Old dogs

After two cold rainy days, today was glorious as Ohio late spring and early summer days can be, so the dogs, my husband and I got a chance to spend some quality time in the yard.

My husband brought out his new fancy camera and snapped some photos of the elderly dogs, which I think capture their personalities to a "T."

There's Geni, the eternal street dog, with the sheepish, apologetic look that says she's afraid she's failed to do exactly what you want her to do, although she can't exactly figure out what that might be. She was not the brightest one in her litter, that's for sure.

And then there's Rusty, the alert, smart dog, keenly aware that the neighbor's male dog, several years his junior, was prancing around in his yard. About a year after we'd moved into this house, when there was no division between our yard and the neighbor's, Geni and Rusty teamed up to attack her dog when I turned my back on them for one second (isn't that how they always say it goes with these things?). The fight was ugly (as dog fights tend to be), and all three came out a bit mangled, but they all learned to leave each other pretty much alone (although Geni and Rusty will bark at him now and then from the safety of our deck).

That doesn't mean Rusty has lost his desire to show the neighbor's big black dog who's the boss in this neighborhood, even though he's a viejolo of 14 dog years, all of 73 in human years (older even than anyone in our immediate families!).

Earlier, inside, my husband snapped this picture of Rusty in a pose he only regales us with. This is his rare, goofy, puppy playful pose that says, "I may be altogether psycho, but I trust you implicitly right now," or maybe he's just saying, "I'm a cute dog, rub my belly!" Either way, how could I help having a pasión de amor for this handsome, if very old, mutt?

I can feel the days slowing down as we move toward summer. Not only am I done with grading, but I also can spread out the days I need to work on the Monster a little more before I get it in shape for the defense version. That means I was able to take a long nap yesterday, and a shorter one today. That is a luxury I truly appreciate.

That's when I'm reminded that life, like the proverbial river, will always settle back into a calmer flow, if you give it time, and if you have faith. Just like Rusty, all it takes is trust and hope that the belly of life will get rubbed, sooner or later.