A woman's view of hunting…with men
guns, dogs and birds
Here is another attempt at poetry. I think I like writing poetry. I’m not sure I’m very good, but it is fun.
Lost Love
Tears of a broken heart
Flow abashed down cheeks
Trust lost in a moment
Takes a lifetime to regain.
Pain deep in the core
Of one’s being
Will always just below
Waiting to resurface.
Eyes forever show
A haunted gaze
Remembering love lost
Wishing for a reprieve.
I had to have the talk with Charlie. You know the talk where I had to explain who was the boss and who wasn’t. Charlie likes to think he’s the alpha dog in this pack and we have to remind him constantly that he’s not. Charlie sees it as his mission in life to be the tattletale on Orso. He used to rat out AJ before he died in December, but now he focuses all of his attention on Orso.
Poor Orso, who doesn’t quite get it, usually is standing there with a big sheepish look on his face, as if saying, “What! I didn’t do anything. Why is everybody looking at me?”
Charlie is a bully and we have to watch him carefully to put a stop to his bad behavior before it escalates, because it can and has. Orso, the recipient on the bullying, looks so pathetic after Charlie is mean to him that it makes me what to hold and cuddle him, to protect him. Of course with Orso weighing in at ninety-eight pounds, I cannot hold him. So he gets lots of hugs instead.
For anyone who didn’t know Charlie’s history, they would think he was a rescue that had been abused. But no, we picked out Charlie in a litter of three puppies. He’s known nothing but the good life from ten weeks old to his present eight years to date. Our supposition to his bullying and animal aggression behavior comes from being attacked as a puppy by a dog who was walking on one of those retractable leashes and was way too far away from the owner. It’s been downhill since then.
Just the other night, Charlie was sitting on the edge of the bed when Orso walked in the bedroom and decided that this was his room and Orso didn’t have the correct password. I had to explain to Charlie that he was not the ringleader here. He was just another monkey in the show.
In this three ring circus, I am the ringleader and there’s not enough room at the top for another one. I don’t share well with others.
Fiction for Tuesday
The harvest moon hung low on the horizon, orange and large, just coming up. Adam ran along the trail enjoying the brisk evening air. He always ran in the evening, fewer people around. On this evening, as Adam ran he noticed a figure ahead walking in the middle of the trail. As he got closer to the figure he noticed it was a woman, small and slim with long black hair. He moved to the left to go around her, but it was as if she knew he was there and also moved to the left blocking his path.
Adam then moved to the right starting to get a bit frustrated and the woman moved to the right. Adam pulled up just in time to avoid crashing into her. The woman slowly turned around to face Adam with a slight smile on her face, amused that she had caused him to stop. She had creamy white skin with pale blue eyes that seemed to glow in the moonlight. Adam choked back an irritated response to the woman who caused him to halt his run.
She took a step toward him and laid a hand on his chest and looked into his eyes, Adam felt frozen in his body waiting for her to say something. This was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life.
The woman smiled slowly, leaned in close to his chest and spoke softly, “I’ve been watching you for a long time, waiting for the right moment to speak to you.”
Adam nodded unable to speak, wondering why this beautiful woman had approached him and why was she watching him?
The woman’s voice almost a whisper said, “I know much about you and want you to know me.”
Adam stood mesmerized but finally found his voice, “Why do you want to know me?”
The woman laughed softly, “Oh Adam, you are the man I want. I have chosen you to be with me forever.”
“What, wait what are you talking about? Be with you forever? I don’t who you are or even your name. How can you just say you have chosen me?” Adam tried to take a step back but found that he couldn’t move away from her.
“Tonight is the one night that we have to walk this earth and choose a mate. I choose you. After tonight you will know an eternity with me. You will learn all about me in time. You will learn to love me and appreciate the gift I am about to give you.”
