Greetings, salutations, and a sigh of relief, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie. You may remember me from such posts as “Before Dawn” and “Fixing Things”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic, but slightly traumatized, pose. I just came back from the doctor’s office.
You know how something looks bad, and after a while you start thinking that maybe it might not be so bad, and you say to yourself that you’re just saying that, to make yourself feel better and stuff? Well, my doctor looked at the sore on my side, after not having seen it for a while, and saw how much better it looked, and decided I didn’t need the surgery after all. Apparently the risk of anesthetizing an aging and overweight border collie, no matter how purebred, was greater than trying to operate on me, when things didn’t look as bad as they had at first.
So you can see how being overweight can have its excellent qualities. A pattern is emerging here.
The guy I live with says it really isn’t like that. I do have to go on a special diet and all that, but I’m home, and that’s what matters. I have another pill to take that tastes awful, but the guy I live with has pills that taste awful, so we’re even.
All of the imagining that the guy I live with did was completely wasted. He spends way too much time imagining what the future will be like, when it doesn’t even exist at all.
A couple of garden pictures might be appropriate here, since this is, after all, a gardening blog. I like to make it sound like it’s all about me (which it really is; just don’t tell him), but there is a garden out there.
Two pictures of the alkali sacaton, Sporobolus airoides, taken from the patio. Yes, this is part of my lawn. He forgot to move the hose, so it’s there too.
I have these big grasses in my lawn. Some people might think this is rather untidy. Life can be like that, too, so maybe this is another one of those metaphor things. Who knows?
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
This good news is an excellent way to start the day! I have a sign in my workshop that says, “Worry is a waste of imagination.” Sometimes I look at it and think, “Yes, it is.” Other times I look at it and think, “Easy for them to say.” The last one especially when it involves a dog or other loved one, huh?
Thanks; it was excellent, though initially traumatizing. The guy I live with worries about a lot of things I never do, but then, he says I worry about whether or not I’ll get to go on my walks, even though I always do. It’s often easy for people to give advice they can’t take themselves. I think it was La Rochefoucauld who said “Nothing is ever so freely given as advice”.
Chess, it is all about you, as far as I’m concerned, and I think you are beautiful! Thank you for sharing your good news so quickly, so that all of our hearts could be lighter! Do you believe that your health and well-being were the first thought that came to me upon awakening this morning? Be joyful and well!
P.S.: My coworker says she puts her dog’s pills in a little ball of velveeta cheese and he eats them right up, in case that is helpful. Velveeta for dogs must be like “a spoonful of sugar” for people!
Thanks; I like the idea of Velveeta, but we don’t have any here. I get pill pockets instead. Hickory smoked are my favorites.
Chess, I’m so glad the doctor visit turned out well. My 14 year old dog Bertha likes to hear about your adventures, good and bad, and she will be pleased at this outcome. She also gets to take walks twice a day in the field next door. She is a purebred Maremma, an Italian breed, and I, her caretaker, a mixed breed probably mostly English, love the garden posts as I struggle to garden in sandy/silty soil in southern Colorado. No mouse lips in my water saucers, only gopher lips.
Thanks; gopher lips sound kind of icky to me. When I came out of the back part of the doctor’s office, the guy I live with was ….gulp…..holding a cat. I looked at it, then looked away. I pictured cat feet in my water bowl, and shuddered. (The guy I live with said he had a cat once who dipped its paws into the water and then licked them off. Ick.) I know what a Maremma is. (Not from Dante, though, just to show how erudite I am.) I herd ‘em; you guard ‘em. The guy I live with is all into sand and gravel piles, because he doesn’t like his dirt either. There was this really old “exer-cycle” that had no seat, and it disappeared one day, and maybe he buried it to give height to the first sand pile. I do know that a couple of tires are buried there, and some other stuff. He thinks the sand piles are excellent.
Yes, I wouldn’t mind the sand piles either if those aforementioned gophers weren’t waiting underneath to dine on whatever roots happen to make their way down to their tunnels. When they have hunger attacks whole plants have been known to disappear overnight. Hmmm! Maybe a buried exercycle would give them pause.
Time for a bullsnake or two, maybe. I think you can buy farm raised ones. Having gophers sounds like a drag and a half.
Dear stalwart Chess……..you two guys…….you’re really something else. Have had a glass
or three to celebrate your return, unscathed and unscarred.
Thanks; I really am stalwart, aren’t I? Considering all the thunder I’ve had to put up with this summer, extra stalwart, maybe.
Hi Chess,
Trials and tribulations, slings and arrows, such are the vissisitudes of a life lived. Alas even a Blue Blood like yourself must submit. Hang in there. I am sure the guy you live with will provide extra treats.
Beautiful grass! Foamy, wispy, those seedheads rising like smoke from the Burning Bush. Checked this species out on our Australian Permitted List, and surprisingly it is there. Most surprising considering its mode of seed dispersal.
Did your clumps appear unaided or was there a plan?
