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            It’s been raining everyday for nearly two months now, so the grass is cut when you can wade through the knee-deep mush to the mower. This morning was THE day. I headed out to the barn to get the mower. On the way out the back door, I rang the bell to signal The Princess and The Pea. Ryka (The Princess) came running. She is the dutiful dog and just loves her mama. Calypso (The Pea), on the other hand, did not come running. Normally, she does, but lately she has been in the kennel too much for her taste. She is usually the first one to her mama (Lucy – me). I put Ryka in the kennel with her treat and a bone and went to look for Calypso. I rang the bell again on my way past the porch. When she didn’t show, I got on the mower and headed toward my flower garden.

            Her normal (is there really anything normal about Calypso?) behavior is to run to the kennel at the first sound of the mower. This did not work. I got off the mower and went to look under the front porch (this is their little hideout) no Calypso. I headed back around the house and checked out the orchard – no Calypso. I checked under the fig trees, and in the barn, no Calypso. Hubby phoned to let me know he was heading from “down the bayou” to “up the bayou” and I told him I could not find Calypso. He asked if I looked in the barn (Jake and Sentry, my before dogs had each taken turns being locked unknowingly in the barn.) I checked the barn, and no Calypso. By this time, I was getting frantic.

I let Ryka out of the kennel, hoping she would lead me to The Pea, but that didn’t work. She just sat in the shade and looked at me as if to say, “Why do you want her? It’s peaceful.” Believe me, this was no time for a smart-mouthed dog.

I phoned Hubby back, in tears, (I love my puppy), to tell him I had been unable to locate her. He was going to be passing the house in a few minutes and said that he would stop and help me look. (Good Hubby – he knows I love my dogs. I guess an hysterical wife ranks slightly above father in the hospital already surrounded by siblings.) I continued looking and crying, and crying and looking. After making sure that she was not in the back yard, the barn or under the porch, I headed toward the front gate, my heart heavy. The only other place I knew to look was the busy highway that runs in front of our house.

I was almost to the gate and I spotted a big lump in the corner of the front yard under the azaleas. I called Calypso’s name and her head popped up. I didn’t know whether to hug her or kill her (the jury is still out.) The Pea ran to me and started whimpering as if she had been looking for me and couldn’t find me. The nerve!

After a lot of licking (I think she was apologizing, although with the whimpering – I think she was trying to manipulate me into thinking I had left her) I managed to coerce her into going to the kennel (this means grabbing her by the collar and marching her behind back there!) When we got close, she took off and was standing at the gate waiting to go in. I think when she heard the lawn mower, she ran the wrong way and was afraid to come back. She is deathly afraid of the mower.

Before mowing the yard, there is always the inevitable game to play of “Scoop the Poop”. After we go through the Scoop the Poop routine (and I say we, because the dogs follow me and watch), it is time for them to go into the kennel and for me to mow.

Predictably, I will be mindlessly mowing back and forth and I will come upon a dog patty (if there can be cow patties, why not dog patties – especially after you roll over them) and I will have to stop the mower, get off and scoop. I now carry a little garden shovel under my foot for this purpose. Then, nothing makes me madder than having the poop fall off of the shovel on the way to a tree (the shovel is narrow) and having to scoop that darn poop, not once, but twice. And, this is after it has been baking in the hot sun. Let me tell you – it. don’t. smell. good.

Then, don’t get me started on the pile I missed, but got with the lawn mower tire. I had to ride along for an hour smelling that stench AND I had to look at it every time it went by on the tire. It doesn’t fall off as time goes on!

You would think that as The Princess and The Pea follow me around, watching me scoop the poop and put it under the trees, that they would get the hang of it. It is when I have a shovel full and they smile (I swear that these dogs smile – they are pure breed) at me, squat, and leave another pile. I need to start putting the shovel under those bottoms, scoop once instead of twice! One of these chicks (probably me) is just not getting it.

Before it starting pouring down rain today, Calypso was trying to take a little bone from Ryka. I thought, “That’s okay. Ryka will get a big bone.” That little stinker had the nerve to take it from Ryka. Even the lightening, thunder, and pouring down rain was not going to stop her from enjoying it.

As you can see by the story, my life was a little boring this week (shh! – don’t say that too loud.) I did have the opportunity to have tea with a good friend. With her work schedule this summer, we hadn’t been able to visit. We had a really nice “girl’s tea party” and caught up on news (gossip.) School starts this week, but that doesn’t affect me because I have no young children.

I also had the opportunity to ‘ro-day’ as we say in the south with a new friend and that was fun. ‘Ro-day’ means ‘run the roads’ which means run errands. You are all officially Southerners now. We stopped in at the AT&T store. Her son lost his phone and I told her all about the $10 Go Phone I had purchased. While I was there, I had to torture myself. I drooled over the I-Phone. I wished in front of the I-Phone. I tried to conjure up a spell so I could get one today; it didn’t work. Two months in the quiet chair is a long time. Calypso WILL NOT find my next phone (AND I will definitely get the insurance.)

Thanks for the visit!

Donna