2000:
It's
Too Damn Hot
IN MY OPINION
Books Read in 2007
"Good for a Laugh"
YouTube Video My Favorite Video Blogs Missbehavens (for others, see Links page)
Britain's Got Talent (you MUST watch this!) O Mio Babbino Caro Women in Art Steve & Jim's Dinner with
Family Stories Vlog New on My
That's My Answer Have you answered |
"THE CAVE" 15 June 2007 If I read it once, I must have read it 100 times. That sentence, written in many of Albert Payson Terhune's stories, about Lad (a dog) settling himself in his little cave under The Master's desk.
This was the closest photo I could find to approximating that. I'm sure Terhune worked at a desk inside his home at Sunnybank and that on summer days he moved outside. I'm sure that a writer of his status had a writing desk slightly more fancy than this--but this is, indeed, the author at work at his desk. I always thought how cool that would be. To have your beloved dog lying quietly at your feet when you work. Kimba was the one who first found a cave. Because of all the junk in here as well as the cramped quarters, it's not really possible to get a good picture of the set up, but my computer desk faces the wall and at to its left, making an "L" is a desk that belonged to Gilbert. The space on Gilbert's desk where your feet are supposed to go makes a perfect "cave." To her dying day, Kimba slept in that cave whenever I was working.
When Kimba was in her cave, Sheila would lie behind my chair and I would work in the parenthesis of the two dogs. I kind of missed Kimba for awhile after she died. I missed her little black body under the cave. It was nice when Google arrived because she found the cave and used it too.
I'm not sure when Sheila decided that she wanted her own cave under my feet while I work. On the one hand it's very nice that Sheila is always with me when I work. But she doesn't fit into Kimba's cave. She's much too big. So instead of sleeping in Kimba's cave, she sleeps literally under my feet. She lies directly across the front of my chair whether I'm here or not. It used to be that when I came into the office she would get up and let me get settled in my chair. Now she just looks at me as if I'm bothering her. "Move? You want me to move? I don't think so." I could work around having Sheila under my desk if I had a knee that bent. My knee bends, but not for long. If it stays in a 90 degree bend for longer than a few minutes it begins to ache. But with Sheila there, there is nowhere to put my leg. If I try to stretch my leg out, I kick her in the head. It is especially unpleasant in the summer heat (now that were are inching toward triple digits, we have discovered that not only is the air condition in the car not working, but the house air conditioning isn't working either!). There is nothing better when it's 90+ in your office than to have a 50 pound heat-generating machine lying across your feet and resting against your legs. To add to things, now Lizzie has joined the under-the-desk group. It used to be that she would sleep under my right leg (which can bend for a slightly longer period than the left), and on the pedal that controlled the transcription unit, so she was constantly fast-forwarding the tape that I was working on. That, fortunately, is no longer a problem. I don't want to complain or anything, but.... Another problem is that apparently (I learned this from a dog trainer), a dog shows she acknowledges you as the leader of the pack when she allows you to go into or out of a door before her. This works great at the front door, where Sheila will stand until I give her the command to go out the door (after I've gone outside). It works great at night when we go into the living room to sleep. She sits in the hall and waits until I enter the living room before she follows me. But she also waits until I leave the office before she will leave. Unfortunately this room is so tiny that the space between my desk and the bookcase behind it, where she stands out of respect for my lofty position, is exactly the width of Sheila's body and there is no room for me to pass by her. It's nice to have all this togetherness. I just wish there were a bit more leg room built into it. |
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
Last photo of BooBoo. |
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This is entry #2634
