#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Home to the river

The river is low, but it was cloudy all day and this afternoon the rain came. A good drenching. I woke early enough to get my poem ready for workshop, but workshop ran over so I didn’t end up reading it. That was fine, as I read it tonight in my peer poetry and it was well received. Below are two pictures from the wedding that I love from the photographer’s sneak peek: [Charlotte Jenks Lewis] One is of Will’s mom, Amanda, under a parasol watching her son marry my daughter, and her face is all happiness (as mine was too!) The other is this fabulous picture of Frank and Franci as he “gives away” the bride, and Will’s smiling face is between theirs in the background. She shot in both black and white and color. So, here we are at home and my plants, indoors and out, survived the heat wave! Hooray! I went for a good long ramble around the house, to the river, into Trustees and walked through the woods, took a trail I haven’t taken in months that isn’t actually part of Trustees, and there were at least a dozen of broken trees down from the winter that I had to climb over and Frank called me soon after and the trees must have been full of pollen as I had a coughing attack like I’ve never had in my life! I feel I now understand what it must be like to have an asthma attack. I haven’t had allergies in my life, but I’ve grown sensitive to pollen and the pollen is quite bad this year, and this must be the reason for the attack. As soon as I left the woods into my yard I was fine. Now, the other thing I must discuss is Chippie. This will come as a surprise to my readers, but we had to return Chippie to the breeder. This happened the day before we left for the wedding. He was set to go to our trainer for boarding, but over the previous few days we struggled with the decision and our feelings finally sorted out: Chippie wasn’t a good fit for our family. The main reason is that he never grew out of his terrible biting, and in fact, it grew worse. Especially toward me and Perri, but also Franci and Wave. Leashed, unleashed, well rested or tired, he started lunging at me repeatedly, and at 56 pounds, it was clear that he was dangerous. He felt dangerous to me and it was very stressful. We expected a lab, with a lab’s loving behavior. He wanted to be dominant with everyone except Frank who was the only one who could control him. Yes, I’m sure this behavior could be trained out of Chippie, but not by me. I just wanted to feed him, walk him, love him and give him treats, take him swimming, watch him grow, have him welcome me home. . . instead, his priority was escaping me, resisting me, lunging at me, biting me (breaking my skin) and I grew more and more fearful for Wave and others. So, back to the breeder. And we don’t want another dog yet. I love labs. Chippie is unlike any lab we’ve had, and we’ve had three others. I’m going on and on, i guess, because I wrote so much about him here. I actually don’t miss Chippie. Sad to say. I’m missing Suzi a lot, and Charlie. And appreciating the time I had with them. They would have been on the Vineyard with us, as always. Their favorite place too. Played pickle, indoors, briefly tonight with the married ones, and they beat us! But it was close!