Mockingbird Hill Cottage

New Year’s Eve? Spent cleaning up messes made by Riley. In his defense, he had been given a little tranquilizer in the morning in order to get his nails cut. (If we don’t he will try to bite the technician.) For some reason, he had an extreme reaction to the meds and he was out of it for about 2 days. He was so bad that we had to lift him and help him walk. It got a bit scary. He’s had this medicine before, but clearly he has developed a reaction to it over time. Obviously, we won’t be using it again. Yesterday found me in tears, thinking I had harmed him in some way, even though I knew his nails had to get cut because he was slipping on our wood floors and that could be dangerous for a boy with bad hips. Thankfully, by last night he was almost back to normal.

When you adopt a dog who has been neglected and abused, there are just certain things you have to accept. In Riley’s case: no pulling on his collar, or cutting his nails, no approaching from the rear and taking him by surprise, only a certain amount of brushing, nothing to do with his ears or the area around his ears. Over the years, he has come such a long way. He didn’t know how to play or ask for affection when we got him. He is such a loving boy now. I took advantage of his incapacitation to brush his heavy coat:

Yep, that’s a lot of hair. He has a heavy undercoat.

I drove the 2 hour round trip to the Apple Store yesterday to pick up my laptop. All is well. I thought as much, but wanted to be sure. No charge. Thank you, Apple. Being without my laptop for 4 days was not fun. I did accomplish a lot in its absence. Don and I completely rearranged the office/guest bedroom/studio and it looks so much better! Since Don is the one using it 99% of the time, it needed to become his space. Now it is a studio that also has a wonderful bed for house guests. Since I spent so much time creating my little studio space, I figured it was time we did something with his.

I also read and crocheted a lot. Today, we take down the decorations. I’ll leave you with this shot of Scout, who has been feeling rather ignored the last few days:

I’ll give her some extra cuddles today.