1. We took Nehli to the vet the other day and I don't know if veterinary surgeries have the same connotations for animals that hospitals do for some people, but as soon as we got in the door she laid down on the mat, all four legs spread out, and would not budge. She reminded me of one of those bearskin mats that used to grace décor back in the 60s or 70s. Now, she had never ever been in this veterinary surgery before, having had her jabs in a surgery many hours drive from here, but she seemed to know what this was all about as soon as she entered that door and she wasn't having a bar of it.
Nor did she behave much better in the consulting room. She refused to sit or lie and when put on the floor she immediately hid under my chair, only emerging to wrap her lead around my legs and hide under the chair again.
Why do we have so much success in choosing dogs that absolutely hate the vet and always misbehave? And why do we always choose appointments when you can guarantee there will be perfectly behaved pets in the waiting room just to put us to further shame?
2. I bought a card for my mother for her birthday. Just a basic card with a tiny booklet about the relationship between mothers and daughters. Nothing too fancy. Bought it from the Mum section of the gift cards. So why is there a little sticker on the back saying not to be given to children under three? How many children do you know who are under three who are mothers? And even if you decided to give the card to a daughter rather than a mother, it's a card. There's nothing other than card for a child to chew on, no musical electronics (see, I said it wasn't too fancy - unlike the card that The Most Adorable Granddaughter#3 got for her birthday that sang Merry Christmas or some such song - not by me I might add), no badges, no embellishments apart from a paper booklet, nothing. Are we going crazy with our warnings? Methinks so.
3. There's a new trend in landscaping that is sweeping across New Zealand. It's the fashion of replacing lawn with straw but I'm not sure this trend is here to stay. Pros: requires no watering, fertiliser, or mowing; low-maintenance; no respecter of persons (regardless of income, status, whatever, everyone can have one); it's dirt cheap. Cons: scratchy underfoot; dusty (since there's nothing to keep the soil in its place); pets become covered in bits of stray straw that they like to bring inside; and, it may be difficult to maintain once the weather turns cooler. Still, for once, it's nice to be up there with the latest fashion.
Nor did she behave much better in the consulting room. She refused to sit or lie and when put on the floor she immediately hid under my chair, only emerging to wrap her lead around my legs and hide under the chair again.
Why do we have so much success in choosing dogs that absolutely hate the vet and always misbehave? And why do we always choose appointments when you can guarantee there will be perfectly behaved pets in the waiting room just to put us to further shame?
2. I bought a card for my mother for her birthday. Just a basic card with a tiny booklet about the relationship between mothers and daughters. Nothing too fancy. Bought it from the Mum section of the gift cards. So why is there a little sticker on the back saying not to be given to children under three? How many children do you know who are under three who are mothers? And even if you decided to give the card to a daughter rather than a mother, it's a card. There's nothing other than card for a child to chew on, no musical electronics (see, I said it wasn't too fancy - unlike the card that The Most Adorable Granddaughter#3 got for her birthday that sang Merry Christmas or some such song - not by me I might add), no badges, no embellishments apart from a paper booklet, nothing. Are we going crazy with our warnings? Methinks so.
3. There's a new trend in landscaping that is sweeping across New Zealand. It's the fashion of replacing lawn with straw but I'm not sure this trend is here to stay. Pros: requires no watering, fertiliser, or mowing; low-maintenance; no respecter of persons (regardless of income, status, whatever, everyone can have one); it's dirt cheap. Cons: scratchy underfoot; dusty (since there's nothing to keep the soil in its place); pets become covered in bits of stray straw that they like to bring inside; and, it may be difficult to maintain once the weather turns cooler. Still, for once, it's nice to be up there with the latest fashion.
4. "I want apricots," The Most Adorable Granddaughter#5 announces without fail each time she arrives at our house. Which is probably just as well because I rarely have anything exciting in my cupboards (and had given the last of the birthday cake to Sons#4 and #5 for their lunches today before remembering that I'd promised to save some for The Most Adorable Granddaughter#4.)Today she ate half a dozen dried apricots, half a dozen cornmeal pikelets with maple syrup, half a banana, and then, "I want apricots." In the one to one and a half hours that The Most Adorable Granddaughters#4 and#5 were here they were either eating food or helping to make it. Oh, and The Most Adorable Granddaughter#5 also ate raw egg and cornmeal before spitting it out (in case she's not feeling well at a later date and Son#2 and DIL#2 want to know why - although the apricots could be to blame too.) I'm thinking it's time to plant an apricot tree although by the time it starts producing she'll probably have moved onto some other food delight.
Comments