I’m starting this up again. I need a spot for reflection.

I was just looking up how to use essential oils on dogs. Our new dog, Leonard Codog, has some arthritis and signs of bad diet and low energy.  We are working on his food, activity level (which has been very low – he needs to lose 20 pounds) and I thought to add essential oils to the program, to see if we can mitigate his pain without having to give him nsaid’s which are not doing his kidneys any favors.

We adopted Leonard after our beautiful girl Bella was put to rest suffering from injuries sustained in a collision with a car. It’s a sad story. We weren’t home, and we got the call overseas and had to make the horrible decision without being able to hold her one more time. My arms still feel her absence.  I work from home and we were constant companions.  I thought of it as a conversation that kept on going, we worked on meeting each other’s needs, on having wonderful companionable times. I learned a lot from her about relationship.

We got Leonard right away after. First, he needed us, and we have a reputation at our humane society for helping them with those difficult to place dogs. Bella was hard to place, as she was such high energy and had some manifestations of anxiety that most people wanted to avoid. Leonard is aging and not well and is said to be sometimes cranky though neither the humane society staff nor we have seen any evidence of that so far.  He seemed to take to our place. I washed the bedding but of course he could smell Bella, which will fade as time passes.

He slept with us the first night.  He mounted the stairs comfortably, but in the morning was terrified to go down them, really digging in his heels.  It was impossible for us to lift him. The day before, we had had a bacon wake for Bella, so I had leftover already cooked bacon. I turned the heat on under a pan of bacon fat to make a nice smell (speaking of aromatherapy) and then brought some pieces of bacon in a dish to the bottom of the stairs. Leonard threw his heart over and down he came!  We look forward to more stories of Leonard.  Meanwhile, here’s our girl, posing beautifully in the forest last winter. Plotting her escape as soon as I give her the word that she’s free to roam. Roam in peace, beloved one.