Is my dog happy?

As I write this I'm playing with my dog, by pulling a yellow stuffed duck from her mouth occasionally.  When I'm typing, she shakes the duck on her own, and then pushes it into my arm when she's ready to play more.  Every once an a while I have to tell her "no teeth".

Sometimes I wonder if we're the best owners for her.  I don't clip hair as often as I should, and apparently I'm bathing her too often (the vet just told me a few weeks ago), and sometimes her nail get to long.

I want her to be happy, and sometimes when she squeaks when I do her nails, or she looks so mopey when I'm eating and not sharing, I give into her and give he what she wants.

Temple Grandin says to give dogs at least 30 minutes of attention every day, and I think my dog gets way more than that.  I pet her and play with her often throughout the day.  I know she'd love to play fetch or frisbee, but it's too cold outside, and we don't have the space to do it inside.  Maybe they should make indoor playgrounds for dogs.

A night of old english mystery TV shows.

As I mentioned yesterday, it's cold outside.

After venturing out into the cold, to buy groceries and supper, my mother and I ate and then huddled under a mountain of covers in her bed and watched youtube videos on a computer propped up on my lap.  The dog alternated between being between us, on one of us, and at the end of the bed.  And then we settled into for a long winters....  Well not nap, youtube watching.

Old shows like "Hetty Waithrope Investigates" and "Rosemary and Thyme" filled out evening.  It was warm, cozy, and entertaining.  The wind blew the snow around outside, but inside we were warm, under several blankets and sometimes a dog.

Those are shows that we haven't watched in years, and when we first started watching them, I wasn't sure that we'd enjoy them again, but we did.  The last time I watched "Rosemary and Thyme" I was skinny like Rosemary, but this time I was fat like Thyme, which was kinda strange to realize.  It's also strange to realize that although I remembered the stone going through the window, I remembered it as a brick, and I didn't remember much else.

And so I'm sure we will do that again, sometime, when we just can't seem to get the temperature inside to warm up enough to be tolerable.  It's not that we don't have a good furnace, it's that sometimes, it just gets so cold that the furnace can't keep up, because the outside temperature plummets so much in such a short time.

And well now we've figured out how to warm up, and be entertained.

The furnace has now caught up, and the house is a liveable temperature, and we are settling in to go to bed soon.

So good night, although by the time you read this it will be moving, so good morning.

Night is my alone time.

It's late at night again.  Mom's in bed.  My dog just jumped off the couch and went to bed on her own.  She does that sometimes.

Night time is usually my time, to think, be myself, and just be alone.  I've always needed time to be alone.  Even as a child, I sometimes sought out places to just be by myself.  I had friends, and I loved spending time with them, but I also wanted to just be by myself sometimes.

Without my alone time, I get grumpy and anxious.  I don't enjoy my time with other people, if I haven't had my alone time.

And there's nothing wrong with that.