Stumbling blocks

We all have our strengths and weaknesses, our cleared hurtles and our stumbling blocks, I guess that's true regardless if your dog or a person.

Cadie is an urban dog, and it takes a lot to rattle her. She loves to ride the elevator, she sticks her nose in the tiny little gap of the door, and sniffs frantically as we go up and down, trying to get a feel for what the neighbors are having for dinner.

Cadie also love the subway. Inevitably she finds a person or two who will make as fuss over her, and that is after all what she loves most. Also the subway usually takes her out to see her friend Toby, and means a good romp in C's backyard.

Cadie doesn't seem to notice traffic at all, I don't think she ever did to be honest with you. She simply trots along, confident in the knowledge that those noisy cars won't bother her.

The one thing Cadie is afraid of though is being inside one of those cars. As a small puppy of 5 Lbs. she would curl up in my lap and sleep, occasionally she would stretch, and reposition herself, but then she would go back to sleep almost right away. And at the end of the day maybe that's the root of it, maybe she's only comfortable in the car when she can sit in my lap. At any rate, Cadie is not as excited about Hermione as I am.

I have tried to create a positive experience for her, putting her in the car and taking her to the park where she can play. I even tried taking her to C's place, my mum's place, and new places, but still I can't seem to get Cadie excited about the possibility of a car ride.

Admittedly I'm not a good driver, and maybe that's what's upsetting her, she fears for her life. I couldn't enjoy a car ride if I thought I was going to die. But...I didn't think dogs could fear for their lives...does anyone know the answer to this, are dogs aware of their own mortality?

But I digress. Last night on our way home from the park Cadie was accosted by a Cadie-look-alike. They sniffed hello and then the Cadie-look-alike hoped into the car, and drove off into the sunset. I turned to Cadie and said:

"see. That's what you need to do."

Cadie turned and gave me a look that said:

"don't pull on that thread. Aren't we having a nice time here?"

So I dropped the subject, and we continued on home. I guess no one is perfect, and I still have an advantage over Cadie in that I can pick her up and put her in the car if I want her in there.

Plans and Alterations

Moving is for the birds. I went to go and grab Cadie running harness today so that we could go for a jog, only to discover that I have packed it. I have narrowed it down to two possible boxes, but it would still take me a good 45 minutes to find it, so I have decided that Cadie will be not be coming for a jog now until after the move. Also, my home looks like a bomb has gone off here. I know that housekeeping isn’t my strength, but this is ridiculous. I took Toby’s mother down to my new apartment tonight to let her see what it looks like, and much to my despair, the new place has a very similar appearance to the old one. The bones of the new place are much nicer, but it is still dirty and has a lot of stuff sitting in weird places, just like my current apartment. I just feel like I’m starting to lose my mind. I mean it’s so bad that today I cleaned my desk to try to calm myself down.

Moving takes so much effort that poor Cadie isn’t getting the attention she needs either, I’m really anxious for the move to be done and over with. Things are going so much better at work, it would be nice to get the home life humming again too. Then I could really lower my blood pressure, get my head back together and start to work on the other problems in my life. One step at a time I guess.

One of the things that I didn’t include in yesterday’s blog was a close call that Cadie and I had. While crossing the street, with the right of way Cadie and I were almost mowed down by a crazed driver. I saw her speed up as she came flying towards us, I would have been safe no matter what, but it was close with Cadie. I gave her leash a good strong pull, and the crazy woman missed her by inches. I didn’t mention it yesterday because it upset me to the point that I was nearly crying, but now I’m much more angry about it, so I can handle talking about it. All I would like to say is that had Cadie not been on a leash I wouldn’t still have her with me. Still I don’t think we’ll be crossing that street again any time soon.