California Gardening: California winter #2, 1 by Twincol

Twincol wrote:
Hi, folks. I've been absent for some time and missin' you. It's been a difficult Holiday Season, on top of trying to put together a gift package for my demented mother. I wanted to try to challenge her memory losses with a genealogy "picture" for her to see. It was an arduous task, as I've only looked at these things before, not tried to put one together with the software available. What a mess I could make of things in just minutes, LOL. Well, she didn't see the mess and we had a good time talking about the events and people she could remember. Then . . . my deceased father's sister came to visit early last week and only after she left did I learn that mom didn't know what the relationship was, thinking she was an old friend rather than her sis-in-law. ROFL! I keep expecting that she will have lost her old defense skill of covering up for lapses of any sort in her dementia, learning here that clearly it's even more entrenched. Such a funny thing to see. Well, she's in great health otherwise, which is a blessing. And I had fun with her, nevertheless.

And on New Years Eve as I prepared to prepare (huh?) for a party and was going to feed the resident four-leggers, it became apparent that my 7 YO Standard Poodle, Ezio, was not well. I'll spare you the details, but a visit to the vet with him on the 2nd ultimately resulted in his death and both his 24X7 companion, 15YO Olivia, and I are just grief stricken. Ezio was her pathfinder, as she is blind now. And she is deaf. So to be alone all day long is likely more difficult for her grief management than for me. So we are struggling to keep ourselves together and loving each other.

I will likely lose her shortly and I was actually prepared for her passing, expecting his presence to help me. So Ezio's sudden crash and death is especially painful for me. And I will be left with the resident bossy kitty to push me around without anyone to help me contain her behavior once Olivia is gone, LOL.

Aaaanyway, know that I am visiting in the background with you, but here. I will be back, hopefully, shortly and throwing myself around again, hehehe.

Photo (very poor photo camera to do the job at the time) of Ezio and Olivia the first day he was here with us. Look at that pushy boy! Olivia had no choice but to give in to him.

Linda



This message was edited Jan 10, 2010 11:32 AM