Reporting Live from the Doghouse

When her eyes are open, she's awake, right?  At least that's what my keen canine senses told me this morning.  How was I supposed to know that she wanted to try to sleep in?  She's almost not sick anymore and I thought we were back to life as usual.  If you haven't figured it out by now, this is Kiva.  I am writing today from the doghouse as punishment for whining in my Mommie's face at 4:30 this morning to tell her to get up.  She thought it was a potty emergency, so when she opened the back door for me and I didn't go outside but turned around and followed her back into the house, she gave me "the look" and I knew I was in trouble.

Let's backtrack a few days, shall we?  Mommie's Munchkins are in town.  Those amazing little 2-year-olds that rock her world.  They hung out quite a bit last week and Mommie was loving every minute of it.  But she has the hardest time managing her spoons appropriately when she has to get 6 months worth of cuddles, kisses, and face time in before they disappear into Kansas-land again.  Not to mention the fact they came to Colorado complete with sniffles, sneezes and laryngitis ... and my Mommie blatantly disregarded it.  With it being summer, I totally get how everyone thought that the kids just had allergies.  They had the classic signs.  <sigh> But alas, it was, in fact, summer colds.  Now ... Pop Quiz:  A "cold" to a Normie is ___________ to my Mommie.  If you answered "Bronchitis," you get an A+ ... if you answered "Zombie Virus," you get an A-.  Yes the coughs and hacks and wheezes that cause spasmodic body convulsions which insight pain flares are back.  OH ... OH ... OH ... Squirrel ... AND ... the fires in Colorado are almost all contained!!  Thanks, in part, to our summer monsoon weather that has replaced the oven in which we were all living.  Whereas this is good for the firefighters, the lawns, the farmers, Mommie's gardens, the pads of my feet, and the humans that don't like the 90+ temps, this has been harsher than normal on my Mommie.  She says that her RSD is morphing again.  Just when she gets used to certain flares that arise at certain times throughout the seasons, the Skank rewrites the weather and the pains change ... and require getting used to all over again.  Damn you RSD!!  Leave my Mommie alone!!

I tried to be her nurse over the weekend.  I growled at her when she did things that caused her to overexert herself ... like vacuuming, working in the gardens, standing up and cooking, making her bed, and showering.  When she'd sit down I'd lay across her feet so that she couldn't get back up again.  Uncle Houdini randomly appeared and disappeared to check on us, Mommie's Mommie brought over hamburgers and salads and juice and fudgecicles and a big bag full of medicines from the pharmacy.  We have watched movies; caught up on our Hulu tv shows; played stupid FB games like Bingo, Slingo, some monkey game, and Solitaire; and Mommie even did a little reading.  But RSD and "colds" don't go well together.  There is way too much going on in her body for her mind to be idle.  She needs to stay focused on something so that she can keep herself distracted from the pain as well as the added discomfort.  The Vortex Flares that have been gracing her legs with their presence every afternoon seem to be the only thing that has successfully taken her mind off of her weighted chest, bouts of coughing and her fiery throat.  I could be wrong, it's happened before, but I don't think that she likes feeling like this.

This morning, God bless her, my Mommie snapped.  Her patience is shot.  It was really only a matter of time.  And since I'm the one that is with her 24/7, I'm the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.  Maybe I should've just let her sleep in this morning.  But her eyes were open almost all night long.  I thought that she was ready to get up.  Maybe if I'd have gone outside, even to just monitor the fence-line since I didn't have to do my business, I could have helped her fight it off a little while longer.  I know that she is babysitting the Munchkins again tonight, so maybe I'll just leave her alone so that she has time to kick Coach Crankypants to the curb before she has to leave.  Maybe I'll rebuild my fort with the sofa cushions so that she can have some "alone time."  Maybe I'll go hang out on the back stoop and watch the birds and squirrels.  Hey, I said "maybe"!!

I have faith that Mommie will feel better.  I have faith that Coach Crankypants' appearance will be short lived.  I have faith that I have done my best to try to help my Mommie and I know that she knows this.  I love my Mommie but I don't like this look-alike ... at all!!  I have faith that the snarkiness will continue, but this too shall pass.  Even the Eternal Optimist needs Oscar the Grouch days.  My Mommie will be back ... I just know it!!