Some Comic Relief on a Saturday
The repairman called and said he could come fix the fence and the back door today and it was none too soon because Carmella has been full of nervous energy.
He arrived at around 11:30 or 12:00 noon and although I was up I felt as though I could have used about 3 hours more sleep. The man came in and immediately was taken with Carmella, and she loved the attention, wagging her tail and jumping all over him. He related how he had been sick lately with chest pain that had spread to his jaw, but that a stress test showed nothing. His wife had tried to convince him to stay home today but once he ate something he felt better.
It didn't take him long to fix the fence and the door, but the door is going to need to have some wood shaved off when he comes back in two weeks due to the warping of the doorway. Luckily he was able to widen the hole the deadbolt went into since the foundation had made it uneven and sealed it shut. He had to remove it and put it back in again so that the same problem wouldn't happen all over again.
Carmella was thrilled at the chance to run around in the back yard and took off like a jet over the pine-straw-covered terrain. She wasn't satisfied with chewing up the pinecones but just had to eat them like a bad immitation of Yule Gibbons and his "going green" diet of high fiber which looked like twigs. At least I knew that she wouldn't have a problem with irregularity any time soon. That really gives new meaning to the concept of recycling. Meanwhile, the remainder of her food sat uneaten in her dish in the kitchen.
The repairman accidentally knocked down a shirt I had hung up on a hanger in the livingroom and I picked it up off the floor to get it out of range of Carmella's deadly micro-snout with needle-sharp teeth and radar for exactly the things I don't want her to discover. She seemed to come out of nowhere and suddenly took a flying leap about 4 and a half feet into the air, landing with a giant thud on her butt and then falling backward. She was definitely no cat. The repairman burst out laughing, and Carmella shot him an unimpressed look as if to say, "Oh please...like you've never fallen flat on your ass before."
The repairman remarked, "You clumsy dog", still highly amused by Carmella's antics, and Carmella looked back at him as if to say, " Oh yea, and you're a regular Mikaiel Barishnikov, I'm sure..."
Then it was back to eating pinecones again until the humid air took its toll and she came back inside panting and relaxed. She draped herself like a wet, limp towel on the livingroom carpet with front feet out in front and back legs splayed, flattened out like some sort of trophy hide used as a throw rug.
The repairman finished his work, said goodbye and left, and although Carmella had gotten quite a bit of exercise she didn't stay down for long and began to look around the house to see what kind of mischief she could get into. It wasn't long before she lost interest in her chew toys and turned her attention towards sneaking off while I was on the computer and not looking. She has been known to sneak off into a corner of a different room and pee just enough to cause an irritating odor, not really peeing because she has to pee but more the way male dogs do to mark their territory. Other than that she's pretty much house-broken. The thing is I don't know how long it will be before I can totally trust her as she has the habit of defacing property on the sly like a teenaged tagger sneaking behind a building to do his subversive artwork.
A few hours of watching her like a hawk was wearing me out and it wasn't even 1:00 O'clock yet. Then it was time to go to the Farmer's market, a people milling around like ants in every isle in preparation for the Labor Day weekend's cooking. The Bavarian rye bread at the Dekalb Farmer's Market is to die for, among other things, so I guess navigating my buggy around an obstacle course such as that one was worth it.
Carmella was ready and waiting for my return and nearly trampled my groceries to be let out again but then she couldn't decide whether she wanted to stay out or in since this time I was too tired to go with her.
After letting her out again briefly I put her back in the kichen so that I could take care of some things on Etsy. I was happy to find that someone had bought two ad slots on my blog. I got two notifications in my e-mail, and went in and approved them. I had begun to think I'd have a better chance at winning Publisher's Clearinghouse, so this has restored my faith that maybe people really aren't bored into a coma and that others may be lurking and just waiting for someone else to buy a slot first. OK, now I just know that I'm going to wake up tomorrow and find all 18 more slots accounted for! Come on Lucky number 18! Hey, it ain't Daily Candy, but those Google alerts come daily or thereabouts, and it's not like a thousand other blogs out there.
I've been trying to think of a fun blog giveaway or contest. If you guys have any ideas of one that might spark more participation please post your ideas. Maybe who can guess how many times Carmella stumbled today (just kidding).
All kidding aside; I noticed a change in Carmella tonight just a few minutes ago as she lay down and stopped moving; the jerking started again, but this time it was not only her right front leg and shoulder, but it was way worse and I saw it also where both back legs connect to her loin. I was letting her lie on my bed while watching TV and she began jerking so much it resembled someone with cerebral palsey, so much that she was shaking the bed. Now I'm really worried! It figures it would have to be Labor Day weekend and three more full days before any of these vet's offices are open. Tonight I was really beginning to worry that it would turn into a full-blown seizure. I hope her activity today was not too much and that it didn't cause neurological disease-progression. Something needs to happen soon!
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