Frankenbasset Update

Old lady Bumblebee is still on the mend from her operations. She had six growths removed a few weeks ago. A few of those growths were in tricky areas. One on her tail was particularly vexing as there was not enough skin to cover the wound so we have had to take special care of it as her body has made scar tissue. Thankfully she is starting to grow hair back, her shorn rump was rather undignified.

Sweet Bumblebee has no idea that she is old and her body is starting to let her down. I suppose this is a good thing as she hasn't let all of the wounds slow her down much. She still races around the house barking and playing with Betty and Lucy...although she suprivises more than she engages.

Her arthritis medicine has been a game changer and she is much more agile than she was a few months ago. Her soft cloudy eyes tell the truth of her age, but for now we are happy to be in a calm spot of healing. My old hound friend is a constant shadow, always near me. She sleeps by my bed and always waits for me to get up in the morning. We pause for just a moment. I scratch her gently as her tail thumps on the wooden floor. This old girl is quite a treasure.

Checking in with Bumblebee

I haven't run a post on Bumblebee in a while, but today seemed like a great day for that. Here are a few pictures of sweet Bumblebee with the girls.

7 Year Adoptiversary

Seven years ago this week I spent a rainy morning in an art history graduate course called, The Goddess in Art. While the course was never a thrill ride it was particularly dull on that day. I kept looking at the clock as the minute hand circled the clock s-l-o-w-l-y. I tried to take notes, but in the margins of my notebook I drew pictures of the Venus of Willendorf walking a basset hound. You see the day had finally arrived and the moment class ended I would run out of the art building to the waiting car wherein Eric and I would drive to the Aurora Animal Shelter and adopt Bumblebee!

I remember the agonizingly long drive to the pound. The staff, who knew how excited we were, called us again as we drove over just to make sure we knew we could pick her up.  Ha ha, if only they knew how excited we were...
Read the rest of the story here.


I know this picture is a repeat, but it makes me happy

Now seven years have passed. Bumblebee has been with us through 4 rentals and finally a house with a yard. She has been my constant companion for seven years. She has been by my side through pregnancy, up in the night with me as I was up with the girls. We have taken walks together nearly every day for the past seven years. She celebrates our return from an outing, even if we were gone for 10 minutes. She is so very dear to us. Happy adoptiversary to Bumblebee!

Bumblebee

Bumblebee has this obnoxious habit of going into Cordelia's room at some time between 5:30 and 6am. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but she goes and snuffles on Cordelia until she wakes up, starting a chain reaction and before you know it we are all bleary eyed and awake. I thought this was Bumblebee's cunning way of getting herself let out and fed, but recently I realized it was something far sweeter.

Last night as I lay in bed I heard the familiar click-clack of Bumblebee's too long nails (cutting them is such an awful chore for all parties involved...you wanna cut her nails for me? Please) on the floor. When she got to the end of the hall I expected to hear her nail clacking continue on into our room and to her dog bed. Instead she wandered into Cordelia's room for a moment, then into our room where she plopped into her bed with a satisfied sigh.

When I woke at 2am to feed Elise, Bumblebee was there, wagging. Then she wandered into Cordelia's room for a moment and back to bed with the same contented sigh. I realized that she hasn't been trying to wake Cordelia up as part of a cunning plan to annoy us, she is checking in on Cordelia. Awww

I knew, of course, that she keeps an eye on all of us. When I am changing Elise, Bumblebee is there, keeping an eye on things. She is always joyful when any of us return after leaving the house. She runs laps, barking with joy, when we go out to the backyard---her domain. She worries when any of the little ones cry. She even seems to know when I am upset, suddenly she is there right next to me.

I love this dog.

Simple Pleasures

The sweetness of summer strawberries


Stomping on bubble wrap



Coloring with chalk on the back patio


Wearing a party dress for no reason


Laughing at a basset hound with chalk all over her ears...and then hosing her down.

The Many Faces of Bumblebee

When we first adopted Bumblebee it seemed as though her floppy face were entirely expressionless, all of that skin seemed to just hang limply...but we were wrong. Over the years we have come to know the many facial expressions of Bumblebee, in fact I might go so far as to say that she is one of the most expressive creatures I have ever encountered. With all that skin she has a lot more to work with. Behold...

First Warm Day of the Year

Yesterday was the first warm day of the year. Sometimes in Wyoming we claim 35 degrees to be warm, but yesterday it was really lovely. The temp was in the high 50sF. The sun was shining and the winter winds seemed to have taken a break. Cordelia, Bumblebee and I couldn't resist ourselves--we spent hours and hours outside enjoying the day.

We donned our snow boots as the shadows still harbored a bit of snow and the ground was soaking wet. We played, we started about the business of picking up our yard which has remained largely untouched for the winter months. We picked up sticks and leaves and righted overturned lawn ornaments. Cordelia found some half buried dinosaurs (not real dinosaurs, she's advanced, but not that advanced). We just sat and enjoyed this first warm day.


Cordelia was very helpful with the wheelbarrow.


Bumblebee followed the sunlight around the yard, finding the best reception on our table.


Oh, and there is new growth starting. Hints of green and purple poking up from the still cold earth.


