“Variety is the Spice of Life!”   And yet for some, consistency and repetition bring a great deal of comfort!  I often pair my old guy Lucas with young Diesel for their daily walks and for the past few years it has been a lovely partnership!  Lucas has taught Diesel how to be a good walker and focus on the task at hand.   As Lucas has gotten up in years he has started to slow down, he wants to stop and smell the roses more than he ever used to and he likes to take the same route every day.  Kind of like your typical senior citizen that likes their routine, change can be tiring and unsettling!   Diesel is not an old fart, far from it, he is in his prime, he wants to sow his oats and enjoy all the adventures life has to offer!  As of late our walks have become dysfunction junction!  Diesel just doesn’t seem interested in wanting to walk if we take our regular route, he stops, drops and rolls around without any intent on moving.  Lucas gets frustrated by the inertia and around waiting for the young guy to get motivated and get on with the business at hand, the daily route.  I have been walking Diesel on his own the past few days and I have realized that if we go a new direction, forge out on a path we haven’t tread in a while he has a renewed love for walking and he trots along side of me with enthusiasm! Yin and Yang!   When they are paired together there will have to be some compromise between the boys.  I will have to try and figure out a balance of keeping Lucas happy with routine and Diesel getting to experience new sights and smells.  If on our regular trek I could just get a bunny to run along in front of us for a few feet, then a cat, followed by a few geese and a duck it would be a win, win for everyone!  (The big dreams of a dog walker).

Not everyone is a cat lover….and yet, I believe there is a feline out there that can change a nay-sayers position of how they feel about cats, they just have to encounter it and keep an open mind!  I will be forthright,  I used to be terrified of kitties, I didn’t trust them one tiny iota.  I had experienced too many scratches and what I would have considered ‘shifty’ behaviour to want to share my space with one.  And then along came Samantha, a wee homeless waif that softened my stance and was my friend for sixteen years!  She opened the door for Missy, Smokey, Holly, Romeo and Savannah, not to mention all my clients whom I adore!  I have numerous canine friends who aren’t fond of cats either and yet, I have found that our Romeo is able to worm his way into the affections of every dog I have been told that “dislikes” felines.   He is ‘that’ cat, he can change the thinking of the majority of haters and staunch puss protesters, whether they be human or of the four legged variety!  It is so cool to see some of my clientele that are reticent when they meet Romeo metamorphosize into part of his fan club! This morning as I watched Sam and Romeo snuggle with one another my heart felt like it was going to explode, they have a mutual bromance!  Romeo could be a feline Ambassador for cat dissenters!  He reminds me that keeping an open mind is truly the way we should all conduct our lives, you never know when you are going to encounter your new best friend!

“I can’t stand the rain, against my window…”  I had this lyric going through my head this morning as I reluctantly opened the blind.  I know, ‘April Showers bring May flowers’! Some days it is really hard to celebrate the seasons and remind oneself that with all the wet, things blossom and grow!  As the boys and I headed out for our walk, the drops went from a drizzle into a down pour.  Within seconds I had little lakes in my runners…yes, silly me, I couldn’t find where I safely stowed my rubber boots so I wore my old running shoes!  My leggings were splattered in mud and neither one of the dogs looked at all impressed with the fact that they were drenched!   As we traversed through the puddles I was looking around and remarking to anyone who might be listening, “look at that majestic Magnolia!”  “Wow, those Daffodils are so vibrant and yellow!”   I listened to the birds chirping and watched a Robin looking for breakfast.   My hands were as cold as ice, my legs were soaked from the thigh down and I was shivering from being cold, despite all this I was challenging myself not to allow the elements to dampen my spirits!   On the cold rainy days, when the temperatures are barely hovering above zero, walking the dog is sometimes the furthest thing from the scope of my imagination of fun ways to spend an hour.   While I was out there I was able to see the magnificence of Spring!   Now that I am back inside and drinking a warm beverage and in dry clothes it seems like a perfectly rational concept to hunker down and not leave the comforts of home!  I will keep the blinds open, rain, rain, you don’t need to go away! I shall prepare myself for another few walks and and change the tune in my head to ‘the Sun will come out, tomorrow…”   If you see some soggy woman, singing in the rain, that would be me!

