The Pleasure of a Pup

Rain. Showers. That’s about it for the rest of this week. It wasn’t raining as I headed out to my senior fitness session this morning. But it was cloudy and the rain was right on our doorstep. That, of course, affected these old, fragile bones and joints. I hate putting myself through the workout when the weather is like this. So, how did I respond? I showed them who’s boss and increased the time, speed and distance on the stationary bike.

I’m “pooped” this morning, whoops, “physically exhausted” is a nicer way of putting it, but I seem to be finding working through the weather is becoming much more tolerable.

I got an e-mail from a friend I trust yesterday who gave me some light “devil” for what he said was a pessimistic post yesterday. I can’t change the events of the world no matter how much I think both Maine and the nation are not heading in a right direction. All I can do is offer my usually unsubstantiated thoughts and feelings about those events. As my profile over to the side says, sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m wrong, but my opinions are mine.

I am totally right about one thing, though. Dogs are great to have around and bring a whole lot of happiness and pleasure to a family.

This is the little girl who brings all that pleasure and
happiness to this household. Golden Gator has
a sister who does the same for our daughter.
It is just wonderful watching them play together.

Most breeds accomplish the same thing for households that adopt them. The key is simply the way they’re treated by their humans. There are some breeds that have bad reputations, but most experts will tell you that in families offering a lot of love and tender care, those breeds also can be wonderful companions.

The Golden Retriever, though, like most of the retriever/lab breeds, has just one simple goal in life: bring pleasure and happiness to its owner. GG is the fourth Golden in our family and all of them have succeeded in their goals.

A certain, large round ball is what she’s staring at
here. Her predicament is she’s on the deck and the
ball isn’t.

It is only fair that I point out that many people prefer kitty cats. From what I’ve read elsewhere, those folks feel about the same about their pets as we puppy dog owners do. I also think cats are cute, except, perhaps, a 150 pound feral cat that roams our neighborhood.

A couple weekends ago I showed you a picture of Gator Wife’s round garden, one of several flower gardens she has in our yard and around the house. She still hasn’t done a thing to it this year except remove the loose stuff that accumulated since last fall. She and GD had planned to work in it this weekend, but GD was unable to come Saturday and the two gardeners worked on other plans during the Sunday visit.

Among them, the two vegetable plots were tilled once again. One more tilling will take place next weekend, but they actually could be planted with the vegetable seeds and seedlings just about any time. Knowing GW, I’d bet she’s waiting just a little longer to be sure we won’t get one last frost this spring. We usually can’t count on any happening until after May’s full moon.

This is where it stands now:

GW says she’s got some work to do next fall
to move some of those white bulbs around.

I have learned one thing about cameras. You may recall my old one expired last winter so GW bought me a new one for Christmas. I picked it out, so I’m not in any way blaming her, but we got one that had no eye piece to look through for framing, etc. This one only has the screen on back. I’ve grown to hate it this spring as when the sun is out nice and bright, I absolutely cannot see what the picture I’m taking looks like.

I’m going to spend some time with the instruction manual to see if there’s a way to correct this ridiculous situation.

GiM