My Impromtu "Vacation"

I went home Friday night, August 2nd, not expecting to spend 2 days of the next week in the ER and the rest of the time recuperating at various places- some at my house, some at my grandparents' house, and some at my parents' house.

Without my horses and cat to keep me busy (my roommate stepped up and took care of them for me), and with half of my family at work all day, what was I to do to entertain myself in the moments I wasn't asleep?

Oh, yeah- maybe hang out with this motley crew?

All Burlingame dogs: Pose now!

If you read my blog, you know that the two on the right- Romeo, the lab, and Fiona, the corgi- are my two babies that basically go with me everywhere. The other three belong to my parents. There's Rio the Great Pyrenees mix, and Dixie and Daphnee the Bichon Frises.

Five dogs is a lot spatially to have in a room- and even more so when the corgi, lab, and Pyrenees mix want to run around and play like a bunch of banshees. Of course, the Bichons don't partake in such rough-housing- they prefer to sleep on top of the couches and turn their noses up at any interaction from the blue-collar crew, especially Fiona. Sometimes Romeo will walk over and sniff at them, eliciting a growl from them as they daintily turn and face the other way. But Fiona is the bane of their collective existence. Their growling and snapping does little to deter her happy-go-lucky corgi mind; she merely jumps back and barks at them before tearing around the room, herding them to wherever she wants them to go. One day she successfully kept Dixie penned in the kitchen, in spite of there being two entrances on opposite sides of the kitchen, for a good several minutes before Dixie ran under a couch to get away from her. They are fortunate that she has about 10 pounds on them, so they can still get to places that she can't!

The only time they think she is ok is at times like this:

Dixie waits patiently while Fiona snoozes

The Bichons are all about quiet time

Dixie and Dapnee may be dainty little powder puffs like those that a past king of France (Henry III) wore around his neck in a tray-like basket (no joke), but Fiona expects to be treated in no lesser fashion. After all, she is British royalty herself (maybe that's why they don't get along)!

During one period of laying on the couch, being bored by what was on tv, I set a laundry basket upright and told Fiona to jump in, which, after some pacing and complicated mathematics I'm sure, she was able to oblige me with:

"And how else may I please you?"

She sat like that for probably 10 minutes, until I told her to get back out. Mostly because I got distracted by something on tv and forgot she was in there.

Later, like a good hour later, Fiona did something bad- possibly grabbed onto Romeo's jowls so that he would drag her across the room, what fun!- and I muttered to her that I was going to put her in her kennel if she did that again. She looked at me, turned around, trotted over to the forgotten laundry basket, which was now laying on its side, and crawled in and laid down. I haven't laughed that hard in I don't know how long. In her defense, it looks like a crate, with its slats- such a smart girl!

I returned from my parents' home this Monday so that I could go back to work the rest of the week, at least until my doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. And another member of my Royal family (how did I get to be so lucky?), His Highness King Ramses the Lionhearted, was so excited to see me, it made returning to work a little more bearable.

So happy, I'll even pose for you!

I love my little family! Depending on how the doctor goes tomorrow, maybe I'll get new pictures of everyone, ponies included, this weekend. It would be a good incentive to give them baths. Sienna has been caked with mud all this week and I haven't had the energy to do anything about it... perhaps the recent rain will help wash it off.