Gracie Owns Me * GROWING OLD WITH GRACIE * living life without her

Monday, September 6, 2010

Dear Diary, It won't happen again on my watch.

Dear Diary,

Words and phrases that make me pace and whine:

1. Walk

2. Tennis Courts (it's where I'm set free to run).

3. Does Gracie want...

4. Dairy Queen

5. Vacation (this can only mean one thing).

6. Kennel

No worries. I love the kennel. The smells are phenomenal and I get to perform in front of a live web cam. All I ask is that the mom and dad stay with me there. But no. Instead they go on vacation and do who knows what without me! You can imagine my anxiety when they left me there and were talking to me outside of the fence. My heart dropped!

I'm home now... but I have a watchful eye for anything that looks suspicious... like: suitcases, happy faces, googling directions and most importantly, kissing up to the dog. Let them try to pull that one again. Hmph... Gracie

Friday, September 3, 2010

Monarch Butterflies and Other Stuff

I'd been waiting on this all summer... for a Monarch butterfly to be flitting around the wildflowers that we planted in the spring. After all, the flowers we chose were supposed to attract all kinds of butterflies. I only ever saw a couple, and they looked more like moths than butterflies.

This time of year is bittersweet. The cool mornings are refreshing, and as summer slowly melts away and becomes autumn, I begin to focus on cinnamon spice lotions and candles, multicolored leaves, and decor that includes tiny petrified squash and pumpkins and scented pine cones wrapped in ribbon.

But enough of that. It's not fall yet, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I want to point out a petunia growing in this flower bed in front of our house. In the spring, this soil was dug up and forget-me-not's were spread out over the entire area. The forget-me-not's forgot about us and never amounted to anything. The hot dry weather this summer could have played a part in that... I don't know for sure. But this one sweet petunia sprouted up about a month or so ago and it refuses to give up the ghost.

I know people like that. Strong people who refuse to let circumstance get in their way of being the best they can be. I want to be like that.

Did I tell you how happy Gracie was to see me when I picked her up from the kennel on Tuesday? The kennel owner was busy and he told us to go back and let her out of her kennel area. When we opened her door she whimpered and cried and ran like the wind down the long corridor towards the door before noticing that we were not behind her. She put on her brakes and slid on the shiny floor about two yards before being able to stop and turn around. LOL. That's my Gracie.