Crushingly Expected Pupdate.

Bill and I lost Happy last night.

This means that 2018 has already kicked us in the face; I was hoping it wouldn’t do that.

I was unable to get to bed until about 1:00 am PST, and I’m writing this a mere four hours later. I was only able to sleep about three hours before I woke back up and tossed and turned for an hour. Once I realized it’d been an hour of tossing, I’d somehow wrenched my shoulder in my sleep, and my head was hurting from exhaustion and dehydration I gave up and took Kiki outside and started whatever amount of day I’m going to have today.

I started dehydrating spent grain. I turned on the electric kettle for water for tea.… Continue reading →

Pupdate!

Well, we’ve had our cuties for a bit over a year now. And while they’ve been exhausting at times, and still don’t love going outside when it’s cold, it’s been pretty great. I figured I’d share a few photos today, while I think about how lucky we are to have them.

Happy looking up at the camera, suspiciously, from the background. Kiki in the foreground looking at... who knows what.

These two wholly have my heart. Well, ok. Not wholly. They share it.

Bill and Kiki in the car.

Kiki just loves the car. She’d climb into complete strangers’ cars if we’d let her. (And we did, twice. And she did. both times.) She also loves her walks (video link).

She’s also a little neurotic, which is not great. She does a bit of guarding food and toys from Bill and me (more him than me, but both of us). We’ve brought in Katrin from Plucky Puppy on the advice of a canine scientist friend on Twitter who asked several people she trusts.… Continue reading →

I bit off more than I can chew.

I just wasn’t prepared for dogs in Chicago winter. I really thought I was. And I was so wrong. And now I’m at my wits’ end, unsure if I’m doing the right thing for our furry friends.

I’m exhausted. Our alarm usually goes off at 7:00 am in the mornings. A little before 5:00 am, I woke up to the sounds of Kiki (quietly) in some distress, and no Bill in bed. At 4:55 am, Bill was back in bed, and I was telling him I was going to go take the dogs out, since clearly they needed it. And at 5:53 am, I was finally back inside, warming up.

In between, everything went sideways.

Starting at the beginning, I started prepping for going outside, with every intent to not let the dogs out of crates until I was totally ready to get booties on them and get out.… Continue reading →

What Composes Autumn

The Northern Hemisphere is almost halfway through autumn, but it only starts feeling like autumn to me sometime in October. And then, being as I live in Chicago, it feels as if winter is mere moments away.

This autumn, in particular, has been interesting. The feel to it is very much as though it is nearly gone, but I am present for so many individual moments. It’s surreal to feel massive pressure about the changing of the season, while also so slowed down.

I think this is happening because of the things that make “autumn” a thing for me (in a way that spring, summer, and winter simply are not). And, this year, those things taken together are giving me an awareness of autumn, my favorite season, like I haven’t had in a decade or so.… Continue reading →