Happy Holidays 2023 from George and Olive

 

It has been a while and I have not kept up Olive’s blog over the last year. That is mostly because at age 12 now, Olive is not as active and energetic as she used to be. She has trouble getting into my car, so that I do not take her anywhere if I can help it except to the kennel for daycare and the vet. A plastic folding stair that I had hoped would make it easier for her to get into the car did not quite work out as I had hoped. It is a bit wobbly and I do not think she really trusts it. I will be going to a few pet stores to see what is available after the holidays.

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In October I traveled to England to see cousin’s daughter Lisa graduate with a PhD from Cambridge University. Olive spent that week at Candlewick kennels, where I know she was well taken care of. When I got home and picked her up from the kennel her reaction was one of “you’re here? Okay, let’s go home.” No exuberance at seeing me. It was after we got home that she stuck to me like glue and wouldn’t let me leave her even to go into the next room. It was good to be back home with my dog.

Lisa has not only graduated from Cambridge but is not engaged to an impressive young English man named Chris. I had met him both over in England on previous trips and here when he came to visit Lisa’s family. This trip I met his family and was quite favorably impressed. On a previous visit by Chris to the US he came to my house and met Olive. She seemed to like him and took to him right away. So Chris has passed the “Olive test”. Olive approves of him and so do I.

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This year Olive cooperated for her annual portrait in front of my holiday tree. She doesn’t seem puzzled by the presence of the tree, perhaps because after nearly nine years she is used to it appearing in December.

 

Okay, I posed. Are you happy now?

I had some friends over for a “supper by the tree” a week ago. Olive had a good time and enjoyed the attention she got. Among the presents I got was a border collie dish towel. Olive was given some bags of dog treats, which she will enjoy a few at a time over the next few months. She may be a bit perturbed that she doesn’t get to enjoy HER holiday presents on her schedule (all at once), but too bad. I’m the boss.

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This season our gift to all of the readers of Olive’s blog is a Christmas story involving the clay horse named Pokey, who was Gumby’s pal in those early 60s Claymation films. Everyone remembers Gumby, but this is the only film I have ever seen with Pokey and not Gumby.

Note the old dial telephone and the old TV set. There is also what seems to be a guest appearance by Davey (of Davey and Goliath, a Sunday morning semi-religious morality series that was also a Clokey production). Enjoy!

Happy holidays to everyone from George and Olive.

Olive and I observe Arbor Day

 

Some years ago, there was an ornamental tree on the south side of my townhouse that I could see out a window. That tree blew over in a storm some years back; the tree was removed and the stump dug out. A hole was left in the earth that still existed until this morning.

I thought that the area looked empty and thought that another tree should go there. As a kid we had an apple tree in our backyard, so I sentimentally would have liked to see an apple tree in that spot. After a few years of no action by the Association, I decided to take some action. I spoke with my next-door neighbors who said they would have no objection to a tree in that spot. I wrote to the property manager asking for an okay to put an apple tree there. To my surprise, I got a response back after a few days giving me an okay to plant one.

On Saturday I went to a nearby garden center. The people there were very helpful and helped me pick out a Macintosh sapling on their lot. They also gave me some helpful advice about planting it. I bought the sapling and a sack of planting soil that they recommended. Somehow, they managed to fit it into my car and I was off. By coincidence, that was the day after Arbor Day, the traditional day to plant a tree.

 

 

Home from the garden center on a rainy day

Saturday and Sunday were quite rainy, but the forecast was for dryer weather on Monday. So, Monday had to be the day. I parked the tree in the plastic pot on my back deck and removed the yarn used to temporarily tie the branches up to fit the tree into my car.

 

The rain was heavy on Sunday night, so I waited until the ground drained and dried a bit. After a breakfast of oatmeal, egg, a bagel, and a large mug of high-test coffee I was raring to go. First, I had to cut through the sod.

 

One foot deep, 28" in diameter.

As the people at the garden center recommended, I dug a hole one foot deep and 28” in diameter. I placed the tree in the hole and cut away the plastic bucket with a razor cutting tool. I mixed the sack of planting soil with an equal amount of native soil and little by little packed it around the cylinder of soil that was in the bucket, packing it with my hands as tightly as I could to avoid any air voids.

 

View from the East

View from the South

Finally, I replaced the sod as best I could.

 

Not so easy to put the sod back

Lastly, I brought Olive out to see the new addition. She did not seem to have much reaction to the tree; she was more interested in playing Frisbee.

 

"Well, at least he didn't try to plant a tree in the middle of the living room like he did last December!"

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A few bits of dog humor I collected over the past few months.

How else would humans know that it's time to exercise?

How true.

You knew he was a working dog when you married him.

More cat humor than dog humor, but I have heard that cats have secret names known only to themselves.

Starting the New Year

 

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I took Olive for her routine physical exam by the veterinarian in early January. The vet detected a heart murmur. That did not concern me too much as Smokey, the dog I had as a kid, had a murmur for years and lived to be almost seventeen. Murmurs are rated on a scale of 1-6; the vet initially gave Olive’s murmur a 2, which could require medication. To be certain and help get a more accurate evaluation, the vet did recommend a special type of scan, called an echo cardiogram, which would be three-dimensional and show more than a simple x-ray. I agreed and set an appointment for the following Monday.

As instructed, I dropped Olive off at 7:30 a.m., then headed to a nearby café for coffee and a bagel. From there I poked around a home improvement store for a while until around 10:30 when I had been told that the procedure should be finished. Back at the vet’s I used my cell phone to call and ask about Olive (this vet is still being cautious in the wake of Covid and not allowing people to accumulate in the waiting room). It turned out that Olive was just finishing up. I said I would be right in. I should have added that I was right outside the door, as the receptionist was startled when I walked in. She apparently thought it would take some ten or fifteen minutes for me to drive to the office.

In any event, the murmur turned out to be slighter than  the vet had feared, level 1. No medication was required, just “monitor the situation.” That was a relief.

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On Christmas Eve, after my Holiday entry was posted, I had family at my house for Christmas Eve dinner. My one-year-old grandniece was there and took delight in seeing Olive catch her ball. My sister, the child’s grandmother, took a short video.

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Some dog humor I have collected over the past few months.

Well, even border collies need to relax and socialize.

Okay, so she took a shortcut.

Well, I can't survive without a border collie.