Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to talk about something other than gardening. You may remember me from such posts as “The Trout Are Out”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
I’m checking things out, because there are things that need to be checked out. Especially at night time, when there are a lot of weird noises.
It’s been really hot and dry here, so not much gardening has been going on, though there has been quite a bit of complaining.
This past weekend was really unpleasant and I spent most of it hiding in my Upstairs Fort, though I was able to go on my walks, thanks to what the guy I live with calls his “superior timing”. He has lived with purebred border collies for a long time now.
You may be wondering at the title of today’s post. It’s German, and it means “free but lonely”. It was the motto of the violinist Joseph Joachim. Of course F, A, and E, are musical notes, so Joachim’s friend Schumann, his pupil Albert Dietrich, and the young Brahms collaborated on a sonata for Joachim.
So this really is a thing, but not what I was going to talk about. The guy I live with would have, but I get to do the talking here.
The guy I live with is often pretty lonely, but that’s not it, either.
I wanted to talk about the trout. We see it every day on our walks.
I wondered if it was lonely, and it probably is, but on the other hand it finds a lot to eat. We see it rising to the surface and grabbing stuff. 
The guy I live with, though, said that as summer goes on, we almost always see more trout in the canal, so it could eventually have a companion (or competition), but he did go on a bit about this “F.A.E.” stuff.
I could even hear him going on about it while I was off looking around in the grass.
Still, I think about the trout, just swimming all by itself.
The guy I live with said he thought about getting a companion for me, but there would have been an issue with the forts, and I admit I like being the center of attention, except when I’m naughty, of course.
Just possibly, he said, the trout is like that, too. It gets all the food, and plenty of room to swim around in. I get two forts.
So there was all this talk of loneliness as we walked along the canal road, and then guess what we saw?
Can you see them? In the canal, almost in the center of the picture.
The guy I live with said the pictures would have been better if I hadn’t insisted on stopping every few feet to check things out, but as I said at the beginning of my post, checking things out is what I do.
A mother duck and maybe six ducklings.
They all swim together, though we did see one duckling get distracted by something, and then suddenly noticed everyone else was paddling away, so it paddled really fast to catch up.
So that’s it. Not much, but something. That’s our motto.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
The little things in life are important.
I think so. We got 0.7 millimeters of rain yesterday, too.
I wonder if the trout help keep the mosquito larvae down in the canal? It looks slow moving enough otherwise to make things pretty buggy?
My personal observation is that dog companions are a mixed bag – two young dogs joining a family at the same time are likely to be great pals. A second dog joining an established dog is a situation with more potential for conflict or unhappiness over resources, attention, etc. And of course walking 2 dogs can be challenging – we sometimes have a dog guest joining our little 2 human/one dog pack and it works fairly well except at walk time, when one person has to manage both dogs or take twice as many walks.
Kitten and dog pairs can work excellently if the humans in the pack are able to be around cats.
ceci
It could be. I was worried about the trout until I saw it catching things on the surface of the water, over and over again.
When I went to Puppy Day Care, the trainer there said I would definitely be happiest being an only purebred border collie, but the guy I live with still thinks about whether or not I should have had a companion.
Which is a bit strange. When his wife died, there were two purebred border collies here, Slipper and Chess. They were cousins and loved each other, but there were some disagreements over the Kitchen Fort, which belonged to Chess, but Slipper would sneak in to get toys.
When Slipper died, 364 days after the guy I live with’s wife died, he thought getting a companion for Chess might be a good idea. A rescue purebred border collie came here, but he attacked Chess constantly, which made the guy I live with feel very sad, so Chess spent the rest of his life, happily, as an only purebred border collie.
It might be different with me, but the guy I live with said it would probably just be stressful.
And I get all the food and attention.
Mee-yow Mani you are so-o fillysophicall…..As are you Guy!!
ellaSita Mum sighed furry deeplee an meowed “FREI ABER EINSAM”…..an sighed again!
Shee meowed to mee shee allso feelss like this two. Beein widowed twice an no kidletss an no furamillee other than mee…..it iss lonelee fore BellaSita Mum.
Last month wee were sittin out on patio a LONE GOOSE flew over callin sadly fore itss’ mate… Innstantly BellaSita started to cry….
