Happy New Year!

2014 started with bright sunny skies and temperatures around –25C. Burr! Global warming seems like a distant hope these last few days.

The night was celebrated with friends (Jo Ellen, Don, Cathey, Jim). At our advanced ages it seems impossible that we’ll make it to midnight without falling asleep. A late supper and a cup of coffee gave us a second wind so we made it to 12 and beyond. I don’t know how many years we’ve been hosting, but it has been a lot. And such grand memories - if I could actually remember ;-o

We have a house guest for the next several days. My friend Christina had to take a trip to Switzerland for family matters, and with the frigid temperatures in the forecast for the next several days, didn’t want to leave their dog, Archie, at the farm to freeze. I thought that Spike might be a problem, but he has actually been the best behaved of our bunch. Bella and Kabira bark and growl at him as he moves around the house. They are slowly getting better, but gosh, not very nice hosts. Archie is a gentle, old soul, so I don’t know what they’re problem is.

Archie lives on a dairy farm, and as such spends the majority of his time outside. That, combined with his limited exposure to other people’s houses made his first few hours here quite uncomfortable for him. We had to literally drag him into the house, and once inside he wouldn’t leave the front hall. After he had been here for a few hours we just dragged him into the rest of the house; once past the threshold he wandered around checking everything out. Surprisingly, once he was comfortable here, getting him back into the house after a trip outside was no longer a problem – he leads the way back to the door!

It has been a few days of firsts for him. Today he got a bath in the bathtub (he was pretty stinky). He stood like a gentleman while we lathered him up and rinsed him off. He was also happy to wear a big, puffy dog coat to go out later in the day. I can tell though, that he’d rather be home.

I’m not sure how my dogs would fare without us and in a strange place: I think Spike would be okay; Bella would adapt as long as she got lots of pets; Kabira would be a basket case.

 

In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago. ~ Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894), A Christmas Carol