Morning apologies

"Orion I apologize for blaming you for the missing frying pan."
Pause.
"It's in the sink where it should be."

Looking for Puppies?

"Hey," a scruffy looking guy calls to me as I'm walking Orion down the sidewalk.
"Yes?"
"We've got some puppies in here, you want to take a look? Are you interested?"
"Me?" I laugh. "Oh no, I've got my hands full with him already. We made it to three and that's an accomplishment! But thanks..."
I continue on, round the corner, and pray my shoulder stays attached as a gray cat darts in front of us...
Puppies indeed...

Got home from school, snagged the boy and chilled in AJ/Cherry's backyard. I love watching the two of them smile and sprint around that yard...

Cat doors & death threats

It's closing in on dusk as I take the boy and Chloe out for their evening walk. I was gone most of the day, came in, ran to the bathroom, they milled around, Orion dipping under my legs (making the bathroom part a wee bit challenging) and barking, Chloe rubbing her itchy nose on my legs, me laughing and riling them up. But out we were, our usual parade of Orion on the long line leading in front, me in the middle, Chloe trailing behind.

I'm singing, talking to the dogs. Feeling happy. It was a perfect kind of day, had coffee with one friend after school, great chiropractor visit, fun softball practice and here I was home, still feeling energized.

"Oh what a perfect kind of day today," I say, pausing with the dogs as they sniff the fence line. "Coffee with Brett after school in the sunshine, great chiropractic visit with Brenna, softball practice with the sun setting..." Orion is walking ahead, taking full advantage of having the long line. I slowly let my eyes follow to where he is headed and promptly clamp down on the leash. He hasn't noticed yet, but there is a grey cat resting right at the foot of the stairs for which he's about to approach. I smile, watching to see when he'll notice, his nose still contentedly sniffing the grass (likely tracking the smell of the cat in front of him). Suddenly he notices. He leaps a good foot in the air in excitement. Myself, a good ten feet away, lean back, like I'm reeling in a big fish. Orion flops, he hops, he dances with enthusiasm.

The cat just sits there and looks at him.

I take a step closer. Orion jumps some more. I start veering out into the road, noting the car that has pulled into the street seems instead to be parking. Hanging onto my giant fish, I try to make a big circle around the cat. Orion is still leaping about. Chloe, bless her, is keeping up with me, three feet behind me, oblivious to the cat, happy to be in the street. Finally, the cat gets up. The car door opens to the car in the street and "Bill" walks over and says, "Aww, who's the big guy after--Juno? You don't want to go up against Juno, Big Guy, Juno will kick the crap out of you..." I'm laughing, still reeling in my dog, who has now turned to leap around the house where the grey cat has disappeared.

Bill, out in the street now, throws his hands in the air, "Come here big guy!" Orion changes his interest and leaps after Bill, licking his face and acting like they haven't just met two seconds ago, but rather are the very best of long lost friends. I begin telling Bill about Bubba the cat in Indiana who has forever spoiled Orion as he loved dogs and would play with Orion only in the way Orion dreamed cats would. I then get to learn of Bill's life story and his bit of wisdom regarding how one should live their life.

The sun has definitely disappeared now beyond the horizon, and as Bill is telling me about the two rules of life, I notice Orion sniffing around the cat door on the house that had the cat just hanging out in front of it. I glance briefly, noting the cat perch is empty so figure this porch too is empty. I've never actually seen the cat use the door. I go back to listening to Bill.

"Yup, you have to find something you're passionate about--like art! Or like in my case..."

And then there's a screaching. A hissing. And a yellow lab falling down three steps, rapidly backing his little pink nose as far from that cat door as he could. I look up and see whiskers poking out of the tiny dark hole and can't help but start laughing.

"Are you okay buddy?" I say, snuggling his face, checking for flesh wounds. "I guess there was a second cat?"

"That one would be Juno."

Clean up

I'm lying in bed, attempting to sleep to see if my body's nervous system will reset itself. I just got a ride home from school from my friend Sarah and my neighbor Steve thoughtfully took out Orion for me so I luckily didn't have to do so when I got home. Orion was rather bored with the idea of me sleeping however, so he wasn't up for a snuggle.

Dozing in and out, I hear Orion working on the can of beans that had been empty since last week but which I put a smidge of peanut butter inside to keep him company. Slosh, slosh, slosh. Tongue licking sounds populate near my feet. I move my feet so he quits bumping them and irritating my system more.

Slosh, slosh, slosh; he moves the can of beans closer again. I move my feet.

Eventually I seem to doze partway out, then I wake to hearing him in the kitchen. What could possibly interest him in the kitchen, I think...

And then I realize. I set my school bag down when I came home today. My lunch satchel was in it. I wonder for a moment if there's really anything even worth getting? An orange? An apple? Clearly, I'm not going to try to move out there to get the bag so I just resolve not to sweat the small stuff and keep chilling out in bed.

He sticks his head around the corner. He has something in his mouth. I peer over. It's two of my string cheese sticks, still in the wrappers. I laugh, then open one and give it to him. Least this way he's not eating the plastic (like the two dead tupperware containers I later noticed) and I won't have to deal with hot cheese lost to the abyss of my bedroom...

Wet feet

Orion and I are walking in from an hour walk in the rain. I'm thrilled to be home and able to quit walking, though impressed that I made the whole thing, especially after a day of work and without my cellphone to fish us out of a potentially bad situation. Orion, as usual, sprints up the stairs, then continues sprinting down the hallway, butt tucked, in his crazy dog run. I'm chuckling as I slowly walk up the stairs, and then I hear his paws heading back down towards me in a rapid sprint. I can hear him put on the brakes, but his wet little feet couldn't stop in time and he came flying right down towards me, three steps cleared in the air. I happily scooped him up and he turned around and flew back down the hallway.

Morning wake up walk

I'm out on the porch talking to Steve, who wanders out of his apartment with a cup of coffee in hand. He's hardly awake. He's mumbling and dropping to low tones so that I'm straining to hear what he's saying and he tells me it takes him awhile to wake up in the morning. Orion's loving this extra visitor, as I obliged him to be out in the fresh air but since my legs haven't kicked in 100% stable, I wasn't exactly "playing" with him. So there's Steve, wrestling around with the yellow dog and he says, "Hey, I'm going to go in and get another cup of coffee to try and wake up, then I'll take him for a walk." "Great!" I say, knowing Orion can use some adventures on what is likely to be a low key day.
A few moments later Steve shows up at my door, we hook Orion up, and he says, "We'll be going right by the cats, Ryan." (Orion gets different nicknames from Steve; O'Rielly, Rielly, Ryan) I don't mind.
So then, the 6'5" Steve opens the door and the next thing you see is him rapidly disappearing as Orion lunges forward. I just start laughing. Oh, the ways to wake up...

Vet Visit