Cora had a face lift. We took her to the groomer and got rid of the frou-frou poodle cut that was weighing her down. Off with the pom-pom! The fly-away ears. Now, she looks like our dog. The puppy cut takes years off, in my opinion. She’ll be eleven on August 8, but if you see her from a distance, prancing along on our walk, you’d think she was five years younger. The grey hair is a giveaway, of course. Happens to the best of us!
‘Course, the closest I’ve come to seeing how much grey hair I have was at the beginning of Covid. Frankly, I was shocked! But, thanks to an emergency color kit dropped off by Patsy from Hair Affair, I was able to touch up my roots. She mixed the dye up in her salon, then hightailed it to my house and left it on my deck with instructions. How’d it turn out? Well, I’m not going to quit my day job and become a hairdresser, that’s for sure. What a relief to get back in the chair and let Patsy take over!
Anyhoo, Cora reminds me and Charlie of our first dog, Belle, a black standard poodle. She’s much smaller, of course, but Cora has the same, serene temperament. And she just loves to cuddle. I have to build in extra time in the morning because she wants to be loved up before she goes out. I’ll sit down to put my sneakers on, and she puts her little paws on my knees and won’t let me get to it until I pet her and hug her first. I kiss the top of her head and tell her how much we love her and what a good girl she is. She could stay like that forever. How Belle felt about chasing a ball, and Scamp felt about begging for food, Cora feels about hugs. I have to gently take her feet from my knees and place them on the floor so I can finish putting my sneakers on. I’m not complaining, mind you. I love it!
I bought a little car seat for Cora, and she just loves riding around with me. She looks out the window, occasionally giving a little hello yip to a walker, but other than that, she’s calm and quiet. Unlike Scamp, who was an absolute pill in the car, barking at everything. I’d have taken him with me running errands or what not, but my nerves couldn’t take it.
Cora has gone to visit Dad down to Mahoosuc Green, and was such a dear with the old folks, going right up to them and saying hi. She sat in Dad’s lap as he petted and fussed over her, and both them seemed happy.
Cora has a way with men. In the morning, Charlie gets into the kitchen before me because I’m still getting ready for our walk. Cora’s started conning him into taking her out for a pee in the yard, even though she’s
going with me in about ten minutes. Yup, she has Charlie wrapped around her little paw. She makes him slow down, stop what he’s doing and pet her. She’ll sit by him on the Barcalounger when he’s watching the game. The other day, I actually caught him explaining baseball to her and, just like me, she was pretending to care.
Oh, I missed Scamp wicked after he died. Still do, rascal that he was. Cora is helping us to get over it and move on. These little furry beings fill our lives with so much love it sometimes takes my breath away!
That’s it for now. Catch you on the flip side!
Hear Ida Tell It: Getting to Know Each Other