“The sun will come out tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow
There’ll be sun

Just thinkin’ about tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow
’til there’s none

When I’m stuck with a day that’s grey and lonely
I just stick up my chin and grin and say, oh

The sun will come out tomorrow
So you gotta hang on
’til tomorrow, come what may!
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow
You’re always a day away!

When I’m stuck with a day that’s grey and lonely
I just stick up my chin and grin and say oh

The sun will come out tomorrow
So you got to hang on ’til tomorrow, come what may!
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow
You’re always a day away”

Lyrics:  from the Musical Annie

Dear Human:

I find myself at a loss, I am unhappy and unsure how to convey my displeasure with you!   I have had many changes in my life before I met you and things just never seem to stay the same.  I have moved five times since coming to live with your family!  I have had to share the living space with another cat, whom frankly isn’t my type of guy despite how much you all seem to be charmed by him!   Then you brought this big ass dog home that I am certain has eaten cats in it’s past and has some how fooled you that he is “cat friendly!”  I followed the human I liked most across the province,  moving away from three of the people I was used to, those two  furry creatures I was forced to live with (which I thought was a win, win) and that rather nice big four story house that I had the run of.  I wound up living in a small one bedroom apartment that I have to say was loud and tremendously hot in the summer with you and your housemate, I am amazed I didn’t suffocate!  Just when I thought I was getting used to the apartment life, we moved…at least at the new place I could safely go out on the patio and watch the squirrels, but then for some reason you decided you needed to get a puppy, what the heck?  I mean really, was I not enough?  Then you started packing your stuff into boxes and changed addresses AGAIN!  At least the new location was a cute little house, I learned to cope with that dang hyper, yappy dog that you felt you needed to add to our family.   Little did I know that the dog was just the beginning of having to share your affections!  Next thing I knew you were bringing home a baby…a freaking needy, smelly little human that seems to need an inordinate amount of your time and energy and suddenly I am no longer allowed to lay on you because HE is always in the way and you shoo me off the bed!   Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse you started packing up all our stuff and putting it in boxes for the fifth time since we have been co-habitating and we were changing homes again!  I like the new place, don’t get me wrong, it’s bigger and there is lot’s of space to roam but I have to say….I feel frustrated, unsure and confused.  Every time something changes I try and let you know that I am not managing that well…I am sure you have smelled my pee on your couch, and various beds that I have had accidents on.   I am not coping well, I am anxious and lick my back until it is raw, I pee and I feel angry and sad and I worry that you might give up on me!  I am scared that you will forget you used to love me and I used to be the light in your day!  That you loved coming home from school and cuddling with me and it was just you and me, I miss those days!  I miss feeling like I matter!  I am sorry I am disappointing you and I want to do better, so I hope you can figure out how to help me!  Please be patient, I am not sure how else to let you know I am floundering.

