And Yet Another Christmas...

 Another Christmas arrives.  All the gifts have been wrapped.  Sometimes it is difficult to think of something I am excited to give my kids as gifts.  They are grown, living their own lives with established households, but I still wish to find something that surprises them or makes them happy.  Some years it has been an envelope of money with a couple of small gifts to unwrap - college years, post-divorce years, broke years (for them or me).  Sometimes all of us are broke - together!  

There have been years when none of us felt much like celebrating Christmas, but we always manage to do something together.  December is a busy month for us - two birthdays, Christmas and New Year's Eve.  When the kids were growing up, December would usher in about a six month cash deficit.  It was always worth it.

As for the supreme beings, there are two red Christmas pears. They get apples, pears and carrots at other times of the year, but I like to make sure they have a little something for Christmas morning.  The two wolf sisters are getting new stuffed wiener dog toys.  Both dogs seem to greatly enjoy carrying the toys in their mouth, chewing (mauling) to make them squeak.  The squeaker is eventually torn out of the wiener dog, along with all of the stuffing.  Then the empty pelt, with head attached, is carried about until eventually the entire toy has been ripped into tiny pieces.  This is the third set of stuffed wiener dogs in 2021.  

This year has been both long and very short.  I had surgery on both knees in March.  I had no idea what difficulty and suffering that surgery would bring.  I am genuinely glad that is all in the rapidly receding past.  I am able to do everything I could do before the surgery, most of it without terrible pain, so I consider it a success.  It was genuinely terrible there for awhile.  I hope these bionic knees outlive me because I certainly will not be able to go through that again.   

I have continued to wear a mask though I have had all three vaccinations for covid.  My son, my sister in law, and my 98 year old stepfather have had covid.  My son was not old enough for the vaccine yet when he contracted covid last year.  Now he has had covid and two shots, so I hope that protects him through the winter and beyond.  My daughter is careful to wear a mask, though both my son and my daughter are increasingly put at risk in their places of work by people not wearing masks, and countless others who are not vaccinated.  That the issue of vaccination and masks has become politicized in this country defies basic common sense.  To what end are so many folks being radicalized against their own best interests?  It is tragic. 

There has been a thousand awful things in the world this year.  Sometimes it is hard to keep my balance.  I have to remind myself of the million good things in my own life.  I continue to be healthy and strong enough to live in the country.  I am capable of tending to the horses though the older I am, the more creative I have to be when moving sacks of feed, or mineral blocks, or hay bales.  I have two beautiful black German Shepherd companions that drive me crazy only some of the time.  

I have never lived with two dogs inside the house before.  They are very smart dogs and very honest dogs.  They understand not to get in the trash or destroy the sofa.  Most of the time I do not even have to say a word, just a gesture.  I do not know if it is peculiar to Shepherds or if all dogs behave the same, but at every event throughout the day involving a doorway, these two silently glide around me.  I am never 100% certain which dog is here or there as their movements are fluid and graceful and constant - weaving beside and behind me.  They remind me of dolphins slipping through water with zero resistance and neutral gravity - graceful, circling and constant.  Since they have to be wherever I am, this behavior occurs whenever I leave one room for another, or leave the house, or come into the house.  They must have a common ancestor with dolphins somewhere far back in time. 

Before the year is out, I must thank once again the people who helped me through those long weeks of recovery after the surgery, when I was all but bed-ridden.  My neighbor, Kathyrne, who took care of the horses for week after long week.  She came to sit with me every single day for a time, keeping me from going stir crazy or feeling too sorry for myself.   

I am grateful to the people who looked after my dogs.  Mattie was able to come home after about a month but poor baby Kenzie had to stay at boarding school for months.  

I am grateful to Gary Bacon, who drove from Emporia to Topeka to my house to deliver a prescription for pain medication when I made a mistake in planning ahead!  

I am grateful to my kids who came to see me in the hospital.  My daughter was commuting 200 miles a day to work at the time and my son had to come from KCMO.  My daughter stayed with me for several nights after I came home while still managing her full time job.  

