I bet you didn't think you'd read a blog post about poop today.

My husband and I have two dogs.

Otter, our beagle:



and Willy, our miniature dachshund:



Walking them is an adventure, especially when we are not in our own backyard, but for today I will focus on just one oddity of Otter's.

Our yard is not fenced in. This makes leashes a necessity, particularly for Otter. Beagles love to follow their noses, and this makes him a definite flight risk. Otter's leash is a normal, six foot leash that lets him go far enough away to explore some of the weird and gross things he finds interesting, but not so far that we can't keep him out of trouble (or piles of cat poop).

This six foot separation is not up to his standards. Whenever he finally picks the perfect place to go about his business, it is, without fail, roughly one arms length PAST the end of the leash. He can't face you either, because I guess he thinks that invades his privacy. He likes to have his side to you, if not his rear end. This results in him dragging me along the yard until he finally chooses the prime location, and then me taking one step closer to him so my shoulder does not become dislocated.

From afar, this must look like I just want to get closer to the action. That would also make me look like a crazier person than I probably am.

But he is my dog, and I am his person, so I will deal with this weirdness in exchange for the smiling and tail-wagging with which he is so generous.

And at least he doesn't eat his own poop like Willy. But that is another story.

A pretty shot from my backyard.

Slap on the wrist

There. I just gave myself a slap on the wrist for you. My blogging lately has been lazy at best. My problem, if you were wondering, is that I always think of eloquent, witty posts at the wrong times. At work, in the car, in bed while I wait (for longer than I'd like) to fall asleep. I have great ideas for fun, funny and interesting posts, and I even begin to write them in my head. I think that surely I will remember these ideas and snippets of imagined writing the next time I make it to my laptop.

And then, my brain happens.

My brain is an interesting place. Lots goes on there, half of which I am sure I do not remember (and that is being generous). It's quite unfortunate really, especially when I am really excited to write something and then when I finally sit down to create, I remember only that I wanted to write, not what I wanted to write. Grumble grumble.

When I was a junior in high school, in my honors English class, I had the pleasure of listening to a guest speaker who made his living as a writer. I, not surprisingly, do not remember his name. What I do remember is a thing he said about carrying about a notebook wherever he went. That way, when those often fleeting moments of inspiration struck, he would get up out of bed or pull his car to the side of the road so he could write his brief moments of literary genius down. Capture those brilliant ideas and well-constructed lines, and save them to share later.

If I spent the last paragraph inflating a bright shiny balloon, here is where I pop it. I have no such notebook.

Sigh.

But I promise to start feeding parts of my brain into my phone to be called on when the time is right! Because I do enjoy writing, and I like to share my writing with you. So if you could just bear with me, I will try my best to get those blogs wheels turning on a more regular basis.