Haley's Corner

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

She Came To Take Me


On our way home from the dog park tonight, my SK was playing a song over and over again. Appropriately……the lyrics did not make any sense to me. So as I sat in my spot in the back seat …the following words came to me.

At one point my SK looked back at me and smiled…as if she knew. I was re-writing the words.


She Came To Take Me (Chicago)
Re-written by Woof-yeah Haley (Sufjan Stevens)
-------------------------
I fell in love again
All things ball.
All things ball.

Drove to the dog store
A new ball.
A new ball.

We brought our old balls with us.
I don’t mind.
I don’t mind.

I could har-dly wait
to have the new ball
by my side
------------
chorus

She came to ta-ake me
To the store.
For new balls.

To the store she ta-akes me
All things me.
And new balls.

I had my mind set
My new ball.
My new ball.

She didn’t buy it
My new ball.
My new ball.
--------

I rode to the dog park
In the car ….with side kick
I slept in the back seat
I don’t mind.
I don’t mind.

I was in love with the ball.
Left behind.
Left behind.

She made a bi- ig mistake
Leaving my
new ball behind.

chorus (but different)

She came to take me
To the store.
For new balls.

But really she to-ok me
For some food.
My dog food.

I had my mind set
My new ball.
I did not know.

She did not buy it
My new ball.
I let it go.

Instrumental break
--------------------

If I was whining
In the car ….with side kick.
It was for the new ball
For myself.
You understand.

She's made a lot of mistakes
She's made a lot of mistakes
She's made a lot of mistakes
Nothing new balls would not erase.

-----chorus but different

We went together
To the store.
To the store.

To buy some do-og food
For me cause.
I eat and grow.

I had my mind set
My new ball.
I did not know.

I really li-ike food
My old balls.
Will be good.


Repeat and fade.
--------

The good news is…that when we got home…my faithful and loving sidekick gave me a new ball from a closet I had not been paying attention to! Turns out I have an entire HUGE BAG of new balls!!!! Good sidekick. Good girl.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Put A Little Sock In It.


Song stuck...take two.

Boy oh boy, the older I get...the more I realize that my dog brain is delicately susceptable to what comes out of my side kick's mouth. Music more than anything. Pry because my SK is addicted to the stuff. That is not a bad thing mind you....we love music in our house! But lately all I hear are two things coming from the SK.....

"Haley? Where did this sock come from? Have you been in the laundry room again?"

And "Hold up, wait a minute, put a little love in it."

And then she fades off for a second and then it starts all over again!!!!!! "Hold up, wait a minute, put a little love in it." "Hold up, wait a minute, put a little love in it."

Again and again. Over and over. I'm afraid that my SK's brain is stuck. Is that possible? Is it stuck on socks? Because I would understand that! Not quite sure what it is stuck on exactly. Either way.....should I be worried?

I wonder if seeing socks makes that silly song cycle start? OR...I wonder if the stuck song makes her suddenly see all of the socks that I bring to her to play with ...differently? I mean, what am I suppose to hold up exactly? And wait a minute? Wait a minute for what? Wait a minute for me to find another sock from the laundry room and bring it to her?

OK.

Without ever actually hearing this song before myself...I believe that my SK really did hear this song. For real. Somewhere. Sometime....probably recently.

I stare at her while she sings it. Yesterday she looked at me and she said to me "I know. I know. I only heard it once even....and it was a "ring tone" at that!"

Ring tone? Now she's hearing rings? What about whistles? What about bells? Is she hearing bells too?

Here is a remedy that I have thought up for ...for my SK. In all my love for her...a little tribute to all the hold ups and wait a minutes...


Hold that ball up
or put a little sock in it
Throw up that ball
Or another sock will appear near it

(and in case anyone's wondering...yes. Yes I have been in the laundry room. AGAIN!"

Monday, August 20, 2007

Wow. That was a loooooooong nap!

I’m teasing….I really didn’t just wake up from a two year long nap Although sometimes I FEEL like I have slept for a very long time like a couple light years or an hour or something. Like after the dog park. I come home. Drink water. Fall asleep. And when I wake up, it feels like I have been asleep for days. Or at least a few seconds. At least for a long time rather than a short time.

Hmmmm, not quite sure I have a clear cut concept of what time is. Or why I feel it necessary to end that last sentence with prepositions. Like that word? Prep-o-si-tion.

