More signs of Spring #phenology

I am remiss by a couple of days reporting that a couple of branches on the forsythia in the back yard have blossoms. That bush gets way more sun than the ones in front which are partially shaded by a tall pine and have started leaf out but no flowers yet.

In another sign of the season, outside window washing started today. The upstairs (deck) and downstairs (screen porch / patio) walkout doors got the proverbial "lick and a promise" today. That activity was prompted by the dogs rediscovering how transparent the screen door is as they crashed through it to chase a squirrel that was on the deck starting to nibble on the leaves of the healthiest of the beach plum plants. Both dogs have been sent  to their rooms for a time out while walkout windows were washed and reinstallation of the screen door was accomplished. The reinstallation was significantly aided and abetted by my Better Half. I was too busy looking for the temper I had lost to be well focused on the details of putting the screen (and my equanimity) back on track.

SiSi at 1, seven  years ago

Photo by J. Harrington

One of the house-wreckers, my SiSi, had been celebrating her seventh anniversary living with us just prior to the screen door event. This after she had spent  the morning trying to hide in the pocket of my jeans. I had forgotten just how skittish she is around thunder. She finally decided that hiding in the corner behind me in my reading chair was her best option. Obviously, she had fully recovered her "playfulness" by the time she spotted the squirrel on the deck but failed to notice the screen door between her and the squirrel.

SiSi when not eating, chasing squirrels, or hiding from thunder

Photo by J. Harrington

If you have a dog, or have had a dog, or some day hope to have a dog, you will probably enjoy Mary Oliver's Dog Songs volume and, for some of the best writing ever about dogs and the people they own, take a look at any of Gene Hill's dog stories, for example Tears and Laughter. That pretty well covers what SiSi and I and our Better Half have been through today. Be well, stay healthy, enjoy Spring!

The Power of the Dog

Rudyard Kipling - 1865-1936

There is sorrow enough in the natural way

From men and women to fill our day;

And when we are certain of sorrow in store,

Why do we always arrange for more?

Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware

Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy

Love unflinching that cannot lie—

Perfect passion and worship fed

By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.

Nevertheless it is hardly fair

To risk your heart for a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits

Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,

And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs

To lethal chambers or loaded guns,

Then you will find—it’s your own affair—

But… you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,

With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!).

When the spirit that answered your every mood

Is gone—wherever it goes—for good,

You will discover how much you care,

And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way,

When it comes to burying Christian clay.

Our loves are not given, but only lent,

At compound interest of cent per cent.

Though it is not always the case, I believe,

That the longer we’ve kept ’em, the more do we grieve:

For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,

A short-time loan is as bad as a long—

So why in—Heaven (before we are there)

Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

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