Most mornings Maggie and I walk through this park to start our day. Spring has reached its peak of natural awakings. Young birds are fledging, insects are multiplying and most plants are sharing new foliage and flowers. This morning we decided to no longer hide behind our covid withdrawal symptoms, return to our blog and begin a new spurt of creativity. Maggie can finally be trusted to briefly be alone out in a public space. Apologies for the lack of creativity in this photo however my I Phone at least recorded how we felt. Soon we will know how many of our fellow bloggers have left Haiku Hound open to receive. I look forward to reacquainting with fellow haiku artists.
Two of Maggies siblings at 8 weeks of age on a hot Summer’s day. Maggie was still on her feet at this stage harrassing some other sleeping pups. Afghan Hounds spend most of their time in these poses, often on their backs, on couches or beds in Maggie’s case.
Maggie loves to go crazy in off lead dog parks and play with any dogs that are up to the risks involved. She is the Afghan pictured in every photo. The other dogs are various participants at different times of the year. From the top the season is Winter, Spring, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Autumn. No one has ever been injured by Maggie and she in return remains accident free. Can you spot the head of the third dog in the second last image? I apologise that not all are well framed however the action is so fast one just snaps away.
graceful dance
calls for summer change
slip that coat
Warmer days and dog play times meant something new for Maggie’s wardrobe. During our Melbourne Covid lockdown grooming services for dogs were closed along with almost everything else. As Maggie makes home grooming inpossible for Jill and I, ( we did try but could do very little) her coat became thicker and matted. This in turn meant she heated up when let loose in dog parks. Her groomers, (who always claim she is a little angel) had prepared for Maggie’s coat and indicated she would need clipping before they even saw her.
Having slipped out of her 2 kilo coat Maggie can again dance gracefully with her canine mates in the park.
creative resting
hibernation is over
action time awaits
on our bedon her bedon the couchon a re-adjusted couchat the vet
Maggie spends most of the day sleeping or resting. When she comes to life it is usually when we invite her to because of food, a promise to go for a drive to one of her favourite locations or go walking.
However Maggie also initiates action. At least once a day Maggie insists on a game of chase around the yard or a game of fight and throw selected toys in our living room. Then there are the times she intercepts the arrival of parcels at the front gate, (as shown in an earlier post) or she steals something and makes a run for outside where she attempts to eat or destroy it. Yesterday it was wool from Jill’s spinning wheel, the day before a slipper or it may be a toilet roll or a sock. She recently spent a night on a drip in an emergency animal hospital and a follow up day on a drip at our vet all because she managed to eat something unmentionable that caused a blockage and required a flush out of her bowel. Life is never boring with Maggie. Soon she will be 4 and as other posts have shown she lives a full life when she is not resting and is not yet slowing down.
A recent peaceful sunset at Ricketts Point. Maggie loves this beach as have all our other Afghan Hounds over the last 40 plus years. Maggie seems to look, reflect and even lose herself in imaginations when she is down here. There is also the prospect of finding a dead fish, or a piece of sponge. We always have to watch where her mouth is on the beach.
The lockdown to combat this Covid virus certainly created many new habits and customs for us. Online shopping became a necessary option as we could not travel more than 5 kilometres from home and were confined to our homes except for 1 hour of food shopping and 1 hour of exercise a day.
Maggie always loves to greet the Posties and parcel deliveries at the gate, usually to be patted, by the postie and to play bluff with the parcel deliverers. With a lot more parcels arriving for us they were being left inside the gate and this opened up a new exciting world for Maggie. She developed a sense of responsibility to collect any found parcels and then entertain herself unless we beat her to them.
My favourite gluten free vegimite, (Vegemite is an Australian necessity) was suddenly not stocked in the 2 accessible supermarkets so I had to order it from Adelaide. My 5 jars arrived well packed as seen in photo 1 except this was after Maggie unpacked them. She then carefully created an art display on the ground with the 5 jars. We titled the work of art, “Maggie’s Mess”.
Two recent photos that sum up Maggie’s life at the moment. Sleeping a lot, or in this case also listening to the soundtrack of “Three Colours Red”. She wandered out from her bedroom to listen. The other image is from our last visit to our only secure off lead park. Here she free form plays if any suitable partners can be found.
Maggies inside toys waiting to be put away for the evening.. When she is particularly playful many of these will be scattered across our lounge and dining room, in the hallway, kitchen and on the couch. She has particular favourites for the mood she is in. Bigger ones are for throw and fetch, smaller ones are for close up push and pull and this gets dangerous as the teeth can be involved. Sometimes we can call a particular name and she may choose it, for instance there is Ted, Elk, Ratty, Parrot, Turtle Tom and Mick the Monkey. Most of this collection has been collected of the street, in car parks and parks by Charlie and now Maggie.
Since I took this photo she found and brought home a 1 metre stuffed snake toy. An observant reader will notice none of these toys have been damaged. Charlie and now Maggie respect their toys. What kids and parents leave abandoned in public is amazing.
The outside collection is another story. Destruction and damage are the norm. Again there is a collection of balls, as in many tennis balls, a Soccer ball, a football, a large rubber ball, a plastic ball and one frisbee. There was another frisbee that was her absolute favourite however this was finally totally demolished last week. Tug of war, chase and fetch with balls and frisbee and swing the old runner by the laces are favourite games. All outside games come with an element of danger to humans as jumping, hitting, grabbing prodding and twirling are involved. Again most of the balls have been found and brought home. The soccer ball was rolled up the street by Maggie using her nose. The football was found in a street in Toorak, our poshest suburb and proudly carried a long distance back to the car by Maggie in her teeth by the lace to the disdain/amusement/ confusion of many onlookers. She happily adits outside ripping apart or shredding her balls. Charlie found a cricket ball and Maggie is yet to break this one up. When all else gets boring Maggie finds a twig or breaks off a branch or pulls a pot plant apart or digs a new hole. Afghan Hounds are creative players.
art show favourite locked shed wake and wail poor horatio
Maggie visited our local municipal Art gallery twice recently. She enjoyed the first visit so much we had to plan a return. This had nothing to do of course with the free dog biscuits specially prepared in small packages handed out to all arty dogs . As you can see Maggie was actively engaged with the displayed works and did show a keen interest in the fate of Horatio the cat. This prompted a late entry for Ronovan’s haiku challenge Wake and Wail. Other contributions can be viewed at https://ronovanwrites.com/2019/10/14/ronovan-writes-weekly-haiku-poetry-prompt-challenge-275-wailwake/
Haiku hound 