Old Dogs

There is something special about old dogs. Gene Weingarten sums it up so eloquently in his book, Old Dogs Are the Best Dogs:

Old dogs can be cloudy-eyed and grouchy, gray of muzzle, graceless of gait, odd of habit, hard of hearing, pimply, wheezy, lazy, and lumpy. But to anyone who has ever known an old dog, these things are of little consequence. Old dogs are vulnerable. They show exorbitant gratitude and limitless trust. They are without artifice. They are funny in new and unexpected ways. But above all, they seem at peace. This last quality is almost indefinable; if you want to play it safe, you can call it serenity. I call it wisdom.

Today I thought I'd share a few photos of Millie & Maggie together. They came together as a package, and they were inseparable.

INSIDE

 VISITS WITH FRIENDS

Fisherman Willie.

Meeting GSF Bess. 

Meeting San Diego friend Aida. 

I am forever grateful to Gareth & Lena at Mystic Pet. 

I don't remember what we were laughing at, but I managed to snap a photo at the right time!

The girls LOVED Gareth, which made me & Lena think that their original owner must have been a man. Lena told me that one time Gareth leaned over to her and whispered, "I think Millie is my favourite of the two." As if they could hear him in the next room & understand what he was saying!

One time after a vet visit, I popped over to the store before heading home. In the parking lot, Millie & Maggie were looking out the window & they started barking & howling. I look waaaaaaay across the parking lot, & there's a guy with a bald head. They thought it was Gareth! It wasn't, unfortunately!

THRU the SEASONS:

 WINTER

These gals had v. long & thick fur. So they were quite comfortable on a sunny winter day.  I kept the door open and the wood stove blasting so they could come in or go out when they wanted. Millie stayed out much more than Maggie did, tho.

Venturing down the driveway. I once watched a turkey cross over the drive. A couple hours later, Millie tracked its scent. She hadn't seen the turkey, but she could smell it!

They LOVED the snow!

Maggie plopped down.

Whatcha lookin' at, girls?

Neighbor Dave plowing out from the Historic Blizzard.

"This here's good eatin' snow," says Maggie.

SPRING

Red bud trees in bloom.

Oprah's favourite colour--new grass green.  ;-)

SUMMER

In the driveway.

Lazy-dazy porch days.

Going down the ramp. They always stopped to survey their domain from this place.

My favourite!  Laundry day!

AUTUMN

By the labyrinth.

Frosty day.

GORGEOUS.

My sweet girls.  :-)

Oh My Gawd!

Last week, my friend Aida from sunny CA came for a vizzie. She had flown to Boston where she met her friend Chairdain, and together they were traveling down the east coast. I'd not met Chairdain before, and we were all off for a whirlwind of activity! We met in the parking lot of  Luray Caverns and from there, went in for the grand tour. Chairdain is larger than life, and a fun character. She had me laughing thru the caverns tour. She has the exuberance and curiosity of a child, that I really appreciate when I see it in adults. OH MY GAWD! she exclaimed, throughout the entire tour. IS THIS REAL? she would ask with each new rock formation. As we approached each new stopping point, she would ask a series of questions to the guide. Her delivery comes rat-a-tat-a-tat, like a machine gun. Who-discovered-the-caverns-and how-did-they-get-down-here-and-OH-MY-GAWD-is-this-real? 

Our guide leads the way.

Chairdain takes a pic of a REAL rock formation.

After the tour.

Really cool sculpture on the way into Luray.

 We ate at a local restaurant which I call the Remember Restaurant because I can never remember its name. The irony is that it has Remember in its name. A Place to Remember? A Time to Remember? Moments in Time? Oh, right. A Moment to Remember. Chairdain walked in and said, (you guessed it), OH MY GAWD! And started snapping pictures right away. How-long-has-this-been-a-restarant? What-did-it-used-to-be?  Oh-look-at-that. Was-this-a-pharmacy?

See? There's the "-ment" part of the name on the window.

 Then we did some sightseeing along Main St.and went into the shops. I don't usually do that, but they're sweet to go browsing in. More OH MY GAWDing ensued, along with a few Is this real?

Chairdain wanted to see the rest of the town. I said, "This is it." She looked at me, dumbfounded. What-do-you-mean-this-is-it? Where's-the-downtown? Where-do-you-go-shopping?  I told her we could cross the railroad tracks and head up to the plaza where the Radio Shack was. So we decided it was time to do a provisions shop before heading home. I told her that we needed to get whatever she wanted, because once we got home, we weren't coming back out. Why-aren't-we-coming-back-out? Is-it-that-far-out? How-far-do-you-live-from-here? So we did a shop in Walmart and then Aida & I decided this would be a fine night for Margaritas, so we headed to the liquor store. [Click HERE for John's AWESOME Margarita recipe, scroll down to the end]  

Love the name of this!

OH MY GAWD? This-is-the-liquor-store? But-it's-so-small! What-do-they-sell-here? Why-is-it-so-small?  The three clerks are giving her the "You're-not-from-around-here" stare. Chairdain, meanwhile is OH-MY-GAWDing around the store, and gets a few mini-bottles of something.

Armed with provisions, I lead the way to my house. Aida & I together, and Chairdain following behind. Even tho I can't actually hear her, I can feel her OH-MY-GAWDing down my road. No matter what I say, or how descriptive I am about my road, until you experience it, you just don't have a clue! So we got to my house. As we're walking to the house, Aida says with a big smile, "Oh my God, look at this! It's so beautiful! Look at all the trees! We're in the mountains!"  Chairdain says, "Oh my Gawd! We're so far out! We're in the mountains!" But she is not smiling.

So we went for a labyrinth walk:

Me & Aida in the center of the labyrinth.

And here's Chairdain:

Sometimes a picture really is worth 1000 words!

She looked at my labyrinth. OH MY GAWD. Is this rock real? And here's the short list of other things she didn't think were real, besides various rocks & rock formations:

• ground hogs
• flying squirrels
• wild pear trees

Except. Except for bears. Those were real to her and she kept insisting that bears would come up on my porch at night. Oh, you city slickers.  ;-)

M&M say hello to Chairdain. She was really sweet to them, and they loved the extra attention!

The girls are just a tad bigger than Aida's dog (a chi-wow-woo)

We drove up behind my house  . . .

. . . to the overlook:

And thru the woods, back home again. A quiet evening where Chairdain took a long soak in the tub, and Aida & I had a coupla margaritas, and we were all in bed by 9 p.m. The next a.m. they were up & out by 8:15 on their way back up the east coast. Whew! What a fast 20 hours!

M&M Monday

Picking up the girls after a week at Mystic Pet.  :-)

The girls came running--er, fast-walking. Maggie was actually jumping up and down! Gareth said that the girls were in the groom room and he whispered to Lena, "I think Millie's my favourite. She's so quiet." I think it's cute that he's whispering--you know. In case they heard him.

My Ellen friend Aida from San Diego came for a brief vizzie with her friend Chardane.

The girls say hullo to Chardane.

Hullo, Aida!

Gareth said that Maggie doesn't eat her food. She does that at home; sort of letting Millie woof her food down and then she plays the Snarly Food Bowl game. Eventually she eats her food. Anyway, so he hand fed her. So then I got her back after a week of hand-feeding, and she won't eat! So then I hand fed her, at which point, John says, "Well, I guess she's training you."  So I have food by the water bowl in the kitchen, and their individual bowls in the LR. And Maggie does this:

*sigh* Ripping into the dog food bag.  Silly girl.  :-)