Love you, the disgruntled feline

More thoughts to ‘paws’ over when it comes to felines.  Knowing where you stand can sometimes suck!  As much as I don’t like to be lied to, and I appreciate honesty, sometimes when you are on the receiving end of being schooled by a four legged family member, it is exasperating and down right annoying!  Believe me, I have been tried and tested over and over by some felines that I love deeply, but it just isn’t endearing when it happens!  When we moved to Thunder Bay we left our two cats for ten days, I had someone coming into the house to feed and clean the litter boxes, but neither one liked being “left” behind while the rest of us took off to visit family.  Much to my dismay, when we returned I realized that the carpet in our dining room had become the new litter box, argh!  (If I am being honest, carpets have NO place in a room where my family ate food on a daily basis anyway, so perhaps the cat urine was an usual gift to help nudge us in the direction to replacing the floors).  I was angry, my spouse even more so!  After months of trying to solve the issue we realized we were out matched and out witted, we ripped all the carpeting out, took us awhile to be able to afford to fix the issue, but we learned that we needed to come up with a better solution for caring for our cats when we went away.   When Samantha and Holly passed on,  we adopted two cats from a local rescue called “Kitty Kare” a wonderful organization!!  Romeo was our first, Savannah was second to join our household.  It was a rough go for us all, she didn’t seem to like us and was rather unhappy about her new home, but we persisted.  I have always been of the mind, when you adopt an animal you make a commitment, you have made a promise to take care of that animals welfare, you can’t jump ship just because the water gets choppy!  It was a tough go, and to be honest, after a lot of stress Savannah went to live with my older daughter when she moved out.  When Kailey comes to visit, so do her fur babies, so Savvy has to try and acquiesce  and get along, but I am not sure that the “water is under the bridge” for her!  I will say I have spent a lot of time trying to get into her good graces, to right whatever wrong’s she feels she has suffered through!  For Pete’s sake, I am trying and yet,  every visit she will become disgruntled, which will result in her peeing on some piece of furniture in my house! I was out at a concert recently and came home and she had urinated on my side of the bed, saturating my new comforter and decorator pillows.  There is nothing more infuriating at 10:45 in the evening than to have to strip ones bed and scrub things down.  Perhaps, earlier on in the day I vacuumed and disturbed her peace, I have no clue what the precipitating factor is half the time…I just can’t win.   And now she is acting out at her own household, if Savvy is annoyed she lets you know!  If I am trying to convince people that cats are worth loving I am not doing a wonderful job!  I don’t trust her and she is obviously unhappy and feels there is only one way to express her anger.   As a family, we have had discussions about “what to do” and I would be lying if I didn’t admit we have talked about finding her a new home or euthanizing her, but no matter how many times we circle around the unsettling issue, we always come back to the fact that we made a commitment to her!  What to do, what to do?  So far our line of defense is to close all the bedroom doors, protect the couches and pray she won’t find a new way to express her dissatisfaction!  We know where we stand, but it  comes at a price and it stinks!!  We are not giving up, we will continue to show her love and hope that one day she trusts the sincerity of that expression…heck, I may even be guilty of giving her a little spoonful of whip cream or an extra teaspoon of wet food now and then to attempt to get into her good graces!   Cats are strong willed and aren’t afraid of expressing themselves!   It may seem a little passive aggressive at times, but it is honest and provides us mere mortals with pause for thought.  When you know better, you do better, I hope we can muddle through and figure out how to make Miss Savvy a happy cat!  We aren’t going to send her packing or put her down.   Yesterday I said that I applaud cats for being forth right and knowing where you stand with them, some days that can truly be a challenge!  Felines can be overt in expressing themselves…when it comes to little miss I am going to choose to respond by exercising patience, remain hopeful and see if that gets me anywhere!

 

