More Progress

Ray and I had spent the morning at the dogpark. He'd played hard with two different yellow labs and spent a bit of time hounding a black and grey lab mix named Semi the Big Truck Dog (named by a four year old). So Ray was tired. But he was whiny. He was following me from room to room, his head down, whining.

"What's wrong Ray?" I asked him as I rubbed his ears. I went into the kitchen to make a few phone calls and watched Ray stand in the middle of the kitchen, nose practically touching the floor, whining. I finished the calls and started to fix myself some lunch. It was still early but I was tired from the park and wanted to eat lunch and lay down to watch some TV. I glanced over at the dish drainer; Ray's dish was there. That's funny, I thought, I don't remember washing that.

I did a mental forehead slap. I'd forgotten to feed the hound before going to the park this morning. He'd been sleeping on Gregg's chair up until the moment we left. I rectified that immediately then fixed myself some lunch and went to sit on the couch.

After a short while, Moonie came down to join us. Lately she's been coming down in the afternoons when Ray is snoozing in the sun or napping on the couch. She jumped up next to me, opposite the side where Ray was sleeping. I picked her up, turned her so that her backside was toward the dog, and put her on my lap. Moonie's tail gently settled across Ray's snout.

Ray's eyes opened and his eyebrows started doing the eyebrow dance on his forehead. His nose twitched but he didn't move. His tail gently started to wag, lightly thumping one of the pillows he was laying on. Moonie, obliviously sat on my lap and purred.

Ray raised his head, and "looked" at Moonie. She nervously moved to the opposite side of me where she could keep a wary eye on the hound, but she didn't run away. Ray put his head back on his other pillow, slightly more alert than before, but not in a manner that Moonie found threatening. She stayed for a while longer, then headed back to cat Siberia.

I felt good about the progress we were making. It's unbelievably slow progress, but progress nonetheless.