Emergence

Emergence is the process of coming into view or being exposed after being concealed. Today should have been called "Emergence Sunday." The sun came back into view, finally. I don't know if it's been cloudy/rainy for two days or twenty, but it seems like forever. It was very nice to see it on the last day of the weekend. The dogs have been going stir-crazy being shut up indoors and so have I.

Tuck

Sunday was also the day that Clay and I have begun to emerge from the fog of flu that has kept us confined to our house for the past several days. It may not be entirely over, but the worst of it is past at least, and it was nice to be able to walk out to the pasture and watch the dogs run and play today.

The big blue Dane, Tuck, and the small white shepherd, Kami, are the two dogs in the pictures below that are available for adoption.

Kami

Tuck is very people-oriented but he enjoyed a
romp in the pasture with the other dogs today.

Kami loves to run and was pretty much always in motion
and usually engaged with other dogs.

Kami doesn't really understand Max yet. Theo seems to know
that and he kept an eye on them both.

Here is Kami trying to engage with Max,
without success. Max plays his own game,
by his own rules.

The ground is still wet with standing water in many places. You can see that Max's fur has
picked up a lot of water just from him running over the wet ground.

Serena spends more time grazing in the pasture
than running and playing with the other dogs.

Laying Low

Tuck, formerly Tank

Clay and I have been "enjoying" a self-imposed quarantine since coming down with a bit of flu on New Year's Eve. He worked part of the day on Thursday but came home early. I tried to work a half day but didn't even manage that. Neither of us bothered to try on Friday. The good news is that symptoms have abated a bit each day, at least since my doctor's visit Thursday afternoon where I scored some meds -- TamiFlu and a couple of excellent cough suppressants. (By the way, wearing the face mask they gave me at the doctor's office got me moved to the front of the line at the pharmacy. They didn't want me in there waiting any longer than necessary.) With the cough under control, we were able to sleep better each night and sleep makes you feel better or at least avoids adding another level of misery to how you feel.

The weather has been lousy for doing anything fun, so that's helpful for feeling poorly. It's not like we're missing great hiking weather. I rather expected a lot of resistance from the dogs to this self-imposed quarantine. They are happy to have us both home full time, but what's surprising is how tolerant they are of the lack of fun activity. Even Della hasn't given me "the look." I know that dreary, rainy weather alone doesn't make them satisfied to layabout indoors all day and go to bed early at night, so I think they must know we are feeling like crap.

Della

Our newest Dane foster, Tank, or Tank II, we are now calling Tuck. Friday he stayed indoors all day and pretty much cemented his bond with me as far as he's concerned. So much so that it was he, rather than the shepherd foster, Kami, who objected to being crated in the office at night. I relented and he joined the rest of the pack in the bedroom, making a total of seven dogs in the room last night, three of them being Danes. I've also learned more about Tuck. He's a great dog, well-mannered indoors even if his head does naturally rest on the counter tops. Tuck must have lived on one level in his prior home. The stairs were new to him and although he was fine going up, his four long legs were very awkward and slow making the trip back down. 

Tuck is very sweet and loving dog, he just wants some attention and petting on his big giant head. The Christmas Eve dog dumpers did this guy a favor; he deserves a much better home and better people than he had.

Today I've got Kami indoors as well. It's not cold and it's not really raining, so she could be out, but she needs to get more accustomed to life indoors as well. She's laying right behind my chair.

Sweet Serena

Della's right eye is all-seeing.

Kami is happy to be indoors with everyone else today.

Maya still has her choice spot under my desk.

Something to hold us over

These pictures were taken earlier in the week, prior to the flu hitting our house. The dogs are fine, it's just Clay and me who have come down sick, but we are sick enough that we aren't going to be much fun to the canines around here for the next several days at least. Yes, we both had our flu shots, but this could be a strain not covered by the vaccine or just something very much like the flu. The doc I saw today said we'd go ahead and treat it like the flu since it was looking, acting, and sounding very much like the flu. I came some with three meds, two of them for the cough, which is so painful that we haven't been able to sleep much the last couple of nights.

There's nothing anyone can do, we have all we need. If you really feel compelled to help, you can always sing Soft Kitty for us.