Cats often get a bad wrap as being indifferent, overtly  independent and vindictive!  Personally I feel cats need to be applauded for being forth right!  One always knows where they stand with a feline!  It is often thought that cats are not very intelligent, that dogs are much brighter than your average kitty!  Wrong, wrong, wrong, that furry critter curled up in a ball at the end of your bed or lazing in the sunshine is extremely bright, intuitive and able to understand us humans!  I was chatting with a client recently, and was reminded of an incident that happened with my first cat, Samantha!  I have a Brother-in-law that has no use for felines and he makes his position very well known!  He is the warmest, friendliest guy…but put a cat in his trajectory and he becomes a very different guy, he mutters and grumbles under his breath and has nothing kind to say.  We were living in Salmon Arm, B.C at the time and my sister and her whole crew had come out from Ontario to explore the area.  As my Bro-in-law entered the house and walked by our cat Samantha he said “Stupid cat, don’t get too close to me or I will give you the boot!”  Samantha stared up at him unwavering and made him go around her.   We went out exploring the next day and when we got home my Sister came out of the bedroom and commented how odd it was that Peter’s boxer shorts were soaking wet where he’d left them on the bed.  I didn’t need a Detective, there was no scratching my head in wonderment on what had transpired, I knew right away that Samantha had made a very direct, bold statement to Pete…this is my place buddy, “Piss on you!”  From that point on, I made sure that the door remained closed to their room.   My client was talking to me about a similar incident.  Her son’s cat was visiting for the weekend and her spouse was not a fan, he loves his dog, but felines aren’t his thing!  She was commenting on how their dog is trained to stay on the main level of the house and not to go on the upper level where the bedrooms are.  The cat would roam all over the house, which her spouse found annoying.  Whenever he would come across the Grand Kitty he would make noises and would shoo it out of his way.   That night when he went to go to bed there was a poop strategically placed on HIS side of the bed near his pillows.  As gross as this is, and incredibly exasperating…cats are not dumb!  They are smart and they understand people all too well!  If you are rude, they will ever so adeptly convey to that person that their remarks were uncalled for, unkind and will not be tolerated!    It’s not really vindictive, it is simply a way of expressing that they were unjustly ridiculed or made to feel unwelcome!  Like it or not, cats are very good communicators!  When they are happy they will purr, when they are tired they will sleep, if they are hungry they will meow and if they are wronged, they will find a way of expressing their discontent!  Your pussy cat is not going to suck it up and go sulk somewhere like the family dog, they are going to let you know that they will not be disrespected!  “R -E – S- P- E -C- T… find out what it means to me…”   There is something to be said for knowing where you stand!

My old boy is showing signs of getting on in years!  His muzzle is grey, he has cataracts in both eyes, he isn’t as spry as he once was, and he is deaf as a post!  Or that is what I have come to believe, ninety percent of the time that dog can’t hear a dang thing!  There are times when we come home and he is sleeping so soundly he continues to snore away on the couch and then acts surprised when he notices one of us walk by!   For the past twelve days my older daughter and my Grandson have been visiting and nap time has become quite the challenge….my baby love is a light sleeper, and having two dogs under the same roof is making it very difficult for the poor babes to get a good sleep!  Perhaps having the house so quiet has heightened Lucas’ hearing , but my dear old pooch seems to be more in tune to the noises in our neighbourhood!  My usually silent dog that is snoring in the back room blissfully unaware of the busy goings on outside of his door, has become rather loud and obnoxious this week and hyper sensitive!   I will say that having Rupert,  my daughter’s barking Sheltie isn’t helping matters, but there have been numerous occasions where Lucas is the first one to sound the alarm!  I have been pondering why Lucas is suddenly more able to hear when normally I have to go rouse him when it is walk time because he is oblivious to my calling him or jingling his leash!  Have his auditory senses suddenly improved?  Did a large junk of wax become dislodged?  Is he feeling more protective because there is a baby under our roof and he feels he has to be vigilant?  I know Rupert’s youthfulness and keen senses are keeping Lucas on his toes, but I am starting to wonder if my four legged friend is like the other men in my life and has selective hearing?  What I do know is that every time that little baby settles down to sleep my four legged senior citizen pushes the closed blinds out of the way and stares out the window and barks at the most inane goings on which normally he would care less about!  I will miss my visitors when they go, but I will also be glad to have my quiet old pooch sawing logs on the couch staying out of trouble!

 

