Some Updates

First update is in regards to Wolfie: Daily is beside himself with grief. I have never seen a cat so depressed and lethargic. The first couple of days, he tried desperately to escape the house. I think he was absolutely certain he would find Wolfie outside somewhere. Then he gave that up and commenced wandering from room to room plaintively calling. Those two cats have been together every day for the past 6 or 7 years. And now Daily is miserably lonely. That makes me very sad.

How is Kira handling it? She doesn't seem to care one way or another. It's like she's the princess and it's all about her. What's one cat more or less? But that may not be fair. She keeps checking on Daily. She licks him on the head and lightly nibbles him with her front teeth. So, maybe I'm not reading her right. Maybe she really does miss Wolfie. It just doesn't show the same way.

Second update is regarding Kira. When we got her a year ago, she had major physical and psychological issues. For the first three months, we had to clean up after her every single day, sometimes twice a day. It was like she didn't know how to use the outdoors for her bathroom needs. Now, she is so meticulous that she uses the same part of the yard every day. And she will come to us and sit in front of us and look us in the eyes when she needs to go outside. She is very smart. When we got her, she weighed 58 pounds, and her lips were white and the lower ones hung down significantly. Now, she weighs 63 pounds...it doesn't seem like a huge weight gain and it certainly isn't (the vet thinks she should weigh about 90 pounds), but there have been other changes. We feed her four cups of food a day, the amount called for to feed a 90 pound dog...she eats it all, but to no avail. She simply has a super fast metabolism (for which I am jealous). However, she is now more muscular, and much stronger, and her lips are back in place and the right color. Her coat is beautiful. She holds her head up and wags her tail often. She is definitely OUR dog now. We have cleared up the nightly barking and whining (actually, I think the cats helped her with that by keeping her company). She comes immediately when called. She gets a lot of exercise, and does not spend all her time racing from front door to back door and barking at everyone who passes. When we are all home together, she goes to her cushion in the living room, and stays there content just to be with us. What a beautiful dog. And probably the gentlest dog I have ever known. The other day, I put my whole hand in her mouth and she just licked me. I would NEVER have dreamed of doing that with Ziggy. If I had, I would not be playing the piano any more. So, Kira has made herself very much a part of our lives. She is amazing.

Third update: my bald eagles. I believe that the bald eagles I saw in the nest near our house at the end of last year moved away and started building a nest south of Alexandria in December or January. The nest has been empty. And now it is probably a little late in the season for any eagles to move into it. Occasionally, I see a big beautiful bald eagle flying overhead, but I am not so sure it is one of the two I saw on the nest at the end of last year. This morning, on the drive in, I looked up at the big nest and thought I saw the outline of an eagle. Yes, traffic was thick, but I could not help but look again, and there she was, perched on the side of the nest, as big and beautiful a bald eagle as she should be. What is it about those birds??? I absolutely love them. I don't know if she was checking the nest out as a possible new aerie...but wouldn't it be NICE???

Fourth update: the continuing saga of "Operation Project Room." It is so much easier to move around that room now. It is actually a pleasant place to spend time, on the computer, playing with beads, painting water colors, looking out the window at all the "city wildlife" (squirrels, birds, chipmunks, occasional hawks and eagles, foxes, and even a couple of times a deer or two!). I like it. Of course, I still have about eight file boxes to go through, but I'm not feeling so stressed about the paperwork now.

And now I find myself reading and playing the piano. Right now, I am reading Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dynamiter" in paper format (not on the pony). I didn't even know he had written such a book. But I am enjoying it, even with the rather dense writing.
I'm also playing the piano again. I had it tuned last week, and now that the house is staying clean (with Sara's care), I feel like playing. I'm still working on the Handel Sarabande and today picked up my copy of the Moonlight Sonata. I'd like to relearn that. Interestingly, the first time I played it, I did a MUCH better job than the next four or five times. That's strange.

Ok, so I'm really rambling. I'll quit now.