In memorium: U La La Ulani

Ulani went to meet Oskar at the Rainbow Bridge yesterday. 

A Big Day!

 Today is Ulani's TENTH birthday!  

 She wouldn't smile near the Lenten roses.  

I guess she feels there's a certain dignity attached to double digits.

Even her birthday portrait is serious.  

There are a lot of big thoughts in that dog mind.

Maybe she's just exercising her gravitas?

(Even back at her sixth birthday, in this photo, 

she had a certain regal presence!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ULANI MY DEAR!

Ulani Goes on a Visit

A few weeks ago I shared that my mother had broken her leg, and my father contracted a bad bacterial infection while visiting her at the hospital.  Unfortunately things went downhill, as one often hears happens at hospitals.  Now my mother is in hospice care and my father at a nursing home from which he will never go home.  All of this took place in the period of six weeks.

So today I decided that Ulani and I would go visiting together.  We drove the 80 minutes or so to the suburb where my parents are.  My mother's hospice room is in a hospital, and to bring a dog in to visit you enter through the emergency room!  Imagine the excitement!  The doorway has an "anteroom" between two big doors.  The floor there is ridged, apparently to provide traction and drainage on wet days.  We went easily through the first door, but Ulani put on the brakes when confronted with the ridged floor.  I calmly encouraged her forward.  She practically jumped over all of the slats to get to the second door and we were inside.

The man at the desk asked "can I help you?" and I explained we were going upstairs for a visit.  He chuckled "they'll all enjoy that!"

Next challenge was the very bright, shiny, slippery tile floor.  My girl slipped a couple of times before adjusting to my pace to walk down the hallway.  One right turn and we arrived at the elevator.

This hospital is not new.  While it is clean and gradually being updated, some parts are still older. Like the elevators.  We enter and push "6".  Then the floor jiggles a bit as the elevator began to rise.  This quite startled Ulani, and she seemed to grab the carpeted floor with all four of her feet, then slipped behind me into the corner for more stability!  I think she was really glad when the door opened and we exited.

Right away we were greeted by one of the certified nursing assistants who cooed over how beautiful Ulani is, and how much everyone would enjoy meeting her.  We moved on, discovered that Mom was sleeping so went to meet the rest of the staff.  Sister Amy, the chaplain, was delighted to have a dog on board and encouraged us to stay as long as we wanted.  The secretary told stories of her dog, and another aid chimed in with her own stories.  Ulani adored the attention from everyone.

Eventually we made it back into my mother's room and stayed with her about 20 minutes.  She patted Ulani, admired her big, cold nose, and enjoyed watching her explore the room.  After a while I saw Mom getting tired so we said our goodbyes.

At Dad's nursing home we once again met all kinds of warm greetings.  Ulani and I joined Dad in his room for lunch.  She sat on the bed for a while (he was in his wheelchair!) and had a good drink of water.  After lunch Dad wanted to rest, so we began to leave.

I say began because everywhere we went there were staff and residents who wanted to see the pretty dog, ask what kind she was, and give her a pat.  I even had her do tricks for a nice group of ladies.

Everyone asked us to come back again.  I think we will.

Stinky Emilio Takes a Walk

This evening I put the leash on Ulani, but it turned out to be her alter-ego, Stinky Emilio, who joined me on our walk.  I decided we ought to write about our adventure together.  Here is our conversation.

ME:  Stinky, what should we tell our readers about our walk?

SE:  Dead raccoon!  Dead raccoon!  Don't forget about the dead raccoon!  Boy it smelled great!  It was a dead raccoon!

ME:  Yes, it wasn't very big was it, but I'm sure when you put your big nose right on top of it, it must have smelled quite a bit.  Is that what you've been smelling in the ditch the past few days?

SE:  There's poop in there!  Cat poop!  And raccoon poop!  From a dead raccoon!  Let's go again!  And don't pull my neck off this time!  It smelled great!

ME:  I think we might walk a different route tomorrow.  Maybe we'll go to the park.  Would you like to go to the park?

SE:  Go!  Park!  Go!  Park!

ME:  We'll see how the weather is, ok?  In the meantime, is there anything else you would like to share about our walk?

SE:  Bunny!  I chased a bunny!  A white bunny butt!  It was a bunny!  Then it was humongous!  It was a humongous bunny running through the cornfield!  Huge!  I made it grow!