Mee cuud feel her sadness feelin THE Goose’ss sadness…
Shee called out to THE Goose speekin itss’ language an THEE Goose ackshully circled ’round us overhead . BellaSita an Goose “A-rukked” sum more an then Goose flew off….quietlee.
Mee nevurr seen a Hu’man speek Goose beefore!!!!
Wee are sorry Trout iss alone two. An happy Mommy Duck an her chickletss are there…maybee they an Trout will beecome frendss???
If a Hu’man can speek Goose; why can’t a Trout an a Duck speek to each other rite?????
Thanx fore yore post! Border Colliess are so furry smart! š
**nose kissess** BellaDharma an (((hugss))) BellaSita Mum
Thanks. We did see a lonely goose here, a couple of years ago, but I think it eventually flew off and joined its friends.
The guy I live said loneliness can be a real drag, though he has me, and friends. And the garden, though it’s mostly been so hot it’s not much fun to work in, right now.
And I guess it’s not going to rain, again, even though they said it probably would.
Mee-yow Mani iss hard fore Hu’manss when they lose a partner…wife or hubby or live-inn….. That iss why they feel lonelee.
It iss not beecause of us; it iss in spite of us.
Mee knowss BellaSita Mum meowed to mee shee all wayss did bettur with a Hubby bye her side.
How due wee fill such a BIG hole inn our Hu’manss mindss an heartss??
All wee can due iss love thm an bee with them when they need us….
Mee-yow mee soundss like a wise kitty!?!? Even mee iss sirprized!
It’s certainly not easy, though we have each other, and the guy I live with can go visit his friend from time to time.
It’s really hot today.
Mee thinkss BellaSita Mum cuud use a guud Man frend….butt her X-fiance iss not alloud to meow to her..,,.so shee meowss to mee! š
I guess that’s good enough.
The tround is not lonely. He or she lives with the duck family.
Well the duck family lives quite a distance from the trout, but the guy I live with said the trout is probably content, anyway.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “happy as a clam.”? I have not heard it in a long time, but when I did, I could not help but wonder why a clam would be happy. Of course there are all sorts of reasons for happiness. The phrase implies specificity though. Well, regardless, if a clam can be happy, I suppose a trout can be also.
I think so.
I like “Not much, but something.”
Something counts! It’s effort when everything feels like hard work.
Thank you and your companion for sharing your somethings.
Thanks; it’s going to be our official motto.
The guy I live with has actually been working out in the garden, but not today. It’s 99 degrees F right now. (Only 11% humidity, though.)
Wouldn’t a doggy companion be easier for you to enjoy if you chose a female? Are you interested in females?
Free but lonely. True of a lot of us, perhaps.
I’m sorry about your weekend. It was rainy here, and when the rain came down hard, only a few determined jerks continued to set off mortars. So, not too bad, and it turned out that the visiting elder dog really is completely deaf.
I’ve met female dogs, and they’re okay. But the biggest issue, according to the guy I live with, besides me getting jealous, is Fort Allocation. We don’t have room for two more forts.
It’s not going to happen,anyway.
The weekend was really awful for me. I got Rescue Remedy and at least the nights were cool.
And today, not only did I get soaked with the hose, the guy I live with encouraged me to go into the canal on my morning walk, which I did. Cool water coming from the mountains.
Some days “Not much, but something,” is all many of us can deal with. My previous not-purebred Border collie, Boo, grew up with companions. He hated them. He hated sharing. He hated having to hold his tennis ball at all times to keep the Goldendoodle from it. After he was the only dog, his quality of life was so improved. I’d gotten the Goldendoodle for him too! I guess being alone doesn’t always mean lonely.
Well, the guy I live with says that Slipper and Chess loved each other and there were very few fights (except when they ran into each other running by the back fence, barking at things out in the field). When they went to the doctor for checkups, and Chess went in first, Slipper would cry.
But Chess was what the guy I live with calls “an attention hog”. He would jump up on the guy I live with’s bed first thing in the morning to get tickles and cuddles, and Slipper would come round to the side of the bed by the bookshelves and tap on the bed with his paw, as if to say “I’m here, too.”
Slipper got liver cancer and when he died, on the patio here, the guy I live with was with him, and Chess stood guard over his cousin, and then rode in the car with him, to the vet’s.
But then, Chess discovered he was an only dog, and really enjoyed that (except for the rescue dog business). He was an only dog for almost five years, and really enjoyed all the attention.