Rural Routes, Blog Version

We said goodbye to our dog Zipper last week. She was over thirteen, more than ninety-one years old in dog years, and had lived a good life.

But she was deaf now and had a cancerous growth in one eye. She could no longer get up the stairs to our front door or the deck and she shook continuously. It was time.

A Border Collie, she had all the frenetic energy of the breed and barked at everything from birds to shadows. I once saw her take on a muskrat and win. She refused to enter the house and was the only dog I ever knew who did not enjoy truck rides.

We can tell that the younger dog Jaeger misses her. He dashes outside, barking loudly, and cannot understand why there are no barks in reply.

TICK TALK

It is wood tick season again, although in our area we have seen a decrease from last year when a walk across the yard was sure to result in at least two or three.

Jaeger hates wood ticks with a passion. If he sees one, he goes on point. He stares at it; he whines.

Several mornings ago, K stayed in bed while I went to let the dog in. The dog bounded down the hall to see my husband, but was immediately mesmerized by a brown spot on my husband’s chest. He became very silent at first. He brought his nose up close to get a sniff, then backed away. He whined.

Then, with a sudden swift movement, he wiped one paw against my husband’s skin, easily removing the top of the mole.

Not a wood tick, after all.

It happened so quickly that my husband did not have time to evade the paw or to feel any pain. But I wondered if there were any negative consequences to ripping a mole off your skin.

I Googled it, and what do you suppose I saw high up in the list of responses?

“Help, my dog ripped off my mole. What should I do?”

There is nothing new under the sun, it seems.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS

 I continue to dig through boxes and tubs, shredding old cheques, invoices and receipts and wondering why I didn’t keep up with this task over the years. It would have saved a lot of time now. Such thoughts are a waste of time when I could be shredding.

I used to write cheques to companies that no longer exist. Remember Columbia House? Book of the Month Club? Eatons? Sears?

Then there were the companies we used to get cheques from. Manitoba Pool Elevators. United Grain Growers. Agricore. The Canadian Wheat Board.

All gone.

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