Sunday, July 19, 2009

Sunday Silence

Every one in this house is asleep, except me. It's nine o'clock on a cool, grey Sunday morning.

We got up, as usual, around six and had our breakfasts. Bill didn't sleep well last night, for no particular reason, he said. I know when I got up to let a dog out - was it Fat Charlie or Easy, I can't recall - he was reading in his recliner. It was somewhere around two, chilly and pitch dark out.

"Can't sleep," I asked?
"I'm coming back to bed now," he answered. And he did.

I'm trying to switch the dogs to raw food. It's not working. I've tried before. It didn't work then. Isn't the definition of insanity to attempt the same behavior and expect different outcomes?

I didn't walk the dogs this morning. That is a radical departure from our normal routine. After coffee and the paper, Bill went upstairs and reclined in his recliner. I bought it for his birthday several years ago. He loves that chair. Mama Pajama and Delia keep him company on the day bed.

I poked around on Whippet World and Facebook. I let the gastric-ly upset dogs out again. That's going to be tough to scoop, I thought. I truly don't want to share that with my neighbors on walks, I thought. I poked around some more on the computer. The dogs went to sleep. Sound asleep. No lobbying for walks. We gave up or maybe gave in and went upstairs.

This town is quiet. The windows are open. It's crazy cool. Often this time of year the temperature never gets below eighty. It plummeted down to the fifties last night. The quiet blows in the windows on the breeze. I didn't even hear a church bell; maybe they gave in, too. Not a single car has passed. The whole neighborhood is a church this morning: empty, that feeling of a sacred chill, old, beautiful, at once familiar and aloof.

My front door opens like the heavy, antique, creaky mahogany doors of the Immanuel Episcopal Church in a tiny town in Maryland. Swede William ambles out. He stretches, yawns. The sun has decided to absolve us after all. William arches his neck. I am fascinated by the absolute, raw beauty of this dog, in its soft, satin paradox of art deco curves and Tour de France muscles.

The sun feels friendly. Time to walk.

Hug your hounds

18 comments:

  1. Have a great Sunday, P! :) And good luck with the transition attempt..
    I know you've gotten all the tips and opinions before.. But I can't help myself.. Sorry.. If they mix raw and cooked foods (that digest at different speeds) many dogs will get tummy upsets.. Nimbus' sensitive tummy did better when switching cold turkey. (I'd make him fast 24 hours and then do all raw)

    Hugs

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds wonderful. Especially the cool part. We have a "cold front" (less hot). High today about 92! Still, I went to a colleagues yesterday and the salt water pool felt, ohhhh, so good. I'm thinking the whippets might need one: esp. if one of them gets injured or something. Rehab, you know ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. if you haven't read my adventures of switching to raw, they're on my blog sidebar. (my brief foray into responsible pet ownership.)

    i found it messy, difficult, extremely time consuming, and expensive.

    and truth be told, the dogs are just as healthy either way.

    though i don't know your reasons for switching....

    ReplyDelete
  4. We live just across town from you and yes the temp is quite chilly but for us is just right.

    -Katie
    And Mollie & Bobo

    ReplyDelete
  5. I loved your description of the front door, Swede William and the lazy feel of your home today. It is like that here too, two snoozy poodles who amble in and out of the house between naps. The sun is out, 70 degrees. None of the neighbors have started using power tools and it is so wonderfully peaceful!

    ReplyDelete
  6. how amazing that the other minnesota laurie visits dr heather!! dr heather is wonderful. once boscoe is feeling better we're going to bring him back to her, and see what she says.

    best of luck with your novel.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ah, for a mellow morning. Haven't had one since Teka came to live with us. She is meaner than any drill instructor ever even hoped to be.

    We're having lovely mornings here too, more like spring or fall than mid-South mid-Summer. William would make a beautiful model for a bronze statue.

    Gussie

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm sorry to hear about your transition issues. (My ma ape was up with me last night but it was either 1) gas or 2) anxiety or 3) gas-caused anxiety). We went almost cold turkey and had no problems but I know it doesn't work for everydog.

    wally t.

    ps. My sissy says I am just jealous of her shapely stems. It DOES take all kinds. Short ones to find the food dropped on the floor, tall ones to find the food left out on the counter!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sounds like a pawesome day!
    Kisses and hugs
    Lorenza

    ReplyDelete
  10. It was absolutely beautiful this weekend. I wish it would continue thru the week.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Love the Sundays you just described, Patience--quiet, newspaper, coffee. Willie doesn't lobby for a walk on Sunday--it's our day off. Sometimes he gets a pleasant surprise. And what a great description of Swede. Is there anything more beautiful than a happy, healthy, well-loved dog?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Such peace.... we can feel it clear over here.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Patience
    Whenevew we wead youw blog we awe taken into youw univewse, and boy is it lovely. we felt the lilence and the cool mowning, saw Sweed Willums stwetch. You awe so vewy gifted.
    Thank you
    smoochie kisses
    ASTA who is about to get anothew 800 days of wain..this is the stwangest summew

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Patience,

    I'm stopping by after oh-so-long to say hello!

    We've been cooler in temperature these days too. I like summer but I don't mind the 70s at all.

    I absolutely don't want to sound preachy but just in case this might help if you decide to continue with raw feeding, join the yahoo group, http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding/ It's based on Whole Prey Model so no veggie glob, no grinding, no supplements ... just wonderful whole, raw food (80% meat, 10% bone, 10% organ) as nature intended. I cold-turkey switched my boys ten months ago and we're all happy as can be. I learned (and continue to learn) tons from the kind people on this list who offer their free assistance to anyone who wants to learn.

    I, too, read Laurie's adventures from her comment above and, man, I would have quit that type of raw feeding too!

    Hope this helps!

    Jackie and the beagle boys (who are having bone-in chicken breast and beef heart for dinner in a couple hours)

    ReplyDelete
  15. our mom loves quiet times. we can usually put an end to the quiet very quickly.

    we can't imagine any dog not wanting to eat a raw diet. we eat raw and we lovelovelovelove it. it makes us feel so beastly! and it's yummy. it's so much more interesting than plain old dog food. and we are much more beastly than plain old dogs. we need to have a bark with those whippets.

    woofs.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Nothing better than some quiet time.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Beautifully said. One of my favorite blog posts of the week!

    ReplyDelete

Love your comments! Love them we do. Don't be bashful! Thank you for visiting :-)