THURSDAY, AUGUST 15
It’s hard work keeping this place going. And on a day when everything doesn’t go as planned — when I spill tea on the piano, and Saffi and Max decide to disappear over a stone wall, and an old man hits sweet Lucky with his car — well, shit, it’s tough.
The day started fine with the morning walk. Old Lucky even joined us. And Tinkerbell, the tortie cat, and Tigger, the black cat, came along part of the way. Adorable to have the cats tagging along, those little legs so small compared to the long strides of the dogs.
Feeding dogs, okay. Hens, okay. The young woman who arrived to care for the horses wanted to come over and use the internet… okay.
WHERE DO THEY THINK THEY ARE GOING?
The farm walk. Stressful. First Saffi wouldn’t get in the boot and when we finally cajolled her, she slipped and fell. At the farm, we decided to do the walk backward and Max decided to turn it sideways. At the bottom of the first grassy hill, we watched him climb a tall stone wall dividing the lands, Saffi not far behind him, and disappear into the neighbor’s horse field. Goodbye.
A good half hour was spent trying to get them to come back, calling into the abyss, wondering what to do, how to find them, if they had gone to the ocean, if they had been hurt, blaming ourselves.
By the time they returned, and they did return, looking very sheepish and guilty, poor Saffi was completely stressed. Maybe too long away or far away from the pampering she loves. Her wild got out of control. She returned an extra needy doggie.
DRAMA CHECKING FIONA’S HOUSE
Once back, we were off again, this time to empty the dehumidifiers at Fiona’s house. We took Saffi, and left the other four dogs in the kitchen…or so we thought. As we reached the first turn at the end of the dirt road, there was smiling, tail-wagging Lucky waddling behind us. Somehow the dogs got out.
It was likely Max. Max is big like a bear, curly haired and smart, though he looks dumb. He ate my entire loaf of soda bread one day. How he got it, we don’t know, but he left a little bit of cellophane wrapper as evidence. This was nothing compared to stories of stealing and eating huge, chocolate birthday cakes and more. I like Max. He can open doors.
We knew we could either turn back and check on the dogs or continue. We continued walking to Fiona’s and let Lucky tag along. On the way back, when we were crossing the causeway, a car approached. Chloe called Lucky to come to the side of the road — Saffi was on the lead — and as Lucky crossed over, the car, albeit moving very, very slowly, hit her. We were shocked. She wasn’t though, nor was she hurt. What the hell was the driver thinking? He is an older man who lives down the way and he was smiling. We don’t know if he was smiling because he “taught her a lesson” or he was smiling at us and didn’t know he hit Lucky. GEEEEZ.
I LOVE MAX
Stress. Max was outside, but he left the others inside. So funny!
Next watering the garden, calling the young woman from the US to come use the internet, feeding the pigs, cleaning (Chloe did that), feeding the cats again, getting vegetables from the garden for dinner, fixing dinner (Chloe did that), trying to coax the very dumb hens into their cage, doing the laundry and finally finally taking a bath (since their is no hot water for the shower downstairs).
I was tired and grumpy when all was over…around 9:30…and we sat down for dinner. But at least it’s keeping my mind off of returning.