Cordelia's hair styled by Wyoming Wind--while it was taking a break from hurricane force winds it was still present.


Food on her face...well, I claim responsibility for that one.


Taking it all in


Found treasures


Skip


Hop


Jump

Of course there will be more snow in the weeks (months?) to come, but we will savor each day spent outside soaking up the sun. How is it where you are?

Moments

Rising sun


Little girl, putting all of her stuffed animals in a row


Icicles on the back porch


My morning glass of 100% orange juice


Bumblebee wearing a cone because she won't stop licking the smallest wound on her foot, making it worse.

Clash of the Titans: Wonky Foot and Stubby Tail Play

Sometimes I Bode-sit. When my parents are busy and they don't quite know what to do with their still untrustworthy pup (he's not yet 1 and he is foolish enough to eat anything---plastic bags, garbage, chunks of funk, whatever) they bring him over to hang out with us.

When he arrives there is a thirty minute period of pure chaos, happy chaos. Cordelia laughs but asks,"Wanna hold me." The cats go up to their granny room and let me shut them in where they blow off their tension with 11 hour naps. I close all of the doors to any room that I can't supervise so Bode won't run in and start eating something. On more than one occasion I have found him wolfing down stuffing that he tore from Bumblebee's dog bed.

The dogs are oblivious to all of this and just dive right into play...

Dog's Life

How it Went

Yesterday morning the sun was shining, but it was cold and snowy outside. So we resigned ourselves to a day of indoor entertainment. Cordelia decided to put some extra effort into her ensemble. She chose leggings with striped socks pulled up and over them, purple shoes, a pony shirt with jacket over the top. I thought that was enough and then she broke into the scarf box. She insisted on wearing one scarf on her head, one around her shoulders and one around her waist.



When I pulled out the camera to snap a picture I asked her to stand up and she said, "Nope, I'm just laying down." How could I argue with that?

Then it was snack time. I pulled out some sesame rice crackers, hummus (she is nuts about hummus), and juice. We went down to the basement for snack time.


Bumblebee really, really wanted some chips. This desperate longing went on for quite some time. She would inch her chin onto the table and just gaze.

Cordelia then decided to aggressively hug her best friend.

Things got out of hand with the hugging, becoming more akin to strangulation with kisses. I warned her that time out was imminent and yet the assault continued. So, I took the little gypsy girl upstairs and placed her into the time out chair, emphasizing the reason she was in time out and that she was not to put her feet on the floor for any reason.

So she did this...completely unremorseful, the shame.


Finally she hung off the front of the chair, feet hanging just above the ground, laughing hysterically and so proud of her clever little joke.

I broke the cardinal rule of successful discipline and began laughing too. I tried to turn away and hide it, but she knew. So, I gathered myself together and instructed her to go and apologize to Bumblebee. She did, squatting down at eye level she said, "Sorry for being crazy Bee." Then she gave her a peace offering, covering her with a scarf.



And that is how it went yesterday. How did it go for you?

To the Vet With Bumblebee

Bumblebee is under the weather today and I am off to take her to the vet (I will update you on her condition later in the day). So I leave you with a few photos from this morning.







I hope you are well.

Noodles and Coversation

Last night we dropped our kids (Cordelia and Bumblebee) at my parent's house. Have I mentioned how much I appreciate living in the same town as them? Eric and I hopped into the car and headed out for a much needed date. I remember in our pre-baby days we would often speculate about how weird it was that couples would plan date nights. We wondered why they weren't spontaneous, or why every day couldn't be a date day. We get it now.



We were so thrilled for an evening to ourselves, a little time to talk and laugh and give each other undivided attention. We went out for a glass of wine (me) and beer (him) at a pub downtown. We sat in the back by the unused pool tables. We were able to talk and talk, in the background we could hear other pub goers laughing with a little more enthusiasm as the evening wore on.



After that we decided it was time to grab a bite to eat. We held hands as we walked through the rainy windy weather, mostly oblivious to it. I don't know about you, but it is the small things like holding hands that really make me happy. Usually we are toting so many things that we don't get to just hold hands. We meandered through an alley and around the corner of our small Wyoming downtown (3 blocks is the size, and not city blocks). We had a couple of dinner options...we could do Chinese or Italian. Deciding upon an Italian restaurant with a few vegan options we opened the door into the warm interior, pressing it closed against the wind and shivering as we patted ourselves to warm up. We were seated and the conversation continued to flow. We laughed,we had a great time--it was wonderful. We both ate approximately our own weight in noodles and veggies.

Finally we paid our bill and went out to the car, where I received a phone call from our girl it went like this:
Me: "Hi Cordy girl."
Cordelia:" Hi Momma."
Me: "How are you doing?"
Cordelia:"Doing well."
Followed by fumbling and toddler breathing and then a hang up.

We drove through the cold and wet streets as the heater blasted. Eric tried to turn it down, but I insisted on keeping that baby cranked. He turned the vents toward me. I think he planned to smoke me out, but I basked in the heat like a cat in the sun.



We continued to talk about art and inspiration, the future, now. We were reminded of so many rainy nights that we've spent together in so many places. When we turned into my parent's driveway we were both eager to see our girl and hear what funny things she'd been up to. You can read about that (here).

How do you find time for yourself?