skipped a day!

Ok, back on track tonight - despite exhaustion and needing to many more obligatory things, from washing dishes to emailing to washing the dog - my most recent rescue, a pale yellow lab/retriever mix, formerly Copper, newly named Bowie, with a sweet disposition (and giant black balls - he'll be neutered soon!) - i was feeling ridiculous for responding to the ad online but the story killed me. (a mom had abandoned the dog along with her developmentally disabled teenage son when her husband died and she left to get remarried - the boy's aunt knew the dog needed more attention and didn't want him to go to the shelter, for fear of him being euthanized because he was so skittish) - but i feel he is meant to be with me. the woman who posted the notice about him said she could barely "catch" him while he was living on her property - but here he is easy, if a bit high-strung, and was out of the fence tonight but in the driveway waiting for me. ran right up to me as i opened the car door and put his face in my hands. Oh my. Number six. I have a feeling he's meant to be here for a while and then move on to the "right" place - we'll see. 

Aretha the cat sits with her broad black copper-flecked back to me, peering over her shoulder every once in a while to eye me with slitted yellow eyes. After 2 months here and numerous adjustments, she still disdains the litterbox and poops or pees only on the bed, or the sofa, whatever soft surface is available - that is, whatever soft surface where I sit or sleep. I've set up a very comfy wire dog crate in the living room, lined the bottom with an area rug and soft mattress pad. I figured I could wash that more easily than a mattress or upholstered cushion... but while Lily the tortoiseshell has lolled in it ecstatically and Chaton the ragdoll has curled up and made a corner his own, Aretha won't go there. Period. Only human furniture for her. The gal has standards. 

Yes, ok, but so do I - and among them is a house where I, and others, can sit and sleep without clothespinning our noses. What to do. I am loath to shell out the $75 for an animal psychic, but I'm about there. Haven't solved this on the physical plane, i might as well try the telepathic.

And now, some haiku. But first (and I really do think this is self-education rather than procrastination) I realize I need to learn a bit more about them. I know there's more to traditional haiku than the five-seven-five syllable structure I learned in 3rd grade - and now thanks to wikipedia i know a bit more about what that more is and can be. Haiku almost always contain kigi, words to suggest the seasons....there's a more complicated word starting with K that helps create a pause at the end of the first or second line, depending, but this fits more into the Japanese form because English words don't do that so well. So we often use a dash. 

Falling asleep. Big haiku catchup tomorrow