The Last of the Goodweather Dogs

When I began writing the Elizabeth Goodweather books., I gave Elizabeth three dogs and based them on three of our six (at the time) canines. (Not wanting her to seem too weird, I gave her only three.) 

Elizabeth's Molly, Ursa, and James were based on our Maggie, Bear, and William. Maggie and Bear have been gone for several years and now William has joined them.   

We don't know how old he was -- at least 16, possibly 18 . . . or older. I found him while I was weed-eating (string trimming) down near our mail box. He had evidently recently been dumped out near there and he began following me, frisking and flirting in an irresistible manner. (I think this was '97 or '98 but can't be sure.)  He seemed to be a Chihuahua/Dachshund mix -- two very long lived breeds. 

William adored people, especially the ladies, loved sitting in laps and had a bad habit of trying to put his tongue in your mouth if you weren't watchful. (The Bob Packwood of dogs, we called him.) 

He was a popular favorite with visitors and a fine addition to our pack. In recent years he had become quite deaf and partially blind (and just possibly a little senile) but he was always a cheerful and good little dog. 

Good bye, sweet William - the end of an era . . .

Thoughts on the Edge of Madness

Waiting for the government shutdown . . . if I had a Biblical super power, I’d like to be able to cause tongues to cleave to the roofs of certain mouths. A rain of frogs and serpents in the House might be a nice diversion too

A Facebook ‘friend’ was fulminating about the current administration ‘telling us what we can and can’t eat and forcing us to buy insurance while all the time we the taxpayers are buying the food Obama’s kids eat as well as paying for the blond highlights in Michelle Obama’s hair.’ 

The frothing-at-the-mouth hurts. I really wanted to defriend this woman but first I wanted to ask if she’d gotten her panties in a bunch over the bill for President Reagan’s Grecian Formula. Or begrudged the Bush twins the food in their mouths.

 I didn’t do either. I've tried to adhere to a policy of not defriending people just because I disagree with them. In fact, I think that the only person I’ve defriended on FB was a high school friend with whom I’d had some heated but polite exchanges. Then he sent me a racist joke. It wasn’t even funny. That did it.

  

 Still waiting… expecting that at any moment, Ted Cruz will hold up a fluffy kitten, put a gun to its head, and say, “Defund Obamacare or the Kitten gets it

Send in the frogs and serpents – the clowns are already there.

Absentee Staff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got to Get Back to the Garden . . .

We've been blessed with rain and the weeds are rampant in the garden that two weeks ago was so nicely groomed. Back to the garden for some weed extraction! 

The temperature was pleasant and it was a joy to be outside with my fingers in the dirt and to see how my garden was growing . . .   

Lovage (a celery-tasting herb) in bloom . . .

The little artichoke plants are taking hold . . .

The Glass Gem corn and the Dixie Speckled Butterpea Beans are coming along . . .

Old Man William supervised . . .

A tiny (smaller than my little fingernail) wild iris blossom-- Blue-eyed Grass . . .

The yellow flowers are Rue and the feathery stuff is Bronze Fennel . . . 
I save the fennel seed but haven't a clue of what to do with the rue. . . 

Wouldn't the sky be boring if there were no clouds?

This is the artichoke plant that produced 5 or 6 globes last year, back for a fourth season. . .

I sowed nasturtium seeds in the asparagus bed in hopes of abundant, edible blossoms later on . . .forgetting that they bloom better in less rich soil. We'll see. . .

Zucchini and yellow squash -- John is thrilled ;-) . . .

A tiny Cherokee Purple tomato . . .we have high hopes and are dreaming of BLTs . . . 

And (below) a Mullein (Verbascum) which is a weed but so architecturally striking that I always leave some to enjoy. Mullein has medicinal uses but I've never explored them. . .

 

Meet Willa

As I mentioned, we have a new dog. She looks a good bit like a mini-Maggie ...

And her long body makes me think of William...

 He disavows any knowledge of her, however...

This is how it happened: On Monday morning a neighbor on the other side of the mountain called to ask if we were missing a little brown dog. Since all our crew were accounted for, I told him no and said I would call some other neighbors and ask. I did but nobody was missing a dog and I dismissed it from my mind as Somebody Else's Problem.

Then Monday evening as I was fixing dinner I got a call from another neighbor -- Willa, on our side of the mountain and just down the road. Was I missing a little brown dog? When I told her I wasn't, she said that she would take it in to a no-kill animal shelter the next day but could I possibly keep the dog overnight as her dogs weren't behaving nicely with the orphan.

With a feeling of inevitability, I climbed in the jeep and went to get the little brown dog. As soon as Willa put her in my arms, I realized that, after all, I had been missing this pup. 

And when I got her home and showed her to John and asked if we could possibly . . . he, too, bowed to the inevitable.

I named her Willa because it's a pretty name and because folks around here often name their animals for the person they got them from. Miss Susie Hutchins for instance, is named for my friend Sue. 

I think Willa's a nice addition to the pack.

Farewell, Old Girl...

Molly was old when she came to us. We adopted her when our neighbor Eileen had to go into a nursing home. We were never sure of Molly's age -- she could have been fourteen, maybe older, when we said goodbye to her on Friday.

I blogged recently about her -- a cheerful old thing, in spite of deafness and arthritis. But for the past few weeks, she's been increasingly confused. When she became completely incontinent, the time had come. 

Never easy -- but in this case we knew it was coming. 


Someone asked a few days ago for an update on our dogs and cats. It's odd to find ourselves down to three dogs after many years of having six. 

But I'll do a quick rundown of the dogs that have been part of our lives  and this blog for the past three years.

Sweet Bear ( the original of Ursa who lives on in the Goodweather books) and happy Jack have been gone about a year .

Dan, the Border Collie, Maggie, the Mountain Cur (original of Elizabeth Goodweather's Molly,)  and William (Elizabeth's James) remain. Dan's the youngest -- maybe four. Maggie is twelve, William is older -- maybe fourteen.

The cats Eddie and Miss Susie Hutchins both seem ageless.

 

Often appearing in my pictures are Otis (in front) and Ali Ali. They live with Justin and Claui in another house on our farm. 

So many happy memories . . .

 

Still Reading . . .

Sunday, and I'm still reading the page proofs . . . and still really pleased with how good it sounds to me.



















More of the same -- cold outside, the dogs and cats and I clustered round the fireplace inside.
William and Miss Susie Hutchins . . .

. . . Ali Ali, Maggie, and Jack relaxing . . . they're really good at it . . .

Molly keeping an eye on things . . . and Ali Ali and Otis being snug -- another perfect December day.