Do you ever wonder if in the animal kingdom there are daredevils?  We all know that person that likes to push the limits….walk along the edge of a cliff, jump off of bridges with a bungee chord, sky dive…  I remember mountain biking in B.C used to be my living on the edge activity, and if I am being honest, we didn’t really do anything that avant garde!   I have been musing as of late about some of the creatures that I encounter as I am out with my four legged friends.  The squirrel that was perfectly hidden and safe, the dogs were completely unaware of it’s existence and then it jumps down in front of one of them making quite the entrance, stares to make sure it’s audience is alert and then bolts right in their trajectory running as fast as it can to safety!  I swear to goodness, makes me think of Keanu Reeves in Point Break!   I remember one wintry day my two buds and I were walking along the snowy park trail, it was incredibly quiet and we were minding our business when the resident fox decided to literally jump out from the side of the trail sailing over top of Diesel, landing on the opposite side and disappeared into the woods.  The dogs looked up at me in utter disbelief, I myself had to close my mouth as I was awestruck! Why at that moment the Fox felt like jettisoning over two rather large canines threw me for an utter loop!  This seems to be a recurrent theme as of late, woodland creatures looking for an adrenaline rush and putting themselves in harms way for a thrill!  The last time I had this happen “Song 2” by the group Blur ran through my mind!   It seems that we humans aren’t the only ones wired for excitement, I am coming to believe that when things get a little dull in the Spruce Tree there is nothing more invigorating than playing a little Russian Roulette with the local canines!  Playing chicken can really get the heart rate going!  Not only for the critter that decides to engage in a little risky behaviour, the person at the end of the leash can get dragged into the excitement as well! “Woo, hoo….!!!”

 

Well the day finally has come that I had to say so long to a lovely friend and walking companion!  I got my coat and suited up to go outside and was thrilled to see the sun was making an appearance!  The weather forecast for today predicted an 80% chance for rain with gusting winds up to 35 km/h, talk about feeling like the universe was on our side for a perfect day to stroll!  And that it was, I took Miss Mattie to the park trail, her favourite route, and we took our dear sweet time.  I often have my music playing, poor Mattie has to listen to me croon away.  As we neared her cul de sac my Nano decided to skip the song I was listening to, which it does every now and then, but the song it forwarded to put a lump in my throat.  I was feeling good today, I had my tears a few weeks back, my plan today was to celebrate our friendship, no need to feel blue!  I took my little girl friend inside and one of her people were home, normally she will run off and I am forgotten.  Today I took off her halter and she dashed into the kitchen, but as I went to get up to leave she came running back, sat and stared up at me and allowed me to give her a kiss on her forehead.  She even watched me go, which ruined my composure and started the water works.  As I walked away and the song “God Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts continued in my ears, it started to rain every so lightly, and I am not saying that to sound somber…reminded me of a term I learned in Grade Ten English, a Pathetic Fallacy, when the weather can be used to reflect a person’s mood, with dark clouds or rain present when one is feeling sorrow.  I will miss your friendship Mattie and our lunch time walks!  And even though I didn’t see your housemate one last time,  ‘I bid a fond farewell to you too Pud!”  I am glad to hear you are loving your new house!  I am grateful today for my two little friends who gave me so many happy memories and fun times!  And as the song goes…

“This much I know it’s true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you.”

Synchronicity!  The world is full of coincidences we often dismiss!  Carl Jung defined synchronicity as an “acausal connecting (togetherness) principle,” his belief was that, just as events may be connected by causality, they may also be connected by meaning. Events connected by meaning need not have an explanation in terms of causality, he  used this concept to try to justify the paranormal.   I remember many years back when we lived on the West Coast my spouse and I were sitting watching the television one evening, I turned to him and commented “I wonder what Mary Lynn and Erik are up to?”  The next day our phone rang and it was Erik, he and Mary Lynn (their place of residence being Timmins, Ontario) just happened to be in the neighbourhood and wondered if they could drop in for a visit.  That was a wee bit spooky!  Today I was heading home with the boys and I looked down at my buddy Lucas, we were on a trail that  was blocked from main traffic, sometimes I let him off lead so he can enjoy at little independence, I was contemplating this concept but decided against it since we had a busy road at our back and you never know when a bunny might happen by.  Diesel was sniffing a particularly interesting spot when I realized the other leash had gone slack.  I looked up and realized the cynch collar he wears had spontaneously come part and was laying on the ground.  Lucas was trotting away, sniffing along the fence heading towards home, thankfully.  I found it a bizarre happenstance how I had a thought and within in a instance the universe seemed ready to accommodate Lucas and allow him to roam free!  It felt rather eerie, but as of late these little coincidences seem to be plentiful!