For something completely different:  sometimes “discussing” on a certain site turns into a cat-brawl.  Wow.

Anyway– for the past few days I’ve been preoccupied with my Golden Retriever’s annual outbreak of….whatever the hell it is.

She suddenly gets a small spot, licks or scratches it until it turns into a big spot and then it gets very unpleasant and I go on duty.  She had two on her head that made her look like a newly de-horned goat, and now one on her neck– very bad place– and one on her left leg and I just saw one on her rear leg.

I manage this annual unpleasant event as follows:  I dilute betadine and daub it on the spots with paper towel.  Then I sprinkle Gold Bond powder on each lesion.  And, I return to work, patting myself on the back

And then she begins to lick away, pulling the fur off the nearest spot.  My blood pressure goes up and I put her in an “e-collar”– an Elizabethan collar for dogs that can’t stop picking at themselves.  Then, she gets stuck everywhere, rolling her eyes pathetically at me.

This morning, I had to re-rig the e-collar with baling twine, re-soak the sores, re-powder the sores, put the collar back on, get water and the first pill in a course of amoxicillin down her gullet, and stake her out back on a long cord because she hates me over the collar and won’t come when I call her.

And then, I try to get back to writing.

We’re in for another 90 degree day here, my distractibility index is up, and I absolutely dread the sojourn waiting for me this afternoon out to see the other animals I feel responsible for.  What will they need?  Will I have to break out the Ringer’s solution again and hydrate a fading kitten, or open crusted eyes, or otherwise go back on duty?

Back to Tess:  I love her.  She’s in the twilight of her life and has given me ten great years.  I wish I were more patient.

BTW Kaloscsahazi–Ka-lo-sha-hazi– Golden Retrievers on the Danube in Hungary has this gorgeous new litter, superb pedigrees going back to the most excellent European/English Goldens.  They are not that expensive and the family is very experienced in importation.  If I had 2K today I would feverishly wait for my little guy– in this litter, seven m, 1 f.   Sire  CH Giorgio the Dream Team ex Galan’s Rapli.  Believe me, 2K is nothing for a pup of this quality.  Just be sure hips on the parents are A or B.

Back to writing and related matters:  .

I just read through the plot lines of people’s novels on She Writes and I think I might actually have a chance of getting mine published….:)

Now that it’s eighty degrees and I’ve taken a pain pill I might have a few good hours in which to work on The Rose of Scylla, the novella/novel, or the query for the memoir, or the clerical task of putting 100 pp of the memoir into one file and fine-tuning that much and doing a blitz of agents–or the poetry mss I’m trying to work up the courage to send out….. just writing this I’m suddenly quite tired.

Not only is it the season of hot spots and moist eczema, but it’s almost August.  Then think of it– it will be September, which is almost Halloween, and then it will be Thanksgiving and Christmas again!!!!  My Christmas wreath in its plastic wrap is still behind a chair in the living room.  My antique roaster is currently in use as two cat-boxes.

In keeping with the hidden theme of being overwhelmed I noticed that one of our neighbors who has an enormous hayfield has not cut his alfalfa. Every time he’s cut it in the past few years the downed hay has been rained on– I wonder if he’s had it.

Country living gets grueling without warning.  We’ve adjusted to being horseless and to not having a litter of Goldens on the horizon.  I’ve said to Doug that he should sell the house, simplify, and start writing again.  I think the idea exhausts him….

If you love Goldens, check out the Double B.  Lee and I go back about twenty years and she does a terrific job with her beautiful imported dogs.  Cutter was a stud fee puppy and my up and coming Gilded Peak Scrumptous Munchkin is his daughter….ergo a granddaughter of Tess.