ME:  Well, Stinky, you know what really happened, don't you?

SE:  Really?  It was real!  It was a bunny!  I chased it!  Then it was humongous!  Oh, it was a terrific time!

ME:  Stinky, the bunny ran into the undergrowth and it was just coincidence that a deer was on the other side.  That wasn't a bunny tail running across the field, it was a deer.

SE:  Bunny!  Huge, humongous, it smelled great!  I smelled bunny!  It smelled great!

[This exchange continued along similar lines for a few minutes.  No need to transcribe her entire, misinformed discourse.]

ME:  Stinky Emilio, I noticed that your chest and legs are full of sticky-plant.  (Ed. note, Stickiass plantias.)  Where did you pick up all those sticky little green balls?

SE:  It was the bunny!

ME:  Never a dull moment.

Around Busy Solitude Farm Today

A little surprise!

This beautiful iris was also a surprise -- it rode in on the Lenten roses back in March!  Lucky me, I hope it will be happy under Oskar's memorial tree.

 

And the Lenten roses continue to bloom -- over two months, and transplanted in full bloom.  Amazing!

 I think this robin is a baby -- doesn't it look like a baby face?

 One clematis is covered in buds and seems like it will explode into bloom in a week or two.

 

But this one has a single blossom on it.  How can it be unhappy when its partner is doing so well?

 After startling Ulani, Luke settled in on the lawn chair with me.  Love his color in this light!

And in the barn, the chicks are really feathering out now.   This little girl actually seemed to enjoy being held and interacting with me.

 At one point I wasn't sure I'd be able to safely grab her and put her back on the ground!

 She skittered across my shoulders, escaping my grasp.

Then she told me a secret, right up in my ear.  After that we were fine and she went back to the flock!

And the ducks?  They don't so much enjoy being picked up.

She tried to bite the camera!

On the occasion of Ulani's 9th birthday

Today is Ulani's ninth birthday!  She's still pretty active, although as you see here, it's on her own terms.

Ulani has always been a special character, from the day she first came to live with us from Montreal.  She flew alone, as cargo, and I drove to the cargo station at O'Hare airport to pick her up.  After waiting about half an hour, the customer service person finally took her golf cart over to the terminal to pick up the crate and returned to pass Ulani over to me.  I snapped on her leash and we stepped outside onto a huge parking lot with huge airplanes taxiing around and flying overhead.  She showed no fear as we walked over to a patch of grass, where she modestly relieved herself an then bounced back to me as if to say "where to now?"

When Ulani came to live with us, she was nine pounds and Oskar was ninety.  I was concerned that even if they became best friends, he might hurt her.  I set up a puppy room in my dining room.  For the first couple of days I successfully monitored their interactions.  Then one day I popped out to the store for just a few minutes, and when I returned I was greeted at the back door by Oskar, looking a bit puzzled, and Ulani right next to him, beaming with pride.

From that point on I didn't worry.

Ulani was in charge!

We've had some fun over the years.  Remember the Tale of the Sweet Tart Cake?  Many of Ulani's posts seem to center on food.  She's always been very food motivated.  And come to think of it, you've seen her with the flying squirrel before!

But she's not always sweetness and light.  Sometimes she gets downright grumpy!  It never lasts for too long, though and she'll be back to her happy self.  Just now she's resting on the couch, enjoying knowing that the whole blog is hers today.  Her day.

Happy ninth birthday, Princess!

Pet portrait

 

I want to share with you this painting of Oskar and Ulani by Josephine Aurora Burck.  Also known as Josie, this brilliant artist works from photographs, capturing the essence of a pet's spirit with her brush strokes on canvas.

Did I also mention that Josie is Farm Girl Beth's youngest daughter?  Or that she is eleven years old?

Josie, like many young women her age, has gone a bit horse crazy.  And in order to lease a horse for the summer, she needs to generate some income.  Luckily for her, she has great talent! 

I love how Josie captured the light on Oskar and Ulani's hair with just a few bold strokes, adding a lively tan across Ulani's muzzle for texture and depth.  The delicate gray hairs around Oskar's nose, and the dark shadow where his fall covers his eyes.

And how about the beautiful light periwinkle of the background?  What a choice!

I've been missing Oskar, but having this portrait in my living room helps me to remember him and keep him near.  Thanks for the good work, Josie!

Note, Josie wrote a post about her technique for the Briard hair -- check it out!