I think, pretty much, that I get the gist of time. Like the timeliness of when my dish should be filled is important; when we should go for a ride is really important; when my sidekick and I should go to bed (which is not as easy as taking a rawhide from a puppy mind you…my sidekick stays up way toooooooo laaaaaaaate) anyway…..this is ultra important.

The important things are easy to time because they appear in my dog psyche as urges and cravings. Things that should just be. But if you asked me what I have done over the past couple of years…while I haven’t been blogging….or has it been more like three days??….I don’t know.

Who I have met, the treats I have missed, how many balls we’ve left at various dog parks (don’t make me go there btw…it could bring us all to tears)…If I had to remember I couldn’t do it!

For example…I just woke up. I know. Shocking isn’t it? And I cannot recall whether I just woke up from my morning nap or if it is that time of the day when I am waiting for my sidekick to come home. You know…..from her time away from me. Which btw, I assume is spent hanging out in her own “side kick” type of dog park. Which I guess that would be a Side Kick park. That just sounds weird. What do side kicks do when they do not have us there to play with them? I don’t get it.

Anyway….memory loss may be adversely in relation to just how important it is to remember something)

Anyway…sheesh…..I feel longwinded on this one. That may prove in and of itself that I have indeed been gone for a long time! Anyway…Ops. I lost my point.

Oh yeah. Time. Which oddly enough, spelled backwards…is emit. Emit is a great word. I emit things all the time. Mostly to my sidekick. And most often in the form of trance-like communication. Like “goooooooo to the cabinetttttt and get a rawwwwwhiiiiiiiiiide for meeeeeeeeeee” or “get up, get up, it’s time to get up.” or “whyyyyyy are you petting that other dog? I am the only dog in your wooooooooooorld.”

You know…I like to keep it simple.

Maybe I should think of time in more familiar dog friendly terms. Like, for instance rawhide terms. For example:

Let’s say that the sleep we sleep at night with our sidekicks when everything is dark and the covers are warm and you can possibly share a pillow now and then… or take up most of the room down at the end of the bed for a few hours before being rudely awakened to move over……let’s say that this kind of sleep is like one of those big white rawhides. You know the ones. They are mysteriously shaped like bones? All twisted in the middle and knotted at the ends. It takes time to soften and chip away at this type of rawhide. Time passes while we chew and gnaw. Maybe even take a break in the middle to do whatever. But as most of us know. These take a while to get through. That measure of time right there is a long time.

Next we have medium time. Medium time would be our bigger flat rawhide ‘chip’. We can often get through one of these in one sitting but it may take some effort. Softening the edges, taking little chunks away until finally we have a pliable gummy outer covering with a somewhat resistant middle…which with experience, we know, will eventually gum up and become manageable only then having the potential to get stuck in the roof of your mouth if not sliding down the windpipe only to make us cough and choke loudly upsetting the SK’s!

Puppies… do not attempt these medium times on your own. There is a certain feeling
of panic that you may encounter when the rawhide gets stuck in the roof of your mouth. So puppies…just to be safe… DO NOT attempt to eat one of these medium time until you are the ripe age of 10 months or so. Maybe better make it a year.

Next is short time. In case you are wondering. Short time is NOT what it is taking to read this entire blog entry. WHOOF! But stick with me here dogs. A good and well rounded point is right around the corner. Sitting there with my favorite gunky tennis ball.

A short time. Let’s imagine that one of those little rawhide sticks your SK gives you when she is in one of her ‘funny haha’ moods. For her benefit, you wag your tail in a happy gesture, lie down, stick the tiny piece of hyde between your paws and in five licks, three nice chomps and two gnaws and your done.

And that my friends…..is time. Well, my version of what time is anyway. I have heard many a SK say that we dogs have no concept of time. And I wonder how they could think that. I mean…we are all alive and breathing and living moment to moment. SK’s and dogs both feel things. Emotionally and physically. We worry. We feel excitement, joy, pain and relief. How would it be possible that if we can experience all of these things, like one another.. that we would not feel the affects of time as well?

On that note. I’m out of time. I’ve timed out. Time to go. I feel sleepy. And hungry. My time continuum is fuzzy. Is it morning yet? Is my SK coming home soon? Ops…wait….there she is at the door. Better get off Lappy and go lie down right in front of the door.

She likes it when she has to step over me to come in to the house.
:) Haley