Highway Dog

(re-run) I’m in my little beach town, up the road a bit from Carmel.  At the end of each month, the block of thrift stores in the Barnyard Shopping Center near Carmel Valley put their merchandise at 50% off for a day or two.  Yellow Brick Road was on its second day of sale yesterday,… Continue reading Highway Dog

Daisy Rescue Dog, Let the Fur Fly # 6

Two steps forward, one step back. Things seem fine, and then the new Jack Russell rescue dog named Daisy attacks the raised-from-a-puppy lab/border-collie/pit bull mix named Pepper. What the fluff? What happened? Things were going so well. The advantage of having a white dog is that you can see every scratch and bite on it.… Continue reading Daisy Rescue Dog, Let the Fur Fly # 6

Daisy Rescue Dog One Year

(Re-run from 2018) Tomorrow will be Daisy’s adopt-a-versary. That’s right, the day after Christmas!  I had looked at free dogs at the local SPCA, but all that was left were big dogs: pit bulls, overweight standard Dachshunds, and other large mixed breeds. I gave up on the “free dog” idea and came home to look… Continue reading Daisy Rescue Dog One Year

Sheltering in Place at the Beach

(re-run from 2020) I just got back from the grocery store. It’s 9:30 a.m.  I saw maybe a total of fifteen people, and that includes workers. I was the youngest shopper in there, and I’m two months away from Medicare.  Everyone had on masks. I wore my gloves and took them off only to open… Continue reading Sheltering in Place at the Beach

Daisy’s Nervous Car Ride

Every two weeks I load up my dogs and head to Monterey County to check on and use my little beach house.  But a month had gone by since the last time, due to 9 rainstorms that wreaked havoc on Northern California. Last week, it left one of my highways underwater. I finally found a… Continue reading Daisy’s Nervous Car Ride

Rescue Dog Month # 7

(re-run from 2018) Daisy’s purple collar is missing. She had it on when she got up, but an hour later it is gone, along with her license and I.D. tag with my phone number on it. Where could it be? And how did it come off? I’ve walked the entire back yard and haven’t found… Continue reading Rescue Dog Month # 7

My Life in Dogs

(re-run) It was a dogless childhood for me, until I was thirteen. I had asked. My sisters had asked. It wasn’t until our younger brother came home from school and said that somebody in his third-grade class was giving away a perfectly good dog and could he keep it? It happened so fast. I was… Continue reading My Life in Dogs

Shake, Rattle and Roll

(re-run in honor of the 35th anniversary of the Loma Prieta quake in 1989) Twenty earthquakes happened under my town yesterday. The biggest one was under the posh community of Diablo, three miles from here. They are calling it a swarm of quakes. The quakes are just big enough to get your attention or wake… Continue reading Shake, Rattle and Roll

How to Get your Dog to Come to You

(re-run) On a recent meet-up hike, there were four small dogs with 15 or more people. One person was saying how hard it was to get his one-year-old dog to come to him. I remembered back to one of the many dog training sessions I’ve attended in my life – training Tess, the spaniel/heeler, Penny,… Continue reading How to Get your Dog to Come to You