Here I Sit All Broken-Hearted

One of our big projects over the past months has been to plot out our lives after retirement, and a big part of that was the plan to relocate to Austin, Texas and spend our summers in Maine. Pappy is decidedly in the equation, because he will be a spry eight-year-old when I hope to pull the trigger.

Today I was supposed to be down in Texas looking at our dream home. Near Deep Eddy pool, it is a mere hop-skip-and-jump from the great Town Lake trail. More importantly it is striking distance from Redbud Island, an off-leash area known to haters everywhere as Doggy-doo Island. So what if the house is purple and has an oddball driveway that looks like a graphic designer's nightmare (what were they thinking?), it has a great studio out back! My life of making art and tending to Pappy's every need was perfectly mapped out.

Unfortunately I got the call yesterday from our realtor just hours before I was supposed to fly down that the house is under contract. I need to go now, my wife is in mourning.

Yeeargh!

After the nice reception I got after my hiatus from blogging, I was getting ready to do a posting about how funny it is when we get home and Pappy tosses his Kong up in the air to indicate that he couldn't get a treat out. Then I started to think that that sounded familiar, and sure enough I already had done a posting on the subject. I'm realizing that my brain is only so big, and only has so many ideas in it.

I've even done the topic of repeating myself before. Blogging is like a horrible hall of mirrors.

Slumber Party

Never one to ride stoically into the sunset, I thought I might throw up another blog posting (heh, heh, I said throw up). There's been no great reason for the dearth of postings; I've been busy at work, had some family responsibilities, and just got on to thinking about other stuff. Pappy is swell, as are my wife and I.

This weekend marks a banner event-- Pappy is hosting his first slumber party. Neighbor dog Molly has been staying with us for a few days. Pappy has slept over at other peoples' houses, and we've had dogsitters come to our house, but this is the first time we have had another dog stay with us.

Highlights for Pappy are the occasional wrestling match, the novelty of licking atoms of unfamiliar kibble from another dog's bowl, and the excuse to bark in the middle of the night because Molly barked first. Lowlights... well where do I start? Pappy was never accustomed to competing for attention, so jealousy over another dog had never crossed his mind. Never quick on the uptake, he now just looks vaguely puzzled as to why Molly is in the way when he wants to be petted. Then, of course, Molly is an irrepressible tease. She loves to steal some stuffed toy Pappy has never looked twice at, and then squeak, squeak, squeak away until he takes notice. Worst of all, she steals his ball and then flops on her back waiting for Pappy to lock muzzles to haul it from her mouth. This scene always gets hot and heavy, and Pappy is a bit of a prude.