A Good Rain

It has not rained in a while here in Derby city and so I was becoming quite tired of schlepping water around the garden to all the new plants I had put into the ground. It began raining a very light, wimpy rain last night and I was 'underwhelmed', as a friend puts it.

This A.M. I woke up to a real rain. I got up at 5:30, hoping the catch a bit of the meteor shower, but it's too cloudy, so nothing to see, darn it.

No gardening, just housework today. I have insulated curtains to put up in the office and mud room. That way, I can keep the conservatory much cooler and still be comfortable while working at the PC. Also, the dog door can stay open in cold weather without making the kitchen so cold that it kick-starts the furnace. The added bonus is we don't have to get up and let the pups out every time they imagine they need to go outside and defend the castle!

Decided to make dinner and go over the Good Fairy's house after she got home from work. I think it made it a bit easier for them to have someone to talk to about Bella. We also got a visit from another set of friends that wanted to come by for the 'wake' as we got to calling it. I know they appreciated having people around who understood their pain.

We think Bella died from gastric torsion, which is very common in giant breeds. It tends to happen between the hours of 2 am to 6 am, which is just the time it hit her, evidently. So, to anyone who reads this and has a wide chested dog (small dogs included), it pays to check this condition out, so you will know the signs and maybe Bella's death will save some other pups life.