“No!” Adam screamed but no words came out, he stood frozen unable to move as the woman moved in and wrapped her arms around him. She lifted her face up to his and placed her lips on his. Adam felt a strange sensation, like his body was growing lighter. He looked down at the woman and watched as her face changed from beautiful to ugly with red glowing eyes. Her fingers became claws with long razor sharp talons on the end. The talons pierce his back ripping the flesh and shredding the skin. The pain and agony of his back being shredded was nothing compared to the feeling of weakness, his heart pounded in his chest. His heart exploded then Adam felt nothing anymore.
After a brief moment, Adam was gone with only a small pool of blood on the running trail.
Saturday morning at the dam. Charlie and Orso checked out all of the new smells.
Somebody was definitely here before us.
Charlie hot on the trail of a strange scent.
Orso suddenly remembered that he doesn’t particularly like swimming.
Both dogs enjoyed the morning outing.
It’s been almost four weeks since my surgery and according to my doctor, I’m healing nicely. He said that I’m to continue doing what I’ve been doing. Keep walking to a minimum, elevation and ice in the afternoon. I still can’t make my normal ten hour work days, but I hang in there for eight hours. I figure that’s pretty good, longer than some.
Bonus – I haven’t fallen for two weeks since I had a twofer in two days. That’s what I’m worried about. I know me too well. Grace is not my middle name. I can find more unique ways to cause injury to my body than the average person.
The dogs are getting more comfortable around my crutches too and that is a big cause for concern. Both have decided that the gap between the crutch and my body offers a great pass through, kind of like walking under a ladder. The only bad luck is mine, they won’t get hurt, but I will. They don’t care, they’ve seen me fall down before and it’s a great source of entertainment for them. I’ve seen them laughing at me.
The doctor has given me a monster sized black walking boot to try to minimize my use of the crutches. It took me four days to be able to shed the crutches and just use the Frankenstein boot. It’s big and clunky but now I can walk and carry a cup of coffee at the same time. WooHoo!
Things are looking optimistic, I can maneuver around better, help Mitch more and have a lot more freedom. So what’s the problem? I know me well. Now that I have more mobility, I know that it’s just a matter of time before I do something stupid, reach for something too high, turn too fast or get tripped up by the dogs and then it’s CRASH! I’m not being a pessimist, I’m actually being a realist, I just know me too well.
If you don’t believe me, ask Mitch, he’s walking around watching my every move, car keys close at hand waiting for the trip to the emergency room.
What is up with these two? Orso and Charlie are at it again. Once again they lulled me into a false sense of security thinking that they could be trusted to have the run of the house while home alone. I was sure that since AJ was gone that these two hooligans would behave without AJ to instigate raiding the pantry. And once again I was wrong. I should be used to being wrong.
I know that with my foot surgery things have been thrown off. Their routine has changed drastically. But it’s not like they are getting no exercise. We have our best friend coming over every day and walking the dogs, giving them lots of work and exercise. So what happened?
I came home from work and was greeted by Mitch telling me to go check the kitchen and see the gift that the two had left for us. Knowing that was not a good omen, I hobbled into the kitchen to find a mangled jar of my favorite local honey on the counter. Evidently someone, my guess, Orso jumped up on the table and snatched the bottle of honey off the table and chewed the top off to enjoy my honey. There was more than half gone. I hope he gets sick, but not in the house. But he won’t, he’s a Labrador retriever.
At dinner though we discovered another surprise. Mitch went to butter his baked potato and looked at me and asked where the butter was. Not on the table. We went on a butter tub hunt throughout the house, kind of like an Easter egg hunt. We searched under tables and dressers, under the bed and in the corners. No luck. The tub of butter has disappeared. No slimy smears, no bits of plastic about. Nothing, no clue, just no butter. It was as though a master cat burglar had come into the house stole the butter and disappeared without a trace.
Now comes the fun part, watching the dogs closely to make sure they don’t get sick. Poop watch, checking for bits of plastic, is so much fun and something I thought we were beyond now that AJ is not here. Wrong again.
Another attempt at fiction along the dark side.
