Bad Dog, Bad Dreams, Oh Baby
Del.icio.usWith all the pet food contamination in recent months, I’ve been wary of what I put in the bowl of Mr. Pono, the wiener dog, each morning.
Mr. P is generally happy for anything I put in front of him. However, the morning I put some dry food made with avocados in his bowl, Mr. P seemed apprehensive. He sniffed it, walked away, came back and starting trying to push his bowl across the room with his paw. That morning, Mr. P left the kitchen without breakfast.
He’s now used to the avocado morsels, but must not be terribly fond of them because he has been very naughty about eating things he shouldn’t. If you’ve kept up with the doings of Mr. P, you’ll remember that he has sniffed out his share of unhealthy dog items before: Hershey kisses, teriyaki sauce-flavored paper, etc.
I know that I need to keep things out of his reach, but sometimes Mr. P’s nose is stronger than my memory of what’s in my bag.
In the last month, Mr. P sniffed out some trail mix buried way at the bottom of my mom’s work bag, which was filled with papers she needed to grade. His skillful snout never even broke the Velcro closure on her bag. He tunneled all the way to the bottom of the bag and fished out the nutty/fruity treasure.
Next, I arrived home one day to find the contents of my purse scattered all over the floor, the dining room chair pulled over and a water bottle spilled. In that hunt, Mr. P got his grubby paws on some cough drops, a stick of gum and some unused Kleenex.
But the strangest of Mr. P’s forbidden snacks was sought out the day I left my makeup bag open on the dining room table. I came home and saw what looked like pieces of brown plastic on the floor.
“What on earth?” I said. “Pono, what did you get into?”
Mr. P sat on the floor, ears pressed to his head, looking sheepish. Thwop, thwop, went his tail on the floor as if to say, “I’m sorry.”
Sorry he was. Mr. P had, by some masterful feat of sniffing power, smelled out the root beer-flavored lip gloss at the bottom of my bag. He pulled it out, and after taking a brief moment to nibble on my Chapstick, proceeded to bite open the bottom of the lip gloss and lick out the contents.
The tube was clean - squeaky clean. Since the lip gloss was made mostly of petroleum, it was like Mr. P ate a container of Vaseline. Not so good on the doggie tummy.
Maybe one day Mr. P will learn to be more discriminating about what he puts in his mouth, but I doubt it. In the meantime, I have to learn to put everything up on a shelf, completely out of reach of the curious - and hungry - Mr. P.
Shaking that bad dream.
Almost everyone has experienced one or more dreams that contain anxiety or outright fear. For some, unpleasant dreams or nightmares recur repeatedly; for others, the content may change while the theme remains the same, such as scenes of falling, being pursued or attacked, arriving late or unprepared for a presentation or exam, or stuck in slow motion.
I have a recurring dream where the car I’m driving is going too fast and the brakes don’t work, so I’m flying down the road out of control.
Often my negative dream feelings stay with me long after I’ve opened my eyes. That’s no way to start your day!
This type of experience, when unpleasant, experts say, is usually associated with lack of progress by the dreamer to recognize and solve related conflicts in life. So if this sounds like you, try to pinpoint what in your life could be leading to this anxiety. Deal with that issue during your waking hours so you reduce your apprehension and angst. It’s worth it to get a good night’s rest.
Baby, oh baby!
I have a lot of friends who got pregnant all around the same time. I currently have four pregnant friends due within a month or two of each other. This means there is a lot of baby talk going on.
One superstition or wive’s tale my friend Deena explained involved how to predict the sex of a baby. To do so, you suspend a wedding band held by a piece of thread over the palm of the pregnant girl. If the ring swings in an oval or circular motion the baby will be a girl. If the ring swings in a straight line the baby will be a boy.
We tried it on all the pregnant ladies and it looks like an even split: two girls, two boys! I guess we’ll know if the trick works in a few months!
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