Warmth of the heart

Winchester... who we call Chester.
 

 

 

I am sure that I am in good company in saying that I am tired of snow and ice, cold and wind.... of Winter.  I click on the link to the weather updates numerous times a day, hoping, praying, begging for a forecast of warm weather and sunshine.   The last few days have been rough, weather-wise, with plenty of snow and cold and ice and icky ol' winter weather.  But now, at least until the forecast changes, there is hope, the promise of Spring and warmth.  Now I click on that link praying that it DOESN'T change.  That the weather man got it right this time and that there truly will be an end to winter.  I know that there will be Spring, that winter will end and in a few months we will all be complaining about the heat.  Because that is the way that it always is.  :)

This morning there was ice.  Ice everywhere!  The dogs and I walked out on the front porch and since they were dogs, they hadn't been relentlessly stalking the weather sites looking for updates.  So they didn't know that there was ice out there.  Buddy did ok, but poor old Chester barreled out the door and went as fast as his old, arthritic legs would take him, to the steps.  And then he hit the ice.  He slid and tumbled and fell down the steps.  He landed in snow, and he was up and doing his business in no time.  But tonight he sits at the bottom of the stairs to go upstairs, looking longingly up to where he knows that his bed is at the top of the stairs.  His sore joints aren't going up those stairs tonight. 

And that presents a problem.  I will either have to carry Chester up the stairs, or I will have sleep downstairs.  A few weeks ago I was gone for a couple of nights.  The boys were here, but I was gone.  Chester barked all night long.  I was gone.  One night after I got home, I had gone upstairs to bed when he was asleep downstairs and he didn't know that I had gone upstairs.  He sleeps very, very soundly in his old age, does my Chester.  He used to bark at knocks on the door or noises outside.  Now he sleeps through most everything.  His hearing isn't so good and he sleeps the sleep of the old and weary.  That night, when he didn't know that I had gone upstairs, he barked when he woke up.  He barked and he barked.  He couldn't hear me calling for him from upstairs.  He didn't hear me coming down the stairs.  But he felt me pat his back and he stopped barking.  He followed me upstairs to his bed where he guards us from intruders who might wander up our stairs.  He slept in quiet peacefulness.

Tonight, if Chester is downstairs and I am upstairs, Chester will bark.  He will not be peaceful, and none of the rest of us will sleep.  His distress at not being upstairs with all of us together would be heartbreaking.  He will sleep with just me downstairs with him, but he will not sleep downstairs alone. ( Buddy and the cats don't count here. Chester is a people dog.)  Chester and I will make a night of camping out tonight.  He will sleep on his downstairs bed and I will sleep on the daybed.  Unless he forces his aching bones to carry him upstairs on his own.   He might.  And that fighting spirit is what has kept that precious dog alive for all of these years.  Through owners that abandoned him, through fending for himself for a year and a half, through being shot,  through being in a kennel at the humane society... he survived.  I am sure that Chester will handle aching joints and  a set of stairs.  But he won't handle being left to sleep alone.  He deserves to not sleep alone.  So he will have company.

I will keep clicking on that link to watch the weather forecast.  I will be praying for sunshine and warmth.  Because one of my very favorite things to do is to sit on the patio and watch Chester in the sunshine, in the grass.  He lays on this back, with those aching legs raised to the heat of the sun and wiggles and scratches his back, waggling his body back and forth.  He will lie in the sun, absorbing the heat into his joints and bones.  He used to spend hours and hours in the sunshine, content with his own company.  Starting last year, he only wants to enjoy the sunshine when he has company outside.  Chester deserves company.  And sunshine.  And warmth for his bones and his heart.   I can give him the warmth in his heart.  I will pray that he gets the sunshine warmth, that we are all wishing for, soon.