Nadine was dreaming that she was floating again. Soaring aloft high above the world below. Free and light, she would turn by dipping a shoulder and dive toward the earth by pointing her head downward. Nadine never felt more alive than when she was asleep. No worries, no hurtful words spoken and no pain from heavy hands. Nadine looked forward to going to sleep every night just to escape her daily life.
Rough, harsh hands grabbed her shoulders and pressed her to her back, jerking her awake. Nadine squeezed her eyes shut tight knowing what was coming next. She felt his heavy weight settle on top of her and instinctively tightened her body. Tears started to creep out from her eye lids and roll down toward her hairline. The man whispered softly in her ear, “I know how to make those tears go away. I know what you want.”
Nadine held her breath waiting for the pain that would come but after long seconds, nothing happened. She slowly opened her eyes to see a man she had never seen before looking down at her with soft eyes that seemed to glow in the moonlight.
“I can make all of your suffering and pain go away forever. All you have to do is ask.”
The man was very handsome, with a gentleness about him making Nadine feel protected and safe. She had no idea how he could end her misery, but she didn’t care. If he could help her, she was willing and eager to escape this life, no matter what the consequences.
Nadine looked into those glowing eyes and nodded her head, “Please help me. I don’t want to live like this anymore. Please.”
The man slowly lowered his head down toward her face hovering briefly over her lips, then shifted position and sank his long fangs into her throat, changing her life on this earth forever.
Today’s world has changed so much from the fifty plus years ago that I grew up in. I’m lucky I survived. Or maybe today’s world would not have survived fifty years ago.
How we survived is a miracle in itself. Bicycle helmets were unheard of in the sixties. Elbow and knee pads, are you kidding me? We took our chances and actually showed off every skinned knee and elbow like a badge of honor. We relished the retelling of our accidents with great animation and embellishment. Of course after shedding huge tears and getting swabbed down with iodine, which stung much worse than the scrape.
My first trip to the emergency room was when I was three years old. I was hot rodding on my tricycle and fell forward splitting my chin wide open requiring three stitches. After that was when I grabbed a knife by the blade, of course, at four and sliced open my left hand. I didn’t go back to the emergency room until I was eleven when at a huge family get together, I was showing my uncle how good I was at walking on my stilts. My cousin sprayed me with a hose, causing me to lose my balance and the right stilt slipped and stabbed my left leg below the knee, leaving a huge gash. That required thirteen stitches, three of which I promptly broke. I didn’t have any more bleeding accidents after that, but suffered two broken toes and twisted ankles too many times too count. I was not any more graceful growing up than I am now.
Today you get a ticket if your kids are not in safety seats or strapped in with seatbelts. When I grew we sat on our parents laps or even stood up in the front seat while driving down the road. Cars didn’t even come with seat belts. We rode around in the back of pickup trucks and even sat on the tailgate while the truck was moving. Granted I’m not advocating that, but we survived. Today, no way, not with all of the lunatics on the road that are doing everything behind the wheel but driving.
Our parents would send us outside first thing in the morning and tell us not to come back inside until lunch. There was no adult supervision while we played guns and war, had hideouts and forts in the woods. We played on swing sets, swinging as high as we could then jumped off the swing just to taste the brief moment of flight. There was also no predators (the human kind) either. Today children are not allowed outside without adult supervision and rightfully so, because of the evil that lurks everywhere.
Today our parents would be arrested for child endangerment if we were allowed to live and play as we did fifty years ago. We survived in spite of ourselves. I know that a lot of the safe guards in place today are needed, but I also believe that some are too intrusive. I for one am glad that I grew up when I did. I don’t think I would do as well growing up today.
Dinner time and the family is ravenous
Mom with the grub (literally)
Yesterday I posted pictures of Charlie. Today is Orso’s turn. He’s my big sweetie weighing in at 98 pounds. He’s kind of a goof ball, but that’s what makes him so endearing.
Orso is playing King of the Bed taking on all challengers
This was taken in December on our very frigid hunting trip.
Kind of a clown, daring the squirrel to come down.
Photos taken on my Canon Rebel
A woman's view of hunting...with men 