A CATTYWAMPUS REPAIR

My favorite frumpy jacket

Oblivious? I think not!

Bess has a very strong sense of her place in Mike’s life. As the alpha dog, she expects priority seating if she wants it. During hunting season, Bess knows she's Mike’s best girl. She, not I, goes with him on his outings, and it’s a terrifically good time for both of them. After hunting season, she must return to her old role as a pet in the home. Apparently, she is well aware of the implications because this year, as winter became spring, Mike began to take me with him for yoga, shopping, etc., leaving her in the house, and she expressed her displeasure by ripping up and ingesting textiles.

Top side damage

At first, we thought it was Nellie, but one afternoon while Mike was away from the house, I followed a very sick Bess outside and discovered that she was the one eating our jackets, towels, and bedspread. It could not be denied. For once, Nellie was exonerated.

Underside damage

Actually, we didn’t immediately notice that Bess had ripped a corner of our bedspread. In fact, if memory serves (sometimes it doesn’t), daughter Hallie was the first to notice when she visited in May. I’m not sentimentally attached to this bedspread, so on a certain level I wasn’t too upset, but it did need to be repaired, and I had to think about that.

Pinned for stitching

Eventually, I came up with a plan, and today, the first day of October, I implemented it. I unceremoniously whacked off the corner, tucked in the edges, and stitched ‘er down. I was finished in half an hour. Of course, it doesn’t lie flat because it’s not straight with the world, but I’m not sure I could do better if I tried. So – that’s it. Finished! And I can go back to sewing doll clothes without guilt.

Repaired

Here’s the bedspread on the bed. I don’t think the mend is too noticeable, and it really doesn’t matter. 

For now, the Halloween girls are providing a decorative touch for the room. And yes, they do make me happy. KW

CULPRIT IDENTIFIED

Mike gets testy with ol' Nell and her ways. I guess I do, too. Wouldn’t it be ironic, I said recently, if when Nellie is gone we discover she wasn’t the dog at fault – that the culprit was really Bess all along? Well, Bess is the “fair-haired dog” around here, so Mike rejected that possibility.

Bess rests comfortably

Over the course of the last month, some dog here has taken to ripping and ingesting textiles while we’re out – Mike’s windbreaker, my favorite little fleece jacket, an old towel on the floor, the corner of our bedspread, and the corner or our newest dog pillow. We would later find the remnants as processed through the dog’s system or regurgitated, and the conclusion was that Nellie was to blame because she was angry with us for some reason. The angry part bothered me because Nellie doesn’t seem to care that much, but she does show symptoms of dementia -- so maybe she would eat a towel. For this reason -- and some others -- we began to put Nellie in the kennel when we leave. Bess, the wonderful one, was allowed to remain in the house.

Yesterday Mike and Ken went on a guided fishing trip to the Grande Ronde River. Dressed in his hunting pants, Mike left in the Dakota at 5:45 a.m. The dogs were in the house, and Bess curled up in a little ball on one of the pillows. I thought it was odd that she wasn’t more active, but dogs are a strange sort of human, after all.

Nellie (Note the gnawed corner)

When it was time for yoga class, I put Nellie in the kennel but left Bess in the house. I was gone about an hour. When I came home, Bess went outside, and when I checked on her a bit later, I noticed that she was nauseous and nibbling grass on the back of our lot. I walked her across the street where she continued to eat grass and green leaves. Long story short, she upchucked pieces of the red dog pillow. Back in the house, I discovered that she had indeed gnawed the pillow and pulled out some of the stuffing.

Relating this to Mike later, he said, “Oh! I wore my hunting pants and I left in the Dakota. She was mad at me because she thought I went hunting without her.” Well, if I had realized what she was thinking, I would have explained to her that he just went fishing. 

I think it's reasonable to conclude that Bess is the "textile gnawer." I think two dogs need to go to the kennel when unsupervised. KW

ODE TO A LITTLE JACKET

Perennials begin to wake up in the drought-tolerant garden

When Costco first opened in our community – 25 years ago now – I bought a little fleecy jacket off one of their clothing tables. I had no idea at the time that it would become my all-time go-to jacket. It proved to be “just right” for casual wear in the cold months. It was short and boxy, just like me, and the sleeves were wide enough to slip over my long-sleeved tops. It zipped up the front and had a hood, which occasionally came in handy. And it had serviceable pockets. It endured frequent washings.

Nellie and Bess

I wore that jacket everywhere. It just worked. I could slip it on for a brief outdoor errand, for hikes and dog walks, or for casual shopping. But – it was getting old. In fact, in 2013 I sought to replace it, but the one I bought just didn’t take its place. My little jacket was as comfortable as the proverbial old slipper or robe. (I have those, too.) Ultimately, I continued to use the fuzzy (getting fuzzier) little jacket for another five years, digging it out of the closet on those first cold days of autumn and using it through the spring thaw. Why, just two weeks ago I took it to Seattle – and was glad to have it!

Good-bye, old friend

But the other day it met its demise. Apparently while we were out on Friday, Nellie was in some sort of desperation. The jacket was on the back of a chair in our eating area, and she must have grasp at it with her sharp toenails. When I went to put it on yesterday morning, my arm shot right through the sleeve. Upon examination, I found it in shreds.

Sleeve damage to MW's windbreaker

And I’ll tell you something else. Mike's old windbreaker of the same vintage – another garment with a story – was hanging over his chair on the same day and met a similar fate. The damage to the sleeve being extensive, I couldn’t imagine that anything but battery acid would cause those devastating effects. I didn’t connect it to Nellie until the damage to my own jacket came to light.

Naturally, I feel badly about it. I finally have to part with my useful old friend, which really should have been gone years ago, but I have proven to myself that replacing that little jacket is not a simple issue.

And I feel badly for our old dog, who needed us when we weren’t here. She’s spending more time in the kennel these days. In her day, she was a sweet, intuitive, hardworking dog. The issues of old age have caught up with her, but she still has some spunk. The other day, while we were out walking, she lost sight of us and concluded that we must have gone home without her. There she went – hurrying down the road toward home as fast as she could trot. Worried for her safety, I hurried after her, but she was home well ahead of me. KW