My next door neighbors came the minute I called for something I could not do myself outside.  

I am grateful to all of those incredibly dedicated medical personnel, from the nurses to the housekeepers and the physical therapists.  They work long hours and put up with all manner of behavior.  It is also a very physically demanding job, helping other human beings in and out of bed, in and out of wheelchairs, in and out of the bathrooms.  I could not do such work.

I am grateful to every friend who called or visited or kept me in their prayers.  I had been in the hospital with the birth of my kids but I was not ill or helpless then.  The knee surgery was the first time I had been "hospitalized".  It was about as much fun as you would imagine if someone chopped out both of your knees and replaced them with metal and plastic, then left you half naked and helpless in the care of strangers.  When they made me get out of bed or sit in chairs, ALL sized for much taller human beings than me, my feet would dangle in the air.  It was so excruciatingly painful that I would have given ALL the nuclear launch codes to the Russians, had they asked.  I had no idea of the capacity for physical suffering a human body contains.  I understand that there are people who endure such pain and suffering for long stretches, and many with no hope of recovery.  It was profoundly humbling. I am very grateful that there were no complications with the surgery and I can walk now without pain.  I am grateful to a very talented surgeon.

So, another year passes in the peace and quiet of my humble little home here in the bend of the little prairie creek.  My children are healthy and self-supporting, smart and funny.  My companion animals are fine.  I am fine.  I had a wonderful Christmas with the two most favorite human beings of my entire life.  I am greatly blessed. 

Wishing peace on earth and goodwill toward (some) men - 
from the Crazy Woman, the Supreme Beings, and the wolf dogs of Spiritcreek Farm.

The best photo of them side by side.  Too bad it's through a dog-smeared storm window!

How wonderful life is when you're with your best friend and all the world is green.

  

Living With the Descendants of Wolves

 My days are now spent in companionship with two black wolves.  Well, they are not genuinely wolves but everyone knows that dogs are descended from wolves - and German Shepherds still resemble wolves - and likely still act somewhat like wolves. 

Mattie is 4 years old and her half sister Kenzie is 1 year old.  They are related by having the same incredible sire.  German Shepherds all share some traits - the main one being high intelligence.  Their genetics dictate that they work with their human being, checking in every little bit to make sure their work is progressing and acceptable to the human.  So, even when endeavoring in an action not sanctioned - such as chasing the horses - German Shepherds turn to look to their human.  Of course, I am yelling and cussing like a sailor.  The dogs apparently assume I am exceedingly happy with their effort.  

While so alike in countless ways, the sisters are very different in personality.  In the house, Mattie is ladylike, careful, obedient, meticulous in her manners.  She does not make a mess when she eats or drinks.  She can be sound asleep by my feet but if I so much as move a muscle, she is instantly awake and on her feet, ready to travel to the kitchen or whatever adventure I have planned in my superior human wisdom.  She is beautiful.  Her face and ears are more foxy and more refined than her sister.

Kenzie is big, raw boned, and as gangly as a timber wolf.  Her ears are absolutely German Shepherd ears - enormous.  Kenzie eats noisily, and sloppily laps up water, leaving the floor wet in an enormous area around the bowl.  Everything she does is head-on, nose first, matter of fact.  Though she knows I am supposed to be the boss, in her estimation I am absolutely not qualified.  She does acquiesce to me but never immediately. Everything is accomplished in her time and choosing.  If I am slow to get up in the morning, she has no problem sticking her cold nose on my foot or arm or whatever body part she can reach.  If I am ever inattentive, she will flat-out poke me with her nose and crowd into my space because, as a human, I am quite stupid and slow - maybe one of the slowest humans she has ever encountered.  

If Kenzie is lying awake on the floor and I get up from my chair, she does not move.  She will not turn her head.  She will not even move her eyes toward me.  It is perfectly acceptable to Kenzie for me to step over her long, sleek body.  She simply lies there, entirely relaxed.  When Mattie is asleep, I try to move quietly, try not to disturb her.  But at the first movement, Mattie is on her feet and out of my way, ready to follow.  

