Retirement Lifestyle: A Day of My Retirement
by Jane Curtis aka Texasjane
(Texas)
A DAY AT THE LAKE
I lived with 3 dogs and a cat. When I lived on the lake my day was never typical or routine. One such day went something like this:
Baby Girl (my big yellow dog) had gotten real good about bringing me turtles at night when I'm not paying attention to her. I would fall asleep and she would go out the doggy door and bring me her gifts. The gifts had become a daily thing for her.
Each morning (with Baby Girl following) I would take my precious little gifts down the back steps and place them in the opening leading under the house. This seemed to be the safest place to put them.
Sweet Pea (large gray hound) wanted to kiss everything and Freddie (pit bull pup) wanted to taste everything. The dogs would not easily find them there and the weather would not give them a problem. If I just put them in the yard, Baby Girl would just bring them back inside.
Then one morning I looked at a turtle crawling across the kitchen floor then I saw another coming from the bathroom and still another coming down the hall. I called Baby Girl. She came immediately. I pointed at the turtle and pointed to the back door.
She tapped the back of the shell and the creatures closed up. She gently picked it up in her mouth and headed to the back door. I open the back door, down the steps and takes them one at a time and puts them under the house.
I tried to make mental note to remember they were under there if I ever sent a plumber under the house.. They would be interesting in knowing there were snapping turtles under there. I mean over the last week Baby Girl and I had deposited at least twenty snapping turtles under there. Baby Girl seemed to accept the fact that they belonged under there but only after I found them in the house.
There was procedure of events and she stuck to it. I would look in her eyes once and a while and swear she was trying to talk. I also knew she knew what I was saying when I talked to her. She always followed my finger when I pointed. She was truly an amazing, drive you crazy, wonderful fur person.
When I went to open the back door I discovered a new little family of possums had moved into a tree branch that had fallen there during the last storm. I did not move it because it is too big. I had decided to leave the little mamma with 2 babies hanging upside down on the branch. It was not big but too big for me to move with tenants in it.
While waiting for Baby Girl to come back after her last deposit, I watched Ashley my cat sit on the chest freezer in the kitchen and meow out the window. Within a few minutes a raccoon popped down from the roof and hopped over to the open window and joined her. They both went into the back room and curled up together. You can tell it is Spring. Did I tell you already about the tiny little tree frog that hopped into the house? It was a race to see who was going to catch him first me or Freddie.
I did not know what I'm going to do about the raccoon yet. I did not know if I should tell Ashley she is a cat or tell the raccoon he is not. I decided to work on that one tomorrow. I tried to cross my computer room again and fell, but not before landing on my knee. I tried to get up using my desk chair and broke it. I finally got up using the desk.
I went back into the living room, and just sat there staring at a blank TV. I started laughing so hard I could not stop. Baby Girl started kissing me all over she was sure something was wrong. Freddie started dancing a jig and licking my bruised knees and Sweetie Pie had laid down and put both her front paws over her eyes.
The tree frog, the turtles, the tree branch on the back porch with tenants, falling and landing on my bad knee, breaking my office chair, Ashley and the raccoon made up the list so far and the day was still early. It was funny, because it was all too funny not to laugh at.
I love when all the weird things happen at the same time. I figured my karma was good for quite a while. I guess if you don’t laugh at God's first joke he keeps sending them to you till you do. I no longer live at the lake. Baby Girl, Freddie, and Ashley are all gone now. The memory is a good one. It is a day God made me sit down and laugh right out loud.
