...And So Here We Are...

 Yes, I'm still here. 

So after the  return of Rhaea to the breeder, I fell into a bit of a blue mood.   I knew it was the right thing to do for the pup especially, and also for us, but it was so. damn. hard.

How could something so long planned and prepared for, go so terribly wrong?

The unknown portion of the equation was Rhaea herself. Her personality and little terrier mind.  They are truly individuals and exert themselves into the mix.    I'm happy to report that she is doing very well and is quite at home with all the other dogs there and they let her know when she has overstepped and remind of her place at the bottom of the pack order.  Her best buddy she plays everyday with is Sparkle, a Staffordshire terrier.  In time she will go to a new home, but the new owners will have to have another dog for her to live with.  A  singleton lifestyle isn't for her.

Meanwhile, its been a bit quiet here as you can imagine. We took a week or so to gather, clean up and organize the puppy paraphernalia and have decided to sell it off.   We haven't given up on the whole idea of having a dog but when we do get one, it will  be an adult dog and so not all this stuff is useful.   

During this time period, I got word that my ex husband had died.   Our divorce was over  37 years ago so while I'm not feeling any loss, I do feel for my adult children who won't have closure on many issues. That door has been firmly closed.

I started to putter in the studio again but not with the old drive, but more from a sense of just keeping busy.  We wound on a new warp onto the Spring loom and I have one scarf completed and a second started.  I have decided that the pattern is neat but I'm not feeling the love for this painted warp and so its just something to weave off and get to something more exciting. 

On the Megado I have finally completed two scarves but it was a bit of a slog, no matter how much I loved the pattern or colours.  I haven't woven for two months and with the constant lifting of the legs I felt it in my muscles before too long.  I was out of weaving shape!   So I wove on it every day, and steadily longer repeats every day.    So now the scarves are done, fringes twisted and washed and pressed.  The reveal will have to wait a while until we get a rare (for this time of year) sunny day as every light on isn't enough to get a nice picture.   But I'll post as soon as I can....    Here's a look at the start of the second scarf:

A few days ago I was starting to feel a bit better, ordering Christmas gifts on line and working on Christmas cards when we got a phone call from my daughter and son in law in Colorado.   She has tested positive for Covid 19, complete with flu symptoms and a loss of smell and taste, and her hubby is okay for now but will be tested later this week.   Suddenly something that was happening to many others 'out there' just came home to roost.  Naturally as her mother, I'm filled with worry and dread.   When some people tell me not to worry I'm inwardly laughing at that statement.   Mothers never stop worrying about their children no matter their age.   My mother in law is 97 and still fusses over my husband sometimes...   

So we're staying home much more, being very careful when we go out and planning on a very quiet Christmas and winter season.   There will be more weaving, more show and tell as we close out this awful year.

If you have a love of tapestry weaving, then I can recommend this book which was just released. Not only is it full of useful information on how to do tapestry weaving, its also a beautiful book with gorgeous pictures.  It will become a classic very soon.   Either treat yourself or ask Santa for it. 

A quick note about  my Shortcuts page:   I had / have a shortcuts page to older posts on various topics to help newer readers find stuff here.  There were some broken links which I fixed and then republished the page. Now Blogger tells me its published but I can't see any tab at the top, and according to some readers, they can't see it either.    Its very frustrating and I have written to support about this issue but so far, no reply or fix.    I'm afraid you will have to use the little search box in the top lefthand corner until I can get this figured out....    Sorry about that!  😳

Making Hard Choices

 

I have been dreading writing this post and been avoiding it as a result.  So here is what I wrote and told a friend this morning:

"I haven’t done any weaving since early September but will be starting once again later today or more likely tomorrow.

I’m very sad to tell you that we made the hard decision to return Rhaea to the breeder and we drove down island this past Sunday to take her home. 

So what happened? Well, she started displaying behaviour that seemed much more than mere ‘puppy playfulness’. Leaping at the back of my legs and biting me hard. Hubby has bite marks  all over his hands.  If you tried to untangle a leash, she’d bite, and barking endlessly, plus endless 'zoomies'….. and a once dry and housetrained dog went back to doing it in the house, and eating it.  

We had been going to puppy classes and faithfully doing training at home. Everything was a teaching moment. She would sit, even do a lie down but when the treat reward didn’t come fast enough, she’d leap up and bite hard. She was spending more time in the 'time out' crate than out and our nerves were seriously frazzled. We were feeling ill  from the continual stress of it all and not knowing what more to do about it.

This was quite unlike any previous puppy experience we have ever had ….. and we’ve had more than a few and always had dogs (terriers) until Calli died. We talked to the dog trainer about ‘board and train’ but after spending a LOT of money, there was no guarantee it would work once she returned home.

I talked with the breeder honestly and she said to return her now and it was better to do that sooner for both the pup and for us. So the reports coming in now is that she’s settled back into the breeders home where there are a large number of other dogs and she’s now at the bottom of the pack order and no one puts up with her shenanigans. Even her mother has straightened her out a few times. So, apparently we weren’t effective enough at being the Alpha dogs here."

We are dealing with many emotions regarding this decision, but sadness is the main one. It became clear we couldn’t carry on with things the way they were and it wasn’t a good situation especially for the pup.

I have heard from her owner now and it seems she’s doing very well in a group setting with other dogs. So we are happy its working well for her there.

As for us, well our home is very quiet now and one ‘side effect’ is that I wake much earlier now. I have caught up on everything that was set aside for some weeks and will be resuming weaving this afternoon.