Independence Day took on a new meaning for us today. It's done - Belle's sentence is over, her Cone of Shame gone, as well as her stitches. She's an outside dog again, free to run and jump on Max as much as she wants again, or at least as much as he'll allow. No more leash, no more "NO BELLE"s, no more 'accidents' in the house.
I have to admit though... it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Only one DVD, one section of electrical cord and one book were destroyed.
Unfortunately, the DVD was Willow, one of our favorites, but the book was just a French-English paperback dictionary I picked up at a garage sale somewhere, so no harm done there. Both are replaceable. The electrical cord was a section that lit up our "movie lights" downstairs - it'll be a little work, but Tom can fix it.
It could have been worse. Much, much worse.
Max was mostly an outdoor dog this past week, but as the fireworks became more frequent, he spent more and more time indoors, too. Needless to say, by this morning, the downstairs reeked of dog and looked like the front porch, full of dog toys, dog hair and mutilated plastic bottles. I've spent the past few hours dusting, sweeping, vacuuming and mopping, and I'm happy to say the reek is gone!
Apart from the reek and the hair, having an indoor dog wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though - Belle learned to sleep all night, had very few accidents, and she's a pro at walking on a leash now.
Still, I'm glad it's over! This has been quite a week and a half, one of full moons, thunderstorms and soaking rains. There was the scare of my mom being rushed to the hospital, the frustration of never finding out what caused her problems, but the blessing of knowing she doesn't have cancer or any other detectable problems.
Except for having all of the kids home Friday night and part of Saturday, our Fourth of July weekend was pretty Blah - it rained Saturday morning on the parade and I forgot about the fireworks that evening due to shopping-induced exhaustion with the Girl. But that was fun, so I won't complain.
Thank goodness the sun finally came out for the actual Fourth of July. We didn't get to enjoy it by swimming or getting out on the lake, but it was a blessing just to feel it on my skin when we took the dogs for a walk and watch its last rays slip behind the hill from the back deck. I lingered out there after dusk, listening to fireworks pop in the darkness all around me and the frog chorus singing from the pond.
I finally came back in, disappointed that I couldn't see any fireworks shooting up over the hills - all of the shows were too far away. But Tommy was back home for the night and a couple of his friends came over, kids I've known for years that are no longer kids, and I love talking to them, hearing about their lives.
Not such a bad Fourth of July, after all, I suppose...
Freedom feels so good!
Look, Ma, no leash!
Me with two out of three... when did they get so tall?
