I publish a post every Monday on my regular site — zanneblog.weebly.com. They may or may not touch on painting, although somehow everything eventually does. For up-to-date posts, go there. What will appear in this column are taken from four years of archives, all of which are available on the site..
Alfie passed away but was easily replaced by Mouscu, a scruffy Pomeranian with a pronounced under-bite. No matter. Different actors, same plot. And so it goes. The saddest part was seeing Mouscu scan the lawn in January while Jewell snoozed on the best chair in the living room. The only two male dogs who disliked her were nasty old Caspar (a dauchshund, of all things) and Canyon, who took his cue from his steady girl but came calling as soon as she moved away. Our lawn was an olfactory Eden and, when we were out walking, I frequently congratulated Jewell for her diligence about sending and retrieving pee-mail.
Not that male dogs were her only targets. We started to call Jewell The Schmoozer after she was invited to a number of garden parties and we had the opportunity to watch her work the crowd. Her stopwatch must have been set to ten minutes; she would plunk herself down in front of a man and stare at him until he patted her. Next, she would flip his hand up until he patted her some more and got into a rhythm. About the time (Minute 11) that the poor sucker had begun to mutter endearments, she would stand up and pad off to the next conquest. And repeat. Again, it proved heart-breaking to watch. She was always a bit full of herself after a party.