Doggie Comfort

             

 

   Cody, my cocky Cocker, does three things when he steps out of his crate in the morning. The first is when he shakes his body so fast side to side it looks like he has only one eye. Doggie stretch follows the shake, first the front legs and paws, then the back ones. I love his third move most of all. He comes over to me and nuzzles my legs, rubbing his little self against me.

                No matter how poorly I may have slept the night before or how my day may loom like a mountain to be climbed, his morning greeting comforts me.  Dogs do that and that’s why they are welcome in hospitals, nursing homes and other places where humans stress out.

                I recently read a newspaper article by Haley Vaccaro (Albany Bureau) about comfort dogs working the courtrooms, of all places. There, “facility” dogs have a way of helping witnesses testify with less anxiety and more accuracy. In fact, according to the article, Senator Terry Gipson of Dutchess County N.Y. introduced a law that would allow these dogs in the courtrooms to offer comfort to victims and witnesses. The potential law is named after the dog “Rosie” who helped a terrified teen who was on the witness stand. The girl froze when asked to point out her assailant. When Rosie gently nudged the girl’s arm with her snout, she was able to point to her father.

                What a great way for dogs to add even more comfort to peoples’ lives than they already do. They warn us when strangers approach, somehow know when we need a nuzzle; they fetch, herd, protect and generally adopt their people pack with more loyalty and love than I think we sometimes deserve.

                I think we would be amazed at what goes on between those pointy or floppity ears.

The Good Old Days

                If you’re looking for a great non-fiction easy summer read, I suggest The Good Old Days-They Were Terrible! by Otto L. Bettmann.  Each glimpse into some aspect of the 19^th century covers only two pages, so it’s a book you can grab and put down throughout the day – or get lost in for a few hours.

                The entry about summer makes one appreciate the invention of the window screen in the 1880’s. Imagine flies and mosquitoes all over your food, nesting on you and your bedding at night, getting into your food and drink! Children were given leafy branches to shoo them away while family members tried to eat a meal in peace and without bug garnishes.

                Bettmann quotes Russel Lynes who said screens were, “the most humane contribution the 19th century made to the preservation of sanity and good temper.”

                And then there were the electric trolleys. I’ve been on delightful trolley rides but my experiences are a far cry from the 19^th century trolleys which at best, reached a max of 25 miles per hour. Not even considering the spaghetti of overhead wires, the trolleys made little progress through the busy streets because they followed horse drawn vehicles or waited while they clopped across the rail. A photo of a Chicago intersection showed a pile up of huge proportion with trolleys, trucks, people and horses milling in the road. H.G Wells called the Chicago streets “one horse cry for discipline.”

                Other topics in the book include housing, air, work, crime, food and drink, health, etc. Being your full service blogger, I checked and it is available at Amazon and Amazon Prime as well as in our area libraries for local readers.

Enjoy!

Prim

                I like country style décor with the cozy, comfy look old things like quilts, candles, and firkins give a room. My favorite magazine features several homes in country style and is full of ways to get what they call “the look.”

            There is a country style called “primitive” or just “prim” for short and it’s what I would call hard core country style. You couldn’t find an upholstered chair or a cabinet that didn’t look like someone took chains to it, to save your life. The more beat up, rusted, many paint layered, the furnishings are, the better. The home owners tell of buying, say, a 20^th century ranch home and removing the carpeting and wall paper. They cover refrigerators with barn wood and take down the matching cabinets in the kitchen to replace them with odd cupboards or a wooden box, its bottom nailed to the wall, to house ancient crockery. With a lot of hard work, historical study, and dedicated salvaging, they create a home worthy of the 19^th century’s best from the hollers of Appalachia.

            I was discussing this primitive style with a friend who was born and raised in Appalachia.  She became a nurse and settled here in upstate New York. In a soft voice that still harbored a hint of a southern accent, she chuckled and said, “I worked very hard to get away from that look.”

            For her, that was all her family could afford. For others, it’s the height of period correct décor and worth every penny invested.

Our personal spaces are as unique as we are, aren’t they?

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