2 years ago when it was this cold, I almost got a cat

I miss my dog park friends. We haven't been to the park since Monday, and even then it was for only a half hour. Before that, I can't remember when we'd been last. It's just been too damn cold. Even with her coat and her boots, Annabelle can't last very long in these temperatures. Last night she came in from her last call at around 11:00, and she was shaking, tail between her legs, so damn cold and wondering why her mommy sent her out there in the first place.

During my first winter here, two years ago, I seriously considered getting a cat. I wanted Belly to have something to chase, er, to play with so that she wouldn't drive me quite as nuts. She's two years older now, of course, so she doesn't need quite as much exercise as she needed when she was 3, but there are still those moments when I think she just might drive me to drink. So I bundle her up and I bundle myself up and we go for a walk and my boogers freeze and her boogers freeze and we come home and snuggle up with some hot tea.

But life is really so much less fun without my dog park friends. I'm doubting we'll be going tomorrow morning, as the HIGH temperature is predicted to be 14, with a "realfeel" of -1. That's the HIGH. Mother o' god.

Wake me up when this shit's over.

who me? an evil streak?

Overheard at the park today as I'm running after Annabelle with the controller to the shock collar Nan lent me:

Someone: I think that Robillardi's* got an evil streak.

Someone else: Look how she encourages Belly to roll just so she can shock her. Evil, I tell you. Evil.

Me, hollering back at them: I'm NOT evil! I just want to teach her a lesson.

Someone: It has been a while since she's had a teachable moment.

See, Nan lent me the shock collar so that, if Belly rolled in shit--or, the sewage-like substance that seems to be seeping up from the ground in spots at the park--I could shock her, teaching her that that's WRONG. It's just so wrong because it smells so GODDAMN BAD. And it doesn't come off easily.

She rolled once, and I ran after her with the remote, but apparently the 5 setting isn't strong enough to get her to sit up and take notice. She kept rolling. But luckily, it was not in shit or sewage. Seems she musta just had an itchy back.

The rest of the time at the park I was hoping she'd roll so I could teach her. Not because I'm evil, but because I wanted to use that opportunity to prevent future stranglings.

*This is one of the things the dog park crew calls me. Somehow someone got the idea that I was Italian, so they added an "i" to the end of my name, and it stuck. The other thing they call me is "Da Docta."