Animals and Good Fortune

Yesterday, we caught una rodencia (I have no idea if that's even a real word, but it sounds better than rodent, don't you think??) in our have-a-heart trap under the kitchen sink. I don't know what made me look at it, really, since it had been empty for days and we had kind of thought that the cat had already caught whatever left us all the little gifts around the tupperware, but all of a sudden I just had a Feeling, and sure enough, there was a tiny little grey mousie looking up the tube at me when I opened the thing up to look. It had cute little pink paws and nose, and black eyes. We did the wildlife release program on the way to school, way at the back of the second yard (we actually have two back yards, one next to the house and the other beyond the garage, so we have a kind of garage sandwich), and it bounded away from us and the house. I should probably re-set the trap, since where there's one there can be more, but I'm kinda lazy, so maybe I'll wait and see what happens. The funniest part was, the cat had been in the cabinet, just down at the other end, and when I pulled the trap out, she poked her head out the far end, as if to say, 'HEY!!!! I WAS SAVING THAT!!!!' She looked *pissed*. I told her that she had had a week, and too bad for her.

On the way home from school, poor Baci got bit by another dog. A BIG one. A guy catty-corner from us has been rehabbing the house, which I'm not sure but I think he's trying to flip, and was outside with his bull mastiff. It's a beautiful dog, about 120lbs, I'm guessing, and brindle. It was wagging its stubby tail, sort of, and woofing, so I asked the guy if it was friendly, since Baci was wagging his fool tail about OFF at it. He said yes, so we went over. MISTAKE. Thank God I was in front, and that I had left old Tyler dog at home, because it could have been much, much worse had this happend to him, or heaven forbid, one of the kids. The two dogs sniffed each other's faces for a minute, and Baci started licking the Mastiff, when all of a sudden I heard this huge growl and he lunged at Baci, who started yelping and backed away. The guy had thankfully kept a hang on the leash, so was able to hold him as Baci got away, and the kids were still behind me. I said, 'well, I guess not,' and we left. I mean, it happens, and we were on it's turf and all, but I was mildly surprised that the guy didn't seem surprised *at all*. Now, why say it's friendly if you're not sure? He didn't apologize, nothing. We walked home, and poor Baci wedged himself up against the kitchen cabinets as I looked him over. Amazingly, the dog must have missed, or Baci must have pulled back just in time, because all he has is a big scrape on his right shoulder, and a place where a patch of his fur was ripped off. Obviously, we will not be going over there again, and the kids are under strict orders not to go to pet it, no matter how friendly the guy says that dog is. Poor Baci walked around with his tail between his legs for awhile, but he's really none the worse for wear. Phew.

I know a lot of my posts lately have been of the 'poor me' variety, and it's pretty inexcusable. On the whole, I am actually a very happy person. Maybe it's due in part to my being able to exorcise my demons on here. Anyway, I have to say that really, the past few months have been probably the happiest of my adult life. This town that we moved to two years ago has been a huge blessing for us. I always thought that I wanted to live in a city, but I didn't realize that the loneliness of city life was more city-specific than just the way that adults lived. Since we have moved here, we have met the most wonderful people, and made such good friends, that I would be a idiot to be anything other than grateful at the end of every day. When we lived nearer to DC, the entire area was in such transition due to the nature of the work there and the military presence that it was near-impossible to make good friends, because either people were at work all the time or they were going to be moving again in a year, so you'd just get to know someone and they'd leave. There was also a lot of shallowness and rudeness that I had accepted as the way that life was. Now that we're away from all that, yes, I miss the retail and restaurants and proximity to cultural things, but our quality of life is so much better. I actually have friends here, people who would drop what they were doing to help us out, and have done so on several occasions. People pay attention to each other, and respect each other, and aren't constantly trying to out-cool each other. It's so relaxing, and real, and homey. So, to Marty and Karen, and Shannon and Bill, and Chris and Rob, and everyone, I am so thrilled that we've met you and your kids, and know how lucky I am to count you as friends.