Random Droppings

First, a "Happy Birthday!!!" to i_calql8, and many more! The virtual PBRK with choklit on top are over there, next to the tall glass of moo.

Then, after a decent day of work (patients healing, paperwork processing, no angry meetings, Sonny had another fabulous note from his math teacher for being well-behaved in class, etc.), we arrived home to a disaster.

For a moment there, it felt like we have two puppies rather than two dogs who are almost 6 years old. What did they do? I hear your anguished cries, and I'll tell you.

First, they knocked down the gate that keeps them to a restricted area (front room and upstairs). This gave them access to every part of the house except the basement.

Then they opened the door to the garbage receptacle, pulled out all the garbage, and opened every bag of kitty litter, and there were three or four of those. They cleaned out the box in which the chicken from Pollo Campero had been transported home. They probably ate a few things, too, because someone then opened another gate, to the master bedroom, and left a large damp spot on the rug in the little anteroom.

I had been suspicious before I opened the front door, because they weren't at the door barking, as they usually are. But the smell of used cat litter was kind of a giveaway.

What else can you do? We delayed our dinner to clean the kitchen, picked up all the pieces of the shattered Pyrex mixing bowl that got shoved off the counter, and sent Sonny off to walk the dogs.

Ay-yi-yi.

We have an elderly dog, a cross between a Golden Retriever and a yellow Labrador Retriever. He is a spoiled and pampered house pet, refusing to stay outside by himself. As he is a longish-haired dog, he naturally finds the heat somewhat oppressive. For years, he's fussed about the temperature as it climbs above 76 degrees F (24 degrees C) -- he must be an Irish dog, I always claim. (Referring to the old joke about the headlines in Irish papers about heatwave prostrating thousands.)

Digression: my grandmother, being from Ireland herself, always said to drink hot tea when the weather was warm as it would help you feel cooler. Well, for years I did this. Then I moved to the Caribbean, where a cold winter night is still above 80F (27C), and I found to my dismay that this old wives' tale no longer worked. Then it dawned on me: in Ireland, a hot day is only 76 degrees.

Anyway, the dog. He pants, and shifts about restlessly, and barks in the middle of the night. Recently the ambient temp jumped up to 90+F (34+C), and he was truly suffering. Not only did we turn on the AC, we also turned on the fans. We have many ceiling fans, but the true point to this story is the portable fans.

I happened to buy some new fans as our old ones have gradually burned out and been tossed. I placed one new fan on the floor in front of the dog, and he didn't budge for hours. He slept the sleep of a pup. When he moved to the bedroom, to be near us, I placed the other new fan in front of him as well. He slept the sleep of a tired pup all night, which he hasn't done in many moons.

He still plops himself in front of the fan, even now. This amuses us to no end. Such a simple and cheap answer to our barking-in-the-middle-of-night problem. Now we too can sleep the sleep of a tired pup.