I know you said it wasn't funny, but I was laughing by the end of your rant, Susan. A sympathetic laugh, but it was a good laugh!

I did eat out this evening, a gyro and a beer that I brought home - I had a lot of work all day and then as it got into evening I rounded up Zeke and took him to see Susie. I don't share photo links on Mudcat any more, my photo files are closed, but anyone who would like to see the image send a PM and I can share a link to a personal page. Since the door was closed to her room when I got there I closed it behind me, and since staff couldn't see in, we let Zeke hop up on the bed. It was rather conspiratorial, but those two were in heaven! It was a 20-minute visit of ear scratching and offering treats. She is so much better, but still isn't ready to move back to her house or live independently. I share photos to her facebook page so she can see them (she has her laptop at the hospital) and I put a photo and occasional updates on a page her family set up. I seem to be the only one sending updates lately, but I suspect a lot of her friends are hanging on every word. I had a call from one woman who was in town a few days ago and wanted to check in. I had a great walk with the dogs today and realized that it was just about this time last year that Susie and I met because Zeke had gotten out through a hole in her back fence.

She has five children, they don't all live here. Two do, the rest are spread out. Her sister will be coming down soon, and she has several siblings. But here in the neighborhood, we are a little family, the two of us as friends and our three dogs. This winter the borders really blurred for the dogs; Zeke has been here for so long now that my girls bark if I take him out of the yard, just as they always used to do if one or the other of them was taken out of the yard and one left behind. So I bring the left-behind dogs into the house so they don't disturb the neighbors. I suspect our walks for a while, once she is back home, will be me walking up there and clipping Zeke onto Cinnamon's leash (I have them walk on a double lead and Poppy walks single on the other side). Then Susie can walk but not be dragged around by Zeke. And learn how to walk with him so he won't drag her around. What you expect them to do is transmitted by your body language, so we need to retrain the body language.

That's my introspection on the way things have worked out this year. Last fall her husband died and I picked up the slack; as the weeks progressed it looked like we were all going to come out of that experience whole. A fluke accident and here we are. But things are getting better, slowly, and we're all a part of the process.

SRS