Cheers, Marcus from Down Under
Thanks; I did get extra treats. The grasses were purchased as plants, from a nursery here. (Either Timberline or Harlequin’s Gardens.) You can get seed, from Western Native Seed, online, though there may be a big deal about importing it. Here, we have to have a permit to import seed. The guy I live with got one, and he sends that along with his request, so when the seed comes into this country, it can be inspected and stuff. (The fines for not doing this are considerable, I think, and I need my biscuits more than the guy I live with needs seeds.)
Thanks for the info. I am an old hand at both exporting and importing seeds so I know the ropes. Still, I can’t get my head around import permts for small lot seed imports. There’s not a lot achieved (except more paperwork and a semblance of bureaucratic effectiveness) by simply issuing a bit of paper with a stamp on it.
Hope the tablets are working and the weight loss program is firing along. More walks maybe. I don’t think saunas work for canines.
Cheers, Marcus from Down Under
Thanks; I agree, more walks. Then more food. The guy I live with used to tell my mommy that if he ate a salad one night, he could pig out the next, because they canceled each other out…… The small lots thing is really odd, is it not. The peculiar thing is that there is a list of plants, or seeds, which we may not import. So there’s the list. Then we get a permit, even though we’ve read the list, and studied it, and half-memorized it. Like if I already agreed not to tear up the couch when the guy I live with wasn’t looking (I like to rearrange the pillow from time to time), and then had to get a permit not to tear up the couch, when I said I wouldn’t in the first place.
I am so glad you are ok.
Thanks. So is the guy I live with. He said I could sleep in for a few days, but not tomorrow since it’s trash day, and they come at eight in the morning now, instead of four in the afternoon.
Whew! I read up this morning but was unable to sends my glad tidings (because of work restrictions) until just now. So many of your fans, Chess, are much relieved. I’m so glad that extra body fat has it’s benefits!
P.S. a diet may be a good idea after all!
Yes, I’m going on one. I have to watch my calories. (Low-calorie Brie, of course.) The guy I live with hinted at the possibility of three walks a day, to get my hind legs stronger, which is a separate issue from the sore on my side (which looks almost healed).
Thanks; yes, you see, being overweight has its advantages. You may not know this, but back in the 1980s, the guy I live with climbed telephone poles for a living, and he used to say that a little extra weight helped the hooks stay in the pole…..
Why, you do look a bit traumatized in your portrait, Chess, like one who has experienced a close escape. You also appear size x stalwart.
The cloud of grass in your lawn is beautiful. Bet it looks spectacular at sunset. Does that tall stalk in the background of something verbascummy-looking give you something at which to aim?
I believe your status as a purebred Border Collie of certain girth and years gives you extraordinary healing powers, especially with a doc who takes a second look. Do canines do squats? Excellent exercise for the rear legs. And like yoga to boot. Although you are already in possession of a higher plane of consciousness.
Thanks; um, yes, canines do squats. ….. The verbascum is probably V. densiflorum; the weedy one, V. thapsus, is nowhere around here. We haven’t had very many sunsets this summer. Clouds roll in any time from ten in the morning to noon, and stay until it gets dark. I’ve decided I don’t like this very much; I learned to check the weather from my grandpa Flurry, who said to look up in the air before considering going outside. Look at the ground, first, then up in the air, of course.
Wonderful! That’s like a ‘firework.’ alkali sacaton, sporobolus airoides, taken from the patio!
It really is an attractive grass.
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! You certainly are the beamish boy today — you have smote the thingy!
Out of the corner go my eye I got a glimpse at the first photo of the grass I thought it was an albino peacock spreading his tail feathers. And then I focused and it was still beautiful. But everything looks beautiful today, the day that gave good news of a certain globally loved purebred border collie.
Thanks. It’s nice to be back in the same old rut as usual. There’s a lot to be said for ruts. The guy I live with is into grasses. Mostly native ones. He says when they wave in the breeze, they have a calming effect. He hasn’t planted enough grasses, though.
Wag on!
Yeah, thanks. The only issue now seems to be my hind legs. It gives me an excuse to lie around a lot, and guard stuff.
Chess, sounds like your hind legs may be in need of a transformative adventure. (I wish I had some idea as to what that might be….)
Thanks; we’ll see if the ramp works. It might be too steep.
Glad you are ok! Have you considered a swimming class? You can stay cool and lose weight while exercising your joints. Have your guy install a lap pool. It will give him a new project.
We just had our first real hot, muggy day. My Maine Coon is now living in front of the a\c. I hope the thunder ends soon for you.
Best wishes from your fans in NYC.
Thanks; there used to be a pool here, when my grandpa Flurry was young, but eventually there wasn’t a pool. I’ve had offers to be lead down to the canal, on my walks, but I don’t really feel like it, and, besides, I don’t really know what’s in the water there. I might get chomped by a crawdad. I like the idea of lying in front of an air conditioner, a lot. At night we have two fans, one blowing in cool air from outside, and another one blowing it over me. I think I’m about the only one around who has noticed all the thunder here, this spring and summer. Last summer was a bad one, for a thunder-listener, and this one is just as bad. Yesterday, the sun was out all day and it was hot and dry, like summers used to be here according to the guy I live with, but today we were back to the same old thing. At least there haven’t been a lot of firecrackers. A few summers ago they went off constantly for months. I didn’t like that at all.