If they were allowed their freedom, they would wander far from home.  Mattie has followed the creek westward several times, being away from home longer each time.  I assumed she was exploring further each time.  I would actively look for her, driving for miles, calling for her.  Too many dangers for a black wolf dog!  Chasing cattle could get her shot on sight.  There are hunters who set traps for fur-bearing animals in this county.  There are bob cats, and a remote possibility of a cougar. Traffic, coyotes, old barbed wire tangles everywhere along the creek and in the timber.  She could not be allowed to wander.  Sadly, it meant she had to be tied up if I could not be outside with her.  This was very unfortunate and made me feel bad for her.  Finally, this year, I had a five-foot chain link fence erected behind the house, 40 feet by 60 feet.  It is enough room for the wolf sisters to run and play safely.  It also prevents the dogs from herding the horses out of the corral and into the pasture.

Kenzie seems content to stay within sight of the house.  She will follow Mattie if I let both of them out at the same time, but if Kenzie is alone, she stays close by.  I was watching her from the front window the other day.  She was a good forty yards away, following some intriguing scent she had found in the leaves.  I wondered just how sensitive her hearing was.  I spoke her name in a very quiet voice.  A human in another room in the house would not have heard me.  Kenzie heard and immediately stopped to give me the German Shepherd stare:  body absolutely still - ears and eyes hyper-focused on me.  I quietly said "Come, Kenzie." She heard, all that distance, through the glass, and came running.  Amazing.

Mattie is convinced the two horses are dangerous killers that must be kept far away from the house and certainly away from the human.  She will race along the corral, hackles up, teeth bared, ferociously barking.  If the horses ignore this horrible warning, she will dip under the fence to chase the killer equines away.  She goes right to their back hooves, snapping and snarling.  I practically perish each time this happens.  One kick and Mattie would be terribly damaged or dead.  The horses are peace- loving creatures and apparently understand that the pain-in-the-ass dogs live here, too.  They tolerate the dogs with remarkable good grace, but their ancient mustang genes certainly recognize the threat of wolves at their heels.  They rush away from Mattie, tails high, manes flying.  I do everything in my power to prevent this from happening but sometimes Mattie gets away.

Alone, Kenzie apparently wants to be friends with the horses, not chasing or barking at them.  If Mattie is barking and threatening, then Kenzie will half-heartedly join in.  I saw her hanging on Wally's tail the other day, and almost passed out.  Wally amazingly accepted this foolishness as play and ignored the dog.  Mattie thinks she is protecting me but Kenzie would not care if the horses kill me.  Poor Mattie has to watch confined in the fence when I go into the corral to tend the supreme beings.  Mattie paces and whines, and makes the most remarkable noises of distress as she watches horses and human walk toward the barn, side-by-side.  To Mattie it must seem as if the human will be killed right before her very eyes while she is helplessly constrained by a mesh of wire and metal poles.   

People say things, like, "I'll bet no one will give you any trouble with those two Shepherds here!"  I do not know what would happen if someone actually tried to cause some harm.  These are two gentle, loving beings who do not know yet that humans can be mean and dangerous.  They are sensible dogs, not prone to dog hysteria or senseless barking.  They rarely bark in the house and never in the car.  If they bark at night, it is because there is some critter - probably a host of critters - moving about under the cover of darkness.  I guess if a maniac tries to come uninvited into the house, we will all find out together what the Shepherds will do.

Otherwise, if I am at the computer, or painting, or watching tv, the dogs are asleep at my feet.  Their quiet satisfaction in simply being fills my home with peace and tranquility.  If I could still hike the creek and the prairie, we would go happily, as a small pack - they the descendants of wolves and me the descendant of hunters.  As dogs, they retain the most valuable quality of wolves, that being their love and loyalty to their family.

Mattie

Kenzie

Baby Mattie

Baby Kenzie

Wolf Sisters playing tug of war