously, the problem has disappeared. He shrugs and goes home. I mow, thinking -- I ripped out so much sod and still, there's a heck of a lot of mowing to do here! I trim the edges. And then I take care of the plants to the west side of the house. I can put Millie in the yard and work to the east. I can put her on the porch and work out front to the south. But I cannot do anything at the west side because I am out of her field of vision there. This afternoon, I dump some wood chips, I pull some weeds, I put up a very beautiful trellis for a rose bush that wont need it for at least two years. I check all roses for beetles. I water. I mean, the list is long and I do not get through it until late in the afternoon. Lunch at 4. And then I drive to dump more cardboard at the city dump, and swing around to pick up my girl. Sweet sweet Millie. Someday her anxieties will be history! In the meantime, I adjust.
Ed comes over in the evening, we order pizza, I make a salad, we watch a show. I have to say, after a day out in the yard, it feels so grand to sit back and think about something other than plants. But tomorrow? Millie and I will be at it again. It's July! The flowering season. Beautiful, even in the small bursts of new plantings that I have all around Steffi's House..
with so much love...
