Black Doggerel

[Poll #1029603]


My turn to ask you question. Fingers very hurty. Have taken anti-inflammaroty tablet. Typing hurts. Am on 2nd cup coffee. V. pissed-off at lack of voicepostage. Means you don't get to hear me sing this year. Sad sad.

cottonmanifesto says: Tell us about your latest obsession - the one that's kept you away from LJ.

It's simple, and yet very complicated. I've been roleplaying. I'd let myself forget, because it's been twenty years since I really did any, how all-consuming and addictive it gets. And I didn't know, because we didn't have the Interwebs when I were a lass, how much more compelling it can get when it's happening in real time on IM.

I did know how especially good it can be when you're playing with someone really, really good; but to have all those factors together at once? Better than sex, better than crack, almost as good as the first flush of true love, almost as good as flying hawks. It's terribly, terribly easy to let everything that isn't absolutely essential for my and my pets' continued survival just slide out of my mental field of vision.

We had a talk about this on ...was it Thursday or Friday? I forget. But we have resolved to devote rather less time to it; we were both getting a bit unbalanced.

Not stopping, though. It's too damn good for that.

crzmslmaven asks for: your thoughts on heartdogs, whether in general or yours in particular, and when I point out that that's a tricky one, adds: I do, I think, see what you mean.

A thousand times I have sat down to write the "Why I cannot live without Tinkerbelle" entry but it...kinda defies words. I just can't, that's all.

So I'm saddling you with the hard entry instead! :P

I'll have a shot at it. I've had dogs all my life and there hasn't been a single one I haven't loved enough that I'd put myself between them and a speeding car; and I've proved it twice, once with my childhood GSP Katie and once with the current Squish dog. (Luckily, both cars had good brakes. I do wonder, now, if it wasn't some bizarre GSP conspiracy across time and space, though...)

But Spike is just in a different league. It's not that he's better trained or better behaved or doesn't annoy the fuck out of me on a regular basis. It's just - different.

Maybe part of it was the way we fell for each other instantaneously. He and I never really built up a relationship; we seemed to stumble into one that was already there. When I brought him home from the rescue centre, they advised me not to let him off the leash for the first couple of weeks, and with most dogs this would have been good advice. You don't expect a dog, especially an adult rescue, to settle in and own his surroundings and his person from day one; but Spike did. He didn't need to learn his new name, and while he has nearly 100% perfect recall, I didn't ever actually teach it to him. He's just not particularly keen to go out of my sight, or stay out of my sight for long. I doubt I could lose him if I tried; the only time I came close was when I unwisely went shopping and left him with access to the back garden. He promptly leapt the six-foot fence and came looking for me; it wasn't his fault the police found him first.

There's the trust, too. He once caught his leg in a barbed-wire fence, and panicked; not because the fence was hurting him (he laughs at pain and injuries) but because it was restricting his freedom of movement. To this day it's the only time I've ever heard him cry. He was struggling like a maniac, yelping, ripping himself up and getting more and more tightly wound; I reached him, held his head and told him to keep still. I never thought he would. I even wondered if he might attack me, he was so frantic. What he did, though, was go completely limp in my hands, and although it still took me a good five minutes to pick him loose, he was quite content to leave it up to me. You should know that we had been together a bit less than two weeks at this point.

I love my heart dog.

From pointyhairedone: If money was no object, nor such piddly things as passports, visas and permits - if you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose, and why?

I'm torn. My favourite place in the whole world is the Lleyn peninsula in North Wales, specifically the stark reed, rabbit and sand-dune landscape around Fort Belan. Everything about that place suits me down to the ground; the climate, the locals, the sea, plus it's handy for fun places like Portmeirion.

On the other hand, there's the Falkland Islands, there's Canada, there's New Zealand, and there's all the people I want to be able to visit; though admittedly most of them live in climates that would kill me. My best solution to all that would be to have my own TARDIS. I think even if I did, I'd likely keep it mostly parked in North Wales, though.

if you read this, tell me where you would like to live. And ask me more questions, please!