She Loves That Wild Man

Blogging Friends.... Sorry for posting only once last week!! It was not intentional. My excuse? I have been insanely busy of late!! Besides taking up my still Top Secret quest--more on that later!!--I am fighting a head cold!! I feel so out of it--as though I've been drugged--despite never having swallowed any over-the-counter medications!! Yuck. I am way overdue for a story, and, they have been freely accumulating this month like some soft, white snowfall!! So!! Here goes....

Hope. To the pessimist, with his glass half empty, this is a vacant, meaningless word. Correct? But, to the optimist, with her glass half full, the word "hope" springs forth endless possibilities!! Well!! Experts say that people are either one extreme, or the other. You cannot be both. But, I tend to disagree. Why? Because, according to my sister, I am "a pessimistic optimist". Isn't that an oxymoron? Perhaps. Nonetheless, I am a mix between both pessimist and optimist. An unwanted shortcoming, which, we are working on. Yes, we. Because, apparently, when someone is as flawed as me, she needs a ton of support. Am I going somewhere with this? Or should I just take a "sick day" and sleep my hours away? No, I am good, I am good. I'm noshing on potato chips, sipping 7-Up, my system is loaded with herbs, plus "brain juices" are flowing!! What more do I need? This is only a head cold. God will heal me!! Now. To the story. Rose is a full-fledged optimist. Forever hopeful, that girl!! Not because she is a canine. No. I knew this miniature Dachshund once--named Ivy--who was seemingly a pessimist. Her muzzle prematurely graying, everything terrified Ivy. Poor girl. But my baby? Whenever food is concerned--even if it's hazardous to her health--Rose bounds toward our kitchen, anticipating a snack!! Forever hopeful!! We own this Audubon Society singing bird clock. Every hour, our ears hear a different feathered creature. Occasionally, when three 'o'clock "chirps", Rose opens her deep colossal brown eyes, looks at me from my bed, and telepathically asks: "Aren't we gonna walk, Mama?" Forever hopeful!! When we are leaving for a hike, and she is invited, Rose develops Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. That's right. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. My little girl bounces off our walls like some tennis ball, then bays happily on the top of her vocal chords. Forever hopeful!! The other day, on a brisk January morning, still frozen patches of snow glued to our grass, Rose was doing her business. As usual!! In order to keep my raccoon scat-rolling, cat poop-ingesting hound out of trouble, I followed closely behind, shivering, and groggy from this head cold. Rose had finished her duties. I was ready to step back inside. Rose would follow suit.... Right? Wrong!! Because--as usual--Rose and I were not on the same page!! She couldn't have cared less about our freezing cold temperatures. Rose was looking--searching--for someone. Our next door neighbors' black and white St. Bernard/Border Collie cross, Zeke!! Rose seemed optimistic that she would find him in his backyard!! Forever hopeful!! She poked her ebony nostrils through Zeke's fence. Whined softly for him. Balanced her front legs against Zeke's fence. She walked around our shed toward a broken down part of his fence. But, Zeke was nowhere to be found!! Or, so I thought.... Suddenly, there was Zeke, running out his backdoor!! Beside herself, Rose whined, and bayed a few times!! Then--satisfied at last--she made a beeline toward our sliding glass back door!! She loves that excessive barking, high-energy wild man!!