We love Charlie…
She steals our shoes,
Shreds our wellies,
Hides our footballs,
Chews the garden tools,
Runs off with our styrofoam coolers and
Chases the four wheeler,
not to mention our car and any car caught driving along her road…
But she is a very affectionate dog who loves my company and that atones for her random acts of bad behavior when she’s bored and lonely.
I am always startled when she bounds up from behind in hot pursuit to join me for my afternoon walk.
The two of us stride briskly, each lost in our own thoughts,
She nudges my hand every now and again to assure herself of my approval,
“Good girl,” I say and she pounces off through the hay fields lining our lane.
Alone with companionship.
She remembers to sit quietly on the grassy curb when she spots a car or truck coming towards us,
I stand beside her and rub her ear while holding tightly to her collar to prevent her from giving into temptation and breaking loose after those pesky tyres that beg to be brought to submission.
“Good girl,” I enthuse after each successful encounter with the enemy. She jumps up and licks my neck, “Good girl!” and off she goes to splash in the icy water running along the grass verges,
where crawdads are said to burrow leaving behind their tell tale mounds,
She runs delightedly through them snapping at the water an inherent gun dog flushing out the wildlife.
Across the main road she bounds high, all four paws together in the air, to land among the stubble startling small birds, field mice, squirrels, and the other day, a small cotton tail that ran hell for leather along my side of the hedgerow leaving Charlie scratching her head on the other side of the barbed wire before looking for other opportunities to swoop and disperse.
Yesterday she scared up a paper bag discarded by a driver…
She stopped to enjoy her catch, head buried in the cast off Wendy’s bag
thoroughly enjoying a fast food snack that was not fleet of foot.
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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