Our watch dogs don’t fit the pattern. Tara lets us know in no uncertain terms when there’s someone or something nearby. And when there isn’t, but she thinks there might be. She’ll chase the boogey man for a mile in the dark and refuse to come back. When it’s something wearing fur, she might get in a fix, or come back smelling and sneezing. She still thinks biting a tire will halt a vehicle but if the driver knows to holler out the window and bang the door she backs off.
Ruby is a watcher. She spends hours sitting on the meadow watching the activity across the road where a new home is going up. If all’s quiet, she watches the swan or a bird. Tara has taught her to bite tires too, and when the driver dismounts, she gives a good imitation of ferocious. But she’s a coward at heart; the bark is from fear and she’s slow to warm up to new people.
The time change has us all confused. They get up late and don’t mind going back to bed after a quick outdoor break, but lately Bruce has had early meetings in distant places, so we get up long before daylight. Everyone is grumpy about that. Mealtimes are off too. The dogs used to demand breakfast no later than seven. Now it’s a lot later, but if we feed them early because of needing to leave for a commitment they aren’t quite sure what to do with the offering.
On nice days, Ruby spends most of her time watching. Tara likes it indoors, so when her inner clock says suppertime she begins to complain. I stand on the deck and call loudly but, from her chosen meadow spot, Ruby just looks over her shoulder and says, “No thanks.” Since they have a large vocabulary, all I really need to do is holler, “supper” to get her up and running.
Cats are also confused. Tara and Ruby tell us it’s breakfast time for felines before we finish our own meal but when feed goes to the barn there aren’t many takers. Maybe they are sleeping in too. I couldn’t say about the mice.
Our mail comes at the usual time by the clock, but Ruby and Tara aren’t begging to go for a ride yet by then. We have to say, “Get mail” before they start trying to tear the door down.
This will all settle down in a couple of weeks, but I’m already tired of doing supper dishes and going straight to bed. Country people don’t generally come in for an evening meal until the sun goes down. We’ll go through the process in reverse in six months and be confused all over again. Lawmakers make noise every year about doing away with Daylight Saving Time but, like most government promises, nothing different happens. To be fair, they do have plenty of more pressing concerns. I just wish they’d address them.
Meet me here next week and meanwhile, do your best. Somebody might like it.