DOGS
It’s a good
thing we love Rufus, our adopted beagle.
Very good, because he’s been costing us a small fortune. He has already set a record as the most
expensive dog we’ve ever had. It’s
kind of an erosive process. It
starts off with one obvious thing that needs specialist-type fixing (cataracts,
in his case; he would bump into things, fix you with his clouded gaze), and
before you know it, you’re off and running. Treatments that carry warnings along the lines of “in a few cases, there could be
complications…” often don’t get my full attention. Rufus, however, is in that small percentile of dogs in that category. Removal of cataracts was not a straightforward issue. Resulting eye issues, ongoing eye issues–including
reactions to eye medication–led to more treatment. He’s now in
recovery from both the latest specialty treatment (laser eye surgery) and his
medications. Our senior dog Harry,
getting into the spirit of things, developed an eye problem last week–a minor
one, happily–so he’s been getting eye drops as well. We are developing close relationships
with our vets.
DOG DAYS
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| View from the hammock |
Like
everywhere else in the Eastern half of the USA, we’ve had a few samples of the
dog days of summer as well as the sweet days of spring. Except for the fact that it was still
mid-March when this happened, everyone found it hard to actually complain about
the balmy weather. The
alternative, after all, is the rawness of mud season.
It is weird,
though, because everything seems to be happening at once and at full speed. In March the grass began to green
almost overnight, and then it started growing (are we going to have to mow the
lawn in April?) and the weeds are
sprouting as if it were summer.
Buds are opening. The
forsythia is in bloom. Ducks have been visiting our pond in the mornings, a month earlier than last year. The chorus
of frogs in our pond is already creating a din. Last year I commented on the frog sounds in mid-May. Granted, they probably began chirping well
before I wrote about it. Still–mid-May? I picture creatures out there in
a crazed rush to do what they have to do because spring already turned into
summer and whatever happened to winter anyway? Talk about living in fast forward! Only two weeks ago we were skiing at Sugarbush in cold
weather with good snow. Maple sap
was running then and we made syrup.
But the sap run was over shortly after it got going. We barely finished
boiling a couple of barrels of sap when it got so warm the sap stopped running. Maple season is officially over, and
major producers say the season gave them 50% less than last year.
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| The evaporating pan over a wood-fueled fire |
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| Part of our sugaring crew (the next weekend we were fully staffed with Leah, Cliff and Olin) |
DOGGED LAWMEN
Notes on our
local law enforcers from the police blotter of our local paper:
“On March 6 at 4:24 AM responded to a call
for help from a Chipman Hill resident who said her toilet was overflowing and
her plumber was in the hospital.
When police arrived they found that the overflowing had stopped.”
“On March 6 at 5 PM responded to a caller
who reported a barefoot man standing next to a white truck on Merchants Row,
possibly parked in the handicap parking and with the truck radio playing
loudly. The man told the police
officer that he was cooling his feet and would be leaving shortly.”
“On March 9 at 8:30 PM were called to a
Middlebury home by a woman who said she heard footsteps downstairs and when she
asked who was there, the footsteps stopped. Officers went to the home and found it was the husband who
had come home without telling his wife.”
(Of course
there’s more going on than this; I’m not bothering to cite the more prosaic
arrests for drugging, drinking or fighting or driving while drugging, drinking
or fighting.)
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| Goodbye, old dog winter! (Last bit of snow in the woods behind our house, just a few weeks ago.) |
