Dog Days

bright sun, bitterly cold, temp. minus 25

The car is a block of ice. Can't see in through the windshield. Dogs went out long enough to bark at the garbage man, then scurried back in. I put my hand out, and that was more than enough.

We're going to the Auberge Knowlton for dinner tonight with Kirk and Walter - God only knows what the temperature will be by nightfall. Best not to think about it. In fact, all I have on my mind is steak anyway, and I can tell you for sure, that's all Michael's thinking about today.

Almost 2 weeks into our diets. Michael's lost 5 pounds. My jeans are loose. But so is my will power.

This should be an interesting dinner. Kirk and Walter are on Weight Watchers and we're on NutriSystem. So we'll either all be drinking water and eating celery sticks or we'll order every disgusting thing on the menu. Four famished Townshipper, eating the napkins, plates, cheesecakes (oh oh). But not the floorboards, because that would be carb.

Will report back in dispatches from the diet front tomorrow. But I don't hold out much hope.

Had an email from a reader in Florida - Susan - that I wanted to pass on to you. She wrote, among other things, to say how much she liked the dogs in the books. Then she went on with her own story...

We currently have 2 Golden Retrievers, both rescues, both having lived unimaginable lives and yet forgive all and want to be with humans when ever they can. Hamish was found matted, filthy and weighing 120 pounds by the side of the road, slated to be put down in a county shelter (he was old and fat, so considered unadoptable, no matter that he had the gentlest disposition or the kindest eyes imaginable) when our rescue group got the call. We met him 3 months later, still heavy and slow, but with a spark that was undeniable. We fell in love and adopted him, continued his diet and slowly began to exercise him, and 3+ years later he weighs 75 and when he feels especially happy, will break into a canter, something unthinkable when we met him. When we added him to o! ur family he joined Ceilidh, a "retired" breeding bitch who had been kenneled and unsocialized for 7 years while she made money for her owners. We call her our "special needs" dog; supremely healthy (once we had her spayed), she was terrified by the world and all of its strangeness. Trust came slowly, but with time and patience, it did come. It also took time for her to accept having another dog in the house, (in fact for months we say that they inhabited the same house, but different universes...as far as she was concerned, he didn't exist) and now I look at her, and can't believe the dog that she was...she trusts him and plays with him, as if to say, "Come on slowpoke, lets go out and have FUN". She will never be outgoing or gracious in company, but she enjoys her life, and I am grateful to have her with me.

I felt both my heart and my tears welling up as I read that. And she sent a photo of Ceilidh and Hamish. here they are -

What better note to end on. Not a bitter day after all.