Day: October 14, 2017

Being “gussed” is a new verb around here, when Gus decides to kiss your face, it is like a crazed bumblebee on speed, he leaps and snorts and goes up and down the side of your face. Maria knelt down in the grass to take a photo and he came charging over and she got “gussed.” Yesterday, he jumped up on my lap and then my shoulders and climbed up and sat on the top of my bald head, leaning down to chew on my ears.

I was not prepared for this, I had been “gussed.” I made an appointment for Gus to be neutered on November 2 at the Cambridge Valley clinic. He’s ready, he’s lifting his leg and humping various toys.

It’s time to keep the mellow alive in him, although it is sad he won’t be bred. He is a great dog. A touch of mellowing won’t hurt a bit.

It would seem inappropriate to call Alice and Jean my girlfriends, but there is something too it. I love these two, they often walk together in the hallway to prop up each other on the way to the dining room, and they are two sweet and shy and loving people.

Alice is my date on the Mansion outings when I am there, she takes my hand and I help guide her. Jean has a wicked sense of humor and a great love of dogs.

They were each married a long time, and think of their late husbands often. They both love living in the Mansion now, they feel safe and cared for there. They are a lot of fun to be around, their spirits and minds are strong and sharp. Alice is in her 90’s, Jean a decade younger.

She is also obsessed with housekeeping and often decides to vacuum the Mansion carpets for the fun of it. Whenever I take their photo, the laugh and blush, and they ask me if I want to break my camera. I tell them they are two beautiful women, and the camera very much loves them.

Jean misses her dogs very much and has a dog bed and a stuffed dog by her bed. You can write Alice (left) or Jean c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

A reminder that Halloween is coming up and the Mansion will have some kind of holiday celebration. Letters and messages and favors will be much appreciated. Send Halloween decorations to Julie Smith, Activities Director, The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

This is one of my favorite autumn photos ever, leaves die so well. I’ve sold several already, and this photo looks wonderful in a a slightly smaller format,  8 12″ by 7 1/2″ format. It prints beautifully on rag paper, the best paper available. The photo costs $75 plus $10 shipping and  is posted on the new photo – for – sale gallery  on the blog.  The photo is unframed and unsigned. Contact Maria – [email protected].

Gus is a popular dog, inside and outside of our farm. Small dogs are popular in America now, and I am glad we got Gus, I am learning a lot about the small dog experience, so much for my snobbery and misconceptions. I am glad we decided to treat Gus as a dog, and not a furbaby.

Because of this, he has, in fact, become a dog. He has no sense of himself as little or vulnerable or precious. He does what our dogs do, goes where our dogs go. So far, he is handling the cold mornings without any vest or signs of discomfort. He loves to sit up on the donkeys – he can’t get himself up, but he jumps off when he wants – and surveys his new kingdom.

The donkeys are fond of him, and the sheep are stymied by him, they are not sure whether to run over him or away him, so they just stop for him, just in case.

This morning, Maria went out to commune with Lulu – Lulu loves Maria very much – and she parked Gus up on Lulu’s back where he sat quite comfortably. Lulu does not mind having him.  Gus enters into the rhythms and rituals of hour lives, we have not altered our lives for him.

He is a lot of fun, and there is also something inspiring to me about Gus. He shows us all once again that we are bounded only by our frail imaginations. He does what he wants to do, he is the little dog who could, not the little dog who can’t.